Oregon City's tourism trap

By John Williams

, Nov 3, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

file photo / oregon city news

The Oregon City trolley.

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Ho hum. Here we go again! Oregon City officials are proposing to venture once again into the fantasyland of “tourism,” or as a New York Times writer put it, the “tourism trap.” The “tourism trap?” It’s an unreasonable and unrealistic belief that tourism can be “one arm” of Oregon City’s economic development. Visitors will spark “growth,” and produce tax income.

The latest proposal has something to do with the uncovered wagons at the “End of the Oregon Trail” as a visitor’s center. I’m not sure what the promoters have in mind, but one would think failure after failure would cool the ardor for “tourism.”

Over the last 20 years “tourism” failed plans have included: the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center on Kelly Field, three trolleys to move the tourists from museum to museum, subsidizing places to eat, paying businesses to “dress up” their stores downtown, marketing history, building a flyway to the base of Willamette Falls and other sure-fire projects.

A handful of leaders in Oregon City seem caught up in the false logic of “build it and they will come.” Over the past 20 years, millions of city and county tax dollars were spent in the hopeless chase for the economic salvation of tourism.

How much has the city spent? Did tourists bring money and spark growth and increase taxable land values in Oregon City? Was there a gain or a loss to the bottom line of the Oregon City budget? I’m sure activists of the past had good intentions, but maybe we’ve reached a turning point, maybe we need to go a different direction. Let’s look at what’s been done in the name of progress.

The first big plan of the 1990s was “pioneer village,” predicted to bring 400,000 visitors to “The End of the Oregon Trail.” It would take an accountant to calculate the true cost in public money of the failed interpretive center, but losses are significant if you include federal, state, county and city taxes. Now it’s closed, not able to attract enough visitors to pay the bills. Benefit to the Oregon City bottom line? Nada. Losses to Oregon City? Significant.

To move visitors from the End of the Trail to museums around OC, the true believers created a trolley system. Starting with a grant for one vehicle, the city bought a second trolley for around $80,000. This year the city purchased a third trolley for $230,000. By any calculation the total cost of the trolleys, wages for drivers, shop maintenance and city staff time easily surpasses $500,000 tax dollars.

How many passengers have ridden the trolley system? It’s unknown. No accurate figures have been published. Even if 5,000 people rode the trolleys (a real stretch) over the last 12 years the cost could be $150 or more per person! Taxi anyone?

Recently, city leaders bought two older houses opposite the Museum near the Willamette Falls overlook. The cost as published was just under $500,000. The reason for the purchases was not announced. City officials said the houses were for future use.

Now we know the purchase was part of another scheme to bring tourists to Oregon City, a skyway or tram constructed to take visitors down to the river from the overlook for a better look at the falls. The two houses were somehow to be a part of the construction. The skyway is estimated by promoters to cost $6 million.

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