News That Cuts Deep Each Week, Unlike The Fed.

[September 17th, 2008]

Not to be overshadowed by Mayor-elect Sam Adams’ recent 11-day China junket (“Brighter Lights, Bigger Cities,” WW, Sept. 10, 2008) yes-he’s-still-Mayor Tom Potter plans to spend 13 days traveling to Mutare, Zimbabwe. Potter had canceled plans earlier this year to travel to Mutare, one of Portland’s nine sister cities, on account of the violence that followed President Robert Mugabe’s refusal to relinquish power in the African nation. (This week, Mugabe formed a “unity” government with opposition parties.) Potter’s tentative schedule has him leaving Oct. 15 and returning Oct. 28. He’ll be traveling with a 19-member delegation from Portland, including his wife, Karin Hansen, Director of International Affairs Mila Greisen and Chief of Staff Austin Raglione.

Smile for the cameras. Portland Public Schools is giving the bus company that schleps around students $18,000 to buy 20 digital cameras to monitor rider behavior on district buses. The school board OK’d the expenditure at its Sept. 15 meeting on top of the district’s $58 million contract with Laidlaw Transit, now doing business as First Student. Andy Leibenguth, of the district’s transportation office, says no incident precipitated the camera purchase. The district isn’t targeting a specific route; it plans to rotate the cameras, which will supplement the 15 cameras First Student already uses.

Stop the presses! Here’s some good economic news : The latest study of Portland’s bicycle economy by the bike-ped masterminds at Portland-based Alta Planning & Design pegs its annual value to the city at $90 million. While that’s about one-200th of Nike’s annual revenues, it’s a 38 percent increase since 2006—the last time Alta did this study. (How’d they figure? By adding up the self-reported revenue of 67 bike-related businesses, making conservative guesses about other businesses, and throwing in some extra to account for people’s spending on tours and events like the Bridge Pedal.) “Not only is this a real sector, it’s a growing, vibrant sector—and that at a time when people are nervous about the economy,” says Alta’s Jessica Roberts. 

News on the proposed $120 million Portland Police Training Facility in Scappoose. In a Sept. 4 letter to Mayor Tom Potter, Portland real estate magnate Joe Weston both outed himself as the money behind real estate maneuverings around the Scappoose Airport (see “Potter’s Legacy, WW, April 16, 2008) and revealed a motivation for the transaction—getting a larger chunk of property inside the Scappoose urban growth boundary. Weston asked Potter in his letter to get off the pot by Oct. 1 or the deal is dead. “My new question to you Mr. Mayor,” Weston writes, “is have you lost your energy?” Mayoral spokesman John Doussard says Potter will respond before Weston’s deadline.