XPost: or.politics, or.general   
   From: firstnamelastinitial@peaksky.com   
      
   In article <1146239955.335671.235370@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,   
   dloft59@earthlink.net (David Loftus) says...   
   >   
   > Larry (Scratch) wrote:   
   >   
   > > Everyone is well aware that Portland is NOT business friendly.   
   >   
   >   
   > I suspect this is the biggest, most popular myth in the city, and that   
   > the business community spends plenty of money, as well as whines to the   
   > press, to keep it alive.   
   >   
   > What I see is how often, and how much, the City Council and the rest of   
   > the municipal government, rolls over and plays dead whenever businesses   
   > pull out this canard in order to get their way.   
   >   
   > I think the truth of the matter depends more on who you are, and what   
   > your business happens to be.   
      
   Near as I can tell, the big economic problem Portland has is its sewer   
   system.  The decision not to build a separate storm sewer system means   
   you have to treat the rain, which is quite an expensive proposition that   
   will continue to be expensive forever.  Rather than dig up the streets,   
   Portland chose to dig those stupid tunnels to store rain water mixed   
   with sewage until it can be treated.   
      
   Any business that uses quantities of water would be foolish to locate in   
   Portland.  The sewer bill would be ruinous.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)