News Blogger Jack Bogdanski wrote Monday that it appeared Mayor Sam Adams had blocked him from following the mayor's tweets on Twitter. A spokesman for the mayor later told The Portland Mercury the dis was unintentional and the result, apparently, of a technical glitch. All of which raises an interesting question: Are the mayor's musings on Twitter a matter of public record? Linda Meng, Portland's ...   More

News Yesterday's shuttle diplomacy between City Hall and the Portland Building, a main hub for the city's bureaus, produced a result today: Tom Miller, Mayor Sam Adams' chief of staff, will replace Sue Keil, who yesterday announced she would retire in May, the mayor's office has announced. Miller will take over at the transportation bureau on Jan 25, and Keil will stay on the job for several months ...   More

News Snow and freezing rain are predicted for Tuesday in Portland. This of course can be any mayor's nightmare. And the message this afternoon from Mayor Sam Adams (photo above from November when snow was also in the forecast), essentially is threefold: 1) Drive, bike and walk safely—and take transit if possible; 2) Abandoned vehicles or vehicles creating a safety hazard are subject ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams has announced a location for Thursday's town hall-style meeting on the possibility of the city rejoining the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, a proposal that gained new urgency following the Nov. 26 arrest of Mohamed Mohamud for allegedly plotting to detonate a bomb in Pioneer Courthouse Square. That new location is Portland State University's Smith Ballroom, which suggests ...   More

News It's not quite as exciting as yesterday's 5:30 pm kickoff in Arizona but at least it promises more successful results. Sorry, Ducks fans. At noon, Mayor Sam Adams was scheduled to kick off the new bicycle-and-pedestrian bridge over Interstate-5 at a press conference. The $12.6 million project will connect South Waterfront to Lair Hill. When completed in about a year, the span will run 700 ...   More

News The City Council this morning approved new rules governing the business of horse-drawn carriages in Portland, about a year and a half after a horse died downtown while pulling a newlywed couple in a carriage near Central Library. Temperatures that day were in the 90s. And while the proposed regulations [PDF] are extensive—prohibiting everything from the licensure of carriage drivers with ...   More

News Portland City Council held its "good ol' fashioned town hall" meeting, as Mayor Sam Adams put it, last night to discuss the possibility of Portland renewing its membership with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. "Tonight is not about making decisions," Adams said. "Tonight is about making sure we're asking the right questions." The discussion whether to rejoin was prompted by the alleged ...   More

News   One huge, unresolved issue surrounding Portland Public Schools’ high-school redesign concerns career training. Under Superintendent Carole Smith’s School Board-approved plan, Benson Polytechnic High School will offer fewer career-training classes to a smaller number of students. However, the remaining eight high-school campuses will offer students access to jobs-focused classes that ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams has picked a new director of public safety five months after taking the helm of the Portland Police Bureau. The new hire is Antoinette Edwards, formerly the diversity director for the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross. Adams hired Edwards this month, and mayoral spokesman Roy Kaufmann says Edwards' first day is today. Previously Adams interviewed Dorothy Elmore, a controversial ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams began today's discussion of "flexible" neighborhood spending with a caveat, telling his City Hall colleagues he didn't want his new budget exercise to "inflame inaccurately people's concerns about geographic equity." Here's the basic premise of what Adams is talking about: The city will create maps that show where bureaus spend their money so bureaus and neighborhood associations can ...   More