Folks in Lents are not happy with
city hall—specifically,
City Commissioner Dan Saltzman.
On Friday, June 20, Saltzman issued a memo outlining his concerns
with a council plot to create a “satellite” urban renewal
district—an offshoot of the Pearl District’s successful urban
renewal area—for the purposes of funneling money toward a school
in outer East Portland’s David Douglas School District.
The problem is, the satellite idea might not be exactly legal (oh, those pesky details!). “After hearing the testimony and
researching the subject in greater detail it has become apparent that
the path we were currently heading down may not lead to a new school
for the David Douglas School District on the intended timeline,”
Saltzman wrote. “Instead, we would be faced with a long, drawn-out
legal process and potential legislative changes.”
So Saltzman wants the Portland Development Commission to study a new
idea over the next six weeks: Reconfiguring the nearby (and clunkily
named) Lents Town Center Urban Renewal Area to include the school
district. As a bonus, the move will probably shut up the well-connected
and wealthy folks in the Pearl District who’d been up in arms that
their urban renewal money might be shipped across the river.
Cue outrage in Lents.
“Will certain members of the Portland City Council ever see Lents as
it does other urban renewal districts? Not if you listen to what
Commissioner Saltzman is saying,” wrote Lents Neighborhood Association
Chair Dewey Akers in a note to the neighborhood email list on Sunday
night, June 22. He notes that the Lents neighborhood already vetted
possible expansions of their urban renewal area, and chose to focus on
projects that “improve the town center and focus on jobs in
Lents.” The school project, he contends, doesn’t fit those
criteria.
Akers continued his screed: “Mr. Saltzman believes if we slip it
under the carpet on Lents the people out there just won’t
notice, and won’t have the financial ability to fight the
city.”
He’s partly right—Saltzman may not have anticipated anger from
the likes of Akers (who, presumably, doesn’t have pockets as deep as
those in the Pearl District).
Then again, Saltzman’s memo didn’t ignore Lents’ needs, or attempt
to slip anything under the carpet. If Akers had read further, he would
have noticed that Saltzman is clear that attaching the school project
to the Lents Urban Renewal Area has a major condition: “All of
the projects and work done by the Lents Urban Renewal Advisory
Committee should be honored and held harmless.”
The council will consider Saltzman’s idea this Wednesday, June 25,
and will either go for it, or continue with the satellite option as
planned. Either way, someone’s not going to be happy.