Read frequently asked questions about the proposed ordinance to include condominiums in the assessment for the downtown BID (Business Improvement District) and a summary of impacts. The ordinance will be heard by the Portland City Council on June 10, 2009 at 9:30 AM.
May 2009
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453
Report estimates Lents stadium would create 453 jobs
“Our analysis suggests that the construction of the proposed Lents stadium will create fewer jobs in the City of Portland than would otherwise be created if the public money from taxes were left with households and businesses to spend on private consumption and investment activities.” ECONorthwest Economic Impact of Proposed Baseball Stadium, Section 4.2, May 12, 2009 While it is a seductive conclusion for opponents of the Lents stadium proposal, it is based on an alternate reality in which property taxes otherwise reserved for urban renewal would be retained by taxpayers to spend and invest. This approach gives the impression of a false choice between a stadium and lower taxes, because there is no scenario under which the taxing jurisdictions would consider relinquishing property tax revenues. Further, in the context of urban renewal, the associated tax revenue is required by law to be spent on brick and mortar construction projects. In that light, the stadium’s economic impact should be measured against the reality of the planned expenditure of tax revenues, and therefore the job impact of the stadium should be measured against the status quo. As a result, the findings of this study, when measured against reality, actually support a net job gain of at least 453 job-years. The ECONorthwest analysis states: Construction of the stadium would result in gross impacts of 383 job-years of employment directly on construction and a combined 453 job-years of employment in total throughout the economy while the stadium is built “…to a large degree, the proposed stadium is intended to accommodate events currently hosted at PGE Park.Therefore, the stadium would not be drawing new events to the City, nor creating new entertainment opportunities. A recent ECONorthwest report commissioned by Mayor Adams conducts a snapshot economic analysis of the proposal to move the Portland Beavers to Lents Park via the construction of a $47 million stadium. The report takes the vexing approach of weighing the stadium against the impact of not assessing taxes and concludes that the construction of a stadium in Lents would comparitively result in fewer jobs than relinquishing taxes collected for urban renewal to taxpayers.
In the narrow sense of the Beavers, the statement that the move to Lents would merely shift the economic activity from one part of the city to another is accurate. But it does not consider that PGE Park will continue to operate as a Major League Soccer facility, requiring staff for its operation as well as continuing to have events that support the businesses around the stadium who have grown to depend on stadium activities for business. With that in mind, and viewing the Major League Soccer/AAA Baseball investments in their appropriate co-mingled context, the move of the Beavers to Lents will drive the addition of an increased level of vendors, ticket takers, coaches, players, administrative staff, and off site retail, restaurant, and office development to serve both facilities. Without a doubt, this will represent long term employment beyond the 453 job-years projected by ECONorthwest in the construction phase.
Finally, in addition to job creation, there are benefits to making Lents the “Home of the Portland Beavers” that cannot be measured in economic terms
Weighed against the reality of urban renewal investment in Lents, the ECONorthwest analysis helps demonstrate that a proposed stadium in Lents would have a significant positive economic benefit, both in the short term and over time. Coupled with the intangible social and economic benefits that are associated, I continue to be encouraged by the opportunity to bring Major League Soccer to Portland and to make Lents the Home of the Portland Beavers.
May 24, 2009
The Jaws Of Victory
When I won election to the Portland City Council in late 2002, my residence in Southeast Portland’s Centennial neighborhood made me the first person from east of 39th Avenue ever elected to the Portland City Council…and by east of 39th Avenue, I mean 114 blocks east of 39th Avenue. Before that, I served in both the Oregon House and Senate as a representative of East Portland and wore out more than one pair of tennis shoes going door to door in its neighborhoods, listening to a chorus of citizens who feel like they have been riding in the back seat for generations while the downtowners get to drive the car.
Since my election to the City Council, I have been vigilant in my efforts to keep East Portland in the consciousness of the City. When the City Council proposed donating millions of dollars to Portland Public Schools in 2003, I successfully fought to include the “other” Portland school districts--David Douglas, Parkrose, Centennial and Reynolds--in the funding formula, rather than just Portland Public Schools. When Assurety Northwest had outgrown its headquarters in Gresham, then Commissioner Adams and I went to them and put together a package that brought their headquarters and good jobs into the Lents Town Center. I’ve recruited grocery stores for the Lents Town Center, I drove the effort to fund a new school in the David Douglas district using resources from downtown, and demanded that Lents be considered for the siting of a stadium when Major League Baseball was considering Portland as a location for the Expos franchise in 2003.
When the opportunity to bring Major League Soccer to Portland brought about the need to relocate the Portland Beavers, my first reaction was that Lents should be the location for the stadium. I believe that its accessibility to transit and the freeway system is unmatched in the city, and the relative economic impact of the stadium in Lents would be greater than anywhere else in Portland. Since the creation of the Lents Urban Renewal Area in 1998, Lents has been starving for a catalytic project that would set the stage for the kind of development that is contemplated by the plans and aspirations of the neighborhood. Since that time, the plan for Lents has been to attract mixed use development, an anchor grocery store like New Seasons, improve the infrastructure and revitalize the historic storefronts that were once home to vibrant neighborhood businesses.
Unfortunately, the results have not materialized in the neighborhood in the way we had hoped. Although everyone continues to agree that Lents is “just about ready” to realize its potential, the plan for pushing Lents the extra distance necessary to reach that potential is the same plan that has left Lents in a “just about ready” condition for the past 11 years. In short, that plan is a 5+ year schedule that proposes to continue the offer of subsidies for mixed use development and an anchor grocery store, and continue to hope that someone will take the PDC up on those offers. It is a thoughtful approach, but one that relies on a variety of forces outside of the control of the Lents neighborhood and the PDC.
The opportunity for Lents to become the home of the Portland Beavers may be a chance for the Lents neighborhood to find itself in a position of dictating the terms of its future, rather than being forced to take what it can get. The addition of the Beavers headquarters and 100+ jobs into Lents, along with the 3,000-5,000 people from outside of the neighborhood coming into Lents 72 times each year to spend their discretionary income would give Lents a competitive psychological and economic edge that no other neighborhood in the City could compete with. For a neighborhood that has clawed and scratched to shake the moniker “Felony Flats,” becoming the “Home of the Portland Beavers” would be a fitting mark of a new era.
Without a doubt, the $40+ million ask from the Lents URA is a big one, and it is easy to get distracted by the proposed projects in the Lents Town Center Urban Renewal Plan that get pushed out 3-5 years by the stadium. But the reality is that many of those projects rely on external investments that didn’t come during the economic heyday we just experienced, and the conditions of the financial markets today are not reasons for great optimism about the immediate future. While economic development all over the United States is fallow, the City of Portland and the Lents community have the unique luxury of considering a project with a private investor who is proposing to invest more than $50 million in private capital to bring Major League Soccer to Portland and Beavers baseball to Lents.
The Lents neighborhood has brashly and correctly drawn attention to years of the downtown elite calling the shots in this City, often at their expense—or worse yet, without even considering them. With the push to put our City’s storied 100+ year old baseball franchise in Lents with a first class public stadium facility, the admonitions of the neighborhood have yielded the degree of attention and relevance that they have so famously fought for. Finally winning its turn in the driver’s seat, the question that the Lents community will grapple with in the coming weeks is: Did they really want what they were fighting for, or did they just want the fight?
May 22, 2009
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May 19, 2009
Rose Lighting & Curtis Salgado to kick off 2009 Rose Festival
Join Commissioners Randy Leonard, Nick Fish, Mayor Adams and special musical guest Curtis Salgado on Friday night in McCall Waterfront Park to kick off the 2009 Rose Festival
Portland, OR— Portland’s newest landmark, a neon rose affixed to the kiosk at the Yeon Building (formerly McCall’s) in McCall Waterfront Park 1020 SW Naito Pkwy, is set to light up the opening of the 2009 Portland Rose Festival on Friday, May 22.
The Opening Celebration officially kicks off at 8 p.m. with a free outdoor performance by national award winning blues artist, Curtis Salgado, at the new home of the Portland Rose Festival Association. Following the concert, the rose will be illuminated for the first time by City Commissioner Nick Fish and 2008 Rose Festival Queen, Marshawna Williams, followed by the Rose Festival’s traditional fireworks display at 10:06 PM.
The celebration marks the beginning of a stronger partnership between the City of Portland and its 102 year old Rose Festival, as the Rose Festival will be moving its headquarters into the historic John Yeon Visitors Center in Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Coupled with the addition of an iconic rose sign, the move will enhance the visibility of the Rose Festival and help its financial condition, while helping to restore and preserve an important Portland landmark.
