A pril 2011
N EW S
The Southwest Portland Post • 3
City budget forum survey says 83 percent
favor dividing resources according to need
By Lee Perlman
The Southwest Portland Post
If judged by a recent City budget
forum, most folks in Southwest would
rather see the most City funds go to the
neediest areas, rather than divided up
equally.
That was one of the main messages
of a forum held on March 1 at Wilson
High School, one of two staged by the
City. More than 100 people attended
and, based on an electronic survey, 49
percent came from Southwest, which
represents just 20 percent of the city’s
population.
Andrew Scott of the Bureau of Finan-
cial Planning said that Oregon appears
to be in recovery from the recession, but
that it is projected to be “a long, slow
recovery.”
As a result, the City’s “public safety”
bureaus – Fire and Police – have been
instructed to prepare budgets with a
0.75 percent cut, while all others are
being asked to cut 1.5 percent. “We’re
looking for things you may be willing
to let go of,” he told the audience.
This year, for the first time, the City
is tracking both revenue and public ex-
penditures by its seven neighborhood
coalition areas, Scott said. Since the
areas have different populations, the
data is presented in terms of per capita
intake and outflow. “We’ve never done
this before, and it’s extremely difficult,”
Scott said.
In terms of revenues, “The west side
tends to pay more,” Scott said. To no
one’s surprise, he noted that East Port-
land and Southwest lead in the number
of unimproved streets. The survey also
measured proximity to services such as
parks, police and fire protection. “This
is not just about dollars, but need,”
Scott said.
Those present obviously agreed. As
one item on an electronic survey, 83
percent said the City should divide its
resources so as to give most to those
most in need, rather than dividing funds
equally among all areas.
In discussions during the sessions,
the lack of pedestrian facilities was a
common theme. One woman noted that
Southwest has more parks and open
space than some other areas, but parents
fear to let their children walk to them.
Mayor Sam Adams and Commission-
ers Amanda Fritz and Randy Leonard
attended the session, and Adams acted
as master of ceremonies. Fritz, a mother
of three, recalled, “I spent eight happy
years as a parent here. I had to call my
daughter to be reminded of the fight
songs.” Scott said that Adams would
publish a draft budget in April.
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Massage
City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, ONI Director Amalia Alarcon, and SWNI
Program Manager Leonard Gard at the Budget Forum at Wilson High School.
(Post photo by Lee Perlman)
Safeway seeks zone change for expansion
Safeway plans to build a new, ex-
panded “lifestyle” supermarket on
the site of its existing store (located
at Southwest Barbur Boulevard and
Capitol Hill Road) and an adjacent
residential lot. To do so, they will need
a hard-to-get Portland Comprehensive
Plan Amendment.
According to Safeway’s Dan Floyd,
the chain plans to tear down the exist-
ing store and build an entirely new
structure. This will be approximately
40 to 50,000 square feet – larger than
the new Pearl and Downtown stores
but not quite as large as the two-story
mega-store on Northeast 122 nd Avenue,
Floyd said.
The new supermarket will include
expanded prepared food, floral, meat
and seafood offerings, he said. The
store will cover most of the expanded
site, with underground parking, Floyd
said.
A potential stumbling block is secur-
ing approval for development on the
residential property. This will require
a Comprehensive Plan Map Amend-
ment, the most difficult and expensive
land use approval to obtain. As part of
the process Safeway will have to satisfy
the City’s No Net Loss Housing Policy.
This policy calls for the housing de-
velopment potential on the residential
parcel – rather than the houses actually
sitting there – to be replaced some-
where else in town, either by rezoning a
non-residential property for residential
use or by increasing the zoning density
of a residential property.
Floyd said Safeway is confident that
the process can be accomplished, and
that he hopes the new supermarket
will be under construction by the end
of the year.
--Lee Perlman