Ever since Alberta Street began sprouting coffeehouses and art galleries, there have been rumors that Starbucks was poised to muscle in. Shorthand for quasi-hip and corporate greed, for many small-business owners, Starbucks has become the emblem of commercial development gone awry. Three years ago on April Fools’ Day, several signs sporting the coffee giant’s logo […]
City
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Hate Attack!
Residents Speak Out Against the Rise in Hate Crimes
Last month, four white males, allegedly drunk and stoned, crossed the bridge from Vancouver into NE Portland. According to police reports, they leveled a sawed-off shotgun from their car at what they believed were black-owned homes and cars, and began blasting out windows. They also pointed their gun directly at one African American man. After […]
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Won’t Touch This!
City Council Chickens Out on Civil Liberties Resolution
Coming on the heels of a failed antiwar resolution, a measure to counter the intrusive effects of the USA Patriot Act is being shopped around city council. The initiative would curtail police powers like wiretaps and help restore strong protections for privacy rights. But no council member seems willing to touch the resolution, further raising […]
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The Right to Rent
Subsidized Housing is Going… Going…
Every night from her second-story window, Mary Latourette could see homeless men and women lining up outside the Harbor Light Shelter. Little did she know how close she was to sharing their fate. As a Section Eight recipient, she was guaranteed by federal law to pay no more than 30 percent of her income towards […]
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Pick Up a Newspaper, Leonard
Council Denies Your Request For Anti-War Resolution
with additional insults by Wm. Steven Humphrey As first reported in the Mercury, Portland’s city council has repeatedly disregarded an anti-war resolution that has been circulating through America’s major cities. This resolution asks that, as our representatives, city council members express their disapproval for any unilateral military action by the Bush Administration in Iraq. Forty-three […]
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A Forensic Failure
Budget Cuts Leave Hair and Semen Untested
To the many services that have fallen victim to budget cuts, add the state police forensics division. Eighty-five state forensics experts have already received their layoff notices, effective February 1. This will reduce the state forensics department by 65 percent. If the layoff notices are not rescinded, Portland’s crime lab–the largest in Oregon–will lose two […]
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Vote YES On Measure 28
Or We’re Soooooo Screwed!
The Voter’s Pamphlet includes eight arguments in opposition to temporary tax increase initiative Measure 28; these range widely in tone, from the Republican Party’s usual “no more big government,” to the all-caps-and-underlines exclamations by the arch-conservative Constitution Party. The measure’s opponents all make essentially the same argument: state legislators spend our money unwisely and immorally, […]
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Another Bull Session
Don’t Look to the Legislature To Save Us
Last week, with pledges for reconciliation and productivity, the Oregon legislature took its seats at the state capitol. Since they last piled into chambers, the Republican Party has taken stronger control of the federal government and, to an increasing degree, taken a firmer grip over the moral reins of the country, even threatening to shut […]
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More Addicts than Ever!
Budget Cuts Screw Over the Poor, Crazy and Drugged
Last week delivered devastating news for drug users and the mentally ill around the state. It was a double-pronged stab at the state budget when legislators slashed $112 million from the state budget. Chief among their cuts was the Oregon Health Plan, which had all addiction-recovery and mental health benefits gouged from its services. That […]
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What Are You, Deaf?
Council Continues to Ignore Public Concerns
A few weeks before 600 residents joined hands and surrounded Mt. Tabor’s water reservoir in protest, city council member Jim Francesconi sent a memo to his cohorts. The letter expressed deep-seeded concern that city council has left the public out of the loop when making major decisions. In question was a proposal to place covers […]
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Skater Haters
Putting the Heat on the City’s Proposed Ice-Skating Rink
When The Oregonian first broke a story last fall that the city may plop an ice-skating rink in the middle of Pioneer Square, a few dozen phone calls and emails spilled into the office of City Commissioner Jim Francesconi, who heads up the Park & Rec. Bureau. The majority of those correspondences were negative, as […]
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A Live Wire!
Power Struggle for Power Company Nears Conclusion
It may seem like a utopian dream, especially in this 21st Century business world of bankrupt corporations and swindling corporate officers. But Portland could soon be home to a public utility operated without profit motive and with no CEOs to bonus. It is the type of power-to-the-people municipality that would make Vladimir Lenin smile. But […]