JUST OVER A WEEK AGO, there were 28 people vying for a job at city hall. But the May 20 primary election dashed a lot of dreams, and left three men—Sam Adams, Randy Leonard, and Nick Fish—with secure employment for the next few years. What’s undecided is who will be taking the seat Adams vacates, […]
city hall
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The Morning After
It takes an election, apparently, to help the city council pass a budget. Within days of Commissioner Sam Adams‘ victory over Mayor Tom Potter-endorsed Sho Dozono, tensions between Adams and the mayor seem to have melted. While they were on opposite ends of a budget standoff last week, by Friday afternoon, May 23, the two—plus […]
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Bravo
by Amy J. Ruiz
Last Wednesday, city hall staffers were placing bets. Not on who would come out ahead on election day—but on whether two activists who hijacked the council meeting to talk about housing issues would be back the next week to do it again. During the Wednesday, May 14, meeting, as always, Mayor Tom Potter asked if […]
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Rules of the Game
Homeless Protest Stretches On
TUESDAY AFTERNOON, May 13, with the homeless protesters in front of city hall facing enforcement of the city’s camping ordinance, five representatives sat down with Mayor Tom Potter. The meeting did not go so well. Potter didn’t let the protesters record the conversation. Afterward, protest organizer Arthur Rios Sr. waved the mayor’s prepared statement, and […]
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Shadow Budget
Adams’ and Leonard’s End Run Around Mayor Potter
THE CITY COUNCIL was supposed to vote on Mayor Tom Potter’s proposed budget at their Wednesday morning meeting. But the May 14 meeting may be a showdown, instead. Thanks to a few omissions in Potter’s budget—namely funding for transportation and arts-related projects, and funds to implement a recent council mandate to move the Portland Development […]
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Hall Monitor
Political Prudence
You have to give Commissioner Sam Adams some credit. He sure knows how to turn a politically driven evacuation plan into a chance to be seen as a ballsy leader. Last week, just before the city council was poised to take a final vote on the contentious plan to move the defunct Sauvie Island Bridge […]
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Unhappy Campers
Homeless Protest Continues, Politicos Take Notice
OVER THE PAST two weeks, a makeshift homeless encampment has been growing in front of city hall. Kicking off on Friday, April 25, a few men and women who’d been “swept” out from under the Burnside Bridge—where they usually slept—set up camp on the sidewalk, against city hall’s cement balustrade. They gathered there to protest […]
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Sweep This
Homeless Set up Protest Camp at City Hall
TWENTY-SEVEN HOMELESS people slept on the sidewalk outside city hall on Monday night, April 28, and remained there into the day on Tuesday, in protest of a series of recent bridge sweeps by the Portland Police Bureau. The group, which says it plans to stay outside city hall until the politicians inside find them somewhere […]
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Hall Monitor
Opposites Detract
What a sore loser. Mayor Tom Potter, upset that his political foe City Commissioner Sam Adams had rounded up three votes to move the old Sauvie Island Bridge to NW Flanders—where it will be the innovation connection for two halves of a bike and pedestrian boulevard—issued a statement on Thursday, April 24. “This bridge will […]
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Bridge over Troubled Politics
Activists Rally Around Sauvie Island Bridge Move
Over the dull roar of rush-hour traffic in the I-405 gulch below, a crowd gathered at NW Flanders and 15th to show a little love for a bridge that’s halfway across town—the soon to be scrapped Sauvie Island Bridge. Those gathered—a few dozen cyclists and pedestrians—support Commissioner Sam Adams’ proposal to move the old bridge […]
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Hall Monitor
Decisions, Decisions
Mayoral candidate Sho Dozono landed in hot water during an April 21 KGW-Oregonian televised debate, when opponent Sam Adams pointed out that Dozono “would have the city join the Joint Terrorism Task Force [JTTF].” If you weren’t paying attention when Mayor Tom Potter led the ballsy 2005 effort to yank Portland cops from the anti-terrorism […]
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Hall Monitor
Drama Queens
If Mayor Tom Potter had a thumbtack and a bulletin board, this stage of the city’s budget process would be exactly like the high school drama department’s spring musical auditions—with hopeful city commissioners counting down the hours until Potter’s budget decisions are posted. Some of the commissioners’ proposals will make the cut, while others will […]