[PLUG-TALK] Wail! Google fiber coming

John Jason Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Thu Apr 11 02:56:19 UTC 2013


On Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:33:51 -0700
Benjamin Kerensa <bkerensa at ubuntu.com> dijo:

>Yeah so they could totally do underground utility using a easement but
>thats not very common on the east side from my understanding. 

Your understanding is not correct. The east side is where the easement
for utilities on the parking strip is close to 100%. I was a real
estate broker on the east side for decades. I have looked at thousands
of title reports and I can't recall ever seeing one without a utility
easement on the parking strip. Note that many times the lot line ends
before the parking strip, so the city actually owns the parking strip
the same as the road (hence no easement). It all depends on how the
subdivision was originally platted. And sometimes it runs down an alley
behind the houses through the center of the block. Think of it this
way: Are there poles and power / telephone / cable lines strung over
the parking strip? How do you suppose those utilities got the right to
put those poles and lines over the parking strip? 

>thing to consider is that the City in 2002 put a total moratorium on
>all trenching of city streets with out special exemption by the city
>engineer because the roads are so poorly maintained that they felt
>even if utilities did good jobs of trenching and patch their easement
>back up that because of decay and lack of maintenance of surrounding
>road area it would just cause the road infrastructure to crumble
>more.... Even though that moratorium ended I find it unlikely BDS or
>the City Engineer is going to be very open to issuing new permits for
>trenching until they have funds to improve the city streets.

Again, the fiber won't go in the street.

>Sure the City could issue a general improvement bond and hope for good
>rating from Moody's but considering their budget deficit I'm not sure
>Portland would be a particularly attractive investment.

Oregon bonds sell at a premium over bonds from just about anywhere else
these days. I was recently looking at buying some bonds and all the
brokers I talked to told me that the yield on Oregon tax exempts is
lower than just about anywhere else because they are considered so
safe. Plus, they are double tax exempt, and since Oregon has close
to the highest income tax rate in the country it makes them even more
attractive for Oregon investors. If you don't believe me do some
research in your stock brokerage account and check the yields. Oregon
bonds have close to the lowest yields in the nation.

I'm not saying the money doesn't have to be repaid. I'm just saying
that the cost of borrowing is very low. Repayment can come from various
sources - on the property tax bill, or a fee to the user (fiber
provider), which the provider would pass on to the customer. 




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