Keep Portland Weird, Indeed!

Spotted by Dieselboi, who apparently was too busy to share with you — PortlandMaps has decided (unlike Russ) to get into the holiday cheer, as it were.

Personally? I think it’s great. In a city where bureaucracy (and task forces and Mayoral Guidance Committees) waits around every corner, it’s nice to know that someone in government can be timely with something. And fun, to boot.

Now awaiting the “waste of money and time” comment…

Wil at Metroblogging LA put up a great post this morning. It echoes a question Mr. Viddy asked over at our photo group at Flickr, and I am going to shamelessly appropriate it for my own use.

Where would you take someone who wanted to take some cool pictures of Portland? As a contributor to the Portland Metroblogging group at Flickr, I have my own favorite places to take pictures. But we want to hear from you.

Where would you photograph Portland, if you had a limited amount of time, and wanted to take home some unique and representative shots of the Rose City? Where would you go, and why?

…comes from the acerbic pen of The O’s television critic, Peter Ames Carlin.

Yeah, yeah, yeah – I know the OMI crowd could probably care less, since they’ve been on PAC’s case from Day One for not covering the local television news scene with the gravitas they desire. (Frankly, I think that’s just another reason to applaud the man – he knew enough to steer clear of that mudpit when he came aboard during that whole contract negotation phase, it seems. Sorry, Lynn – am not a fan of the local tv news scene.)

And here’s yet another acerbicism worthy of deep bowing and scraping (especially for those following the travails of OLive’s foray into comment-enabled blogging):

That’s it for now. But please rememeber that, while this blog appears to invite you to contribute a response, or a comment or something, this blog is in actual fact not able to accept your contribution, response or comment at this time. Don’t ask me why. Because if you do, I can only pass along what I’ve heard, which is some combination of eye-rolling and exasperated sighing and then maybe some muttering, usually sort of on the angry side, and then a request for patience. So there.

So there, indeed.

One abandoned building dow…

Originally uploaded by dieselboii.

A few to go. The building on SW 5th which used to house the old Caplan Sports store is undergoing some work. There have been signs up for a couple of years promising change, yet nothing happened. I am excited to see something new in the space. Also, with the construction, maybe they will clean the graffiti covered windows on the top floor. Ok now, when will the other empty buildings in downtown go under the knife?

I heard the whispers. I heard the shrieks. So I searched the inter-web. And it is indeed true. Tomorrow – All Hollows Eve – FEARnet comes to life.

Well, if you have Comcast cable that is. October 31st Comcast launches its latest niche-marketing segment – aimed at those of us who can’t get enough of the horror movies – and not just at Halloween.

They’re saying that they’ll have more than 200 movies in the rotation for the first year available through the free On Demand portion of the digital cable packages. That also means that they’ll show ads at the beginning of the movie – but not throughout – AND it means the movies are in their entirety – unlike if they played on any standard cable channel. I attempted to watch Nightmare on Elm Street this weekend while doing some “holiday baking” and everything that makes it a horror movie had been cut out. Simply ridiculous. I had to turn it off.

There is also online content that you can download and mobile content.

I know what I’ll be watching tomorrow night waiting for trick-or-treaters to come by!

Sorry Russ – only 1 more day of Halloween-centric blogging…

Almost a year ago now, just after Thanksgiving, the meth head across the street from us got kicked out of his house and the property was put up for sale, cheap. It was quickly sold, cleaned, painted, etc., though after being a nosy neighbor and checking it out at the first open house they had, I was saddened to find that the work done was like putting wet-n-wild lipstick on a pig. The initial asking price was an attempt to cash in on the then-booming housing market, but I knew it wouldn’t sell for anything near what the new owners were hoping.

Cut to a week ago (and about six months after it initially went on the market after the so-called renovation and more than a few price drops) as a friend was driving me home, and just as we went past the house, I started to say, “And here’s the drug house that will never–” only to stop myself midsentence due to the new “sale pending” sticker on the sale sign.

And now, now I have a new neighbor. And while I haven’t met him (them?) yet, the first impressions aren’t good. There are no less than four vehicles parked outside the house now, one of which is filled with trash (and not moving trash, just boxes filled with paper and other detritus) and another of which has a smashed in front end (and is also full to the brim with stuff. There’s junk in the backyard — again, not “moving in”-type junk, just junk junk that hasn’t moved in over a week. The other night at about 11:00, somebody drove up and started yelling for the guy in the house to come out so they could go somewhere, and I’m pretty sure the doorbell works.

I’m really hoping to be proven wrong and that the trash and some of the vehicles and the like will be cleaned up once the move is more finalized, in which case I’ll hang my head in judgmental shame, but for now I’m feeling cautiously pessimistic. Though it’s probably better that it’s occupied rather than just sitting vacant as it has been for so long. Something about an empty house is just so sad.

Sure, I’ve been bitching about how the city ought to spend their budget surplus. And I’ve been less than laudatory about our Mayor’s knee jerk reaction to form committees left and right. But to prove that I’m not just about the pissing and moaning, here’s an excellent example of exactly how the money should be spent: Mayor seeks $250,000 to train cops in crisis intervention.

Mayor Tom Potter plans to ask for $250,000 from the city’s unanticipated revenue this year to be set aside for the Portland Police Bureau to begin providing to patrol officers the 40 hours of Crisis Intervention Training that focuses on how to deal with people suffering from a mental illness.

And to think: we didn’t even have to wait for a committee to meet and then rubber stamp the recommendation! A few more decisions like this one, and we’ll have to retire the nickname, no?

In fact, I’ll close this post with a thanks to Mayor Potter.

Update: Matt Davis over at the Mercury (who’s been doing some great reporting lately on this issue) has more information and reaction. Plus an artistic tribute or two…

Several media organization websites run Reader’s Polls. Sometimes change daily.

So I decided to go through today’s polls, select the ones with relevance to Portland.

Here’s what is up in reader poll land:

KGW-Do you think the tram project is good for Portland?
Yes- 45.81%; No- 54.19%

Oregon Live- Ted Kulongoski or Ron Saxton for Governor?
Ted-73%, Ron- 27%. (new week’s count starts today)

KATU- Should Oregonians have to provide proof of residency before getting a driver’s license?
Yes- 94%; No- 5%; Unsure- 1%.

KOIN- Before OSU’s win over third-ranked USC, some were calling for coach Mike Riley’s resignation. Does the upset reaffirm your confidence in Riley?
Results at 11 p.m.

What do you think about the Portland Aerial Tram, Ted vs. Ron, proof-of-residency for driver’s license and OSU coach Mike Riley?

Here are some things we learned last fall, courtesy of the Metroblog:

* Hot tips on a NOPO chimney inspector, and also who to avoid.
* Sayler’s has a happy hour!
* Tossing Teddybears rocks! (And this year it will be the 25th of November)
* Noon. Thanksgiving. KINK FM. Alice’s Restaurant.
* Unchecked aggression? Take it out on a leaf-clogged drain!
* I know, if it ain’t broke, but sometimes you do need to fix it. This year’s Fix-It Fair is the 18th of November.
* Miz JuJu wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo. To borrow a phrase from her, haters step off. (PS: NaNoWriMo is the month of November, so warm up those typing fingers now!)
* I think leafblowers suck. And I still do, actually…
* Maybe there’s another sale there this fall…seriously. Have you BEEN to Motokitty?
* Betsy wants free crap for her birthday! And I’m looking for free crap for mine in a couple of weeks, so if you have a hot tip pass it on!

(this is me with palms outstretched doing the weigh thing)
Should I watch Monday Night Football or go learn about the origins of life on Earth? Hmmm…. OMSI and Bridgeport Brewery are sponsoring Science Pub tonight.

Where did life come from? What is alive, anyway? How could it all have started on a lifeless planet? Join Dr. Niles Lehman,Professor of Chemistry at Portland State University, as he explores problems in studying the origins of life, and tells us about some insights and advances towards solving the puzzle of the beginning of life.

When: Monday, October 30, 7:00pm
Where: Bridgeport brewpub + bakery, NW 14th/Marshal

Monday night football starts @ 5:30, so I guess I could watch some of the game before becoming edumacated..