And that’s how the mayor’s tour of St.Johns businesses began this afternoon—with a surprising conversation with the recently unemployed director of the St.John’s Boosters, Gary Boehm, who became unemployed on December 16th after the Murphy bed store he’s managed since March last year went out of business. “Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Gary,” said […]
City Hall
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Songs, Flowers, and Even A Prayer: Mayor-elect Adams Becomes Mayor Adams
Well, it’s official. Mayor Sam Adams took his oath of office with Judge Kerr Maurer, just after noon today at Parkrose High School and Community Center:Read more about it, after the jump. There were few surprises in Adams’ speech, which was, in fact, the same speech he gave this morning in North Portland, with a […]
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“My name is Sam Adams, and I’m here to recruit you.”
Steady on, mayor, it’s early days. Maybe when I’ve been covering you for a year, we can have that kind of conversation… Yes. He may have been paraphrasing one of his heroes, Harvey Milk, but Portland’s new mayor sure chose an interesting quote to end his inauguration day breakfast at the Curious Comedy Club on […]
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Fritz Gets Sworn In: “Hope” Mentioned, Two Standing Ovations, Six Kinds of Lemon Bars
City Commissioner Amanda Fritz is now, officially, City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, having been sworn in at a very patriotic ceremony in SW Portland this afternoon. And good luck to her: You can read all about it after the jump. “I feel like I have 150,000 new friends,” said Fritz, relating to the crowd a conversation […]
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All Change At City Hall
Well, this is a turn up for the books: The night before a boy goes on vacation, his boss resigns to take a job with the mayor. Now I’m back in Portland, and Amy Ruiz isn’t here to watchdog city hall any more, I thought I’d take a trip down there myself this morning to […]
Posted inCity Hall
Santa Visits City Council
I’m not at city hall today—technically I’m on vacation, can’t you tell?—but that doesn’t stop me from watching it on Channel 30. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Santa is attending this morning’s city council meeting: But Santa better be careful, lest he end up on city hall security’s naughty list. The sign outside […]
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Mayor-elect Adams’ Strategic Plan
Check out Mayor-elect Sam Adams’ and the rest of the council’s city reorganization memo to all Portlanders (“RE: Improving ‘The City that Works’”) right here. Now is our time to build upon the City of Portland’s successes with an intensified focus in key areas through strategic planning, structural reform, and establishment of clear roles for […]
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Meet Your New City Government
The Oregonian has the scoop on Mayor-elect Sam Adam’s shakeup of city bureaus. As long rumored, the Bureau of Planning’s Gil Kelley is out, because his bureau’s merging with the Office of Sustainable Development (OSD) to make a super-bureau, the Bureau of Sustainable Planning & Development. It’s a smart move—I’ve often asked city staffers why […]
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Bureau Assignments!
Mayor-elect Sam Adams will announce bureau assignments tomorrow at 1 pm. What will Commissioner-elect Amanda Fritz get? What will incoming police-commissioner Dan Saltzman lose to clear his plate? Tune into Blogtown for the news as it happens.
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Breaking News: Union Urges Cops To Stop Showing Up For “Nuremberg Trial” Review Boards
Portland’s police union has filed a formal grievance alleging the police bureau’s use of force and performance review boards are humiliating to its officers, and is urging all union members to not show up for the review boards until its humiliation issues are resolved. COP UNION CONTRACT: Contains discipline clause on officer “embarrassment”… The grievance […]
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Breaking News: Class Action Lawsuit To Be Filed Against City’s Anti-Camping Ordinance
Attorneys working on behalf of Portland’s homeless plan to file a federal class action lawsuit against the city of Portland’s controversial anti-camping ordinance tomorrow. The suit, prepared by the Oregon Law Center in Portland, challenges the constitutionality of the anti-camping ordinance—alleging that in enforcing the ordinance against people who have nowhere else to sleep than […]
Posted inCops
A Progress Report on the Citizen Review Committee
The city council spent the afternoon hearing a progress report on the Independent Police Review Citizen Review Committee, from IPR Director Mary-Beth Baptista and Joann Jackson, of the CRC IPR Structure Review Workgroup. You can check out the progress report here. This all goes back to 2007, when Mayor Tom Potter commissioned a report on […]