FOR MUCH OF THIS YEAR, Mayor Charlie Hales has been showing off his campaign cash in near real-time, filing contributions with the Oregon Secretary of State's Office weeks before they're due. His new challenger's happy to follow suit.
State Treasurer Ted Wheeler began touting big donations shortly after announcing his mayoral candidacy on September 9. The filings show that Wheeler, who's wealthy in his own right, will have no problem attracting money to give Hales a serious race. In the first 11 days of September, Wheeler reported more than $28,000 in donations, around a quarter of what Hales has picked up this year.
The donations come from people like Portland Spirit President Daniel Yates, a member of the Central Eastside Industrial Council, which is clashing with Hales over homeless encampments. Yates was Wheeler's first major donor, handing over $2,500. He gave Hales $600 in 2012.
Also throwing in support? New Seasons Market co-founder Eileen Brady, who lost her own mayoral bid to Hales in 2012. She's donated $1,000. DIRK VANDERHART
SURE, RECREATIONAL POT'S going to be heavily regulated by the state, but the City of Portland is working up its own pricey rules.
On September 16, city council's expected to take up proposed rules for a "marijuana regulatory license" that'll give the Portland Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) leverage to wrangle pot businesses. The upshot: If you hope to take a crack at Portland's lucrative marijuana market, be prepared to shell out some big bucks.
According to a proposed fee schedule ONI released earlier this month, simply applying for a license to sell recreational pot would cost $750. And if you're approved? That'll be $3,000 a year. Proposed fees for medical dispensaries, growers, and processors are cheaper—$2,500 to apply for and receive a license. That's in addition to whatever the state charges. DVH
ANOTHER PORTLAND BUILDING has been sold, and is cleaning house. The Towne Storage Building at 17 SE 3rd, a longtime home to dozens of artists in the Central Eastside, is being gutted and renovated under new ownership.
This means 52 small businesses and 180 people who rent mini storage units are getting evicted, according to Building Operations Manager Josh Sturgis.
The new owners, a California-based company that Sturgis says specializes in buying distressed properties, plans on "rebuilding and putting a penthouse on top of it and I think some retail on the bottom floor."
The former tenants must vacate by October 31.
Commissioner Nick Fish, who serves as city council's liaison to the Regional Arts and Culture Council, says the current situation in Portland, where Portland artists are being priced out of the city, is an "absolute tragedy."
"If the people who are driving our local arts community can no longer afford to live here it will have disastrous consequences," Fish says. "As we look to building more affordable housing we have to take our arts community into consideration or we will lose them." SHELBY R. KING
