You have to give Commissioner Sam Adams some credit. He sure knows how to turn a politically driven evacuation plan into a chance to be seen as a ballsy leader. Last week, just before the city council was poised to take a final vote on the contentious plan to move the defunct Sauvie Island Bridge […]
Amy J. Ruiz
Posted inNews
Unhappy Campers
Homeless Protest Continues, Politicos Take Notice
OVER THE PAST two weeks, a makeshift homeless encampment has been growing in front of city hall. Kicking off on Friday, April 25, a few men and women who’d been “swept” out from under the Burnside Bridge—where they usually slept—set up camp on the sidewalk, against city hall’s cement balustrade. They gathered there to protest […]
Posted inNews
Ballot Boxing
For a guy who wants to take over city hall’s third-floor mayor’s office—and who wants to assign bureaus, oversee the city budget, run a few bureaus, and provide overall leadership for the city—Sho Dozono’s campaign has been woefully short on specifics. Until now. On May 2, the day ballots went out—and months after he started […]
Posted inNews
Fact Check
Scrutinizing the Candidates’ Junk Mail
If there’s one thing you can learn from this year’s truckload of campaign literature, it’s that candidates have a knack for saying a whole lot of nothing. In case you haven’t been to your mailbox lately, a landslide of fliers have been arriving at your home for the past week, as candidates try to grab […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Election Day
A Succinct Review for the Discerning Cinephile
Remember the day George W. Bush was reelected? Yep—November 2, 2004 was a pretty shitty day in my book, and not one I was particularly interested in reliving, except for maybe the part where the heavy drinking followed the election results. Director Katy Chevigny, however, revisits that day, weaving together engaging stories of people like […]
Posted inNews
God Loves Fags
Oregon’s Anti-Gay Initiative Effort on Verge of Failure?
LAST WEEK, Concerned Oregonians’ David Crowe sent out another email missive about his group’s struggle to put two anti-gay initiatives on November’s ballot. One—Initiative Petition 145—would repeal the state’s anti-discrimination law, and the other, Initiative Petition 146, would reverse the state’s domestic partnership law. But Concerned Oregonians’ effort, in partnership with former State Senator Marylin […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor
Opposites Detract
What a sore loser. Mayor Tom Potter, upset that his political foe City Commissioner Sam Adams had rounded up three votes to move the old Sauvie Island Bridge to NW Flanders—where it will be the innovation connection for two halves of a bike and pedestrian boulevard—issued a statement on Thursday, April 24. “This bridge will […]
Posted inExtras
City Poised to Sue Sho Dozono
Officials Plan to Take Mayoral Candidate to Court Over Unpaid Back Rent
Posted inBooks
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach (Norton)
Mary Roach’s 2003 book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, was my favorite book that year. Science writer Roach dove into studies done on dead bodies in morbid detail—like how budding plastic surgeons practice facelifts on severed heads. Roach is as funny as she is fact-oriented, often sprinkling in oddball anecdotes as footnotes, which […]
Posted inNews
Stop Payment
John Branam Ordered to Quit Paying Manager
After weeks of digging into city council candidate John Branam’s campaign finance records, Auditor Gary Blackmer determined that the $20,000 Branam paid Campaign Manager Phil Busse did not violate public financing rules that prohibit paying someone a wage that exceeds “fair market value.” But if Branam were to pay Busse another penny, it would be […]
Posted inNews
Bridge over Troubled Politics
Activists Rally Around Sauvie Island Bridge Move
Over the dull roar of rush-hour traffic in the I-405 gulch below, a crowd gathered at NW Flanders and 15th to show a little love for a bridge that’s halfway across town—the soon to be scrapped Sauvie Island Bridge. Those gathered—a few dozen cyclists and pedestrians—support Commissioner Sam Adams’ proposal to move the old bridge […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor
Decisions, Decisions
Mayoral candidate Sho Dozono landed in hot water during an April 21 KGW-Oregonian televised debate, when opponent Sam Adams pointed out that Dozono “would have the city join the Joint Terrorism Task Force [JTTF].” If you weren’t paying attention when Mayor Tom Potter led the ballsy 2005 effort to yank Portland cops from the anti-terrorism […]