Views of the News
Fairness for Hillsdale
Hillsdale suffers from second-class civic status as two stor  ies in this issue point out. Consider the Steering Committee that will ultimately decide the route and type of mass transit in the Southwest part of the Metro region. Hillsdale, with a population of 7,540, has no seat on the committee unless you count Mayor Charlie Hales and City Commissioner Steve Novick. The two council members must also represent other interests of the City as well, including those of the bureaus they oversee. Those bureaus, Planning and Sustainability (BPS) and transportation (PBOT) have their own agendas. Hales leads Planning and Sustainability, and Novick is responsible for Transportation. Also on the crucial Steering committee are transportation chiefs and other elected officials, many of whom are mayors of incorporated communities such as Tigard and Tualatin. The mayors readily contribute to the discussion and, of course, will have a say in the final decisions about where, what and, significantly, whether to build a public transit service to address the pollution, growth, development and emergency preparedness in the 21st Century. Among the committee members are the mayors of Durham and King City. Durham has a population of 1,391 and King City has 3,319 residents. To repeat: unincorporated Hillsdale with a population 7,540 has no seat at the table and no vote to cast. In the past I've weighed whether Hillsdale should secede from the City and declare itself an incorporated municipality. I've not advocated for that, but our outsider status in transit planning has me thinking about it again. Okay, now the good news
although it isn't good enough.
Some of us (I include myself in this merry band) are making ourselves heard at transit planning forums. We are having an effect. Our testimony before the Steering Committee on June 9 was one reason the Committee decided to pause before deciding which transit lines would remain in the running for formal environmental review. (See story to the right). Thanks in part to concerns we raised, the Committee wants more information from planners about Hillsdale's importance in Southwest's transit future. Meanwhile, leaders in Hillsdale are quietly reaching out to find allies. One obvious one is neighboring OHSU, the largest employer in the Metro region. In many ways our transit interests converge. If an alliance of neighborhoods and OHSU deliver the same message, our desires will be not just heard but might be endorsed by the Steering Committee. * * * *
The other story shows that Hillsdale gets a raw deal when it comes to residential property taxes. We, and much of the West Side, pay more property taxes (and receive fewer service dollars) than some other parts of Portland like the recently gentrified inner Northeast neighborhoods.
Our community seems virtually unaware of or unconcerned about the tax inequity. This despite considerable publicity about blue-ribbon studies by the City Club and The League of Oregon Cities. Is this injustice worth addressing, and, if so, how? My interviews with folks involved in the issue have been discouraging. Ultimately, when it comes to taxes , the best way to live with the issue may be to think of the Westside as a separate city (West Portland?) subject to different (and unfair) higher taxes. Using that frame, we might list all the ways we in "West Portland" are blessed. As inequitable as the tax system is, the benefits of living here may outweigh the injustice. In short, are our higher taxes "worth" it. Kudos for Michael Reunert
In last month's issue I noted that Lyn Rossing and John Morris were named Hillsdale Neighborhood Volunteers of the Year for their persistent emergency planning work in Hillsdale. But I neglected to mention that Michael Reunert of Hillsdale was similarly honored by the SWNI Neighborhood coalition for his work with area schools and the SWNI Education Committee. As the written tribute to him noted, Michael "stands as a model for building strong connections between our neighborhood and the schools that serve them." Michael is also on the Hillsdale Community Foundation Board. In my book, he is a model neighbor. Thanks to The Connection
A big thanks to Southwest Community Connection's lead writer Drew Dakessian for her celebratory package of stories about The Connection's 20th anniversary. As noted in the story, I was the founding editor and publisher of the paper. Drew's reporting in the July issue gave us a perspective on just how much Hillsdale and its surrounding neighborhoods have accomplished in 20 years. It's good to be reminded of our progress, particularly as we plan for the future. I noted the anniversary in the last issue of the Hillsdale News but wrongly used June 1994 as the marker for the paper's beginning, not July. The error results from June 1994 being indelible in my mind as the "heavy-lifting" month of worry and labor that launched the paper that appeared in July. I did ask Drew to clarify one point in her article about me. She said I am a "Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist." While that's true in a way, please note that I didn't individually win a Pulitzer. As geological fate would have it, I was on the staff of the Longview (Washington) Daily News in 1980 when Mount St. Helens erupted. The paper won a Pulitzer for its reporting about the eruption and its aftermath. I am proud to have been part of that staff. My reporting and that of others was submitted to the Pulitzer selection committee. Does that make me a "Pulitzer Prize Winner"? Collectively, yes; individually, no. Rick Seifert
Editor
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Commuter traffic clogs local streets like SW 19th at Barbur.
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Big transit decision delayed
More study, comment sought
Sometimes the best way to proceed with making a decision is to not make it and to pause to get more information. That's what high-level regional decision-makers have decided was needed as they pondered last month how to bring high-capacity public transit to the crucial transportation corridor that runs through the Southwest region of the Metro area. Their ultimate decision will have a huge impact on Hillsdale. As burgeoning population growth is projected to put even more strain on I-5, Barbur Boulevard and other major roads here, the "steering committee" of elected officials and government transportation managers, is tasked with considering major future issues including congestion, pollution and economic development. Will the best solutions be Light Rail or enhanced "Bus Rapid Transit" (BRT)? And where exactly will those trains or buses go? On existing roads? Underground? And who will pay the massive cost?
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High-capacity public transit would lessen traffic congestion on I-5.
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Several Hillsdale community leaders told the Southwest Transit Corridor Steering Committee at a June 9 public session that Hillsdale groups support a Hillsdale-OHSU-Downtown tunnel option. Accordingly, It should be included among options put forward for mandated federal environmental impact review, the Hillsdale group said. A major sticking point is money: The tunnel is estimated to cost $1.2 billion in current dollars.
The cost in ten years, when the work might be done, was put at "around $2 billion."Planners are hoping that the Federal Government will pay up to 50 percent of the costs, down from the 90 percent contribution to early MAX projects. Uncertain financing, Hillsdale's lobbying and organized and vocal opposition to the entire Southwest Corridor Plan in Tigard and Tualatin, led the steering committee to hit the brakes. The committee had been scheduled to decide on how to proceed at the June meeting; now it is looking to a November decision about which options will remain on the table for final and formal review.
Out of the June session, the committee generated a list of questions to be answered this summer and early fall Crucial to Hillsdale is the decision about how public transit will serve the community, which is adjacent to and transected by major transit routes. The Town Center is already served by eight bus lines, making it a de facto transit center. Three Hillsdale options are in play but only two of them have the outright endorsement of a multi-agency planning team. Recommend by the planners are: * Skirting Hillsdale's Town Center by running Light Rail or BRT down Barbur Boulevard. * Bringing big articulated buses up from Barbur on Capitol Highway and then putting them underground in a short, shallow tunnel that would remove separate the buses from busy surface traffic in the Town Center. The buses would then proceed along or under Bertha Boulevard before rejoining Barbur near the Burlingame Fred Meyer. * The third option, which planners say is the most expensive but which Hillsdale leaders want put forward for environmental review, is the deep Hillsdale-OHSU-Downtown tunnel. The Steering Committee, co-chaired by elected Metro Councillors Bob Stacey and Craig Dirksen, wants the planners to return in November with more information about a list of eight concerns, not the least of which is "a preliminary assessment" of how the costs will be paid, and by whom. Also on the question list is further exploration of the Hillsdale-OHSU-Downtown tunnel option. The committee directed the planners to conduct "outreach to the communities and stakeholders regarding refined tunnel costs, construction impacts, travel time, ridership and equity issues." Matt Bihn, lead Metro planner on the project, said the dates of the meetings have not been set but will likely be in early Fall. He said that unlike early public meetings that looked at the entire South West Corridor plan, the Fall session will focus on specific locations and topics such as the pros and cons of the deep tunnel. Also on the Steering Committee's list is an item simply titled "Hillsdale." It asks that the benefits and costs of directly serving Hillsdale by enhanced transit be explored.
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Many Hillsdale homeowners are victims of unfair taxes; many don't know it, others may not care
Recent news stories have informed residential property owners here that they likely pay considerably more in property taxes than owners of equivalently valued homes in North Portland and the inner Eastside.
Moreover, Hillsdale homeowners have learned that inequitable taxes have depressed the market value of their property. When you sell your home, the price could be discounted to account for this area's higher taxes.
Outraged? Ready and eager to organize for tax reform? Want
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Homes shown here on the Inner Eastside are taxed less than equivalently priced houses in Hillsdale.
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to withhold taxes in protest, an idea floated in the Hillsdale News a couple of months ago?
Not really.
Why not?
Despite the publicity, home owners don't seem particularly concerned, largely because most remain unaware of the tax inequity.
Jim Mayer, a Hillsdale resident and retired Oregonian reporter, is part of a group exploring ways to address the problem and raise public awareness.
"It's very difficult to get people interested in the issue ... because people are interested in their own taxes and aren't very interested in what others are paying," says Mayer, who helped research and write a City Club of Portland report dubbing the property levy a "FrankenTax."
Also, taxpayers may feel living in Southwest is worth the extra they pay in taxes.
Finally, tax provisions in Oregon are mind-bogglingly complex and hard to understand.
Chris Fick of the League of Oregon Cities says, "People would rather go with the devil they know than the one they can't understand." The League has studied how inequitable taxes effect house values.
The City Club and the League have joined with other interested groups to shape a strategy for reform.
 | | Houses in Hillsdale sell for less because of higher taxes relative to the Inner Eastside. |
Their plans could involve promoting a new ballot measure rendering the old tax initiative, Measure 50, unconstitutional. The hope is that the ballot debate itself would raise awareness and inspire action.
The inequity problem is statewide so the coalition includes state lobbies such as the Oregon School Boards Association and the League of Women Voters, says Mayer, who represents the City Club at the coalition meetings.
But if a measure proposing to overturn Measure 50 (itself a constitutional amendment) is on the ballot, opposition is certain to arise, Fick says. For instance, Realtors and home builders tend to be "philosophically opposed to anything that increases the cost of home ownership."
Lobbyists are guaranteed to seek their way with lawmakers. Referring a constitution change to voters requires two-thirds of the Legislature to approve. As Fick notes, "Politicians are hesitant to support anything that raises taxes."
The referral approach was first proposed by State Senator Ginny Burdick. She and Sen. Richard Devlin are senior members of the Senate and represent different parts of Hillsdale as well as other areas in Southwest. The two Democrats also chair powerful committees: Burdick leads the Finance and Revenue Committee, Devlin is co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee.
Devlin points out, there will be winners and losers, as is always the case when you change tax laws.
The tax inequity results from two "tax reform" ballot measures, 5 and 50, passed statewide by voters in the 1990s. In 1995, the tax rate was fixed to a base assessed value at the time, plus a provision for 3 percent annual increases.
But nearly two decades have seen housing market values change at markedly different rates. Specifically, prices of homes in gentrified North and Inner Northeast Portland skyrocketed compared to relatively modest increases on the West Side. But because the taxes are still based on those old frozen assessed values, property taxes are completely out of whack and wildly inequitable.
The League of Oregon Cities and others propose to address the inequity by simply resetting and equalizing property taxes but only when a house sells. Those current Inner Eastside beneficiaries would continue to pay lower taxes, but the next owners of their houses would pay taxes based on the new market sales price, not the old price from the mid-'90s.
Those knowledgeable about the issue - and the law - warned frustrated Southwest homeowners against threatening to take matters into their own hands by pledging to withhold excess taxes and depositing them in neighborhood escrow accounts. For instance, Fick said, tax resisters could eventually suffer fines, high interest rates on unpaid taxes and even home foreclosure.
Recently, Hillsdale-based Realtor Pat Weiss compared taxes for Inner Eastside and North Portland homes with Hillsdale and Bridlemile homes. Those reviewed sold between $400,000 and 600,000 since January 1.
In Hillsdale, she found, the average annual tax was $6,112. In a NE zip code that includes Alberta, the average tax was $3,465 in the same price bracket. In North Portland including Overlook the average tax was $3,155. But in Alameda and Irvington, well-established on the inner Eastside prior to gentrification, the annual average was $5,512, about the same as Bridlemile at $5,542.
Other elected officials agreed there's a real problem with the tax system. City Commissioner Steve Novick calls it "goofy" and supports the reset-on-sale approach.
State Rep. Ann Linger and Rep. Jennifer Williamson, who represent this area, agree with Burdick and Devlin in expecting the issue to be part of Governor John Kitzhaber's expected tax reform package. The package could include a variety of other vexing tax issues. But first, political observers note, the Governor needs to be re-elected this fall.
The City Club's Mayer says the Governor might choose to avoid property tax reform as a "bridge too far," choosing instead to focus on a sales tax, which is destined to be a hard sell.
Still, Mayer adds, the issue of state tax reform could provide an opportunity to move property tax inequity to the table for public discussion.
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Expect B-H Highway traffic lane closures in August and September
Motorists will be slowed by lane restrictions on a Hillsdale section of Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway starting in early August.  That's when the Bureau of Environmental Services will begin work to improve stream health in Fanno Creek near SW 21st and B-H Highway. Workers will repair a failing outfall pipe, reducing erosion, and restoring native plants. Work is expected to last into September. Here's what motorists can expect. * Several traffic controls will be in place: * Construction on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. will restrict through traffic to one lane in either direction. Most lanes will re-open during non-working hours. * The work will close a short segment of northbound SW Bertha Boulevard, from SW Bertha Court to Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway. * The closure will be in effect 24 hours a day for roughly three weeks, but construction work hours will be limited to 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday during that time. * Traffic heading to westbound Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway should follow the signed detour route or use an alternate route. For the rest of the project duration, the street segment will be closed from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and will be open to traffic after work hours. * Travel lanes on southbound SW Bertha Boulevard from Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway will remain open. In addition, the Construction may create noise, vibration and dust, and may disrupt normal neighborhood activity. Traffic congestion in the area may increase and motorists may experience delays, including along Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway adjacent to the work area. Traffic control at Terwilliger and Capitol Hwy
Water main replacement at Terwilliger and Capitol Highway calls for boring under the highway for about a month beginning in July. Flaggers will control traffic between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays and, if necessary, on Saturdays. Pedestrians using the trail through Himes Park near the construction will be detoured.
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The Center's new playground awaits young children.
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New Head Start center
Parents of young children living in the area are being invited to enroll them in Head Start at the new Children's Center at Stephens Creek Crossing. The Center is across from the Mittleman Jewish Community Center on Capitol Highway.
The program promises "high-quality education for young children from 3 to 5 years old, and helps them achieve school readiness by promoting their social, cognitive and physical development," according to a press release from Neighborhood House, which runs the program.
Class schedules run Tuesday through Friday, and parents can choose either morning or afternoon sessions.
Head Start also offers nutritious meals, preventative health care and mental health services, as well as family support services. Parents are being encouraged to register now to reserve a space.
Classes start September 16 and are expected to fill up quickly. Contact Family Services Coordinator Lienna Avakyan at 503-246-1663 x7303 for more information.
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Date Book
NOTE: Hillsdale Neighborhood Association won't meet
in August. The next meeting is Wed., September 3.
Saturday, July 12
SW URBAN TRAILS WALK
9 a.m., meet behind the Wilson High bleachers. Walk to part of the Marquam Trail and the new Flicker Trail. Approximately 6.3 miles with 500 ft. elevation gain. There is an option to shorten the hike by 1.3 miles for those who need to get back sooner. Bring a snack and water and dress for the weather. Well-behaved dogs are allowed on leash. For health reasons, there is no smoking on SW Trails walks. For more information, contact Sharon Fekety, fekety@hevanet.com
Sponsored by the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association
Pancake Breakfast and Book Sale
The 38th annual Blueberry Pancake breakfast presented by the Hillsdale Business & Professional Association, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Casa Colima parking lot. ($6 adults, $4 children) From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Watershed, 6380 SW Capitol Highway and on Capitol Highway sidewalk, is the annual Hillsdale Community Foundation Book Sale. Donations of books for the sale continue through Sunday, July 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Hillsdale Farmers Market, north entrance. Please, no dated almanacs, manuals or textbooks. CDs and DVDs welcomed. This year's book sale is being co-sponsored by Hillsdale Food Front and OnPoint Credit Union, which plans to open a branch here later this year. Proceeds from the sale benefit the Hillsdale Community Foundation.
Friday, August 1
Neighbors Night Out
at the Watershed
5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Music and snacks in celebration of our neighborhood. At the Watershed, 6380 SW Capitol Highway.
Saturday, August 2
Become a Usual Suspect Meet at the Food Front 'veranda' at 9 a.m. for an hour of fun-filled litter patrolling in the Hillsdale Town Center. At 10 a.m. volunteers receive breakfast, courtesy of Food Front and admire prized found objects, also known as "The Pick of the Litter."
Saturday, August 16 Multnomah Days
8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Multnomah Village on Capitol Highway. Organized by the Multnomah Village Business Association and supported by community sponsors, the event brings more than 10,000 people together to celebrate "the village at the heart of Portland." This year's Presenting Sponsor is Safeway. The popular 10-block-long parade starts at 10 a.m. Groups or individuals interested in joining the parade should contact multnomahparade@gmail.com by August 1 for information about participating. Other activities include: live music, a wine and beer garden for adults, vendors showcasing art, food, crafts and other merchandise, a Kid Zone, Kiwanis pancake breakfast (starting at 8 a.m.) and lunch, a ping-pong party, stage performances.
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