Nearly a year ago, the Portland Parks and Recreation Department sent
Southeast neighbors into a seething frenzy when it entered into an
agreement to potentially sell off part of Mt. Tabor Park to
Warner Pacific College (a Christian school!).
When the poop hit the fan, Parks director Zari Santner backpedaled,
and Parks Commissioner Dan Saltzman denied ever having approved
it. The talks with the school quickly ended, but there remained
lingering questions—like what to do with the land. The
maintenance facility on the space, which services every park in the
city, was and is crumbling, and something needs to be done to improve
the area and appease the Mt. Tabor neighbors.
So Portland did what it does best—created a process that
involves neighbors and parks employees, along with a professional
facilitator, to kick around ideas for the future of the 20 acres in
question. On Wednesday, September 26, they’ll present what they’ve come
up with: They need $465,000 for a public involvement process to
come up with a plan.
I’ll give you a second to pick your jaw back up off the ground.
Sweet blessed Jesus, that’s a huge chunk of cheddar (that’s
“street” slang for money). But there are a number of reasons for the
price tag—the plan has to abide by the requirements of Mayor Tom
Potter’s standards for public involvement (through the Bureau
Innovation Project), and the money will also have to pay for
consultants and architects who will look at the buildings on the land
and determine what can be done with them.
Another chunk of the price tag reflects some serious irony.
After Saltzman pissed off neighbors years ago by capping the Mt. Tabor
reservoirs, the neighborhood association managed to get the whole area
placed on the National Register of Historic Places to make sure nothing
like that ever happened again. But that also means that any
improvements to the maintenance facility and surrounding buildings will
have to be checked and approved by costly historical experts.
Let me boil that down for you—because of Saltzman and the
Parks Department’s lack of meaningful public involvement in the
past, public involvement in the present and future will cost an
enormous amount of money.
In other news, Commissioner Randy Leonard has officially
filed to run for reelection, which was the least guarded secret in city
hall history. In a campaign announcement, he touted successes like this
year’s biodiesel mandate, his anti-graffiti ordinance, and Project 57,
which opens up jail beds for drug offenders.