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Originally Posted by colossalorder
This vacancy tax seems like an idea that was conceived in a dorm room while smoking pot. We have the most moronic city council. The city is doomed if this is the intellectual wattage of our leadership. They should have to take an economics class before running for office.
I love how Dumbfy says the landlords have to take accountability. How about the city council take accountability for running this city into doom loop with their idiotic taxes and policies that have businesses fleeing? Talk to anyone trying to run a business in town. They are trying to stay but the math doesn't work. The logistics don't work. The hassle and risk is not worth the payout.
I had an interesting chat with the Scandals staff that for 45 years operated the bar on Harvey Milk. Its the city and their absurdity of costs, bureaucracy and hassle that caused them to move from downtown.
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I would agree (with Dunphy) that the amount of retail vacancy is a problem and (with you) that a vacancy tax is a bad idea. I wish they had started with a study into the into the causes and potential solutions. For example, one issue I've heard a lot recently is that building out tenant improvements in shell spaces can be an absolute killer, especially for restaurants; I've definitely seen a lot of second generation spaces that turn over very quickly, while nearby shell spaces sit vacant for years.
And speaking of both Scandals and second generation spaces...
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Downtown's historic 'Gayborhood' eyes comeback with new bar
Once the heart of Portland's LGBTQ+ nightlife, Southwest Harvey Milk Street fell quiet after its last gay bar closed in 2024*. A new bar aims to start a revival.
PORTLAND, Oregon — Southwest Harvey Milk Street, once the center of LGBTQ+ nightlife in Portland, has been without a gay bar since longtime nightclub, Scandals, moved last fall. That's about to change.
Logan Whalen, owner of Best Coast Barber Co. on Southwest Harvey Milk Street, is finalizing a lease to open Camp, a new bar across the street from his business. It will take over the space vacated by Scandals, a long-time gay bar that relocated to Portland's east side last fall.
"We spent a lot of time walking up and down this street," Whalen said. "Just being in this neighborhood felt like something special — a gay‑owned business on the gay street in the gayborhood."
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...continues
at KGW.
*it closed in 2025, and judging by the comments online the decision to move it into a space that doubles as an açaí bowl cafe has not been well received by the community. A new bar taking over the same space may well be the kind of healthy turnover that was needed.
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) but the tax structure here is absolutely out of hand. On top of total inefficiency as a governing body, our city's / Metro's allocation of funds is out to lunch. Our roads are garbage, schools in free-fall and not just due to declining enrollment / birth rate and the unfriendly stance toward small and large business alike- it's a multiple organ shutdown, in what's seemingly becoming a classic American urban 'doom loop' model. City Council meetings are a dog and pony show where if anyone tries to speak truth to power, they shut it down. It's wild. A good friend mine's father was a professor at Lewis and Clark who taught Poli Sci for four decades and his quote was an adaptation of Jefferson's, 'The government you vote in is the government you deserve'. I truly believe leadership and visioneering are a lost art at the municipal all the way to federal level. Nobody wants the gig of being a real leader- because the gig sucks.
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