On with the charade
I wrote last week about the farce in progress in inner north and northeast Portland, where yet another set of soulless, taxpayer-subsidized apartment bunkers is going to be slapped up. This time the weasels are using Black reparations as the sales pitch. Shame on them. But of course, the local media fall for it hook, line, and sinker, repeating the joke with a straight face at every mention of the project:
rebuilding Lower Albina, the historically Black community destroyed decades ago for a series of urban development projects.... a broader plan by local nonprofit Albina Vision Trust to revitalize the neighborhood, once a thriving hub for Portland’s Black community....
Today we read that even more public money has been found for this boondoggle. Thanks to our grouchy old bikey stoner lame duck congressman, Earl the Pearl Blumenauer, there's now $450 million in federal funds sitting there to cap the freeway. Just what we need! The O's got the story here.
But buried way down at the end is the real news. The City Hall car haters are about to cast their spell over Broadway and Weidler Streets:
The U.S. Department of Transportation also granted $38.4 million to the Portland Bureau of Transportation, to redesign two main roads in the Lower Albina neighborhood, North and Northeast Broadway and Weidler.
Oh. Em. Gee. You can just imagine what that's going to look like.
If you've traveled on that stretch of Broadway and Weidler lately, you know that the main thing those streets need, especially Weidler, is repaving. The potholes, the ruts, the trashed pavement, they're a real mess. Good luck with your suspension.
There's no money for fixing that, we're told – you'll have to renew the 10-cents-a-gallon city gas tax. But for bike toys and crap apartments? The sky's the limit.
The local media doesn’t fall for anything. They’re an active part of the transition.
ReplyDeletehttps://bikeportland.org/2019/03/21/pbot-says-9th-avenue-will-be-route-for-future-lloyd-to-woodlawn-greenway-297239
ReplyDeleteI will never forget the day the bike kids learned the name Ron Herndon. The comments in that post age better and better each day.
Ron is 79 now. It'd be awesome if someone would ask him what he'd do to help out the community with a half-billion dollars. I bet he's got some ideas, none of which involve capping a freeway.
As much as there is to dislike Boise, Idaho, I enjoy going over to see my Mom, drive normal speeds on City streets, not have to drive the Glisan/Division slalom courses, and, oh, shop at Fred Meyer where very little is locked up. The bicyclists seem to be able to navigate streets there without banning cars.
ReplyDeleteWho wants to bike in the city to begin with? When I did a lot of recreational cycling, I would head straight to the bike path along 205. Even though it was a good 4 or 5 miles away. And take side streets too. I don’t understand the need to force myself onto public infrastructure that was never made for that purpose.
ReplyDeleteAnd that Albina Vision scam would almost be laughable if it wasn’t so detrimental to regular commuters who just want the freeway widened at that one point. Why is the city being held hostage by a bunch of people on a quixotic mission? Maybe they should advise with me first........it will definitely fail. Check please.
Let's just assume for a second that Albina Vision is successful in redeveloping the area as a vibrant residential and commercial district. That's when the problems start for AV because it turns out that same things that would attract Black families also appeal to White families and Asian families and well ... just about anyone. If that's the case, the how will AV prevent the exact same "gentrification" they claim they're remedying.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of the whole "Young Creatives" canard. Turns out that Young Creatives aren't that special ... everyone likes many of the same things this supposedly unique "class" of people like: Stuff to do in a clean and safe environment.
The Albina Vision is a way for grifters to use “White Guilt”as a way to create non-profits and a salary for their friends. The housing units they propose will not encourage a return of the ethnic population that’s no longer there.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and the lady who runs the grift lives in SW Portland and partners with an Asian man. Nothing wrong with either of those, but don’t give me the bs about wanting to restore “her area.” People moved on, it’s over.
DeleteDeath by development is all over. A single family home across the street, with a decent yard and nice old tree (50x100 lot) is long gone. Now they are building a 17 unit complex with NO PARKING.
ReplyDeleteGet this quote from one of their flunkies from last summer:
ReplyDelete“ We are trying to rebuild 94 acres of Black joy, Black prosperity and Black abundance right here in what was the heart of our neighborhood.”
Well just what did your “community” do when you still occupied a great portion of that area from roughly Interstate Ave. up until at least 15th? Anyone remember Transmission Exchange back in the 80’s? It was a running joke at my job.
Not to mention the almost complete degradation of MLK Ave, and how unsafe the park across from the hospital is/was. You want to rebuild that area, then I suggest a grass roots effort spearheaded by your community leaders. I will wait.
the developer weasels have moved on from green-washing to race-washing.
ReplyDelete