1. Olympia has been denied an extended land lease for submerged lands under the MSP. While that could kill the process, Olympia also has some financing issues and apparently will put putting NO EQUITY into the project. This seems like a good time to go back to the table or bring OP in. I'm in favor of putting out a new RFP nation wide with deadlines that will allow for other parties to get involved. If there are developers that will invest $100m into saco island then we can certainly find one for the MSP. Another idea would be a upfront lease payment/impact fee of $5 million that could then be allocated to a city owned and run mega pier. The new terminal looks great!
2. I was reading that Mars Hill has reduced property taxes by 20% due to revenue increases from the wind power project. The mil rate went from $25+- to $20+-. What a novel idea...offset residential property taxes with new commercial development tax revenues. It seems like every new Portland project is sold to taxpayers based on the theory that their taxes will be reduced...haven't seen that yet. Of course it's hard to reduce residential taxes when every new development gets TIFFs and tax credits. It's corporate welfare.
3. The roads are in pretty bad shape, but I've noticed that there is a lot of cobblestone under the paving. First I was wondering if that helped or hurt the paving above it? And does cobblestone have an intrinsic value? Could it be removed and sold for historic properties, downtowns, sidewalks etc?
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