Hey I'll field this one since it's actually in my area of expertise (My schooling was in GIS and urban planning). The city needs to wait for the Pearl district to come out of urban renewal before they try to expand by adding another district ... too many simultaneous projects can really hurt a city's bond rating, not too mention a city can only have a certain % of its acreage designated urban renewal at a given time.
Anyway, if anybody wants to sift through the proposed plan here are some links:
http://www.pdc.us/pdf/ura/convention...newal_plan.pdf
http://www.pdc.us/ura/occ.asp
Basically urban renewal and more public investment for the inner eastside is on the horizon, and I would guess that once the eastside streetcar funds start to flow you'll see a lot more of a push with public/private partnerships to invest in the district.