Problem suffers from lack of leadership

There has to be a better way.
Faced with a couple of deteriorating, sad-sack buildings on West Main Street, the city administration has essentially thrown up its hands.
Nothing we can do about this, they say.
Too complicated.
Baloney.
To be sure, the legal and financial challenges posed by the Tom and Rod’s Steakhouse building and the former site of Bailey Furniture are formidable.
But formidable does not equal impossible.
And the fact is, the city has simply failed to use the tools at its hand in anything like an aggressive manner.
Both properties lie within the city’s TIF (tax increment financing) district; as such they are under the purview of the Portland Redevelopment Commission. That appointed unit of government has only a handful of tools at its disposal, but so far it hasn’t chosen to make much use of them.
Could it buy the properties? Yes, but liens on the Tom and Rod’s building would be a challenge. Are there other legal remedies that could be pursued? Yes there are.
Are the buildings worth salvaging? Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case with Tom and Rod’s, but the Bailey building has an impact on several other storefronts in the same stretch. Our guess is that a cost-benefit analysis would come down on the side of rescuing the building.
What is most striking is the vacuum when it comes to leadership.
Metal falls down from the fascia at the top of the Bailey Building? The answer is to put up barricades to limit pedestrian traffic.
Broken windows and wind-ripped awnings at Tom and Rod’s? The street department hasn’t even bothered to sweep up the glass on the sidewalk months later.
Again, these are not easy problems to solve.
Any city administration would have its hands full trying to improve the situation.
But a city administration worth its salt would be trying, not just wringing its hands and professing official impotence. — J.R.