To hear the media (hey there, KATU) and Mayor Tom Potter tell it, last Friday night’s tape removal party—or, as I’ve now dubbed it, the Pre-Parade Route Beautification and Equalization of Viewing Opportunity Hoedown™—was the precursor to some kind of Grand Floral apocalypse. In an interview with KGW outside his third floor city hall office […]
Scott Moore
Posted inNews
Forced Conversion
City to Protect Tenants’ Rights
In the past year, the Portland metro area has seen at least 976 apartment units converted into condos, an increase of 48 percent over last year’s roughly 659 units—and in more cases than not, the rental tenants have been unceremoniously dumped out. Currently, landlords are required to give tenants a 120-day notice of a condo […]
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Hall Monitor
Kazoo You
Street musicians can breathe a benzene-filled sigh of relief; when the city’s newest iteration of the sit-lie law (which prevents people from sitting or lying on sidewalks downtown and near the Lloyd Center) goes into effect this Saturday, June 9, they’ll be, in effect, exempted from the law. Busking is regulated by its own rules, […]
Posted inNews
Under Attack
Immigrants Feel Heat of Political Rhetoric
Last Friday morning, June 1, immigrants’ rights activists gathered next to a mural painted on the wall of the La Sirenita restaurant on NE Alberta, and not just to enjoy the sunshine and smell of fresh tortillas. They were there to lash out against the beatings of two Latino men in a rural Clackamas County […]
Posted inNews
Not Ducking Around
Charles Lewis Takes on Sam Adams… Sorta
Both Mayor Tom Potter and Commissioner Sam Adams may be staying quiet about their plans for 2008, but the race for city council has officially begun—with or without them. Portland entrepreneur/nonprofit director Charles Lewis—who runs the Portland Duck Tours on the Willamette, as well as the Ethos Music Center—was set to officially announce his candidacy […]
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Hall Monitor
Big Willie Style
Detractors of Commissioner Randy Leonard’s plan to flood the city with biodiesel will have to choke on some bio-exhaust on July 6, when none other than Willie Nelson swings through town to help Portland kick off its hot new biodiesel policy. You may not know this, but the Red-Headed Stranger has his own biodiesel company […]
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The Sign of Signs to Come
Court Ruling May Set Murals Free
In an unexpected victory for local artists, a circuit court judge ruled on May 8 that Portland could conceivably produce more wall murals—without having to allow for more commercial billboards. For years, Portland muralists have been held hostage by the city’s strict commercial sign code, which was designed to limit the number of billboards inside […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Never Mind the Features
Queer Fest Is All About the Docs
According to David Weissman, co-director of the first annual Portland Queer Documentary Festival, most mainstream queer film fests have a difficult time getting audiences to turn out for documentaries—people are usually more drawn to narrative feature films. So he and Russ Gage have responded by creating a fest that is nothing but documentaries. It’s apparently […]
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Senate, Anyone?
Democrats Search for a Candidate
In the past month, Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio have announced they won’t enter the race to take down Republican Senator Gordon Smith, depleting the first-tier list of candidates for the position. Democratic political strategist Steve Novick is already in the race, but the departures of Blumenauer and DeFazio from the list have Democrats […]
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Civil War
Will City Workers Get Screwed?
Last week, Portlanders voted to change the way some city employees are treated in Portland’s charter, but the ambiguity of the change means the fate of city workers is still up in the air. The ballot measure, 26-90, removes civil service protections from bureau employees who help come up with policies—in lay terms, it means […]
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Hall Monitor
A Lotta moxie
Since March, Citizens to Reform City Hall, the Mayor Tom Potter-backed campaign to change Portland’s charter, has been dogged by accusations that they were trying to hide their money. Legally, they were able to hold off on disclosing their fundraising and spending for weeks, even though the campaigns on the opposing side disclosed theirs immediately. […]
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Chartering Disaster
Stunning Defeat, Low Turnout Cap Election
A little after 8 pm, with the sun setting through the windows of SE bar Acme, Chris Smith sat hunched over his laptop with a Hefeweizen. As the co-chair of the anti-strong mayor campaign, he had ample reason to celebrate—Measure 26-91, which would have ditched Portland’s longstanding form of government in place of a centralized […]