Does anyone know what the people in the neighborhood wanted?
I could see it going either way.
On the one hand if it was going to drive up property values, that could be a positive for the people in the neighborhood.
But on the otherhand, they’d have to move because of the higher taxes and it would break up the community.
My guess is the good folks of Portland preferred another Dignity Village .
My wife is a pastor of a Church in that area and attends meetings of a couple of neighborhood councils. According to her, those who are pushing projects like this are new residents who had bought property at fire-sale prices and are now looking to make a profit from re-sale.
The area is presently made up of single-family houses and small businesses. New property owners (as described above) are hard at work building 4 and 5-floor apartment buildings that rent for over $1000/mo (that’s considered “affordable!!) and have NO on-site vehicle parking. If tenants don’t ride a bike to work they have to rely on public transportation and can forget about getting out of town on weekends.
Of course, due to local government financial problems, the long-time residents are getting taxed out of their homes and into dilapidated apartments on the East side of town. Their long-standing problems haven’t been solved or even addressed, only moved. I live on the East side and our crime rate has gone up. I’ve had to install several security features on my house to keep zombies out but I still hear gunshots once or twice a week. It’s a matter of time before they get even closer.
Kindly note that all of this is due to some non-resident landowner wanting to turn a quick profit. And no, the local residents were never polled as to whether or not they wanted a Trader Joe’s. In fact, any who had the opportunity to give an opinion were overwhelmingly against it.