Mayor Charlie Hales will pitch a year-long extension of Old Town’s controversial “entertainment district” to his city council colleagues later this month—and he’ll have a bunch of numbers in tow. With a summer’s-worth of bar crawls and bachelorette parties now under its belt, the district—a bar-choked segment of NW 3rd and adjacent streets cordoned off […]
Dirk VanderHart
I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters elsewhere.
I've been in Portland three years, love it and want to help make it better. Let's keep it amicable!
Posted inNews
How Bad is Portland’s Problem with Suicide? Cops Crunch the Numbers
The city’s difficult issues with suicide have been more front-and-center of late than is typical. Media coverage—usually limited to public suicides—has swirled around a spate of people jumping off the Vista Bridge, and the controversial barrier officials have put in place to prevent them. But the problem goes far deeper than that, of course, and […]
Posted inNews
Good Morning, News!
Things are going well, everybody! The US and Iran have antagonized one another for decades, which is why a short phone call between President Obama and newly-elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is sort of crazy. It’s the first time leaders of the two nations have spoken since the late ’70s, and an indication Rouhani’s placatory […]
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The US Coast Guard is Fine with the Columbia River Crossing
The Columbia River Crossing—the new one that Oregon wants to do by itself after Washington spurned the project—is now officially okay by the US Coast Guard, a major development that clears away one of the larger hurdles still standing in the project’s way. In a release today, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced the Coast […]
Posted inNews
Become A Bridge Nerd With Me
I won’t lie, I’m a little surprised more people haven’t reported on the ongoing problems with the Morrison Bridge. It’s the city’s busiest non-highway span over the Willamette, and a lot of money was recently spent to add a new, purportedly safer deck. But, as we’ve seen, there are huge problems with that $4.2 million-worth […]
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Union and University Administrators Reach Détente
One of the season’s labor conflagrations has been extinguished. In a late-night bargaining session ending this morning, a union representing nearly 4,500 employees at Oregon’s public universities worked out a deal with administrators, it announced today, averting the possibility of a strike next week. The Service Employees International Union Local 503 says the Oregon University […]
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County Health Director Splitting for a Bigger Stage
Lillian Shirley It’s been a tumultuous week and a half at the upper levels of Multnomah County. Jeff Cogen’s tenure as county chair ended prematurely last Monday amid scandal, speculation, and a criminal investigation. And today, Health Department Director Lillian Shirley announced she’ll depart for a larger stage. Shirley, a 14-year health department veteran, will […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Your Hopeless Future
Inequality for All Is Amazing. And Terrifying.
Inequality for All: Hey, everybody? We’re in trouble.
Posted inNews
Empty Seats
County Frets over No-Shows at Special Court for the Homeless
The county’s prized court for the homeless is struggling to attract defendants.
Posted inNews
The Tea Leaves
2009 Study Predicted Morrison Bridge Woes
Virginian engineers could’ve told us a new Morrison Bridge deck would be problematic. And they sort of did.
Posted inNews
Good Morning, News!
Intrigue! It’s an exclamatory edition of “Good Morning, News!” Brought to you by the Mercury coffee pot! Mall crisis! The siege of a Kenyan shopping mall has entered its fourth day, and we’ve got a clearer picture of the group carrying out the attack. It’s Somali extremist group al-Shabab, apparently, but gunmen participating in the […]
Posted inNews
Good Morning, News!
Is there anything more hopeful than a Saturday morning? I’ve got plans and schemes today, y’all. Achy schemes. And how better to arm oneself for Saturday’s permutations than with knowledge? Break bread with me. If I asked you to guess whether House Republicans acted rationally yesterday or dug a series of meaningless, pugnacious trenches in […]