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The organizers for a dispute resolution meeting in East Portland last Wednesday didn’t realize how many people cared about a simmering debate between a local church and its up-and-coming neighborhood. For the past few months, St. Francis Parish along SE 11th has been accused of attracting drug dealers and petty thieves. Six days a week, […]
Several different websites and a persistent rumor mill denote Portland and Denver as the home bases for the SkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice–(SHARPs), who, naturally, hate racism, have a rabid distaste for neo-Nazis, and don’t mind violently tussling to prove their point. The direct evidence about the prevalence of the SHARPs is, at best, foggy. But […]
It’s not a statistic that the Chamber of Commerce likes to announce–allegedly Portland has the highest number of strip joints per capita in North America. But it is a factoid that even the most prudish can take pride in: the prevalence of strip clubs is due to an extremely liberal free-speech clause in the Oregon […]
Gone from this year’s election are highly explosive anti-gay rhetoric and narrowly defined but surprisingly divisive issues, like cruelty-free animal traps. Instead, we’re going back to basics. A perennial tug of war between the Republicans and Democrats for control of the state capitol; a debate in the governor’s race over to tax or not to […]
Foolishly, my grandparents named their first dog “Dewey.” They had picked up the puppy the evening of the 1948 elections. All of the papers and pollsters had confidently predicted that Thomas Dewey would thump Harry S. Truman in the presidential election. Famously, dozens of newspaper publishers pre-printed six-inch headlines declaring, “Dewey Wins!” It was as […]
Once again, Oregon voters may be gearing up for a battle against the federal government. Over the past year, Attorney General John Ashcroft has worked to suppress the 1996 ballot measure that decriminalizes assisted suicide in the state. And now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that they oppose pending ballot measure 27, […]
Perhaps because it’s not a presidential election, more is at stake this November. Currently, the Democrats control the US Senate, but these elections may tip that balance. A Republican-controlled Senate would most likely expedite President Bush’s agenda–major tax cuts for corporations, a war in Iraq, conservative anti-abortion judicial appointments. This Friday ballots are mailed to […]
Last Thursday, the local branch of the Joint Terrorism Task Force made national news when they arrested two men and a woman from southeast Portland. In a press conference later that day, Attorney General John Ashcroft indicated that they were a “terrorist cell” plotting a jihad against the United States. He hailed it as “a […]
Three does make a crowd. Until a month ago, the stretch of storefronts along SE 12th was easy to drive past. Sure, Three Friends Coffee is popular with nearby residents, and the adjacent upscale restaurant, William’s on 12th, has its steady clientele–but somehow that wasn’t enough. Sandwiched between industrial warehouses and Sandy Blvd, those two […]
Like invisible fences, the borders around the city’s so-called exclusion zones set aside large swathes of land where accused drug dealers and prostitutes cannot set foot. For the past decade, these zones have been used by neighborhood associations and police officers to kick out the bad elements from designated sections of Portland. It is a […]
Last Wednesday, 55 activists, run-of-the-mill citizens, and middle-of-the-road political organizers outlined their concerns about an ongoing collaborative effort between the FBI and local police, known as the Terrorism Task Force. Many fear the Task Force is being used more to monitor local political organizations, rather than to chase down bad guys. Each year, City Council […]
Portland International Short Subject Film Festival Fri-Sat, 7 pm Itisness, 3016 NE KIllingsworth Short films are a peculiar genre. Not long enough to completely unpack a character’s nuances and quirks, they are usually one-trick ponys. Instead of character development and plot twists, short films introduce an idea, a gimmick or a simple concept–get in, kick […]
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