"Occupy Mount Tabor" Begins Today

UPDATE: "Occupy Mount Tabor" no longer begins today

News UPDATE, 1:03 pm: Less than two hours after WW reported the event, the Occupy Portland calendar corrected the date of the "Occupy Mount Tabor" camping protest to Friday, July 12.
Event organizer Jesse Sponberg says Occupy Portland's calendar erroneously listed the event today. He has created a    More

 

Friday, June 7, 2013 by AARON MESH

Reporter Travels to Portland, Panhandles Profitably

News Mayor Charlie Hales has pledged to tackle the aggressive panhandling downtown by street kids known as "summer travelers." But the Oregon Legislature did him no favors last week by    More

 

Thursday, June 6, 2013 by AARON MESH

Hales Calls on City Hall to "Bring Our Fish Back"

Mayor makes ambitous environmental and river promises in UN speech

News Mayor Charlie Hales made bold pledges in a speech to delegates from the United Nations Environment Programme this morning—promising that Portland city government will reduce its carbon emissions by half in 17 years, and make bicycles the preferred mode of transportation for all trips under three miles in 10 years.

Hales also made it clear that cleaning up the toxi...   More

 

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 by AARON MESH

Assign of the Times

Mayor Charlie Hales shuffles the city bureaus—and commissioners have to deal.

News Nick Fish looked shaken. Amanda Fritz was horrified. Steve Novick told bicycle jokes in the lobby. And Dan Saltzman left early, pleased as punch. Portland’s city commissioners had just learn   More

 

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 AARON MESH

Headout: Eh, Sailor!

How to seduce a Canadian sailor in this depleted fleet week.

Headout Today, the national debt standoff finally hits us where we live: boinking sailors. The annual Fleet Week celebrations—the docking of the U.S. Navy with all available Portland orifices—has be   More

 

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 AARON MESH

Novick to PBOT: More Money, More Bikes

News City Commissioner Steve Novick wasted no time assuring the Portland Bureau of Transportation that he'll seek new revenue for street paving and calm any backlash against bicycles.

Upon getting official word from Mayor Charlie...   More

 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013 by AARON MESH

Hales Makes Big Changes with City Bureau Assignments

News Portland Mayor Charlie Hales scrambled the balance of power at City Hall with surprising bureau assignments this afternoon.

Hales officially distributed city bureaus today, after his office ran all 27 of them for the past five months. And as has been rumored for weeks, he shook up City Hall by giving no commissioner the same responsibilities they had before Hales took office.&nbs...   More

 

Monday, June 3, 2013 by AARON MESH

City Will Cover Its Reservoirs, and Drain the Ones on Mount Tabor

Fritz refuses to sign city statement conceding reserviors must go underground

News Portland City Council is preparing to announce on Monday that it will comply with federal demands to disconnect or cover its open reservoirs, WW has learned. But, as with Mayor Charlie Hales' city budget, the announcement has one holdout: City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who has refused to go along.

The city has been appealing for more time to meet U.S. Envi...   More

 

Friday, May 31, 2013 by AARON MESH

Fluoride Campaign Spent $889,000 to Lose by 20 Points

News Money can't buy toothiness.

The final spending tallies on the battle over Ballot Measure 26-151 show the pro-fluoride campaign outspent opponents nearly 3-to-1—and still lost by 20 percent of the vote in the May 21 special election.

Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland, the pro-fluoride cam...   More

 

Friday, May 31, 2013 by AARON MESH

Fire Union Prez Says Hales' Budget Will Lay Off 13 Firefighters

News The head of the Portland fire union is disputing Mayor Charlie Hales' claim that the city's new budget includes no firefighter layoffs.

Portland Firefighters' Association President Alan Ferschweiler says the new budget actually requires 13 fire bureau layoffs—it just delays the pink slips by three months.

Hales' budget takes effect June 30, and provides...   More

 

Thursday, May 30, 2013 by AARON MESH