So instead of a Trader Joe's...
They'll get an Obama Express...
Posted on 02/05/2014 11:21:10 AM PST by grundle
The Portland African American Leadership Forum (PAALF) objected to the proposed development partly because it feared that the new retail complex would eventually push up rental prices in the area and drive out the local black community. PAALF officials cited that they held no animosity toward Trader Joe’s whatsoever but were concerned by the city government’s history of displacing African-Americans from their homes.
According to The Oregonian newspaper, California-based developer Majestic Realty Co. had plans to build an $8 million retail complex in a vacant two-acre lot in Northeast Portland at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Alberta Street. The project was to include a Trader Joe's store, as well as up to 10 other retailers and a 100-space parking lot. The Portland Development Commission (PDC) had already OK'd a deal to sell the acreage to Majestic for $500,000, leading to optimism from the city fathers of an economic renaissance in the deprived area. However, now that Trader Joe’s and Majestic have both backed out, municipal officials called the decision "a loss for the city” and particularly for Northeast Portland.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Or rather, this is about keeping "those people" -- whites, out of the neighborhood.
The liberal church ladies in our town wouldn’t allow a Walmart or a Sonic.
They felt Sonic would promote air pollution because people might sit in cars. Seriously.
No, it is about Trader Joe’s “investing” in the community by giving cash to the PAALF.
They will be glad the project was canceled. It would have been a nightmare.
BTDT
I wonder how realty developers, investors and store owners will consider this neighborhood now?
For Magestic and TJ’s this was a rapid no-brainer.
My neighborhood courted TJ’s to please, come and take a vacant store location. They did take it, and it is always busy.
Normally realty developers, investors and store owners are welcomed when they express interest in bringing jobs, taxable sales and economic activity to a community.
Now Holder’s People can go back to protesting that they have no place to shop because the racists won’t build supermarkets in their neighborhoods.
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.
Wait a couple of years and the illegals will drive them out.
Okay, you young whippersnappers; you’ve had your fun disparaging the elderly. God forbid that you ever settle into a house, let alone a neighborhood you love.
Property taxes aren’t based on the property owners’ age. We have an exorbitant tax bill, mostly school taxes, which we pay, without fail and without complaint, every year. Our property is way over-assessed, as is the property of our neighbors, but we’re all okay with that. And dang, if we aren’t all conservatives, too.
None of us want to live in a gated community, or even a development with a Home Owners Association. We like being able to walk to the post office, the grocery store, local restaurants, parks, etc. We have a live and let live attitude and don’t sweat the small stuff.
However, you (whoever you may be) come after our neighborhood with an development that can only be built if our area is declared blighted, or you want my property to build your project, be ready for war. Why should I sell to you just because I’m old?
It will bring in more taxes? What a laugh. In-fill projects are built as a public-private partnership with the public picking up the tab and the developer getting rich. Projects that are billed as “beneficial to families” will be tax-deferred for twenty or so years, they won’t bring in either the families or the money the planners have promised, and dang, if the taxes we elderly pay aren’t used to make up the shortfall when the bonds can’t be pay.
I’m not sure what has caused your animosity towards an entire generation of people but your rights shouldn’t trump mine.
They’ll have the Schumer/Ryan path-to-citizenship by then.
There are black folks in Portland, OR? Wow, my mother lives there and I’ve never seen one when I visited (I’m not exaggerating).
It’s mostly illegal Latino’s and unbathed white progressives.
So instead of a Trader Joe's...
Reminds me of the last time Walmart wanted to build in Chicago city limits. The city council “banned” it.
So they moved across the county border a mile or two away and built a new store. 200-250 jobs offered and they got over 3,000 applicants, mostly black.
It’s very segregated. Liberlism does that. Their are neighborhoods in their progressive utopia you just “don’t go into to”. (My mom lives there).
I argued with her once that I should feel free to go anywhere in the city I like...isn’t that what utopia suggest. She didn’t take to kindly to my line of reasoning but then again she is a left wing loony.
Just lucky it didn’t take with me I guess. (as a bad son growing up in Arkansas I used to steal her Bill Clinton for Gov signs and blame it on others! lol)
Those liberal church ladies spew more hot air than cars! LOL
What do you expect from a city that taxes rain?
I suspect the opposition to building the store is mostly from White Liberals, than from Blacks.
White Liberals know what the black man wants. /s
This area is already blighted as is most of Portland.
Can’t walk to stores if they aren’t there.
Or are you saying all the development in Beaverton and Hillsboro is because of evil public-private projects that soak the public for big private profits? If so then your politicians are dumber than I thought and in Portland they are pretty stupid. Heck, they tax rain running off your roof.
...had plans to build an $8 million retail complex in a vacant two-acre lot in Northeast Portland at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Alberta Street. The project was to include a Trader Joe's store, as well as up to 10 other retailers and a 100-space parking lot.The leftist scumbags are against it because unemployment extensions and other welfare are GOOD for the "workers".
Bet if I wanted to sell marijuana and open a liquor store and a strip club on the two-acre vacant lot none of the “community” would have a problem.
Ding, ding, ding - we have a thread winnah!
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