Memorial Coliseum Tear Down Update

Great discussion about the possible demolition of the Memorial Coliseum going on here, at Portland Architecture.

If my opinion mattered, and it sure as hell does not, I would agree with Brian, the editor of said blog. Why tear down a beautiful structure to save a parking complex?

Of course its not the simple. To complicate things further, the public process itself has come under scrutiny. City leaders appear to have decided to ask people's opinion after telling them they were plunking down a new baseball stadium and appear to be in a rush to get things started.

From Ryan Frank and Mark Larabee's April 14th column in The Oregonian:

"In a city built on public process, the abrupt schedule leaves the city without much time for public debate or a thoughtful plan to remake inner North Portland. It means the city will have to scrape together an expensive financial plan just as it faces budget troubles amid a worldwide economic crisis."

Which brings me to the more pressing issue,why are convention centers always so ugly?

Portland Housing Resources

The Portland Housing Blog is great for a number of reasons. I, for one, enjoy the graphic elements, (aside: Is that weird? The aspect I enjoy most about a RE blog is the graphs?) along with the level-headed analysis, the site is a must read for those looking for detailed information. They cater to the "in the know crowd" and therefore might not be appreciated by the casual viewer. However, I do feel that there are posts that benefit even those just interested in the Portland estate environment. I intend to point those posts out here


Below, I've included a couple of their graphs, and a link to their post on the recent release Case-Schiller Index



"The graph (above) highlights the changes since the Federal Reserve stopped lowering interest rates in June of 2003. The Portland index is currently at 153.80; a decline of 17.5% since the market peak. The last time the index was this low was August of 2005."



"The graph(above) shows all historical data for Portland, Seattle, and the 10 city index. The Portland residential real estate market has fallen 14.0% in the last year."

"The final graph shows the year over year percent change since June of 2003."
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