Consultants share urban renewal vision

Shouldn't this money be put to better use such as repaving the roads in the older part of McMinnville, or fixing the potholes correctly all over the city. Or fixing the roads that were messed up when they cut into them to lay fiberoptic cable? Or perhaps the highways leading to the town. Have you traveled 18 lately? Yikes! Or maybe bringing new places to shop and eat like a Target, or a Costco, or Trader Joe's or anything else besides Walmart, pizza, Chinese and fast food? Wouldn't that make jobs and generate revenue and improve economic vitality? Seems to me that whomever is in charge of this renewal plan is too worried about attracting people here but not really worried about the people that already live here. Not sure how this "district" will improve my or my family's life, or anyone else's. Not to mention all the congestion it will attract. I just don't understand. Who is running this town? For the love of...

$1.5 million would go a long way to replace the Three Mile Lane Bridge which connects McMinnville to our nearest hospital and to our National Guard Unit. The bridge is in scary bad shape and even a small earthquake (this is earthquake country) can easily either bring it down, or just make it unusable. @notanativethankgod - in answer to your question as to who runs the town - the answer is The Developer Mafia and all they care about is making $$$.

"Urban renewal districts temporarily alter the internal distribution property tax money among the various jurisdictions, but don�t increase the total tax bite, she said. The problem, she said, is that the redistribution shows up on property tax statements and is often mistaken for an increase."

'Temporarily altering distribution' of property tax statements is a clever way to avoid any admission that taxes will increase.

Let's see, property owners will most likely be responsible to pay for mandated improvements -- sidewalks, property access (approaches), and any possible new utility hookups. And with these 'improvements' will soon follow a reassessed property value, upwards. To expect anything 'but' a raise in taxes, one would have to be a little naive.

And yes, Kathleen, that bridge work would be a sensible and needed use of public money -- but since when has spending other people's money ever been influenced by common sense?