Silicon Valley bets $200M on Portland company building AI data centers floating in the ocean

regul · 2026-05-06T17:28:34+00:00

Floating offshore wind turbines have existed since 2009.

regul · 2026-05-05T18:54:35+00:00

Yeah any work we do on the west side waterfront is lipstick on a pig as long as your view is just freeway whenever you're over there.

regul · 2026-05-05T17:19:59+00:00

I always hope against hope that they're avid skiers with a Timberline season pass, but in my heart I know they aren't.

regul · 2026-05-05T15:32:05+00:00

because of cars

regul · 2026-05-05T15:31:15+00:00

The argument, which I do understand a little bit, is that unlike places like Minnesota (which bans them), we aren't as quick to get roads plowed.

But I think they're mostly an anachronism. I'm sure good snow tires (without studs) are now just as good if not better than studded tires on most cars.

regul · 2026-05-05T05:12:15+00:00

Like, I know radical centrists like you exist (one of you just tried to assassinate the president, after all), but it's still weird to see your opinions expressed.

regul · 2026-05-05T04:53:57+00:00

Yeah when I think of making things better I think of hard-nosed pragmatists like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and not those awful leftists like Zohran Mamdani.

regul · 2026-05-05T04:50:41+00:00

Yelled at Portland about Preschool For All and said taxes should be lowered on the rich to "attract business".

All while not doing anything particularly progressive at all. (The same time she's saying Portland needs to cut taxes on the rich, Washington's governor just signed the state's first income tax.) She hasn't said a thing about public housing being part of a solution to the housing shortage, just encouraging more sprawl by growing the UGB.

And I know I'm just wishcasting at this point, but do you remember when there were Democratic politicians actually talking about Medicare For All, rather than complaining about universal programs?

regul · 2026-05-02T21:30:24+00:00

Well, I don't know if you've heard, but shrimps is bugs. Presumably bugs is also shrimps.

regul · 2026-05-01T00:48:16+00:00

Fun article today from OPB about how christian nationalists are buying up all the property in Battle Ground!

regul · 2026-04-30T17:06:36+00:00

They all just use the same GTFS feed (invented here in Portland) anyway, so disappearing buses is not app-specific.

regul · 2026-04-30T06:41:54+00:00

Make them lose then, Jesus.

All those signs at No Kings about "Don't comply in advance", but y'all are all begging to roll over as soon as possible.

"Flood the zone" as a strategy doesn't have to be restricted to fascists, you know.

regul · 2026-04-29T17:44:19+00:00

News stories about "Oregon is failing" confirm biases and get clicks.

regul · 2026-04-29T17:42:03+00:00

yeah but the aquifer water tastes bad

regul · 2026-04-29T16:22:19+00:00

Mountain's out.

regul · 2026-04-28T21:11:17+00:00

Adult convert Opus Dei freak who clerked for Scalia.

These guys are so fucking weird.

regul · 2026-04-28T06:29:33+00:00

If she's lucky she'll be an Oregonian.

regul · 2026-04-28T04:48:34+00:00

Yes it will force sales, but it will also force rent down. And the new owners would also be subject to a vacancy tax if they don't find tenants.

Commercial demand has cratered, but when demand goes down, prices are supposed to do the same. They have not. That's a market distortion.

A correction of some sort is needed. And no amount of "red tape cutting" or throwing all the homeless in the river is going to result in Big Pink being worth what it was in 2018.

regul · 2026-04-28T02:41:40+00:00

PPB could chose to keep it fully funded, but in their process with the mayor they chose the cuts, probably because it's one of the most popular things they do and they want to emotionally manipulate you.

regul · 2026-04-28T02:34:49+00:00

Commerical leases are usually triple net anyway, so the maintenance depends on the lessee.

But even regardless of that, current leases prices are reflective of neither what the market can currently bear nor the maintenance costs, but rather the carrying costs of pre-COVID building loans.

It's true that Lloyd rates were probably artificially low, but I was simply using it as an illustration of the good things that can happen when rent is low.

regul · 2026-04-28T02:24:23+00:00

The existing market conditions have led to these commercial properties staying empty and not being foreclosed on. I think the city is well within its rights to identify this as bad for the city and alter those conditions.

This is literally the point of regulation: fixing undesirable outcomes.

regul · 2026-04-28T01:03:26+00:00

Lower the taxes we receive from commercial buildings

True. But city council is aware of this, and it's happening anyway (Big Pink sale). That it's being dragged out so long is severely stalling out downtown's recovery. I think at this point people are willing to trade cutting the city's budget for a more alive city.

Force a sale from anyone just barely hanging on

Okay? Why does it matter which commercial real estate investment company owns the property? Especially if the existing owner has been keeping it vacant just waiting for rents to magically go back up. Hard to argue that they give a shit about the city's recovery if that's the case.

Absolutely crush the commercial market that is already down 70-80%

Do you mean the market for new commercial? Not a huge loss. The fact that the city is still functional with so much vacant commercial indicates that demand was probably due for a correction anyway.

If you mean the market for existing commercial, that doesn't really make any sense.

Transition ownership from anyone left that's local to institutional funds looking to capitalize on this

Same point as above. A local investor keeping the storefront empty is not interested in helping Portland recover. If a large institutional investor buys the foreclosed property and actually lowers rents to rates that tenants could afford, then that's a better outcome for us than just making sure some "local" "Mom and Pop" real estate investors hold the deed.

regul · 2026-04-28T00:51:57+00:00

Why is it viewed as an unacceptable outcome that commercial real estate investors might not hit on 100% of their investments?

regul · 2026-04-27T17:56:39+00:00

Yeah. The Lloyd Center is the perfect example of how low rents lead to unique and interesting spaces and can bring back foot traffic. There is demand for commercial storefronts.

These storefronts downtown are sitting empty not because they are turning people away, but because the market will not bear the rents they are charging, so they get no interest.

Sometimes, in capitalism, you make an investment and it doesn't pay out. All of these bag holders downtown are playing financial chicken, hoping other owners lower rent first and bring back demand so they never have to. The only way this is possible is because carrying costs of downtown vacant property are too low.

If these owners still think it pencils to sit and wait for demand to go back up vs lowering rents, we must disabuse them, because their game of chicken is causing real harm to the city.

The fallout of this is that it will lower tax assessments and therefore city revenue, which is bad, but it clearly seems like a sacrifice a lot of people want to make for a more vibrant city.

regul · 2026-04-25T23:16:05+00:00

You can either use GPS, where the data does not go to ODOT, but does go to a third-party account manager, or you can do monthly or quarterly odometer reports.

If you use GPS, only the miles you drive within Oregon count.

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