Making Division Street a Main Street for Southeast

Division is of course an important S.E. Portland street that holds some real possibility to become a decent major community business hub like Hawthorne St. if correctly managed. But for the next few years, you have to expect more empty buildings as rents remain unrealisticly high despite the weak ecomomy. Even Hawthorne St. above 39th is becoming littered with empty storefronts as excessive rents have forced longtime businesses such as THE DAILY GRIND out of business and most of the little stores across the street from it.

Government will usually do more to hinder private enterprise than to encourage it, but somehow rents need to be low enough that some persons will attempt new startup businesses. But for now, the decline of both Hawthorne and Division will probably continue for some time until rents become better and the economy picks up no matter what grand plan the city government may offer to encourage commerce.

Probably too few persons employed by government ever run a business, so maybe this might be a difficult concept for some of them to completely grasp. But rent needs to be low enough to encourage risk by new businesses, there needs to be parking as well as foot traffic for potential customers, and the economy needs to be strong enough to support a cash flow opportunity for a new business. Right now, few of these conditions really exist on Division St., so the challenge there is great.

When a new business opens up, and creates some customer foot traffic, it increases the likelyhood that some second business of some type will open up of some sort. It is like a positive domino effect. Right now, there is a negative domino effect on Hawthorne above 39th, due to high rents and the poor economy. Maybe landlords that keep a property empty for extended periods of time need some economic encouragement to renting out their property of some sort. Empty storefronts only feed on themselves and bring down and decline a neighborhood and don't provide jobs or anything worthwhile for a community.

For some reason while home prices are quickly dropping, rents on commercial properties are not, yet many landlords seem to prefer empty properties for extended periods. This is good question what government can do to resolve this and encourage more startup businesses in empty locations.

Please give Mr Adams a chance to play SIM city with your tax dollars. Maybe he'll make a URA oin SE Division to help out Roosevelt High School.

After all, look how govt helped streets like NW23rd, NE Alberta, N Mississippi, SE Clinton and SE Hawthorne become high traffic areas.

Opps, I forgot, govt didn't have to do anything for those streets.

Yes lets let Sam and his Rainbow Coalition ruin another neighborhood.