Close to 25,000 gather to protest the Republican National Convention—and we’re there.
Phil Busse
Posted inNews
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Mayor Potter Drops the Ball
Apparently it takes a high school student to do a mayor’s job. Before Mayor Tom Potter even took office, he dangled the promise of reinstating the Mayor’s Ball—a well-attended, annual charity event that ran throughout Bud Clark’s tenure in the ’80s. Once he took office, Potter even hired a staffer to spearhead the event. But, […]
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The Big Payback
Several months ago, I wrote a column about police profiling in North Portland. I had recently moved into a house adjacent to N Mississippi—an area that had once been an epicenter of Portland’s gang problems. In the column, I talked about how I noticed that police often slowed down as they drove by black teens—and […]
Posted inEmployee of the Week
Benjamin Koenigsberg
Shared Route
Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, the notorious San Francisco-based company Green Tortoise converted school buses into virtual youth hostels on wheels; instead of seats, the interiors were covered in futons, and drivers were known to stop every few miles for “smoke” breaks. But in 2000, the Green Tortoise stopped running their I-5 shuttle services (although […]
Posted inEmployee of the Week
Employee of the Week
Suzzette Fasching Stylist Akemi Salon 3808 N Williams 542-5246 The number-one promise at Akemi Salon is a “cruelty-free haircut.” (And they’re not talking about nicking your ears with the scissors.) Owner and hairstylist Suzzette Fasching is deeply committed to using only hair care and beauty products that aren’t animal-based and do not test on little […]
Posted inBooks
Paranoid Park
With a certain amount of shame, I have to admit that when I last clicked open my Netflix account, The Outsiders and Stand By Me were the two films recommended. Both are great movies. But what is embarrassing is that one’s personal rental history doesn’t lie: No, I don’t watch important documentaries about global events, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Crashing and Burning
RIP Matthew McConaughey’s Career
MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY’S career has officially entered its twilight. He started with so much promise—his rakish attorney in A Time to Kill, his creepy lout in Dazed and Confused—but now, with We Are Marshall, he’s merely settled into a headliner role as just another pretty face. The awkwardly named Marshall tells a true story about a […]
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Send Racial Profiling Packing
A few months ago, I moved into a new house, smack-dab in the middle of the North Mississippi neighborhood. Unlike most of the city, North Portland remains an ethnically mixed area: My neighbors are twentysomething hipsters, a Latino family, an elderly black couple who’ve lived in the same house for 50 years, and a single […]
Posted inBooks
Robert Scheer
author of Playing President
Robert Scheer likes to talk—which is a bit odd, considering that he has spent most of his career listening. A longtime columnist and writer for the Los Angeles Times, Scheer’s particular beat has been covering presidents—skewering and dissecting their minds, morals, and oftentimes questionable actions. From Nixon through the present incumbent (who he accuses of […]
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The Fight for Cleaner Air
Two weeks ago, New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof skipped talking about simmering problems in the Middle East and instead devoted his Sunday column to praise Randy Leonard! Yes, that Randy Leonard. Portland City Commissioner Leonard! In July, Leonard pushed through an ordinance that will require all diesel sold in Portland to contain at least […]
Posted inEmployee of the Week
Employee of the Week
Jason Rens The ReBuilding Center 3625 N Mississippi Until a year ago, Jason Rens was living in Boulder, Colorado, sporting a ZZ Top-style beard. But when Jason read a magazine article about Portland’s ReBuilding Center, a building material reuse center, he became enchanted by the idea of converting old materials into new ideas. “I love […]
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Portland’s Abysmal Graduation Rates
Two weeks ago, the Maryland-based Education Week—an education trade publication—released results from a massive study of graduation rates. Not surprisingly, the news was not good for Portland: According to the study, Oregon has the shameful distinction of graduating the lowest percentage of African American teens from high school. While the national average is barely over […]