Portland to pay people to stop fleeing the city?

Portland schools lose more students. There’s a 20% reduction in the past decade. Only 20% of the people who live in Portland have kids in the schools and now the City of Portland is asking what it can do to keep the people in the city–the same people they’ve systematically disaffected by making the city les attractive to working families. Who’s left? Old schoolers? Liberals? Does this mean they want the Reagan Republicans back? Maybe. But here’s the story, now the city wants to pay people to stay or lure them back with rent subsidies, mortgage subsidies and underwriting mortgages through the PDC. Find the big plan by Erik Sten here.

How did they let this happen?

By siphoning money from the general fund to pay off their union pension plans By skimming money that would have gone to the schools, fire and cops to go to urban renewal plans, or, as I like to call it, "The Homer Williams full employment Plan." By its anti car culture by making it untenable to drive thus making little Susie’s trips to ballet, spanish, or art after school (since the schools can’t afford that stuff anymore) too difficult–try carpooling, grocery shopping, and after school activities on a bike with your kids. By making inner city housing too expensive through urban renewal and the urban growth boundary restricting supply of land Now, after all that (plus undoubtedly many more) the coupe de grace is this: they’ve reduced themselves to having to pay people to stay.

By the way the other thing you might want to take a look at in THIS DOCUMENT calls for a take over of the schools.

This article was reprinted with permission from Victoria Taft’s excellent blog located here. Please visit.