LOOKING BACK on the thing, 2015 feels important. Like, way more important than 2014.
This is the year Portland really acknowledged its housing crisis—then properly began arguing over how to fix it. It’s a year in which the city sharpened its disdain for fossil fuels, and staged one of the more spectacular protests the country’s seen to make its point. We successfully convinced yet another mayor to leave office, took our first-ever legal toke (which didn’t feel all that different), and saved some huge trees (while failing to save a bunch of houses).
It was sad and messy, joyous and interesting—and we can’t wait to do it all again. For now, here’s the Mercury news staff’s clichéd year-end list of the stories we’ll carry with us into 2016.
Camping Ban Allowed!
Early this year, Portland’s public defenders had the City of Portland’s ban on homeless camping dead in their sights. They’d found a client—a young homeless woman named Alexandra Barrett—bent on fighting her frequent arrests for camping, and ready to take a case to trial. The argument Barrett’s attorneys employed has become well known: That Portland doesn’t have anywhere to put all of its homeless people, so its camping law essentially punishes people for being homeless. The same logic has since been adopted by the US Department of Justice in an Idaho case, but it ultimately held little sway here in Multnomah County. In early February, Circuit Court Judge Stephen Bushong issued a stern ruling that Portland’s ban is “not the solution to this complex problem,” but nonetheless affirmed its legality. The ruling, attorneys said, put the camping ban on its strongest footing in years.
Pulling the Plug on Pembina
Pembina Pipeline Corporation thought Portland was a shoo-in for its next gigantic propane export and storage facility, and with good reason: When the Canadian fossil fuel giant initially came knocking at the Port of Portland’s door, port administrators and city lawmakers appeared welcoming. But after a 300-person-strong protest at the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability and a resounding “NO” from many Portlanders, Mayor Charlie Hales yanked his support for the $500 million project. Pembina vowed to return, and it looked like Commissioner Nick Fish might aid them, but climate change activists prevailed and it appears the project has been scrapped.