Too many planners

I see that the Portland City Council didn't vote on the ridiculous Rape of the South Park Blocks as scheduled yesterday. But the vote is not cancelled, just "delayed." Eventually they'll pass it, and the Park Blocks will be destroyed with a bike freeway and equitable, sustainable, native yada yada. It's so sad.

The problem is that City Hall has way too many planners and not hardly enough people tending to the basics. The city payroll is packed with young people, many fresh in from out of town, who choose to live here but are determined to show old Portland that we're doing it all wrong. 

These invaders have degrees in urban planning from some college or other, they know everything, and they're well-schooled in arrogance. The older bureaucrats, whose general attitude toward the public involves the F word, encourage this. The juniors get hired, and immediately they have to justify their existence. And so they go into full Sim City mode, coming up with plan after plan after stinking plan to transform the place into something some professor told them about, or that they read about in a trendy architecture magazine. It's a short hop from their last term paper to ripping up your neighborhood.

It's not just the Park Blocks, it's everywhere in local government. Planning "charettes" for junk that nobody wants but some construction and developer weasels. And the politicians are happy to go along with it. It's a lot easier to pass some shiny new "vision" than it is to take care of the real problems that are eating away at the city like multiple cancers. There's no money for the cops to answer the phone at night, but there's plenty of money for some kid to sit around drawing bike paths on a map.

Portland has got to be the most planned city in the country. And so drive around, what's the verdict? Success or failure? Right now, I think the needle is way closer to the failure end of the meter. It's a city of exquisitely planned lawlessness and filth.

Portland would do well to lay off at least half of its planners and put all that money into mental health crisis intervention, graffiti cleanup, garbage pickup, gang violence prevention, and homeless shelters. Pay attention to the basics of civilization, and stop fixing things that aren't broken.