6:28 pm update: It’s unanimous. They all voted for it. 6:06 pm update: Time to discuss and vote, after the cut. —– 5:30 update: We’ve only got a few more folks on the public testimony list, then stay tuned for council deliberation and voting! That’s all after the cut. —– (Originally posted at 2 pm) […]
Politics
Posted inFood and Drink
No Foie Gras for Bastille Day Celebrants
Bastille Day is fast approaching, and with it, the second annual Pix Patisserie Bastille Day celebration. Guest chef, Gabriel Rucker of Le Pigeon, had planned on creating foie gras ice cream floats to be served at the event along side other, more traditional, French goodies. This raised the ire of the Portland Animal Defense League […]
Posted inPolitics
Today at City Hall: Columbia River Crossing
I caught Commissioner Nick Fish heading into this morning’s city council session (during which the council will get an earful on the imminent eviction of Peterson’s convenience store–more on that later from Matt Davis, who’s here covering the pile of protesters, a surprising number of whom are gray-haired little old ladies). I’ve been trying to […]
Posted inPolitics
Columbia River Crossing Rumor of the Day: ODOT Bullying the Council?
With less than 24 hours to go before the council hearing on the Columbia River Crossing, the hot gossip around city hall is this: The Oregon Department of Transportation is threatening the city council. As in, vote for the CRC’s locally preferred option tomorrow, “or [ODOT] won’t fund anything else” in the city of Portland, […]
Posted inHomo
Domestic Partnership Appeal at Pioneer Courthouse
We’re about thirty minutes away from the 20-minute arguments on either side of the federal appeal over signatures to put a domestic partnership referendum on the fall ballot. Austin Nimocks, attorney for the anti-gay coalition, is sitting in a wing-back chair here in the wifi-equipped courtroom annex, scribbling in his notes. I’d love to snap […]
Posted inPolitics
Columbia River Crossing Press Conference
We’re in Piccolo Park on this beautiful morning with folks from 1000 Friends of Oregon, Environment Oregon, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Coalition for a Liveable Future and other environmental, biking, and land use groups to talk about tomorrow’s city council vote on the Columbia River Crossing. “We are not here today to oppose progress,” says […]
Posted inPolitics
Adams: ODOT Drafting a Letter that Gives City More Power Over CRC
Nothing like a call from Commissioner Sam Adams as you’re about to walk out the door. He clarified Commissioner Randy Leonard’s earlier news that the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) was drafting an amendment to Adams’ Columbia River Crossing resolution, which the council will vote on on Wednesday. “It won’t be an amendment,” says Adams. […]
Posted inPolitics
Randy Leonard’s Conditions
City Hall’s bustling these days, with lobbying back and forth on the Columbia River Crossing. Commissioner Randy Leonard met this morning with folks from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), and I’ve heard that Commissioner Nick Fish is getting an earful from bridge critics as I type this. Given Commissioner Dan Saltzman’s somewhat-wavering support of […]
Posted inArtsy
Big Bridge Street Theater
If I haven’t yet convinced you how important it is that you get to city hall on Wednesday afternoon to testify about the Columbia River Crossing project, perhaps this will cinch it. There will be street theater outside city hall, from the folks at Cascadia Rising Tide, part of Rising Tide North America, a group […]
Posted inHomo
Domestic Partnership Petition Case in Court Again Tomorrow
Back story: Anti-gay activists tried to collect enough signatures to send Oregon’s new domestic partnership law to this November’s ballot. They failed, and then sued in federal court, blaming Oregon’s elections department for improperly discounting valid signatures. In February, a federal judge told the anti-gay activist to piss off ruled that the petition effort fell […]
Posted inPortland
Big Bridge Opposition Grows
A coalition of groups–1000 Friends of Oregon, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Environment Oregon, and Coalition for a Livable Future–have joined forces to oppose the current slate of options for a new Columbia River Crossing. They’ve pulled together a press conference for tomorrow (at Piccolo Park between Division and Clinton, probably chosen because the property was […]
Posted inPolitics
A Warm Welcome to Farm City.
Drove through rural Idaho this weekend. This, just outside of my old college town of Caldwell, about 30 minutes west of Boise. And the close up. I really like Idaho, actually. It’s weird that the entire area around Boise is this overwhelming, never-ending sprawl of sterile subdivisions, all of which look like they’ve been built […]