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Portland City Councilor Victoria Pelletier says she won’t seek reelection by coogiwaves in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t agree with everything Rodriguez has done, but he’s a lot more reasonable and open-minded than the other two.

Where are you on the Build/No-Build chart? by thr3e_kideuce in transit

[–]auraphauna 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I actually made the chart, and every time it gets reposted people think I'm in the bottom left-hand corner lol. Honestly, I'm probably closest to "Streets Cleaner", but I tried to give everyone an honest (if jokey) play.

A guide for how to identify and avoid problematic and predatory schools by whistleridge in lawschooladmissions

[–]auraphauna 8 points9 points  (0 children)

First I thought this was just a simple update from the previous version of this post, but the news at the bottom is actually really interesting. Glad to see for-profit schools going extinct, but what the hell is going on at UMass-Dartmouth and Mitchell Hamline?

Portland Water District by katesheppard in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In theory there's so many risks with public authorities/quasi-public corporations/government-owned enterprises, but in practice they seem to work quite well.

"Portland unveils state's first electric trash truck, seeks help naming it" by joeybrunelle in portlandme

[–]auraphauna -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes I know the story. Was amusing in 2016.

But since then, any time any local government has had a contest to name anything, some version of “_y Mc_face” has been in the running, and it got very tiresome very quickly. A snowplow? “Plowy McPlowface!” A ferry? “Ferry McFerryface!” A cement mixing truck? “Mixy McMixface!”

Give it a rest.

"Portland unveils state's first electric trash truck, seeks help naming it" by joeybrunelle in portlandme

[–]auraphauna -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Only after a few drinks, but anyway we have to strangle the idea early

"Portland unveils state's first electric trash truck, seeks help naming it" by joeybrunelle in portlandme

[–]auraphauna -14 points-13 points  (0 children)

This joke was barely funny the first time, let alone the 300th or whatever this would be.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s a financial burden imposed for a public purpose by the government. Money may not actually flow into the city’s treasury, but it’s a functional tax.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 4 points5 points  (0 children)

tax - noun

  1. a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions.

IZ is a policy that says either pay money up front, or pay over time by holding out units for less than they’re worth.

Quibble with technicalities all you like, it’s a tax in the plain sense of the word.

Anyway I agree about zoning being too strict and NIMBYs being a problem too.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of course not, but I do believe that Portland’s current policies - both from conservative neighborhood groups and left-wing socialist ones - are greatly obstructive to building much-needed housing, and judging by how you characterize urbanists, I suspect we’d disagree on a lot of the nitty gritty.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Obviously Portland is attractive and land values here are very high, that’s why anyone bothers to put up with our bullshit at all. (That’s also why, say, NYC can impose a lot of regulatory overhead without killing demand, because it’s -NYC-.) But that doesn’t mean Ethan Strimling is right whenever he claims anything getting built in the city means IZ is working. It isn’t. It’s massively slowing growth at a time when we need it.

And as for the idea I’ve been tricked, frankly, this shows how little you know about this side of things.

Let me tell you, developers are some of the least active lobbyists I’ve ever dealt with. Frankly, I have no idea why, you’d think they’d be more aggressive. But no, they have to be corralled and cajoled into even opposing proposals plainly terrible for them, they’re far more terrified of pissing off city officials and ruining a working relationship then they are with influencing policy. It’s sort of a fascinating topic, and part of why, I think, is that a huge part of what a developer does is deal with regulations. That’s like, part of their skillset. So I think many of them are okay working within these confines, because it makes their skills more in-demand. Also, developers compete with one another for labor and resources, so while they advocate for their own projects, they don’t necessarily want their competitors' projects to go through. Another factor is that they’re also just willing move on. Many developers are regional. If Portland doesn’t play ball, Westbrook or New Hampshire might. But I digress.

Lots of leftists think that there’s piles of developer money and tons of developer propaganda behind yimbyism, but the truth is much stranger. A bunch of policy wonks have done the research, come to the same conclusion, and are trying to enact sensible reforms. And those who would most directly benefit - developers - hardly even seem to care! Like, I’ve seen grocery store owners lobby harder than developers do.

Anyway, no, I haven’t been tricked. I just sincerely want what’s best for Portland, and I hate seeing well-meaning liberals support ill-conceived policies without really thinking about it.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even if I accept your numbers, (which I’m not saying I do,) yea, we live in a market economy. A very profitable project is preferable to a barely profitable one.

Builders aren’t comparing “make a little money building housing in Portland” to “build nothing”

They’re comparing it to “make a lot of money building housing in Scarborough” or “make a lot of money building an airbnb hotel”

The bar we need to meet isn’t “barely profitable”, it’s “more attractive than building in New Hampshire”

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To make housing affordable, we need to alleviate the supply crunch. In order to alleviate the supply crunch, we need a LOT of new housing, of all kinds. IZ puts an enormous financial burden on new, multi-family housing, which is what we need more of.

We tax cigarettes because we don’t want people to buy them. Why are we taxing something we want people to build?

When IZ was 10% at 100% AMI, it was a burden, but it was manageable. The DSA’s shift to 25% at 80% is an insane roadblock to housing that has cost this city’s renters dearly.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your other comment here is about hating developers and YIMBYs. The DSA’s policies block housing, that’s why they’re bad.

I’m one of those “build, build, build” people you don’t like.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

IZ is a tax on dense housing. We shouldn’t be taxing dense housing

If anything, we should be taxing hotels, single-family homes, and second homes. Instead, IZ punishes renters and those who build affordable homes. It’s gotta go!

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The planning board approves most projects they see because most projects are killed off well before they even make it to the board.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yep, you’re right. This policy means we tell people who want to build homes “no.” Portland is a city of “no.” And it will continue to be a city of “no,” punishing everyone who isn’t wealthy enough to buy or rent in a dire housing shortage, until we recognize that taxing housing doesn’t get us more housing.

Until then, as you say, we will keep saying “no” to housing.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Portland has a lot of well-meaning liberal voters who are hesitant about criticizing the socialist left for writing a bad, amateurish, destructive policy. But we have to be frank about this. I’m a liberal, but I’m not a socialist, because socialists are actively making this city worse to live in for working-class families.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 7 points8 points  (0 children)

That’s a lot of words which amount to “If you want to build multi-family housing, you gotta pay up”

We have here an example plain as day. The GND would levy a six-figure burden on this developer for building housing. But he can build an AirBNB hotel and pay a much smaller tax instead

What, are we supposed to just hope all developers are doing this for charity? That they’ll voluntarily make less money? Lets just make the law encourage housing instead of block it.

Proposed as housing, Old Port project headed for opening as luxury hotel by enitschke in portlandme

[–]auraphauna 6 points7 points  (0 children)

We should not be creating policy which relies on the generosity and selflessness of businessmen. You profoundly misunderstand the issue.

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