More like around the corner from the heart of the Village....

So, several months ago, a couple of freshly-scrubbed Jr. Executive types visited the Multnomah Neighborhood Association meeting to present an "idea" being proposed for a condo development in the Village. This is located kind of diagonally across from the Multnomah Art Center, twoards the stoplight on 31st. Two older houses were to be removed to make the space. We never heard anything again. Last month, we noticed that the houses had been torn down. Last night, I noticed the above-pictured signs, up on the fence of what is now a construction site.

So much for the neighborhood review process.

Which brings me to mention an issue I have with the Neighborhood Association structure as a whole. There have been rumblings in the Portland-area media this year about how the City is trying to cut the neighborhood associations out of the already convoluted process of development, etc. This is certainly an example of that - since there's no way that a development of this size would have little to no impact on the neighborhood. It gives one the feeling that the neighborhood association is not much more than a discussion roundtable for local residents - and not the arm of local government that many people assume the NA's to be. This is not the only recent case of this sort of thing. Is there really such a thing as neighborhood-level influence on local government? I'd say that recent developments point to the answer being "no".

For now, I'll leave the politicking to Jack Bog.

The website is non-existent, just a paceholder page with no info, but for the record - it is here.

Although different companies are involved (so far as I can tell) the design looks very familiar....