Two years ago the 27 acres in Southeast Portland were platted for 65 homes: the Waterleaf subdivision. The patch of cedars might be Southeast Aston Street by now had the housing market not collapsed and the developer decided to sell his still unbuilt parcel to the Trust for Public Land, which conveyed it to the city for a park. It's what Owen Wozniak, who managed the Clatsop Butte project for the trust, calls a "green lining" -- bad times for builders mean more opportunities for conservation. On the fast-growing fringe of Portland and across the nation, property that conservationists have eyed for years is now cheaper, there's less competition from developers and time is plentiful, even if cash is not. "In central California, we're working with an industrial (timber) landowner who wouldn't even talk to us five years ago," said Phillip Wallin, president of Portland-based Western Rivers Conservancy, another group that buys land for conservation. There's precedent for this: During the Great Depression, John D. Rockefeller bought up ranches in Jackson Hole, Wyo., which he later donated to the National Park Service...Oregonian
Ain't this wonderful: Government policy causes a housing/real estate downturn from which the government benefits by being able to acquire more property at cheaper prices.
They put a rattlesnake in your pocket and then ask for a match.
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