Link to Oregonian editorial

A reality check is in the mail
The site of the U.S. Postal Service headquarters offers a unique opportunity for Portland
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Oregonian

Funny how quickly 13 empty acres can get a city's juices flowing. Here are just some of the things Portlanders suddenly are itching to build where the U.S. Postal Service headquarters now stands:

A baseball stadium.

A symphony hall.

A public market.

A school.

A park.

Lots and lots of affordable housing.

A satellite campus for Microsoft, with more than 5,000 walk-to-work employees.

Wednesday, after more than 20 years of slowly drifting apart, the central city and the U.S. Postal Service finally decided to get unhitched. As the post office and the huge processing and distribution center prepare to move -- most likely to Cascade Station near the airport -- the Portland Development Commission this week began the process of acquiring the property at 715 N.W. Hoyt St.

Portland's urban renewal agency sees the deal as an opportunity to bring 13 acres of some of the most valuable real estate in Oregon on to the city's property tax rolls. This is exactly why the tax districts known as urban renewal areas were invented. They take blighted property -- in this case acres long off the tax rolls -- and turn them into tax-generators that will produce jobs and long-term income for the city.

So far, so good. But behind all the upbeat talk looms a question: How will the agency buy the property if the tab reaches $64 million, but the money set aside for acquisition is stalled at $34 million?

The good news is that the River District Urban Renewal Area, which includes the Postal Service site, is flush with urban-renewal cash. Current plans call for the PDC to spend more than $200 million in the area in the next seven years.

The bad news is that Portland's City Council already has plans for every one of those dollars.

Now those plans must be amended. In the process, the council would do well to revisit the ridiculous notion of spreading urban-renewal money among so-called "satellite districts."

And, yes, other dollars -- private, state and federal -- may yet be marshaled to the cause.

Once the property is secured, the fun part can start. What should be built?

This much already is clear. As the adjacent Pearl District continues to grow, there is no need for more of the same. That neighborhood, for all its allure, is developing with too narrow a demographic to function as what urban planners now call a "complete community." That's a community in which a variety of ages and income levels coalesce to produce the kind of safe, active, vibrant, sustainable place in which more and more people now want to live, work and play.

The Postal Service site, in other words, presents a perfect opportunity for change. It can serve as the centerpiece of the 21st century city that Portland wants to be.