Portland Had the World's Worst Air, Downtown Is Bribing Brokers, and Climate Dollars for Cops Fails

I'm Today on CityCAS Portland, we've got news updates on the I-5 Rose Quarter renovation, the cash for COPS ballot initiative, and Portland's toxic air quality as we bring back our news lightning round. Plus, we're looking at big incentives being paid to bring tenants downtown, and we're digging into our mailbag to hear from you, our listeners. I'm your host, Claudia Meza. With me, our Willamette Week reporter and author Brianna Wheeler and our very own executive producer, John Atariani. How's it going you guys? Hey, good morning. Good morning. So, I usually kick things off with an opening question so any new listeners can get to know you guys, you know, a little better. But on Thursdays, that part of the show is just for our city cast Portland neighbors. Those are our pain members who help keep us going. But we also throw an extra segment on those days because we, you know, love all of our listeners. So everyone's getting something. But if you do want access to a full weeks of our opening questions, along with at free listening, a free... merch, invites to member only events and more, head over to membership.comcast.fm slash Portland for all the details. And right now we're actually trying to get rid of some merch. So we have a lot of Portland penance and a few tote bags ready to get mailed off. Again, membership.citycast.fm slash Portland. Anyhow, let's get to our opening question, which is all about wildfire betting markets. Let's just jump into this news lightning round, which is John is going to give us a few headlines under 30 seconds. Usually it's a minute, but he's going to just go turbo style today. All right. And before we get into it, I'm going to say this one comes from Sophia Cassette at the Oregonian. Count me in. All right. Three, two, one, go. All right. If the smoke is getting to you this week, you are not alone. We briefly had the worst air quality in the world in Portland on Wednesday morning. That's according to global rankings by the Swiss company IQ Air. As of this taping, it has gone down slightly. We're currently at number five in the world. But this is still very, very nasty air. The good news, the smoke is expected to begin clearing out of our area on Friday. So hang in there. Perfect, 29 seconds. Wow. Nice. I'm curious, has anyone had to stop going outside? Because I haven't gone outside since the sun turned orange. I am taking care of myself by giving myself permission not to exercise this week. Oh my gosh. I love that. I'm going to do that too. Same. Same. Yeah. I'm like, I've always just been concerned about the air. Completely. All right. Let's reset this. Ready whenever you are.

All right, this one is from Courtney Vaughn and Jeremiah Hayden at the Portland Mercury. Ready. All right, three, two, one, go. All right. A potential ballot initiative to fund more police with money from the Portland Clean Energy Fund is officially not going to be on the fall ballot. The backers submitted more than enough signatures, but after auditing them, the verification process found only 61% of the signatures were valid. Turn out more than 70% of the rejected signatures actually came from people who don't even live in Portland or weren't registered voters here. The people who are backing the campaign are waging a complaint and a challenge, it's unlikely that's going to hit by election day. You did go three seconds over, but we'll still keep you on the team. This one is fascinating, though, because I feel like this was really starting to set up to be like one of the big political fights of the fall if this went through, you know? Right. But yeah, sort of went up in a puff of smoke. It isn't going to happen. We got their press release, the political group that was like for this. And they were basically saying, hey, we're not saying that maybe some people, you know, signed that weren't from here. What we're saying is that they threw away too many sheets at the beginning. Because, you know, there's multi-steps. And one of the steps is the city basically passes all of the approved sheets of signatures over to the county. And they're saying, like, that sample size was way too small. So I wonder if they still have anything to, like a leg to stand on. Because basically they're like, because the sample size was so small, that's why you saw so many, you know, overthrown signatures or whatever. I'm just like, I don't know if that's how that works, but. Sounds like some cop talk to me.

All right, John, is this your last one? Yes, I have one more. This one comes from Carlos Nick Fuentes at the Oregonian. All right, here we go. Three, two, one, go. All right. The price tag for a major renovation of I-5 through the Rose Quarter is going through the roof. It's now estimated at more than $3.2 billion to finish that construction project. That's up from the previous, very high estimate of $2 billion. This is a plan that would widen I-5, build some caps over the freeway through the Rose Quarter, add some nearby pedestrian and road improvement infrastructure. Construction is beginning already. The early process is underway. But the project has only secured $480 million of that necessary $3.2 billion. Damn. I don't know, man. I don't know how we're going to do this. I know. Yeah. It is mind-boggling how. I mean, and it's not surprising. Like, you know that these prices are going to continue to go up, that the cost of these things is going to go up, the longer that it takes to get it done. But, yeah, the gap between the money that is on hand and what is going to be needed to complete it. I forecast that there's going to be a pretty major re-scaling of how big of a project this is going to be when it's all set and done. Yeah. Also, you were like 10 seconds over, but I know. It was just there was a lot to say. But I was just trying to be a chill guy. Just wanted you to. Wow. my mind is like really. Like we can't even find like a hundred and whatever million for the modus center. And like I know this is many different pools of money. It's federal money. But I'm just like, damn. Like where are we going to? Where are we going to find the billions of dollars? You guys, we're all going to have to start selling chocolate bars in Portland. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to like the mayor's going to be like, guys, I'm sorry. Your world famous chocolate bars. Everyone's at it. Go to Vancouver. Like let's. I call Camus. I call Camus. It's super sticky. It will be super sticky. It will be super sticky. Sorry. Sorry, John. I couldn't help me. No, it's okay. The funny point is better than my like wonky substantive point. So I'll just say. Oh, man. Well, let's take a quick break here. And when we come back, Brianna is going to tell us how. The bet downtown. Let's just put it that way. There's a big bet going and it's all about downtown.

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And we are giving very, very attractive bonuses. But our market is so anemic that we can't even lease them. And it is very much giving to me, in my perspective, it's giving like treating the symptoms but not like the core cause. For sure. Yeah. So this bonus, like this $15 a square foot bonus, this could mean this, oh my God, this vexes me. Take a deep breath and calm down. This could be a potential payout of 40. thousand dollars for securing one single long-term tenant that's So much money. All right. So, okay, here's the question. Why are we incentivizing brokers rather than tenants? And why is no one saying, whoa, that's the wrong approach? There's nothing in it for a tenant if the broker makes $40,000. You know what I mean? That's not a good reason for the tenant. Cut the rent. If you have the $40,000, cut the $40,000 out of the year. And like, oh, my God, imagine first year, $40,000 less rent. That's an amazing deal. You might actually get someone in there because you know what people want? Like it's a gamble to start a business. And like if you're telling a business owner, and I'm assuming hopefully small business owner, any kind of business owner, for the first year, you're guaranteed a leg up, you know, just on the rent alone. Like that's a better gamble. People would want to take that. You're 100% right, Brianna. I'm upset now. Good. Being a small business owner, this shit is already heroin, right? Especially this day and age, the air is toxic, the world's on fire. You're starting a small business? What? The argument can be made that we can pause that for a minute and really like pivot to what is really important in Portland right now. What is really important in Portland right now? We aren't any fucking housing. That is a very important conversation that needs to be happening. And something that, I mean, it's always the first thing that comes up in my mind when these discussions over this like wasteland of empty office space comes up is like, why are we not facilitating an office to residential conversion? How much more expensive? How much crazier could that be? And it just seems like a lot of like blowhardy pushback for money reasons. However, there is one local architect named Sebastian Gwarvano. Don't come for me for the pronunciation in the comments. I'm not sure how to say this. Mr. Sebastian, he's got this idea that would employ like these modular prefab components and that would convert these vacant first floor storefronts into housing. Boom. And he says he's got an estimated price tag of $200,000 per unit to own. Hello, this is affordable workforce housing. But our homey city councilor Mitch Green says that there's a noteworthy flaw. Claudia, say it again. It doesn't put pressure on the building owners to lower their rents. It's just an idea. And these high rents, plus exceedingly low demand, is why Portland is now throwing out broker bonuses of $15 per square foot. Like the whispers are, is this rock bottom? Have we hit rock bottom? Hoffman Construction, it's our largest construction company.

projects around the world. They fucking bailed. They're not in Fox Tower anymore. They moved to Lake O. Daimler-Kreisler, closing the long-standing Swan Island plant, laying off 375 workers. Oh, no. Last week, we were talking about the possibility that the Blazers are going to leave town. Like, we're very much like having conversations about Portland that have never been had before. Well, since the 90s, actually. Like, the 90s were pretty bad in Portland. Wild. And this story is so interesting to me as like a symptom of the problem because, you know, this is a situation where like the private companies are just saying, screw it. We're going to throw money at this because the market itself isn't fixing it. And like I'm really curious what the response is going to be from the city. Like, you know, we've talked about the idea of a vacancy tax of like what that could do. We haven't really seen motion on that. You know, I'd be like there's been chatter about the idea of. cutting regulations and like sort of changing some of the rules that are allowing these spaces to sit vacant. I mean, it is a huge policy problem. And the fact that like private industry is just sort of saying, screw it, we'll throw as much money as we can at somebody who can rent these spaces. You know, it's just sort of like, yeah, canary in the coal mine. Totally. Yeah. I'm just going to fire this shotgun randomly and hope it hits something. It's kind of like what it feels like. Just. I don't understand how rich brain works. I really don't. I feel like this is still left over from like Reagan economics, where whenever we need to solve a problem, we're always looking for it to trickle down. Like, well, if we give like people who are already wealthy breaks, they're going to smile upon us, right? You know, it's like, no, that's not what happens. Like in pretty much every city that has had a pretty rough bump like we are, what gets their cities out of that. like financial scenario is they basically create opportunities for bottom up mobility. Right. That's what it takes. That's like that's basically the thinking we need to start actually embracing. But I don't know. I mean, maybe I'm just a socialist. Let's take. Claudia, switch sides. What would conservative Claudia say? I don't know how that rumor started, but I kind of love it. It's like I get to be like a socialist wolf and a sheep costume. I love it. Let's take a quick break here. And when we come back, we're going to dive into our mailbag.

Let's jump into the mailbag. We got some hot fresh mail. I love going into the corrections first. I got a couple of listeners on my back in particular about something I said about the Blazers. So both Gray Jay and Kyle C were taken aback when I said they were the worst team in the NBA. And so, yeah, I know. You weren't there, John. You weren't there to defend them. So Gray J. wrote, we were in the playoffs last year. Granted, the bottom of the playoffs, but all that just means that we are the worst of the best, not the worst of the worst. Get into it. And Kyle C wrote, obviously we're not at the top, but we're at least in the middle. hopefully higher next season. Give our Blazers some credit here. So I just want to apologize. I clearly, I don't know basketball. So I'm so sorry, Gray Jay and Kyle C. You're right. The Blazers are not the worst of the worst. They're the worst of the best. Yeah. They're the least best. They're the least best. That's what I should have said. And I'm so sorry. I take it back. Okay. I also have some mail here about our interview with Mayor Keith Wilson. Both Cormac B and Ruth H enjoyed that interview. Cormac B specifically called out that I was direct on the questions and he thought that Wilson stepped up and answered honestly, but he would have liked to hear how Wilson hopes to manage. our dysfunctional cities council, as well as how he thinks that Raymond Lee, which is our, you know, city manager is actually doing. But overall, that, you know, we did a pretty good job. So I appreciate that. Ruth H. also wanted a shout out that there was no agenda, no snark, just great questions with plenty of time for the mayor to give a full and thoughtful response. I am a generous host. It's true. Ruth. She goes on to say that Citicast is always reliable and unbiased and it's reporting. And I also really appreciate that. Hooray for strong local independent journalism. Isn't that sweet? I just had to read that because I was just like, you guys, that's so sweet. We try so hard to be unbiased, but it's really hard. Yeah, I mean it. And like a peek behind the curtain, Cormick, like, I think one of the hardest things with these types of interviews is sort of trying to figure out the focus of what we want to talk about. There's so many more things we wish we could have talked to him about. So Mayor Wilson, if you're out there, the invite is open. We'd love to have you back anytime and keep the conversation going. Yeah. Somebody also wrote in about the loud booms. You may or may not remember. We had Hayes on Hayes Witt, I believe. He was talking about his new next door style app that is just for Southeast Portland called Roundabout. And...

In that conversation, we talked about like loud booms and how Southeast Portlanders are always posting on like Reddit and next door about these loud booms and we don't know what they are. And we speculated about it. So Michael B. wrote it and said, in regard to these loud booms in Southeast, all I can add is that they tend to come right after a pretty bright flash of light. And so with that, along with the earth-shaking nature of them, they sometimes set... off car alarms and sometimes I can even feel the boom in my apartment, which is crazy. It seems to be an explosion of some kind. I've heard theories that they could be transformers. He wrote electrical, not Optimus Prime. Thank you for that, Michael. It could be transformers exploding or something like military-grade M80 firecrackers being set off, which that sounds more serious than what I was imagining, you know? Like, that sounds like earth shaking. That's scary as heck. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I also wanted just to do a quick little community board. This is how I see it whenever people write in with these notes. I'm just like, oh, I feel like, you know, I don't know if you've, you know. seeing these community boards, especially like co-ops. So Susan C just wanted to say, hey, I had a piano bench that I'd been trying to rehome for a couple of years with no luck. But then heard about piano push play from you all. And that was actually Brianna who shared that connected with them today. And they're going to use it. I'm thrilled. It's going to have a new life with them. And I'm looking forward to visiting the pianos. And then they wrote, thank you for helping me discover a new Portland delight. Look at that, Brianna. The change you're making in the world. I know. MJQ also wanted to let everybody know that radical abundance thrift shop in Northeast Portland has monthly rummage sales and that it's so cool, they sell clothes for like a dollar each or you can fill up a small bag for five bucks or fill a trash bag for $10. That sounds crazy. And they do this every second Monday each month. And it's the highlight of our month every time. So that's a pretty cool thing to know. Nice. Maybe Susan C will enjoy that. Little tidbit there. And then we have Brenda R. Who, just for the love of God, will you please pick up your poop? If you're walking a dog, that's all they want. Like seriously, if, especially if you're in northwest Portland, Northwest Everett, around Northwest 22nd, please make Brenda R's life pick up your poop. Or don't get a dog. This is all, by the way, Brenda R. I'm like living her energy here. So Brenda, R, we yelled it out for you. And we hope that things change around your neighborhood. If the streets of Portland aren't clean by tomorrow morning, we're going to give you all a talking to. Yes. I had the finger wags. Yeah. And I just last, just a really quick one. We probably don't have time, but I just want to shout out that Vera A loves the idea of a member's only Avatar, the Last Airbender podcast. And I'm saying this because John's on the show today. And they propose that we watch it like cast style podcasts where John watches it for the first time. Then I and Julia could like chime in.

and try not to get John spoiled on anything, but like we experience him watching this cartoon together. And I'm just putting it out there in the universe because I love this idea. You know what I always say, Claudia? We just don't record enough podcasts. Like we need more podcasts. He does always say that. And we're always just like, I think you might be a little off today. But, yeah. Oh, man. Well, that is the end of today's mailbag. You guys, thank you so much for hanging out with me. Going through some of these headlines, John, great job on your sort of 30-second headlines. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Priyanna, always a pleasure. Thank you. Always.

That's all for today here on CityCast Portland. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, share it with a friend, rate it. Leave us a good review. And don't forget, you can also support the show and get great perks like AdFree Listening by becoming a Citicast Portland neighbor. Just visit membership.citycast.fm slash Portland. And right now, you're going to get a freaking towbag or a pennant or something. So. Do it now. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more from around the city. Until then, see you at Slims.