Skip to main contentMAJOR AUTISM SERVICES PROVIDER TO CLOSE IN OREGON: The Center for Autism and Related Disorders informed state officials last week it will close its 10 Oregon clinics in August, resulting in the layoff of 156 staff members. Texas-based CARD is the largest provider of an autism treatment called applied behavior analysis. Tobi Rates, executive director of the Autism Society of Oregon, says that although the therapy is controversial in some circles, it qualifies for broad insurance coverage from both private and public payers. “It’s a big deal,” Rates says of the closures. The widespread and growing prevalence of autism spectrum disorder—1 in 44 8-year-olds have it, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—has attracted investors to the field. The Blackstone Group, a leading private equity firm, purchased CARD in 2018 for a reported $600 million. Rates says parents of children experiencing autism are upset about the closures and speculating among themselves that the move may be related to reimbursement rates. In a statement, CARD said its Oregon operations weren’t financially viable. “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close CARD Centers in Oregon effective Aug 15, 2022,” the company said. “We have come to this disappointing outcome following negotiations with our healthcare plan partners to secure adequate reimbursement rates reflective of the increasing costs and staff shortages affecting our services.”
COUNTY MOVES TOWARD RANKED-CHOICE VOTING: While the city of Portland faces growing opposition to its charter reform efforts (see cover story, page 12), Multnomah County has chosen a different path to charter reform. Rather than combining proposed changes into one big question for voters, as the city reform panel has done, the county’s Charter Review Committee forwarded a slate of four discrete questions for final consideration July 5. The biggest change the county reform panel proposes is to shift from the current method of electing candidates to ranked-choice voting, in which voters assign relative preferences to each candidate, with the lowest-ranked candidate being eliminated in a series of tallies until one candidate gets a majority. If county commissioners ratify the proposal and voters approve it, the county would adopt ranked-choice voting in 2026. Samantha Gladu, one of the members of the charter panel, says the change might reduce negative campaigning: “Candidates will have the incentive to work together rather than tear each other down and sling mud at each other.”
PARKING FEE WILL FUND LOW-INCOME TRANSIT RIDES: Motorists returning downtown after the July 4 holiday will notice a change when they pay for street parking: The price went up 20 cents per space. The Portland Bureau of Transportation says it’s a “climate fee” intended to remind motorists of “the externalized costs of driving (including greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, and use of roadway space).” Even by local measures, that’s an unusually pointed rebuke to drivers. The fee was the brainchild of a city task force, which met for a year to find ways to “address the climate crisis by reducing driving, while also addressing the historic inequities in our transportation system.” So where is the money going? PBOT spokeswoman Hannah Schafer says the bureau expects to raise $2 million in the first year and use that money to buy transit passes for people living in affordable housing and give Biketown rides to people receiving social services.
MUSHROOM VENTURE DISSOLVES: Red Light Holland, a publicly traded magic mushroom company, says it has dissolved its 14-month-old Oregon-based partnership with Halo Collective, a Canadian cannabis company, to pursue a new venture it hopes will bring mushroom enthusiasts of all backgrounds into the nascent psychedelics industry. Red Light Holland and Halo were among the first established companies to set up operations in Oregon after Measure 109 passed in November 2020 and legalized the regulated use of psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms (“Business Trip,” WW, Feb. 16). Red Light says it ended the venture so it could focus on a new program in Oregon called “Red Light. Set. Go!” that will recruit candidates and provide them with advice and funding to enter the psilocybin market. Shunji Smith, a Japanese American mushroom grower from Eugene, is the first participant, Red Light says. Both Red Light Holland and Halo Collective are publicly traded, and both stocks have taken a beating this year. Halo Collective shares trade for 41 cents, down from a whopping $1,194 in April 2019.