BLOGTOWN

PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Synceire Bivens, president of the school’s Black Student Union (BSU) and a sophomore at Wilson, told the Mercury that the event was in response to three recent separate incidents of white students calling Black students the n-word, one of which was reported in the Oregonian last month.

Bivens said that to his knowledge, two of the three students who used the n-word had been either suspended or expelled from Wilson. However, after one incident, a group of Black students was chastised by the administration for yelling at the white student who has used the slur.

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Fat Cobra, located at 5940 N Interstate, drew attention for its adult arcade (the Mercury reported in 2005 that it had Portland’s fattest glory holes) its phone number, 503-247-DICK, and its close proximity to Ockley Green Middle School. For Fat Cobra’s business owner Pat Lanagan—who, until recently, owned the Lombard gay bar Eagle and the Lloyd-area Sullivan’s Gulch Bar & Grill—didn’t make the decision to close lightly. Lanagan closed his businesses due to personal health and economic factors. Lanagan closed the Sullivan’s Gulch Bar & Grill and Eagle around the same time as Fat Cobra.

Lanagan opened Fat Cobra 15 years ago, its name a reference to the 2003 remake of The In-Laws that he watched with his children. His son, Wade, was a bartender at Sullivan’s Gulch. In a phone conversation, Lanagan said he was diagnosed several years ago with degenerative arthritis, and had blown out two spinal disks after a 2015 car accident. When he underwent disk replacement surgery in early December 2018, he contracted Guillain-Barré Syndrome, which went undiagnosed until late January. During this time, Lanagan celebrated his 60th birthday.

CITY OF PORTLAND

Opening the council meeting, Mayor Ted Wheeler noted that the area surrounding 82nd is “one of the most diverse in the entire state,” and called it “an important street in our city, and the region, and one we need to focus on improving.” According to city numbers, the area has more people of color and more low-income households than Portland averages.

City of Portland

Today's vote to approve the City of Portland's $5.6 billion annual budget ended in tears.

"I'm really disappointed," said Farrell Richartz, business manager for Laborers' Local 483. "This is effectively an anti-worker budget."

Richartz' union represents the 56 parks bureau employees whose jobs have been eliminated in the 2019-2010 city budget. Faced with a $6.3 million budget gap in the Portland Parks and Recreation (PP&R) budget, city commissioners opted to cut jobs and shutter community centers to keep other crucial programs afloat. The budget suggests some of the community centers seek out private partnerships to backfill their budgets.

The majority of people facing layoffs are instructors. Many of them tearily commiserated with each other outside city council chambers after the meeting wrapped.