Next Up at City Council, 2/13/08

First on the Agenda on Wednesday morning at the Portland City Council this coming week are five citizens using the Citizen Communications slots to talk with Council about potential siting of a Resource Access Center for homeless people on Block 25 in Old Town/Chinatown.

I attended the Old Town/Chinatown Neighborhood Association meeeting last Tuesday. I was very impressed with the turnout and with the thoughtful process and debate there. I was dismayed that neighbors are being asked to “give input” on the siting of the center at such a pace that the Land Use Committee had to hold ten meetings in the past two months. And I was utterly disgusted to hear that City Commissioners are making decisions and giving promises outside of proper public process. It takes affirmative votes of the majority of both the Portland Development Commission and the Portland City Council to increase the indebtedness of an Urban Renewal Area, or to change the boundaries of one. Yet apparently Old Town/Chinatown neighbors are being promised a jackpot of new urban renewal money, on the assurance that those changes are a Done Deal. Sickening. And enough to make me believe that siting the Resource Access Center on Block 25 is A Bad Thing. Otherwise, why not give adequate time for review, and let the proposal stand on its own merits instead of dangling $200 million (of our money, City and County money) in front of the neighborhood?

Oh, this agenda is making me grumpy. Or grumpier. Here we have a nice “emergency ordinance”:

*229 Authorize acquisition of vehicles for use by City Bureaus (Ordinance)

It’s on the Consent Agenda, but I’m curious. What are we buying, and why is it an emergency? The ordinance language doesn’t say much more than “we’re supposed to come to Council get authorization to buy vehicles, so here we are and we want them now”. But then there is a table showing all the purchases. Some seem legitimate, like replacing undercover agents’ cars annually so they don’t become recognizable (although I think I would notice more if one of my neighbors got a brand new car every year). But some make me sigh. We’re buying a new hybrid sedan because “The Bureau would like to upgrade a general purpose sedan replacement to a hybrid sedan in order to drive a more environmentally friendly vehicle. These vehicles initially cost more to purchase. There will be some savings achieved through greater fuel efficiency, as well as significant benefit to the environment by purchasing this vehicle.” Shouldn’t the report detail how much more fuel efficient it is, and whether the benefit to the environment includes the cost of making and shipping the new car compared with using the one they already have? Here’s another one: For the Water Bureau, four big SUVs because “The Bureau requires diesel engines in order to use bio-diesel fuel. The larger configuration is the only SUV available in the 2008 model.” So in order to use bio-diesel, we have to buy the larger truck that uses more fuel. Where is the analysis of whether or not it would be more environmentally friendly to use the smaller truck with regular gas?

Ok, this cheers me up. The pedestrian bridge over I-5 under the tram on SW Gibbs Street is happening – long awaited by the Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill neighborhood, now joined with South Waterfront and named South Portland. And the City is settling for $1.14 million in a franchise payment from a now-bankrupt cable company. That’s $1.14 million we didn’t have last week. Hey, let’s put it towards fixing streets, the way Mayor Bud Clark determined chunks of franchise fees should be used.

There are other interesting items on the Agenda. The City is moving forward with a $103,425 consulting contract, looking at a “district energy system” for the North Pearl District. That’s the idea of using the Willamette as a heat pump. Bet the fish won’t mind. Apparently the Council believes the rest of Portland’s residents and businesses are fine with using General Fund money (via the “Clean Energy Initiative Fund in the Office of Sustainable Development) to make sure the utility bills in the Pearl are as low as the tax-abated rents.

Told you I’d be grumpier by the end of the Agenda. But wait, there’s more. Wednesday afternoon:

243 TIME CERTAIN: 2:00 PM – Appeal of George Trinkaus against Design Commission’s decision to approve with conditions the application of TMT Development Company and Fox Tower LLC for a new 33-story mixed-use tower, Park Avenue West, at the site known as South Park Block 4 (Hearing; LU 07-140633 MS DZM AD)

I find land use cases fascinating. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to look into this one. But you could, and tell me about it in the comments.