If you picked up yesterday’s print Oregonian you’d have seen Ryan Frank’s featured cover story on the lack of low income housing in the South Waterfront.  Low income housing has always been a part of the plan for the area but it is yet to materialize.  Ryan has moved from the real estate desk to the news desk and his well known Front Porch Blog has been shuttered, or in his words, foreclosed.

The real estate desk is taken over by Jeff Manning who wrote earlier this week on the bankruptcy the Salpare Bay Condominiums on Hayden Island:

The filing postpones the looming Multnomah County sheriff’s auction of Salpare Bay’s primary asset: a partially complete 204-unit riverfront condo that has sat idle for so long it became a favored nesting site of various Columbia River waterfowl.

The common theme between the two articles is the lack of progress on both  fronts was caused largely in part by the lack of financing.  Politics weigh heavily in the South Waterfront as well.  Financing was readily available when the projects were on the drawing boards and it dried up as the market declined.  The South Waterfront does appear to be getting back on track with development  of an apartment complex slated to begin construction as early as November.