Isaac Laquedem

We must already like this program, even though we haven't seen it yet

I passed by the Laquedemitasse while he was watching television.  A promotional spot came on for a sitcom described as "the new hit series."  He and I had the same reaction: if the series hasn't started running yet, how can it be a hit already?

2010 sets a record pace for bank openings: just one (so far)

2010 is setting a pace for bank failures not seen since the 1930s: 118 so far.  Against the series of gloomy press releases from the FDIC announcing bank failures is set one piece of good news: the first bank opening of 2010.   It's of an institution called Lakeside Bank, in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  As the New York Times reports, Lakeside Bank is the first proposed bank to win the FDIC's approval this year.  (It's technically possible to open a bank without FDIC approval, if you can find someone else to issue deposit insurance, but no one's done it since 1933.)  Its organizers, led by a local real estate developer, started the process to form the bank in 2007, and raised $13 million in initial capital.  Progress stalled when the FDIC disapproved the organizers' first choice for president, and they went in search of another, eventually finding Hartie Spence, age 70, the retired president of Hancock Bank of Louisiana, an institution in Baton Rouge.

The Times author wonders why Lakeside's organizers, in the article's words, "won the lottery" to get the only bank charter issued in 2010.  A look at its board of directors might explain this little mystery: buried within the down-home folksiness with which the bank described its directors are little nuggets such as these: two members have business degrees and two have law degrees.  One is a professor of banking and another has a degree from the Banking School of the South.  Two have taught in the banking program at Louisiana State University.  One is a state senator and former mayor of Lake Charles; she also holds an undergraduate business degree.  And one, modestly titled as "Mr. Willie Staats," is Dr. William F. Staats, described as having been named by the FDIC itself to the board of the nation's first bridge bank.  He also used to be the vice president and corporate secretary of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.  (I surmise that his presence is what tipped the FDIC into approving this bank.)

As for its office, the bank splurged: it does run out of a mobile home parked in front of the local Baptist church, but it's a double-wide.

Good luck, Lakeside, and keep a sharp eye on your collateral.

Major League Soccer? Not to Seattle sportswriters

Last week the Seattle Times ran a story in its sports section -- it was the lead story -- on the collapse of what the writer described as Seattle's three major sports teams.  What are Seattle's three major sports teams?  Before I started the article itself, I surmised that the Times meant the baseball Mariners, the football Seahawks, and the basketball Super Sonics.  I then recalled that the Sonics left town a few years back and now play in Oklahoma City, under an assumed name.  So what is the Emerald City's third major sports team?  Not the soccer Sounders.  According to the Times, the third major team is a college team, the University of Washington's football Huskies.

"Major League Soccer" may be major league in its own mind, but it still has a ways to go before it convinces the Northwest's sportswriters.  Maybe the City should be renovating PGE Park for Portland State University instead of for soccer.

A high-profile arrest coming today?

 Cameramen from Channels 2 and 8 are stationed outside both entrances to the Multnomah County courthouse, not just the one where the public enters, but also the Fifth Avenue side where the public can exit but not enter.  It's also near the elevator where prisoners are brought into the courthouse.

The cameramen deny knowing that anything in particular is going to happen today, but they give the impression of not being there by random chance.

Who needs the nanny state when you have parents and children?

Venerable Mom relocated this spring to quarters near to Laquedem Manor.  One fine weekend day the Laquedemitasse and I biked to see her, he carefully strapping on his helmet first, as is the law.  We came up to the front door, where she was waiting for us.  She greeted the Laquedemitasse with a smile and a hug, then looked at me.  "Where's your helmet, Isaac?" Venerable Mom snapped.  "Yeah, Dad, where's your helmet?" chimed in the Laquedemitasse.  "Don't ride your bike to see me again without a helmet," she ordered.  "Yeah, Dad; don't ride without a helmet," seconded the Laquedemitasse.

Seeing such unanimity from generations past and future, a few days later I bought a helmet.  Only later did I think of a loophole: I could borrow a bike from Mrs. Laquedem and then I wouldn't be riding my bike.

Who knew? Tokyo's oldest man was only 81

Japanese authorities believed Sogen Kato, 111, to be Tokyo's oldest man.  When they went to his family home to check on him, they saw his daughter and son-in-law (a couple in their 80s) and their two fiftyish children.  Mr. Kato himself had no comment; what was left of him was lying on his bed, where he had apparently died some 30 years ago.  "Grandpa," one of his grandchildren said, "was a very scary man."

A slough day for land use

It's hard to reconcile how the City of Portland could consider reducing the environmental protections on west Hayden Island to develop a marine terminal, touching the Columbia River and Oregon Slough, with its regulation of this business two miles to the southeast, on Columbia Slough.  The business, Hanset Stainless, has a compressor installed within 50 feet of the slough, and says that according to the city's proposed environmental regulations, it can't replace the compressor in the same place because it would be too close to the slough.  I noted with interest in the article that the City proposed to implement the regulations only as far west as NE 13th Avenue.  These regulations, if applied to west Hayden Island's waterfront, would effectively kill the Port's proposal.  But then maybe environmental damage is treated differently if it's created by the government.

ADDITION:  I wrote this yesterday for posting today.  In the meantime Professor Bogdanski has noticed the same absurdity in the City's commitment to protecting the marine environment, here.

A little more zoning history of West Hayden Island

As I mentioned in my previous post, Multnomah County has zoned west Hayden Island as multiple use agriculture.  The actual designation is MUF-20 SEC, with MUF standing for multiple use forest.  It's had that zoning as far back as 1977 (here's an old county zoning map showing a portion of west Hayden Island).  The Port didn't condemn the property until 1993 and 1994, and thus bought the property knowing what it was zoned for -- and what it wasn't.

The Port of Portland's Hayden Island Pickle

The Port of Portland owns the west half of Hayden Island, which is within the urban growth boundary but outside the City of Portland.  (The developed portion of Hayden Island is within the city limits.)  The Port wants the City to annex its property and zone it to allow the Port to develop it as a marine terminal.  Hayden Island neighbors object to the traffic that it would bring, and people on and off the island object to developing one of the largest remaining relatively natural areas within the UGB.  (The Tribune has a good discussion of the history and issues, here.)

Here are two points that the Port and the City should consider before pushing forward.  First, Multnomah County has zoned the entire Port property with the SEC overlay.  SEC stands for "significant environmental concern."  Uses in the underlying zone (which at the moment is multiple use agriculture) are allowed outright, but must apply for an SEC approval and demonstrate that they comply with special land use criteria.  Among these are criteria I and M.

Criterion I reads as follows:

Areas of annual flooding, floodplains, water areas, and wetlands shall be retained in their natural state to the maximum possible extent to preserve water quality and protect water retention, overflow, and natural functions.

Criterion M reads as follows:

An area generally recognized as fragile or endangered plant habitat or which is valued for specific vegetative features, or which has an identified need for protection of the natural vegetation, shall be retained in a natural state to the maximum extent possible.

When Portland annexes west Hayden Island, it can rezone it to an urban use, such as housing, commerce, or industry.  The City must, however, be prepared to justify its choice to the Department of Land Conservation and Development, and in particular, will have to deal with the existing environmental zoning.  Opponents of the Port's proposed development might well urge the City to impose its own notorious environmental overlays on the site, simply to carry forward the existing County protections.  The opponents can point out that the area includes floodplains, water areas, and wetlands that should be retained in their natural state (see criterion I, above), and that the area is valued for specific vegetative features (see criterion M).

And let's not forget the County's criterion A for lands of significant environmental concern:

The maximum possible landscaped area, scenic and aesthetic enhancement, open space or vegetation shall be provided between any use and a river, stream, lake, or floodwater storage area.

That's not compatible with a marine terminal, which needs to be on a river, not just near it.

Second, the Port's ideas for west Hayden Island are tied up with the Columbia River Crossing.  All local goverments -- including even the anti-car City of Portland -- agree that the current Interstate Bridges are inadequate to handle the demand, and that the Hayden Island interchange with its miserable merging lanes is a big part of the problem.  The bridge can't handle any more traffic to or from Hayden Island.  Opponents of a rezoning can argue to the City that current transportation services aren't adequate to serve any development of west Hayden Island, and under the state's Transportation Planning Rule, the CRC can't be taken into account until it's designed and fully funded.  So until the CRC is fully funded and ready to be built, the Port can't develop the property unless it builds its own bridge to be the sole access to its property.

I'm dubious about whether the Port can qualify to have the property annexed to the City, because if I remember rightly, the Port would have to show that urban services are available or can be provided to the property.  One of those urban services is transportation, and based on the progress of the CRC to date (at a cost of 1 Sellwood so far, without a shovel of earth turned to show for it), a factfinder could reasonably conclude that transportation isn't available, and won't be for years to come.