Skip to main content
CATALYTIC CONVERTER CRIME WAVE RECEDES: Following several high-profile busts and declining prices for the precious metals they contain, Oregon thefts of catalytic converters appear to be on the downswing. The Portland Police Bureau does not break out statistics on catalytic converter theft, but Gresham does. That city saw 35 reported thefts between January and May this year—20% of the tally from the same period last year. Prosecutions have dropped, too. No one’s been charged with illegally transporting metal in Oregon since Jan. 2, following major arrests of suspected traffickers in Jackson and Washington counties late last year. Jarom Sweazey, a Gresham Police Department spokesman, highlighted last year’s arrest of 32-year-old Uber driver Brennan Doyle, who allegedly ran a trafficking ring from a lake house and shipped Portland’s catalytic converters to New Jersey refineries (“From Portland to Jersey,” WW, Nov. 30, 2022). Another possible cause: The price of rhodium, one of the precious metals in the emission control devices, has returned to 2019 levels after skyrocketing 500% during the pandemic.
FLAMMABLE TIRE PILE DECLARED UNLAWFUL: Owners of the three-story pile of shredded tires that caught fire next to Moda Center last month violated Oregon law by storing too much “tire-derived product” at the site, inspectors from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality determined this month. They plan to refer the matter to DEQ’s enforcement division, which may assess a penalty for each day in violation. That could get expensive because the tire shreds have been piled up beside an old grain terminal on the river for months. The action is a reversal for DEQ, which inspected the site last summer and found no violations. Nor was the product considered waste at the time. “Once processed, DEQ considers the shredded tires to be product,” department spokeswoman Susan Mills wrote to WW in July. “Since product moves (is transported/sold), it does not require a waste permit, so one is not required at the grain elevator site.” Since Mills wrote that email, the tire pile has burst into flames at least three times, spewing acrid smoke and disrupting road and rail traffic. Chandos Mahon, who owns the grain terminal along with Oregon timber scion Beau Blixseth, says the company was found to be in compliance after previous DEQ inspections. “We believe we continue to be in compliance,” Mahon says. “We are currently working with the DEQ to quickly resolve any compliance concerns.”
HUD PROBES PORTLAND LOW-INCOME BUILDING: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating the Buri Building, a troubled apartment complex on Northeast Glisan Street, for fair housing violations after a tenant who uses a wheelchair alleged that management ignored her request for an evacuation plan that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Daybelis Gonzalez, 32, lived on the third floor with her partner, Jack Collier, and endured false fire alarms that sounded at least once a month for three years. She filed a complaint with HUD on March 27 and moved out in May. “Because we live on the third floor, and I am in a wheelchair, we asked for an ADA evacuation plan in email that was never responded to,” Gonzalez wrote to HUD. Other tenants at the Buri say Cascade Management, which oversees the building, has been unresponsive to complaints about drug use in the hallways, chronically inoperative elevators, and violent threats from nonresidents who find their way past electronic door locks (“Indoor Voices,” WW, June 7). “We are aware of the complaint and have been fully cooperating with HUD,” Tiffany Bachman, chief business development officer at Cascade, says in an email. “We also have worked hard to ensure the building is ADA compliant and follows all fire safety guidelines.”
INFLATED RAT VISITS PAMPLIN HEADQUARTERS: A 12-foot inflatable rat showed up last week at the Milwaukie headquarters of the R.B. Pamplin Corporation. That company, run by industrial and media investor Robert B. Pamplin Jr., owns 24 Oregon newspapers, including the Portland Tribune, and subsidiaries such as Ross Island Sand & Gravel Co. The rat came courtesy of International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701, whose members are working on the reclamation of Ross Island after 75 years of mining. James Anderson, business manager and financial secretary of Local 701, says his union wanted to express displeasure that Ross Island allegedly owes workers more than $450,000 in unpaid benefits. The union has regularly sued Ross Island in the past over late payments, a sign of the company’s financial struggles (“Trader Bob,” Feb. 23, 2022). “We exercised our First Amendment rights to notify the public that Pamplin is a bad player,” Anderson says. “They flipped out.” Anderson says Pamplin officials called police, but when officers determined the rat was on public land, they allowed the protest to continue. Anderson says the rat may visit other Pamplin properties if Ross Island doesn’t meet its obligations. Pamplin officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.
CITY BOWS TO SPUD SCIONS: Earlier this year, WW wrote about a local family irate that the city of Portland intended to sell a property in the West Hills (“Sunken Treasure,” WW, Jan. 25). George Spada, whose family made its fortune shipping potatoes and onions to Japan, had planned to build his dream home in the Healy Heights neighborhood in the 1990s until a 1996 landslide wrecked the site. What followed was 10 years of litigation between the Spada family and the city over who was to blame for the landslide; the case ended in a settlement in 2006 in which the city paid the Spadas $450,000 and acquired the property. When the city announced its intent to sell it this January, the Spada family and residents of properties neighboring the lot fought the sale. They sought to preserve a grand view of Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge and Mount St. Helens. Despite the rancor, the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services proceeded with the sale and wanted to list it at $60,000. In late May, it sold for just $10,000—to an adjacent homeowner, who plans to name a park after the Spadas. Veggie royalty: 1. City of Portland: 0.