I agree. I am old enough to remember multiple attempts by Portland to develop that area with restaurants, etc. It has failed every time and now Portland and Oregon has terrible (not just bad like before) leaders that have terrible ideas about how to do things.
The reason Blazer owner Tom Dundon is probably looking to move the team isn't just because of the issues around the Moda Center.
Dundon is not a bad sports owner. His NHL team, the Carolina Hurricanes, won the NHL championship a couple weeks ago under his ownership and the Hurricanes are one of the biggest economic success stories in the NHL.
The main reason Dundon is probably going to move the team is due to his economic plans around the Trailblazer's franchise. His plans echo what the Atlanta Braves have accomplished in the MLB with their The Battery Atlanta district, in which Braves' ownership LIberty Media developed a highly successful mixed-use district of restaurants, offices, apartments, hotels, and other entertainment venues around Truist Park. The development of the battery has increased the team's revenue by approximately 25% in just three years, making the Braves' revenue the 5th highest in the MLB, although Atlanta is a mid-market team. Dundon has already begun this process in Charlotte, with a commitment to private development of 80 acres surrounding the Lenovo Center. Unfortunately, Portland's private development has completely tanked since 2019, falling between 65-70% across the board. It was also recently named 80th out of 81 US urban municipalities in development desirability.
Development around the Moda Center has been attempted in Portland before and it failed...miserably. Also, the city leadership would rather cap the highway around the Moda Center and build the Albina Vision Trust, an affordable housing development. As anyone with even a remedial understanding of economics can figure, affordable housing developments are never an economic engine. As a matter of fact, they tend to significantly economically devalue a neighborhood.
Portland's business taxes are too high and its economy is at the bottom of all large US cities. One only has to look at the example of the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Portland to see that any large development in the city core would be highly risky and fool-hardy by anyone considering it. The Ritz-Carlton went into insolvency within 16 months of opening, although it still operates as a hotel with residences. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these luxury residences have failed to sell, even after dropping sales listings by around 50%.
In his interview yesterday, Dundon mentioned Portland's exorbitant tax rates and said this about city, county, and state leadership:
“Just in general, you want to create an environment of growth and competition and innovation, and that’s the job."
It has been very obvious from the city council's DSA contingent all the way up to the governor, that ideas of the city's growth, competition, and innovation are the furthest things from their collectivist minds.
Oregon will pay millions to those who caught COVID-19 while incarcerated
Oregon, what the hell is this?
Listen up, you hardworking Oregonians grinding through sky high taxes, rampant homelessness on your streets, failing schools, and businesses fleeing your once beautiful state. Your Democrat governor Tina Kotek and the prison system just agreed to fork over $49 million of your money to the families of inmates who died of COVID and to over 5,000 prisoners who caught it behind bars. That’s right, convicts and their lawyers get a fat payout while you’re paying for gas, rent, and watching tent cities explode.
This is peak clown world. Let me list everything wrong with this disgrace,
Your tax dollars at work, for criminals. $49 million. That’s not chump change. That’s roads not fixed, classrooms not funded, wildfire prevention not happening, or actual crime victims getting nothing. But sure, let’s cut checks to people locked up for a reason. Oregon Justice Resource Center must be popping champagne.
“Healing and closure” my ass. Governor Kotek’s saccharine statement about “impacts and hardships” on “adults in custody” is vomit inducing. These aren’t vacationers at a resort who caught a cold. Prisons are Petri dishes by design, high density, people with serious criminal histories. COVID hit nursing homes, hospitals, factories, and every workplace too. Why do inmates get special victim status and a jackpot?
Zero personal responsibility. The lawsuit whines that the state didn’t “prioritize their medical care” for high risk inmates in 2020-2021. Newsflash, the entire planet was figuring out a novel virus on the fly. Prisons implemented lockdowns, masking, and transfers like everywhere else. But no, sue the state because life in custody isn’t risk free. Maybe don’t commit the crimes that put you there during a global pandemic?
Precedent for endless grifting. This signals to every ambulance chasing lawyer and activist group: Oregon prisons = easy money. Next up, lawsuits for bad food, uncomfortable beds, or “emotional distress” from missing Netflix. The corrections workforce was already stretched thin, per Kotek, but apparently the real victims wear orange jumpsuits.
Upside down priorities. Oregon has thousands of overdose deaths, homeless veterans, elderly struggling, kids in failing schools, and businesses hammered by regulations and crime. Yet the state bends the knee to settle a civil rights suit for people who were already removed from society for harming Oregonians. The “more than 5,000” who got it? Most survived. The dead? Tragic, but prisons aren’t magic bubbles. Where’s the settlement for the law abiding families who lost loved ones to the criminals these inmates became?
Virtue signaling over competence. Democrats love this stuff, acknowledge “systemic” failures, pay out, pat themselves on the back for “healing.” Meanwhile, the underlying issues (recidivism, soft on crime policies, bloated government) get worse. This isn’t justice; it’s wealth transfer from producers to the protected class of the carceral grievance industry.
Oregonians didn’t sign up to subsidize a pandemic payout fund for felons while their quality of life tanks. This settlement is an insult another reminder that in blue state governance, the squeaky wheel (or the suing inmate) gets the grease, and the taxpayer gets the bill. Fire this up for recall or vote these clowns out. Enough. 🇺🇸 🐺
@DrOzCMS Xavier Becerra was Biden’s cabinet member responsible for HHS and CMS where this type of heinous fraud blossomed. Becerra wants to be Governor of California. NO. A thousand times NO.
🚨 BREAKING: In a disgusting move, OREGON Democrat officials are set to allocate over 2 TIMES as many funds for illegal alien healthcare than for state police
Illegals: $1.5B
Police: $717M
"The more water we put on this fire, the less smoke we're gonna get"
So...you're telling me that having water *does* help in a firefight?
Anyway, in completely unrelated news, it's now wildfire season and Karen Bass still hasn't refilled the Palisades reservoir.
Today, under the leadership of @VP Vance and @DAGToddBlanche, we are announcing the 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown involving 455 defendants charged in connection with $6.5+ BILLION in alleged fraud.
One person arrested by @FBILosAngeles in the Central District of California was Jeannie Choi, 57, of Torrance.
She is charged along with two other defendants—Oren David Shachar, 59, of Van Nuys, and Abraham Shin, 66, of Corona—with a hospice fraud scheme that caused Medicare to pay nearly $27 million in fraudulent claims.
Shachar allegedly exploited deceased Medicare beneficiaries by collecting their personal health data and medical records through meetings with surviving relatives. He then directed staff to use those identities to create false, backdated hospice records claiming evaluations and terminal certifications that never occurred.
Shachar paid Choi and Shin between $1,000 and $3,000 for each deceased beneficiary fraudulently enrolled in hospice care.
Shachar and Shin have pleaded not guilty and have a trial scheduled for August 11. Choi is expected to make her initial appearance and be arraigned today in Los Angeles federal court.
Public health programs intended to help the elderly and sick are being undermined by fraudsters, threatening the financial stability of these programs for all Americans. We are committed to rooting out the rampant fraud that has plagued our institutions for too long.
The warehouse fire in LA spewing toxic smoke from solar panels is still going after 6 days.
Karen Bass went to Obama’s Chicago shindig. Complete failure…and LA wants more.
Education spending is UP ⬆️
Education standards are DOWN ⬇️
Education results are DOWN ⬇️
Kotek brags about graduation rates rising under the standards she lowered. But a piece of paper doesn’t mean students learned anything.
Kotek must go. We need a change.
#drazan2026 #DrazanforGovernor #Drazan #Oregon
So Iran signs an agreement with the US, turns around, asks Hezbollah to attack Israel. Israel defends itself. Now: closes Strait of Hormuz again. Blames Israel for it all. Objective: strain US-Israel relations. Shame on us if we fall for this.
.@KarimDelgado, the stolen-valor far-left candidate for @CityofHillsboro council, is married to a militant, communist activist who calls for far-left terrorism and m—rder. His social media posts reveal that their child is in a private school that costs $3,000 per month. He wrote about one of the family's many holidays, during which they paid $300 per family member for a Premier Pass at Disneyland.
He posted about not wanting to "disadvantage" his child to uphold his far-left positions. But he wants you and your children to be disadvantaged. (@robkhenderson wrote about this phenomenon and coined the term "luxury beliefs.")
The couple owns the 649 Bar in Beaverton, and his wife is involved in anti-government direct actions, including an incident earlier this year in which she used her vehicle to block a federal agent in the road in the name of protecting illegal foreign nationals. https://t.co/eruxyD5BQB
I’ve looked further into @KarimDelgado, the @CityofHillsboro council candidate married to a Portland-area communist extremist who openly advocates far-left terrorism, political violence and killings.
Kiley Delgado celebrated the murder of Charlie Kirk and said politicians and political commentators she disagreed with deserved violent ends. She was arrested during the 2020 Portland BLM-Antifa riots and has more recently participated in extreme direct actions, Renee Good-style, targeting federal officials.
Karim has repeatedly defended or lied about his wife's communist violent extremism, portraying himself as a "decorated Marine combat veteran” standing up for people’s rights.
But Karim’s claims are stolen valor. The Hillsboro council candidate and owner of the 649 Bar in Beaverton has repeatedly described himself as a “combat veteran.” Yet his own campaign website acknowledges that he “left the Marines without ever seeing combat.”
His carefully cultivated image as a veteran family man representing the values of an Oregon suburb is entirely fake.
Support my journalism at https://t.co/eruxyD69G9
Governor, good to see the 8 Seconds Rodeo back celebrating that piece of Oregon history. Bit odd though — you challenged Drazan to three debates then skipped the first one right around when homelessness numbers dropped in places like Central Oregon.
Looking forward to those September ones so folks can hear the plans on the real issues
#drazan #oregon
🐔🐔🐔CHICKEN 🐔🐔🐔
Gov Kotek doesn't want to debate because she has a garbage record. She doesn't want to speak to ALL Oregonians, just her deep blue Portland sycophants, her grifting NGOs, within her deep blue echo chamber, who also have blue hair.
https://t.co/XxKrWLmT5R
Portland just passed that $8.5 billion budget with the usual talk of “painful cuts” — slashing homeless shelters and hundreds of beds.
Weirdest part?
They scraped together $1M for free showers, laundry and bathrooms for the unhoused by cutting camp cleanups.
So after dumping massive taxpayer cash into this mess for years with zero real progress, the big idea is making street camping more comfortable instead of actually clearing tents or getting people into shelters?
Priorities are totally screwed up.
Pure managed decline.
#Portland #CityBudget