Gridlock: The auto industry bailout fails in the Senate, after Republicans and Dems can’t agree over steep cuts in union pay. The White house says it might bail them out anyway, using dollarz from the big financial bailout package. Torture Was Rumsfeld’s Fault: After an 18-month investigation, the Senate Armed Services Committee directly blames Rummy […]
Sarah Shay Mirk
Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.
Posted inPortland
100 Percent Unconfirmed Snow Rumor
For the last few days, everyone’s been murmuring that it’s going to snow this weekend. Current highly exciting Google weather page: More reliable than computers though, is Art, the very very friendly checker at the Northeast New Seasons who is from New Hampshire. As I was buying organic yogurt and hemp granola (ha! yes, really.) […]
Posted inNews
Holy Diver Update
The subject of the feature in the paper this week is a guy named Holy Diver who I met riding his bike up Alberta a few months ago. I’ve been working on the story for a while and it’s strange to see it in print now because the situation has changed a lot since I […]
Posted inNews
Dumpstering for Christ
The Holy Diver Digs for a Living—and Meaning—in Portland’s Trash
Touring Portland’s dumpsters with “Holy Diver.”
Posted inNews
Shop Local… Please.
The Recession—and Landlords—Are Cutting into Small Businesses
Portland’s small businesses face rough times.
Posted inHomo
Your Day: Now with Less Gay.
Today is apparently the national Day Without a Gay, a pro-gay protest organized mostly via Facebook (where it’s called “Day Without a GAY!!”) in response to Prop 8. GLTBQIAWTFOMG people are encouraged to “call in gay” – boycotting work and instead spending the day volunteering in their community. The Facebook page estimates that “close to […]
Posted inCrime
Crack Pipes: Far Too Convenient.
In Lents, those pesky crack pipes just won’t go away! Two years ago, the notably affable neighborhood association member Jeffrey Rose took up a campaign to get local convenience stores to stop selling the tiny rose vases that neighborhood ne’er-do-wells typically used as crack and meth pipes. Under neighborhood pressure, the stores stopped selling the […]
Posted inFashion
Fidel Castro Is Such a Portland Hipster!
Did anyone else do a double take when they saw the New York Times magazine this weekend? It features a young Fidel ‘n friends and they look like they came straight from Beulahland. Look at him! The cute aviator cap, the bushy beard, the Elvis Costello glasses. His friend to the left has that goatee […]
Posted inBikes
PDOT Makes Janky, Pastel-Colored Graphs
A few months ago, I rode through an intersection near the Franz Bread Factory and noticed a man off to the side, staring at me and scribbling something in a notebook. I stopped and asked him, “What are you doing?” “Watching you,” he replied, revealing his Portland Department of Transportation credentials. For months, PDOT staff, […]
Posted inNews
Good Morning News!
“We have gone from recession into something that looks more like collapse.” New numbers show that the U.S. lost 1.9 million jobs in the last year. Does that mean there’s 1.9 million more people with nothing to do but read blogs all day? “I hope we will do something.” Meanwhile, Congress is still undecided on […]
Posted inNews
Old Versus New
Planners Squabble over Old Town’s New Future
If the Planning Commission has its way, Old Town will become modern.
Posted inNeighborhoods
Are Public Trails a Public Nuisance?
That was the sentiment of some SW Portland residents at a packed meeting last night discussing the “issues” (“There used to be such a thing as ‘problems,’ now we have ‘issues,’” noted city planner Paul Smith) over the trails that run all through Portland’s woodsy southwest. Eight years ago, City Council approved the SW Urban […]