Steve Clark, president of the Portland Tribune and Community Newspapers as well as a member of the land use (Big Look) task force took a shot at me today.

Clark says, "Genentec's decision to build a $250 million plant in Hillsboro, is ample response to the naysayers who have argued that Oregon is wasting its time trying to play with the big boys on the biotech court"

"Biotech court?"  It's a packaging plant. Can we not view it as playing with the big boys on the packaging court?  That's if this triggers a "packaging" cluster.  Not that that would be a bad thing, but I can't imagine those packaging jobs pay as much as the 10,000 biotech lab technicians promised for SoWa.  Maybe they're still coming. After all something has to fill those packages.

What's amazing is Clark's belief that this is "ample response" to the naysayers. 

He forgets that OHSU brought in a biotech expert (dubbed the Biotech czar) who looked things over and quickly became himself the naysayer-in-chief. After concluding Katz and Kohler were having "delusions of grandeur" he left town for New Jersey's biotech hub. Clark forgets the Brookings Institute report which backed up the czar. 

This naysayer welcomes Genentech, the new plant and new jobs to Oregon but I'm not sure this is what the "creative class" was counting on.  Perhaps they can create new packaging. It may not be a bad thing to be a Packaging hub. It depends on how truly creative this local class is.

Funny thing is the PDC has moved on.  Now that SoWa is well off the ground the PDC no longer playing the biotech music, they have moved on to making Portland a "Sustainability Industry cluster".  (This week's Biz journal had the story but no link on their web site). 

Yes that's the new PDC economical development gig. Not the creative class swarm their new creative class building sat empty for. Not biotech research jobs triggered by the Tram? (Isn't that just too stupid?)  Now it's the Sustainability Industry and to kick off the latest pipe dream Mayor Potter will be taking an entourage to France for a sustainability conference.  A trip costing $118,000.00. A trip, I'm sure, deemed well worth it by all who are accompanying the Mayor

Well, anyway, I sure hope Clark comes up with a little more "ample response" from the Big Look he's joined.   His declaring a "packaging plant" a biotech success is like TriMet's Fred Hansen declaring the coming Ikea BIG BOX furniture store an Airport MAX success.

   -- S. H. Schopp 

reference: http://portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=34498