The Veritable Quandary to Close - say it ain't so?!?!?!

You bitches high jacked my thread and made it a cock fight.

Classic S2 at its finest. I love this place.

 

You guys are so elitist and racist.

But Denny is God so you lose.

 

I don't know, but the area 20 years ago had a bunch of vacant lots, a decade ago had a couple and now really has zero that I can think of. So, whatever the city was charging would have likewise been affected substantially by the extreme growth. I do know the courthouse is expected to cost 250M. But just because I don't have all the information about past lease amounts or any of the financial breakdowns doesn't mean i can't make an educated guess that a mid-sized restaurant couldn't afford a property like that for it's porch.





Back to the issue at hand. I have had several good friends who have worked at the VQ over the years and not only will miss the great food and service, but also the friendships and atmosphere. PDX has become such a food mecca that the VQ had gotten lost in my restaurant patronage list in the past few years but their duck confit spring rolls and their osso bucco were a couple of my favorite dishes for years.

 

To fill you in, this is not a really great location. The restaurant succeeded for a long time, but go up a few blocks or over a few and prices soar. But because of this location being all by itself on an island of on/offramps. Not saying the spot isn't worth quite a bit or that plenty of business wouldn't have loved to be there, but this is actually a pretty good spot for a courthouse from a land-use perspective. It's in the downtown, by the jail, yet will be separated from all the other business in the area due to it's awkward location. It's not a case of govt using the most expensive land, but still it's certainly not cheap either.

 

No, there is a large waterfront park on the other side of the offramps that stretches the entire width of downtown, and the "Park Blocks" are up 6 blocks the other way. There are also three little courtyard style parks within 5 blocks that I can think of. Honestly I don't think it would make a good place for a park at all, and I'm someone who generally supports more parks.

 

So the govt should spend the extra money over the long run to operate several different courthouses and handle all the transports rather than use a piece of land they own that displaces one business with perhaps 20 employees? I thought you were tired of govt operating inefficiently and spending taxpayer money on repetitive services. This consolidates, and it's not even a case of imminent domain or anything like that. It's simply making use of their property for the betterment of the city.

Now, there most likely is some bullshit built in there too, I don't actually trust govt or business, but theoretically this is actually a prudent use of public land, a good use of taxpayer money and evidence of a more efficient government.

 

Oh, I know it is. It's par for the course - I'm guilty of it all the time. It's just I don't start many threads, so it stands out more. Plus, I'm pretty disappointed VQ is closing.

 

So now you want all the businesses that are downtown and built off the fact that the courthouses are down there to go out of business. You want all the lawyers, all the police, all the guards, all the Portland Citizens to have to drive a half hour away and spend all that extra money commuting so as to not use land that is already owned by the govt. You want all the extra prisoner transport busses and jail trips to come out of my pocket to keep a porch alive? I know you are trying to defend a position from a long ways away and aren't familiar with PDX, but this is actually a pretty good idea. The nearest dump would be 20 min without traffic and 45min-1h with traffic. I understand feeling bad for the VQ, they are getting a raw deal having to close, but there are citywide interests that affect thousands of people every day and unfortunately causing the closing of one business might be the best option. And if they moved to the dump, what about the taco stand or the vacuum store that would need to be displaced out that way.

Now, in total honesty I'm not sure that consolidating is that important. Safety-standard improvements are required which is the impetus for this build, but I'm really not sure how the total financials would break down. The nice thing is that with the new courthouses being built, it should free up some more prime real-estate for other businesses to move into or build on where some of the old courthouses are. But who knows what the govt will actually do with those properties. Some of those courthouses are in extremely prime locations.

 

Sorry, I can stop bickering. Really, I can.

What was your favorite dish at the VQ?