PREST-O CHANGE-O! AGAIN! Faced with the near-certain defeat of his and Commissioner Steve Novick’s latest change-up to the controversial street fee, which was due for its first hearing tonight, Mayor Charlie Hales changed the whole game once more. The residential fee has been dumped for now—and voters, next May, will instead be asked to choose […]
Denis C. Theriault
Denis C. Theriault is the Portland Mercury's News Editor. He writes stories about City Hall and the Portland Police Bureau, focusing on issues like homelessness, police oversight, insider politics, and civil liberties. Before arriving in Portland, Denis wrote and edited for the San Jose Mercury News, covering the California Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as the city of San Jose—a real-live million-person town.
Posted inNews
Street Fee Reset! The Residential Fee Goes Away. Instead, Hales Wants to Know Which Funding Mechanism You’d Prefer
The residential portion of the Portland Street Fund (née street fee) is dead. After trying and failing with Commissioner Steve Novick to win three votes for a combined $41.8 million set of residential and business fees, after months of wrangling and changes, Mayor Charlie Hales has announced a new plan ahead of a planned hearing […]
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor
A Swing and a Miss
Dan Saltzman can be the street fee’s savior, or its executioner.
Posted inNews
The Insider
How a Police Chief Steeped in Portland’s Troubled Past Just Became the Face of Its Future
How a police chief steeped in Portland’s troubled past just became the face of its future.
Posted inNews
Rally Demands City Drop “Clarifying” Appeal of Judge’s Order for Police Reform Updates
photographs by denis c. theriault Not long after city attorneys planned a phone chat with a mediator over the Portland City Council’s controversial “clarification” appeal of a federal judge’s order for regular updates on police reform, close to 40 activists rallied and marched around city hall at noon to demand the city immediately drop its […]
Posted inDrunk
Portland’s Threatened Pabst Lawsuit Fizzes Out For Now
Seems Portland City Hall’s plan to sue Pabst for copyright infringement—on account of how closely its unicorn-bedecked Project Pabst logo resembled the city’s famed “Portland, Oregon” sign—has gone flat for the time being. After the city attorney’s office sent word it wanted to pull a resolution on the current city council agenda authorizing the lawsuit, […]
Posted inNews
Once Seen as Likely Third Vote for Street Fee, Fritz Now Says She Won’t Support Current Plan
ILLUSTRATION BY FRANCOIS VIGNEAULT This post has since been updated with fresh comments from Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Steve Novick, as well as Mayor Charlie Hales’ office. The street fee political math in city hall—never a simple matter in all the months of wrangling starting last spring—may have just become fatally complicated. The plan’s one-time […]
Posted inNewsblast!
Good Morning, News: Marriage Equality, a Stampede, and the Many Murders of 2014!
In the dawning days of a new year, it’s customary to look back at events in the months that have passed. The Oregonian reliably does that, every January, with an examination and recitation of the previous year’s murders and slayings. Portland’s tally rose to 26 in 2014 from remarkably low 16 in 2013—an increase fed, […]
Posted inNews
Set It and Forget It!
The 2014 Stories That Make Your Life Worse When You Remember Them
No idea what went down in 2014? Here’s what you need to know.
Posted inNewsblast!
Good Morning, News: Prison Breaks, Airplane Rants, and Zombie Baby Jesus
So you probably had a pretty okay holiday. Not the best. Not the worst. And it probably wasn’t as good as this one. Stacey Addison, a former Portland veterinarian, got word that she’d be freed from the East Timor prison where she’d been held for months just because she’d shared a cab with someone who’d […]
Posted inNews
The Best of Charlie Hales’ Voicemails
Portland’s Mayor Apparently Gave You All Plenty to Complain About This Year
Portland’s mayor apparently gave you all plenty to complain about this year.
Posted inNews
Police Union President Equates Police Reform Protests with “Culture of Hatred Toward Law Enforcement,” Casts Blame for Murder of Two New York Cops
The president of Portland’s rank-and-file police union—clearly in an extremely emotional state over the slaying this weekend of two New York City police officers—has blamed the “cold-blooded assassination of two of New York’s finest” on ongoing demands for stronger police accountability in the wake of several high-profile shootings and deaths in custody this year. Daryl […]