A very lively conversation over at BlueOregon on the general shoddiness and crappiness of OregonLive.com. I recommend checking it out and reading through the comments.

BlueOregon Hates on OregonLive.

Nice to see the Portland blogosphere agrees on this, maybe it will help motivate them. I wonder if other places that have an adnavce.net site for their major paper also hate it?

The fact that we are having this debate about the effects of Measure 37 is testament to fact that our tendency to overlook individual interests in favor of a common good are in critical danger.

Danger from people such as Lars Larson, who never met a developer he didn’t like and would gladly vote to abandon the Urban Growth Boundary and Luis Palau, most of whose followers believe that the land and its natural beauty are there to be mastered.

Add to that an army of grouchy suburban sourpusses, who view themselves as having worked hard all their lives, and don’t want government restricting the business strategies available to them to make money on their investment. Some give up and move to Clark County. Good riddance yes, but too many of these folks are still around.

Sensing this shift, phalanxes of suburban developers and realtors who once bit their lip and worked within our growth management system, now see an opportunity to loosen those strictures in the service of mammon.

Getting the Portland Police Bureau updates is fun. Like getting a heads up about the New Years plans piques my interest.

Police Plan for Safe Celebration

Portland Police plan to be present throughout the city this New Years Eve to provide a safe environment for everyone in the community to enjoy the turning of the calendar. Officers in all five precincts will be available to respond to calls for service as usual. In addition, some officers will be assigned to work special details where crowds of people may gather to celebrate.

The largest event planned in the city is the New Years Eve party in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Police will block the nine square block area surrounding the Square. There will be specific points of entry for members of the public who wish to participate in the festivities.
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Soooo…is anyone heading downtown to Pioneer Square for the celebration there? Has anyone ever done this – and if so, is it a reasonable thing to do with two kids who are budding party animals & wish they could be in Times Square instead? Are there better alternatives?

(Their mother lived in New York for years and knew better than to be anywhere near Times Square, but that’s a digression.)

I also know there’s the first Run & Walk for Schools party/benefit at the World Trade Center organized by the Portland Schools Foundation – anyone doing that instead? (To be honest, I’m leery of the precedent I’m setting by paying 20 bucks for my six year old to attend a New Year’s Party – even though I know it’s a benefit for our public school system.)

If you’re not planning on being downtown for either event, why not? Is it out of fear of a repeat of the vandalism that took place four years ago? Fear of being stuck downtown in an ice storm, a la last year? A better venue/offer, perhaps?

Where/how do you celebrate New Years in Portland, anyway?

In last Sunday’s Oregonian Randy Gragg had a great article about the current state of Portland architecture. Covering a bit of history, the frightening impacts of Measure 37, and the future large scale projects coming up, I feel like this one article gives me an overview of Portland.

Two pillars of urban planning fall by Randy Gragg.

Defeated Mayoral candidate Jim Francesconi has accepted a position with private law firm Haglund, Kelley, Horngren & Jones, the Oregonian reported today.

The article also discusses the public policy issues he intends to stay involved in — namely, schools and workforce diversity.

On my way to work this morning I was surprised to see a line of police cars and a large gaggle of police and Tri-Met security at the PGE Park Max stop. They seemed to be talking to just two people who they had separated. I am guessing this was more than someone not paying the fare.

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You’ll often find me shopping for the evening’s groceries at the Trader Joe’s in Northwest Portland.

On the rear bumper and windows the of cars in the always-jammed parking lot, and the buttons clasped to the backpacks of customers browsing the aisles, you can tell that this is an intown, liberal, hip crowd. If the Republic were confined to the store’s footprint, put it this way – the ketchup at the inagural ball would be guess what brand. And when it comes to music, more of this crowd listens to Lyle Lovett than Toby Keith – I assure you.

Which is why the music most often played on the Northwest Trader Joe’s P.A. system often makes no sense to me. Today I heard “Too Much, Too Little Too Late,” the soft disco ballad from Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams. When that song ended, on came “No Tell Lover,” a sappy ballad from Chicago’s sappy ballad period.

Not all that long ago, at the same TJ’s I heard the 1970s metal classic “Easy Livin” by Uriah Heep. I am not making this up.

Here, so many of us are attuned to the restorative powers of the ocean.

But as we have found out, the ocean can kill. At last count, some 24,000 people have lost their lives to the killer Indian Ocean tsunami.

As I type this, Portland-based Mercy Corps is busy coordinating their response to this incomprehensively vast natural disaster.

This response takes expertise, equipment, and of course, money.

To give, click here.

PDX Airport, how I love thee, let me count the ways.

1. Thy coffee chain is the only coffee chain I do not rightly despise, for Coffee People serves righteously strong espresso that tastes good as well. Struth! It doth make my fingers shake fit to mistype like the devil!
2. Thy free internet access is a boon indeed.
3. Thy providing of flight information on thy pre-internet routers is a godsend! Thy generosity knows no bounds

Oh, PDX International Airport, the ways I love thee are not but three, for I limited myself to these meager three, and thus do not encompass the glories of thy sweeping architechture, the pleasing hum of thy slidewalks, nor does it include the willingness of the TSA folk to manually inspect my film.

Oh, were that all airports were as thou, oh Portland International Airport.