A bicyclist with a penchant for nudity learned the hard way—in court—that Vancouver, Washington, is not as friendly toward naked bikers as our fair city across the river. Matthew Vilhauer was on a bicycle bar crawl in Vancouver last June, a mere three days after 5,000 naked and semi-nude Portlanders took to the streets of Old Town for the annual World Naked Bike Ride, when he decided to strip down to his birthday suit in a bar. According to Vilhauer, his lawyer, and several witnesses, multiple people on the 20-person bar crawl also got naked. But Vilhauer was the only one stopped by Vancouver cops for indecent exposure. He was cuffed, put into a police car, and registered at the station all while naked. A long-delayed trial on the indecency charges inconclusively wrapped up last week: A hung jury could not agree on whether Vilhauer should be charged for any crime. But in his closing argument, Vancouver's prosecuting city attorney reiterated a telling phrase: "This is not Portland." SARAH MIRK

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City council members sparred recently over a proposal to use money from a water-rate increase to buy land from the Oregonian newspaper. The controversial site would be a disaster-response staging area in case Portland gets hit by an earthquake that Mayor Sam Adams referred to as "The Big One" in council on May 19. "We've identified a site in Northwest and we're negotiating a purchase for around $10 million," explained Adams, who is pushing for the purchase of the NW Yeon and Nicolai lot, to provide parking for heavy equipment that's currently stored on the Eastside. Commissioner Randy Leonard, a supporter of the plan, cited the possibility of a bridge-busting earthquake: "How would we provide emergency services to the Westside?" But Commissioner Dan Saltzman, reenergized from his strong election results last month, pushed back. "I don't think we should be taking the last large industrial parcel of Northwest Portland and using it for, in essence, a parking lot," he said. STEFAN KAMPH