In YOUR opinion, what are the top 3 political issues going on in Portland/Oregon (Lake Oswego: sale, apartment)

[christiner81]

Someone (can't remember who) asked why we didn't talk more politics on here. Not looking for a debate, just opinions on how things are going in PDX.

[yellow4yield]

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[khyron]

I'm presuming you mean specific stuff instead of "job creation" or "business friendliness" or other made up meaningless buzzwords...so here are what I guess I'd consider the top of mind here right now:

- the special election for the first district is in progress, concludes in a week
- the next mayoral race heating up, real campaigning now rather than just fundraising
- we may have a GOP debate taking place in town soon, much discussion there

[davemess10]

I think transportation dollars are always a hot topic here, and this year will see a pretty substantial cut.

The use of water department tax funds was and still is a major issue people are thinking about.


Right now, I'd have to guess national politics dominate most people's thoughts.

A few months ago it definitely would have been Occupy Portland.

[The Cactus Leaguer]

Agree re: transportation issues, specific ones that come to mind are the new I-5 Bridge (Columbia River Crossing), new Sellwood Bridge, Streetcar to Lake Oswego (as part of the the Foothills project), and the effort to stop the light rail line (or at least the local funding portion of it) to Milwaukie.

[ramedud]

Drugs
Homelessness
Unemployment

If the cards are played right by government, lemonade may be the new beverage of Portland. These problems can be addressed, it's just not being done.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by The Cactus Leaguer

Agree re: transportation issues, specific ones that come to mind are the new I-5 Bridge (Columbia River Crossing), new Sellwood Bridge, Streetcar to Lake Oswego (as part of the the Foothills project), and the effort to stop the light rail line (or at least the local funding portion of it) to Milwaukie.

I'll agree that transportation issues are near the top of the list. The Columbia Crossing and the what to do(giant $5 billion bridge with or without light rail) wil continue to be an issue--as well streetcar/lightrail connections to Clackamas County, which seems to be getting a mixed response. Another issue, which is connected to lightrail discussions, is the budget problems facing TriMet--and the resulting changes to service. There's already smaller towns on the outskirts of the metro that are having TriMet service cut or significantly rolled back--or they're opting out of TriMet.

I think there's going to be a shift in Portland where more people are going to be focusing on issues like the economy and infrastructure needs... I'm sort of hoping there will be at least--we've had enought time to think about bike bridges that play music when you ride over them or renaming streets for Cesar Chavez that maybe we can get back to the business of making Portland more viable. Of course, maybe the populace doesn't care that much, and we'll continue to get half-assed leadership focusing on fufilling Portlandia stereotypes or getting backroom deals with condo developers...

[Nell Plotts]

I wouldn't slam condo developers per se because the city needed the projects to increase the value of the land they were built on. In the core area where many were constructed contained industrial warehouses that users were abandoning. The city is/was sued because of pollution from the combined sewer & water lines, the expense of the fix substantial. They had to dig up city streets to remedy the problem so the cost of putting other utilities underground at the same time was minimal.. however, there needed to be a demand for a higher level of services. All this happened as the housing market started an insane climb. Lots of assumptions about sale prices were made by developers and lenders here and across the country.. we all know the result. BTW, I don't respect many condo developers either, particularly those who converted apartment buildings.

[hamellr]

The Columbia River Crossing, the MAX line to Lake Oswego, the replacement of the Sellwood Bridge.

And the slow crawl South East Portland is taking towards poverty levels.

Possibly dollars and tax breaks being give to developers, but I have a hard time believing that those dollars are not made up for in increased tax revenue.

[sorupaa]

with the max there trying to decide if they should stop it before clackamas county

but i think they decided to not hove the lake o street car