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WINNERS 1. Although it's becoming increasingly clear that the Bea house in the Columbia Gorge should never have been allowed to be built, it would have been easy to allow it to stand. The Columbia Gorge Commission's insistence that it be moved out of sight shows that the National Scenic Act has some real teeth. 2. Last year clergy representing 2,000 local congregations protested the Metro decision to consider 3,300 acres of farm land for urbanization. God may have lost in last week's vote to expand Portland's urban-growth boundary, but some of the Almighty's flock were big winners. The nuns at the Sisters of St. Mary own one of the most hotly contested farm parcels--a 463-acre gem outside Hillsboro. The Metro Council voted to bring St. Mary's land into the UGB, setting the sisters up for an $8 million windfall. 3. It's time for pot puffers to rejoice. Last week, the voter-approved law legalizing medical marijuana took effect. Now Oregonians can toke, and even grow, with impunity--as long as they're ill.
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LOSERS 1. The Department of Corrections needs to be handcuffed if the results of a state audit are any indication. Investigators found the department is building too many prison beds and the mix of maximum- and minimum-security is out of whack. But the real crime is this: The cost of construction per bed is almost 70 percent more than the average in 14 other states. 2. The poor Port of Portland. The agency has been trying hard to spiff up its green image, yet its name continues to get dragged through the muck. The latest revelation--that Port officials may have hidden the toxicity of the sludge they're sending to Ross Island--didn't help. 3. Pacificorp spent a couple of hundred million bucks and the better part of a year trying unsuccessfully to take over a UK utility. Combined with some other blunders, the failed takeover left the company vulnerable, and this week it suffered the ignominy of being the first major U.S. utility to be taken over by a foreign company--ironically, another UK utility.
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Willamette Week | originally
published December 9,
1998