AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS researching the city’s $1.3 million per year replacement program for the now defunct Drug-Free Zones (DFZs), the Mercury has been unable to find a clear and consistent written policy on the new program anywhere in Portland. The DFZs sunset last September, after independent statistical analysis showed African Americans were more likely to […]
Randy Leonard
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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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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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An Unexpected Stop
City-Funded Day Laborer Site Delayed
The launch date for the controversial day laborer site on NE MLK and Everett has been pushed back nearly six weeks to June 16. Romeo Sosa, director of VOZ, the organization in charge of running the center, had said as recently as last week that the original May 6 opening day, which VOZ has been […]
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The Status Quo Can Suck It!
Our 2008 Primary Election Picks
WE’LL ADMIT IT. WE WANT CHANGE. It’s already a cliché in the 2008 election, but we want it anyway. The past several years have worn us out politically, and we’re aching for a revolution. We want dynamic new political leadership, people who are going to push a progressive agenda and restore credibility to our city, […]
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Blacklisted
Does City’s “Livability” List Have Racial Imbalance?
The city’s effective replacement for the now-defunct Drug-Free Zones (DFZs) appears to be targeting black people for harsher treatment by the judicial system—just as the DFZs did. Of the 408 people now on the city’s Neighborhood Livability Crime Enforcement Offender List (NLCEOL)—a list used to determine who is diverted into a city program that couples […]
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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 […]
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In Other News
OFFENDER LIST GROWS There are now 427 people on City Commissioner Randy Leonard’s “Project 57” list. According to the new head of the program, Bill Sinnott, these people are targeted for felony convictions and enforced drug treatment if they’re arrested downtown for things like having a crack pipe containing drug residue. Sinnott, the former boss […]
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In the Shadows
Gangbusters
“I watched my uncle’s knee get blown off.” Rob Ingram was describing an incident from his West Fresno childhood over a bowl of chicken gumbo at the A.J. Java café, on the corner of N Rosa Parks Way and Albina last Friday morning, March 28. Ingram, who has been the director of the mayor’s Office […]
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Hall Monitor
Erik Sten: 1991-2008
“Tenacious.” “Dedicated.” “A bulldog.” Those were the words floating around city hall last week, as people passed out tissues and remembered their dearly departed colleague, City Commissioner Erik Sten. “I met him when he was first a staffer in [Commissioner] Gretchen [Kafoury]’s office, and his hair was down to his shoulders and he looked like […]
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Hall Monitor
Hindsight
In February, City Commissioner Sam Adams’ ambitious plan to patch up Portland’s streets got him into an arm-wrestling match with a lobbyist and Mayor Tom Potter, temporarily sinking the proposal. But Adams’ aim to fix the roads is making a comeback—and he’s got a two-prong attack. For starters, he’s asking for $7 million in one-time […]
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Bridge to Disaster
A Proposed New 12-Lane Bridge over the Columbia River Will Cost $4.2 Billion, Increase Traffic, and Do Little to Alleviate Climate Change. What the Hell Are We Thinking?
A man driving a gray Toyota pickup truck seems frantic; veering in and out of lanes trying to pass other traffic on the Interstate Bridge. His furtive moves don’t do him much good—moments later, as we crest the green steel bridge headed south into Portland, we’re greeted with flickering brake lights. Traffic slows to a […]