News Among the many proposals Mayor Sam Adams announced in his February State of the City address was one he called the "neighborhood opportunity district." The concept is a sort of small-scale urban renewal zone that doesn't use long-term bonds to finance improvement projects."Without the larger scope or length of traditional urban renewal debt, these micro districts can jumpstart small-scale, big-impact ...   More

News  WW has obtained a copy of a three-page information sheet detailing a new urban-renewal district proposed by Portland Mayor Sam Adams at his State of the City speech last Friday.The information sheet (PDF) includes a map of the proposed 31-year, 130-acre district centered around Portland State University. Unlike a much larger and highly gerrymandered new district previously floated by Adams, the ...   More

News Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler is set to testify at tomorrow's City Council meeting on the proposal to bring Major League Soccer to Portland. And with three of the five city commissioners still saying they're undecided, it's clear Wheeler's not siding with Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioner Randy Leonard in favor of the deal. Instead, Wheeler tells WW he'll testify that the proposal to ...   More

News 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, ...   More

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News A proposal for a new 345-acre urban renewal district running through downtown, Northwest and Southwest Portland has opened another chapter in the ongoing Portland-Multnomah County budget drama. In an email last week to city and county officials, Peter Englander, a Portland Development Commission manager, delivered a message that startled Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen. That message had ...   More