Get ready for a street fee (Portland, Burns: sales, neighborhoods, construction)

[nei]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

???There are hundreds of such people in Portland. Are you being sarcastic?

21.5% housholds in Portland (city proper) make $100k/year +. 4.5% make $200k/year +

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by nei

21.5% housholds in Portland (city proper) make $100k/year +. 4.5% make $200k/year +

Define household.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by freemkt

Define household.

United States Census Bureau:

A household consists of all the people who occupy a housing unit. A house, an apartment or other group of rooms, or a single room, is regarded as a housing unit when it is occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters; that is, when the occupants do not live with any other persons in the structure and there is direct access from the outside or through a common hall.

A household includes the related family members and all the unrelated people, if any, such as lodgers, foster children, wards, or employees who share the housing unit. A person living alone in a housing unit, or a group of unrelated people sharing a housing unit such as partners or roomers, is also counted as a household. The count of households excludes group quarters. There are two major categories of households, "family" and "nonfamily". (See definitions of Family household and Nonfamily household).


More: CPS Definitions - People and Households - U.S. Census Bureau

[topaz420]

So that could be somewhere between 2 and infinity people splitting the bill

[SyraBrian]

Syracuse is a much smaller city than Portland but I've seen more road repair here in the last seven weeks than I saw in the three months I lived in Portland.

Portland's getting money from the feds for road repair and they're devoting it to some cockeyed road diet scheme designed to transform Foster-Powell neighborhood into another gentrified area.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by SyraBrian

Syracuse is a much smaller city than Portland but I've seen more road repair here in the last seven weeks than I saw in the three months I lived in Portland.

Portland's getting money from the feds for road repair and they're devoting it to some cockeyed road diet scheme designed to transform Foster-Powell neighborhood into another gentrified area.

That road repair you have seen is probably due to the tire killing potholes they had throughout the city that have been around all winter and spring.

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

That road repair you have seen is probably due to the tire killing potholes they had throughout the city that have been around all winter and spring.

You vilify them for it, but the fact is they're actually fixing the problems. And they have a good reason for having the problem in the first place.

Why does Portland get a pass when it doesn't have any of the severe weather and thus has a comparatively easy job to do, yet fails to do it year after year while diverting money to pet projects?

Portland focuses on the pet projects it likes instead of taking care of basic maintenance. And now we're about to get hit with a street fee, which is guaranteed to not be enough to pay for the needed repairs. And according to the people pushing this idea, fully half of the money will not be used for street repairs. And we have city hall officials talking about unpaved roads, which the street fee has no intention of addressing.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Why does Portland get a pass when it doesn't have any of the severe weather
and thus has a comparatively easy job to do, yet fails to do it year after year
while diverting money to pet projects?
Portland focuses on the pet projects it likes instead of taking care of basic maintenance.

Because this is Portland and we do things differently here.
This has been asked for years.

I don't know if any of you remember Sam Adams and his reign.
There were plenty of people asking the same questions.
FWIW, Sam did remind one of the mayor on Portlandia.

Here's an interesting article about Hales, street repair, and Sam Adams:
Steamroller Charlie | City | Portland Mercury

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by JasonF

You vilify them for it, but the fact is they're actually fixing the problems. And they have a good reason for having the problem in the first place.

Why does Portland get a pass when it doesn't have any of the severe weather and thus has a comparatively easy job to do, yet fails to do it year after year while diverting money to pet projects?

Portland focuses on the pet projects it likes instead of taking care of basic maintenance. And now we're about to get hit with a street fee, which is guaranteed to not be enough to pay for the needed repairs. And according to the people pushing this idea, fully half of the money will not be used for street repairs. And we have city hall officials talking about unpaved roads, which the street fee has no intention of addressing.

Because they have to fix the potholes, or they would have streets full of people with flat tires everywhere...though they also had to deal with these potholes for all winter and spring before finally seeing repairs happen.

Now when it comes to Portland, they decided a couple years ago to put all repavings on hold unless tied to other projects, but they are required to fill potholes.

Driving around Portland, you aren't going to blow a tire because of the streets, but there are streets in Portland that do need repaving.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

What has many people upset about this fee, is that street maintenance and repair should have been a basic function of Portland's city government through the years, but it was largely ignored when the city had the money to do them.

I guess there were a lot more "fun" things to blow millions of dollars of taxpayer money on when times were good.

Now that the economy sucks and everybody is broke, the city wants it's residents to pay for the very things that it should have been doing all along as a function of government.

IMHO, Steve Novick isn't helping the cause much either.
He is coming across as an entitled, "I know better than you" disconnected politician, who doesn't care how much Portland taxpayer money he spends, or how he gets it...

The worst part about it is, that by calling it a "FEE", Portland residents won't get to vote on any part of it.

Taxation without representation anyone?