"...While the City of Portland will be waiting a bit longer to collect those taxes, we are growing the tax base and will reap new revenue that would not have existed otherwise."

Problem is Roland, you -don't- have concrete evidence of this. Urban Renewal proponents keep uttering this mantra with no facts to back it up. Where's the required yearly impact report from the PDC? The City Club study, the most comprehensive and unbiased to date, could not quantify the financial benefits of urban renewal. There's absolutely no quantifiable evidence that NM would not have been developed without subsidy.

NM could have been privately funded and developed. Properties would be contributing to tax rolls right now, instead of 10 to 20 years.

I think it's misleading for Sam Adams and Co. to keep pushing UR tax benefits when it's really nothing more than a theory.