Swingo de Mayo
Saturday, May 3, 2008, 8:00 PM
Ambridge Event Center
Rose City Swing provides an evening of Latin and swing dancing.

"Fasten Your Seat Belts-It's Been a Bumpy Ride"
Ambridge Event Center in Portland
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
8:30 AM - 2:30 PM

Cost: $40 includes lunch and other refreshments
Event description: Join the Fair Housing Council of Oregon on April 30th for a rare opportunity to explore Portland's hidden history of housing discrimination and find out the latest on fair housing challenges in Oregon today. The event, entitled Fasten Your Seat Belts-It's Been a Bumpy Ride, will feature a lively bus tour of locations of discriminatory history, a panel of experts addressing housing discrimination today, and a performance by a dynamic gospel choir.
Event type: OPB Standard Event

We reported last week, but Roger Pollock's official press release came out today. He plans to auction off another 52 homes and 18 lots on March 8. It's at the Ambridge Event Center, 300 N.E. Multnomah St. Registration opens at...

Portland is updating the Central City Plan, and is hosting a series of events to inform citizens and determine what issues will be addressed in the updated plan. This is a chance for all of us to share our vision of the future of central Portland.

Central Portland Families has attended some of the planning meetings for this process and, as you can imagine, there are many diverse ideas about what should (and should not) be included in the updates. Quantity of voices and quality of arguments matter a lot in these early stages of planning.

The Central City Plan is part of the larger Portland Plan, and it appears that the meetings will include discussion of both plans. Here are meetings in central Portland for you to consider, as well as flyer with more information.

Thursday, May 22nd from 7:30 - 9:30 at 300 NE Multnomah (Ambridge Event Center)
Wednesday May 28th from 6:30 - 8:30 at 1600 SW Salmon (Lincoln HS Cafeteria.

portland_plan_events.pdf

From KGW:

A local builder known for their contributions to charity auctioned dozens more homes over the weekend.
Buena Vista Custom Homes offered 52 of its new houses for auction at the Ambridge event center in Portland Saturday.
The 36 homes that sold went for a combined $10 million.
Many who won bidding wars paid thousands less than the home's appraised value.
"It wasn't as hard as we thought it was going to be, you just have to pre-qualify, and hope that nobody bids higher than you," new homeowner Sandy Blackburn said.
In December, the company auctioned off 141 homes for more than $65 million.

NO. 1: THE COURAGE TO CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO From the "transportation" section of the April 1, 2008, city planning document with the monstrous title, "Portland Plan: Conditions, Trends & Issues: Central Portland Plan Assessment: DRAFT: For Public Review": "?not all transportation planning goals have been met, or even appear to be achievable now, decades later. For example, one goal of the [1972] Downtown Plan was a mass transit system that would carry 75% of the passenger trips to and through the downtown core, and provide a viable alternative to the private vehicle?i.e., a fast, inexpensive, convenient and comfortable system. The 75% "mode split" seems unrealistic (instead, the automobile captures nearly that share, with transit closer to 15%)." Well, so much for that idea. After all, why should we expect so many people to use mass transit, with $200 oil on the way? NO. 2: BREVITY Back then, they just called it the "1972 Downtown Plan." NO. 3: SNAZZY ILLUSTRATIONS Check these out! (From the ‘72 plan.) They're much warmer and more compelling than this flat, Adobe-spawned disaster, no? As long as we're on the subject, this came in over the transom today...a schedule of upcoming public meetings?er, "listening points"?for the upcoming Portland Plan revamp, in case you feel like bitching to city officials about points No. 1, 2 or 3, or sharing your hope and heartache at visionPDX, the sequel. Follow this link for background on the Portland Plan update. Here's the schedule of May meetings: Mon. May 12th; 6:30?8:30 ...

The first auction of his empire went so well that Roger Pollock put on another one today, selling 47 of his Buena Vista Custom homes and lots in the suburbs for more than $10 million.

To the sounds of Stevie Wonder and James Brown, about 450 bidders and onlookers packed the hall at the Ambridge Event Center, near the Rose Garden. As potential buyers arrived ahead of the 10 a.m. event, Pollock smoked a cigarette outside.

"This is a matter of taking your lumps," he said. "Then, when things get better, I'll be the only builder in town without huge bank notes."

Pollock's Lake Oswego company overbuilt during the real-estate boom across the region's suburbs. Overextended when the current downturn arrived, Pollock took the unusual course of bringing in a real-estate auction house to clear his inventory.

In December, a two-day auction sold 141 houses for about $65 million, and Pollock said sales on about 120 of those houses have closed.

Saturday, the auction was smaller with fewer houses on the block and fewer bidders. The auction sold 36 of 42 houses and 11 of 18 unbuilt lots, mainly in Happy Valley but also in Sandy, Scappoose, Hillsboro and Beaverton.

-- Anne Saker; annesaker@news.oregonian.com

It looks like home builder Roger Pollock is trying his best to add a little more chaos to the already turbulent Portland real estate market. His company, Buena Vista Custom Homes, will be holding another home auction March 8. Buena Vista auctioned 250 homes in December at the Oregon Convention Center, and claim they sold 141 at that event. The smaller March auction will be a continuation, an attempt to sell some of the remaining 52 homes plus 18 buildable lots. It looks like 34 of the listed homes are in beleaguered and overbuilt Happy Valley, one of the only local areas that has lost value in the last year.Real Estate Disposition Corporation, the California-based company that ran the December auction, will run the March auction. The December auction received a lot of negative press (beyond other previously reported problems here and here for Pollock) over the unpublished reserves ?the secret prices below which Pollock was not obliged to sell his homes. As a result, the highest bidders were not necessarily allowed to buy the homes. Pollock will use this same method at the March auction, and it will be interesting to see how the public responds on the second go-around. For more details see the Buena Vista press release or the auctioneer's website. Auction Details: Date: March 8, 2007 Location: Ambridge Event Center 300 N.E. Multnomah Street Portland, Oregon 97232 Registration: Will open at 12 PM (Noon) Auction Start Time: 1:00 PM