News A small but vehement protest over cutting down a sequoia tree to build a bicycle and pedestrian bridge has drawn a large contingent of City Hall to St. Johns' Pier Park this afternoon. Mayor Charlie Hales' office has been barraged with phone calls since television news stations broke the story that a handful of neighborhood activists are refusing to let the tree be cut down.More than a dozen city employees ...   More

News Former City Commissioner Charlie Hales was the most prominent advocate of the Portland streetcar and claims it as one of his biggest success stories. The eastside streetcar "loop" has recently opened, with sparse ridership and a lack of money to operate it as planned.What does Hales think about extending more streetcar lines through the city, now that he's running for mayor?In this endorsement interview ...   More

News Running for office means asking for support from a lot of influence groups and powerful players. But what happens when it's your time to govern?We asked the candidates for mayor, Rep. Jefferson Smith and Charlie Hales, this question: What's the one big decision they will make in their first year in office that will disappoint their biggest political supporters?Listen to their answers, as record during ...   More

News Mayor Charlie Hales will attend Friday's premiere of Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse, the scathing documentary about the police killing of James Chasse in 2006, his office has confirmed. The movie, WW reviewer AP Kryza says, "plays out like a horror film and leaves you absolutely breathless."The filmmakers—director Brian Lindstrom and screenwriter Matt Davis, a former Portland Mercury ...   More

News It’s budget season at City Hall, the time of year when we’re told what a dystopian Portland would look like. Streets without cops. Homes burning out of control. Empty swimming pools, vagrants    More

News Mayor Charlie Hales is entering city budget season facing a much-publicized $25 million shortfall. But the hole could be bigger than that.Last year's city budget included $13.7 million in one-time funding for a swath of projects. "One-time funding" doesn't mean a project isn't coming back for another round of money. It just means the expense isn't factored into the general-fund budget each year.Last ...   More

SCOOP PIZZA SQUABBLE SETTLED: Two local pizzerias have settled a beef over pizzaiolos. Stephen Ferruzza, owner of Al Forno Ferruzza on Northeast Alberta Street, was upset when some of his employees were   More

Arts & Books Portland Mayor Charlie Hales was the last man standing in a local celebrity spelling bee on Jan. 31 at the Portland Art Museum, held as a benefit for Schoolhouse Supplies, which provides free classroom supplies to local teachers.Trouble is, there were also four women in the competition. And every single one of them fared better than the six male competitors, who included Dave Dahl (Dave's Killer ...   More

Cover Story Portland City Hall is awfully quiet for a palace amid a revolution. Since the start of the year, the place has felt like a barely solvent art gallery sold to absentee bankers. Outside the mayor’    More

News Portland Mayor Charlie Hales promised upon taking office to cut non-essential expenses out of the city budget. This afternoon, he announced the first one he's cutting: a public-private partnership to give summer jobs to teenagers.Hales' office said today it will not bring to City Council two items it removed from the agenda earlier this month: A grant and a contract amendment that would have given ...   More