New Urban Renewal Proposal Includes Waterfront Amphitheater

The lobster antenna that extends from the newly proposed downtown Portland urban-renewal district to the Willamette River offers one example of what city officials and Mayor Sam Adams hope to accomplish with a new district, if City Council approves the idea.

Urban-renewal districts take tax increases from defined areas to pay for redevelopment projects for a period of decades. Under state law, those districts are supposed to address urban blight. That's what is supposed to justify the use of money that would otherwise support, in this instance, cash-strapped Multnomah County and local school districts.

So what blight allegedly exists at that one little red spot next to the Willamette River on the proposed map posted below? Try Waterfront Park.

Allied Works Architecture and an outfit called International Outdoor Group would like to turn the park into a new performance venue with amenities like a "destination eatery." Here's the whole proposal [PDF].