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A Tale of Two Portlands: Occupy vs Subsidizing Developers
Nov 28, 2011
Contrast these two stories from The Oregonian: In Saturday's (11.19.11) Business section, "A disgruntled California developer is suing Portland's urban renewal agency (Portland Development Commission) for more than $1.7 million" after an upscale remake of an old mill along the waterfront falls apart, and "after taxpayers have already invested $12.5 million into the site, which is no closer to development today than when the (PDC) bought it in 2000. " And then the ongoing story of how the City has allegedly spent some $750,000 on a clearly over-armored police response to Occupy Portland, aggressively clearing several hundred protestors and numerous homeless people out of two downtown encampments.
Not only are the price tags to the taxpayers of these two expenditures shockingly disparate, but, of course, the $12.5 million goes to the 1 percent and the $750,000 goes to sweeping the demands and the obvious needs of the 99 percent out of sight once again. Perhaps we could take that now empty mill site and convert it to affordable housing for the City's many homeless.
The Working Families Party along with a number of unions, churches, veterans groups and other community organizations urged Sam Adams not to evict Occupy Portland, arguing that the problems he cited at the Occupy Portland encampment simply reflected the tremendous income disparity and lack of social services, mental health services, and affordable housing that the Occupy Wall Street movement has so effectively brought to the fore.
In a later Oregonian editorial, Dennis Morrow, of Janus Youth Programs, was quoted as calling the camps a "recipe for disaster" because of the attraction they held for homeless youth. The mayor and city commissioners constantly repeated that argument as justification for the eviction, citing life-threatening drug overdoses and assaults at the encampments. When challenged about why the city was not proposing solutions, Mayor Sam Adams tried to deflect blame onto shrinking federal programs and subsidies. While there is certainly much blame to be placed on the federal government and the vastly disproportionate spending on Wall Street bailouts and tax breaks compared to education, social services and affordable housing, the city of Portland is certainly not without responsibility.
For starters, the city has spent way too much on the luxury developments for Portland's 1 percent. The Pearl, South Waterfront, the tram, the streetcar -- are all aimed at bringing more wealthy people to the inner city. Promised affordable housing has either not materialized at all or at a pace that is way below what was promised or imagined. While there was some private money in those developments, the city highly subsidized all of them either directly or through tax expenditures. The other night I drove through the South Waterfront and found myself laughing in despair as I drove under the Tram and right next to two sets of tracks, one for the streetcar and one for the MAX. Enough already. Meanwhile, the promised veterans housing and other affordable housing in South Waterfront is way too long coming.
Despite the fact that the encampments cost the city in police overtime, they and Occupy Wall Street encampments all over the country have contributed immeasurably to changing the public discourse. Before the occupations began two months ago, one heard little discussion of income inequality. Now it is all we are talking about. That alone is more than worth the price, which pales in comparison to what we have spent subsidizing and bailing out private developers, mortgage lenders and investment bankers.
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Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Barbara Dudley
Barbara Dudley is an Adjunct Professor in the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. She is also co-chair of the Oregon Working Families Party, and a partner in Bethel Heights Vineyard in Polk County. She formerly served as President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, and Assistant Director for Strategic Campaigns of the national AFL-CIO.
Contrast these two stories from The Oregonian: In Saturday's (11.19.11) Business section, "A disgruntled California developer is suing Portland's urban renewal agency (Portland Development Commission) for more than $1.7 million" after an upscale remake of an old mill along the waterfront falls apart, and "after taxpayers have already invested $12.5 million into the site, which is no closer to development today than when the (PDC) bought it in 2000. " And then the ongoing story of how the City has allegedly spent some $750,000 on a clearly over-armored police response to Occupy Portland, aggressively clearing several hundred protestors and numerous homeless people out of two downtown encampments.
Not only are the price tags to the taxpayers of these two expenditures shockingly disparate, but, of course, the $12.5 million goes to the 1 percent and the $750,000 goes to sweeping the demands and the obvious needs of the 99 percent out of sight once again. Perhaps we could take that now empty mill site and convert it to affordable housing for the City's many homeless.
The Working Families Party along with a number of unions, churches, veterans groups and other community organizations urged Sam Adams not to evict Occupy Portland, arguing that the problems he cited at the Occupy Portland encampment simply reflected the tremendous income disparity and lack of social services, mental health services, and affordable housing that the Occupy Wall Street movement has so effectively brought to the fore.
In a later Oregonian editorial, Dennis Morrow, of Janus Youth Programs, was quoted as calling the camps a "recipe for disaster" because of the attraction they held for homeless youth. The mayor and city commissioners constantly repeated that argument as justification for the eviction, citing life-threatening drug overdoses and assaults at the encampments. When challenged about why the city was not proposing solutions, Mayor Sam Adams tried to deflect blame onto shrinking federal programs and subsidies. While there is certainly much blame to be placed on the federal government and the vastly disproportionate spending on Wall Street bailouts and tax breaks compared to education, social services and affordable housing, the city of Portland is certainly not without responsibility.
For starters, the city has spent way too much on the luxury developments for Portland's 1 percent. The Pearl, South Waterfront, the tram, the streetcar -- are all aimed at bringing more wealthy people to the inner city. Promised affordable housing has either not materialized at all or at a pace that is way below what was promised or imagined. While there was some private money in those developments, the city highly subsidized all of them either directly or through tax expenditures. The other night I drove through the South Waterfront and found myself laughing in despair as I drove under the Tram and right next to two sets of tracks, one for the streetcar and one for the MAX. Enough already. Meanwhile, the promised veterans housing and other affordable housing in South Waterfront is way too long coming.
Despite the fact that the encampments cost the city in police overtime, they and Occupy Wall Street encampments all over the country have contributed immeasurably to changing the public discourse. Before the occupations began two months ago, one heard little discussion of income inequality. Now it is all we are talking about. That alone is more than worth the price, which pales in comparison to what we have spent subsidizing and bailing out private developers, mortgage lenders and investment bankers.
Barbara Dudley
Barbara Dudley is an Adjunct Professor in the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. She is also co-chair of the Oregon Working Families Party, and a partner in Bethel Heights Vineyard in Polk County. She formerly served as President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers Guild, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, and Assistant Director for Strategic Campaigns of the national AFL-CIO.
Contrast these two stories from The Oregonian: In Saturday's (11.19.11) Business section, "A disgruntled California developer is suing Portland's urban renewal agency (Portland Development Commission) for more than $1.7 million" after an upscale remake of an old mill along the waterfront falls apart, and "after taxpayers have already invested $12.5 million into the site, which is no closer to development today than when the (PDC) bought it in 2000. " And then the ongoing story of how the City has allegedly spent some $750,000 on a clearly over-armored police response to Occupy Portland, aggressively clearing several hundred protestors and numerous homeless people out of two downtown encampments.
Not only are the price tags to the taxpayers of these two expenditures shockingly disparate, but, of course, the $12.5 million goes to the 1 percent and the $750,000 goes to sweeping the demands and the obvious needs of the 99 percent out of sight once again. Perhaps we could take that now empty mill site and convert it to affordable housing for the City's many homeless.
The Working Families Party along with a number of unions, churches, veterans groups and other community organizations urged Sam Adams not to evict Occupy Portland, arguing that the problems he cited at the Occupy Portland encampment simply reflected the tremendous income disparity and lack of social services, mental health services, and affordable housing that the Occupy Wall Street movement has so effectively brought to the fore.
In a later Oregonian editorial, Dennis Morrow, of Janus Youth Programs, was quoted as calling the camps a "recipe for disaster" because of the attraction they held for homeless youth. The mayor and city commissioners constantly repeated that argument as justification for the eviction, citing life-threatening drug overdoses and assaults at the encampments. When challenged about why the city was not proposing solutions, Mayor Sam Adams tried to deflect blame onto shrinking federal programs and subsidies. While there is certainly much blame to be placed on the federal government and the vastly disproportionate spending on Wall Street bailouts and tax breaks compared to education, social services and affordable housing, the city of Portland is certainly not without responsibility.
For starters, the city has spent way too much on the luxury developments for Portland's 1 percent. The Pearl, South Waterfront, the tram, the streetcar -- are all aimed at bringing more wealthy people to the inner city. Promised affordable housing has either not materialized at all or at a pace that is way below what was promised or imagined. While there was some private money in those developments, the city highly subsidized all of them either directly or through tax expenditures. The other night I drove through the South Waterfront and found myself laughing in despair as I drove under the Tram and right next to two sets of tracks, one for the streetcar and one for the MAX. Enough already. Meanwhile, the promised veterans housing and other affordable housing in South Waterfront is way too long coming.
Despite the fact that the encampments cost the city in police overtime, they and Occupy Wall Street encampments all over the country have contributed immeasurably to changing the public discourse. Before the occupations began two months ago, one heard little discussion of income inequality. Now it is all we are talking about. That alone is more than worth the price, which pales in comparison to what we have spent subsidizing and bailing out private developers, mortgage lenders and investment bankers.
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