I just read over at The O that Oregon is that much closer to being a player in the 2008 presidential primaries. Normally, our presidential primary occurs with our other primary – in May, long after the parties have decided on who is going to be the candidate. Salem Rep. Vicki Berger has pushed for Oregon to be included in the February primary with other states hopefully making it a SUPER SUPER Tuesday.
To think that Oregon would have even a little say in who would be the nominee gives me goose bumps and makes me giddy. Now we just need to get Warren Beatty, Alec “The Bloviator” Baldwin, George Hamilton, Homer Simpson, and Laura Roslyn to announce their candidacy.

Trust The Portland Mercury and the Oregon Bus Project to put a sexy spin on that most, um, enervating topic: reforming Portland’s city charter.

But don’t just take my word for it – check out what Mercury news editor Scott Moore has to say:

The Portland Mercury and the Bus Project are teaming up to help you
get to the bottom of all this charter reform business. We’re holding
one of the very few public forums where the issues will be discussed
and debated in public–and since the outcome of the May election
could change the way Portland is governed, we think it’s pretty dang
important that voters be fully educated.

Plus, there will be booze.

I’d be there if I could. It sounds like a rocking good time. Really! But I have a kid performing in Portland: The Musical that night mere blocks away – I’m already booked solid.

But you should DEFINITELY go:

Wednesday, April 4
7pm
Acme
1305 SE 8th
FREE (of course)

And that whole ’sex, beer and…’ promise? Check out the promo flyer after the jump:
(more…)

Earlier today, the Oregon House approved a measure that would mandate the possession of rescue beacoms (i.e. mountain locator units) for all who aspire to ascend to the summit of Mount Hood.

The vote was 33-22. Now the bill goes to the Oregon Senate.

My take: mandate mountain locator units if you don’t want to pay public agencies for your rescue.

In other words, you use them, you get lost, we’ll find you and we won’t bill ya.

You don’t use them because you think you are too macho and mountain locator units are for wusses and the state wants to play Mommy?

Well, then, we’ll be sending you a bill.

Or your estate a bill.

We had a horse wrasslin! We sure thought our pretty little horsies were safe. Nope. Someone made off with our plastic beauties.

Came home one day to find these fine horses tethered to a horse ring outside my house in SE Portland. Only later did I learn that there is this mighty fine use of horse rings here in Portland. It’s called “the horse project,” and here’s how it works. Get yourself some cute, plastic horses and a bit of wire. Now find yourself a horse ring and put it to use.

Look at all the pretty horses here in Portland on this nifty Platial map. Looks like there are some horses in my neighborhood.

But just beware. Horse wrasslin’ is a problem in Portland. Anyone know a good tracker?

Well – anyone headed to Beaverton is going to have fun today….westbound Hwy 26 is completely blocked by trees and debris….

Video on KATU and I’m sure all the other news sites…

Slate Magazine notes that “San Francisco banned non-recyclable plastic bags at grocery stores and other retailers. Bangladesh, South Africa, Taiwan, and Paris, France, have adopted similar bans; Ireland taxes plastic bags. Other U.S. cites are considering whether to do the same.”

I have no idea if Portland is one of the “Other U.S. cities.” If it’s not, it should be.

The piece goes on to list the pros and cons of the move: “Rationales: 1) Less environmental harm and global warming. 2) Less dependence on oil from the crazy Middle East. Objections: 1) Paper and recyclable bags cost more, and stores will pass on the cost to consumers, so it’s a regressive tax. 2) If recyclable bags are weaker, people will use twice as many, defeating the ban’s purpose. Rebuttals: The bags are strong, and the difference is just a few pennies.”

For me, the “paper or plastic” question has always prompted a muted, disorganized, poorly-thought-out and unenthusiastic response. I like paper. It’s what I had as a kid. We would recycle the bag by using it for our garbage. These days, though, kitchen garbage cans never seem to accomodate paper. On top of that, I have a baby and a dog and the plastic bags get recycled for gathering their unmentionables. And the plastic is usually pretty sturdy, unless you get something pointy in the bottom of your bag that manages to puncture the wall of the surrounding bag.

But even with all the benefits, I feel bad taking plastic. I know it’s not good for the environment (just as I know that my tall plastic handle-tie kitchen garbage liners aren’t — and, as an aside, I was looking at the boxes of garbage bags at Fred Meyer the other day to see if any were being touted as environmentally friendly; that facade’s been entirely dropped by the whole industry). And I often see the remnants of them blowing down my street, making their way into the sewers where they can eventually damage some eco-system downstream. The eco-unfriendliness is, to me, in and of itself enough reason to abandon the things.

Portland takes some interesting stands. Our city council votes on war-on-terror issues. We ban smoking in the public square. We at least considered ridding the town of trans-fats. Some of these things are of dubious benefit. But a local ban on plastic grocery bags has an obvious purpose, and an obvious reward.

So, Potter and crew, if you aren’t considering it already, here’s one citizen asking you to consider banning the plastic grocery bag.

What do you think?

I know I’m a little late coming out of the chute with this, but I just finished reading the incredible recent expose the Wally Week did on the ‘Couv’, and realized there is still a lot of elitism in Portland about which side of the river we live on, whether it’s the Columbia or the Willamette. There is definitely an “Us vs. Them” vibe.

One thing I have noticed living here for the past 14 years, is there are a brave group of pioneers who, out of necessity, or just for the shear ballsiness of it, move to the neighborhoods most people would consider “undesirable.” It may be someplace where rent is cheap and there’s a little diversity (however you want to define that term) in the area, or it’s industrial and kind of creepy and you can make as much noise as you want without your neighbors giving you shit about it. They start forming communities with neighbors, friends, small businesses, etc., and create a comfortable pocket where everyone at least tolerates each other. As soon as it gets to a point where they really enjoy living there, the next wave moves in. They think it’s “edgy” and will make them look hip, so they start buying up the houses that the “pioneers” were able to rent for cheap, move in a coffee shop, an upscale wine/beer bar, and a trattoria or some other place these people can’t afford to eat, and eventually push out the group who made the neighborhood attractive to begin with.

I saw this trend start first-hand when I moved to Portland in 1993. I moved into Granada Court off of 24th and Sandy right next to the freeway. They’re the pumpkin colored apartments next to the Pepsi plant off of 28th. When I moved in there were prostitutes everywhere, condoms, and needles littered the street, and E.J’s was still around. Chin Yen’s, Hollmans, and the Hungry Tiger were the only “restaurants” on 28th at the time. We managed to get rid of the prostitutes, clean up our neighborhood, pull together a community with our own garden, and help make it a nice place to hang out. Unfortunately as soon as Starbuck’s moved in on 28th and Burnside, and Natures’ went in around the block we knew our time was short. 28th became “the place” to open a restaurant or bar, the gelato place moved in, housing prices started jacking up, and the nice people who owned our property passed away. The new owners decided the timing was right to displace us by “renovating the apartments” and jacking the rent up $300. We all ended parting ways and it really sucked.

I’ve seen the same thing happen in the Alberta area, the Pearl District, neighborhoods on the Westside where the apartments have gone condo, and now on N. Mississippi. My favorite complaint was from someone in the Pearl District who wanted something done about the noise from the trains coming through. I know Portland has to expand, but I don’t know why people have to be such jerks about it.

My friend just recently bought a very cute house in “felony flats.” The house had everything he was looking for, including a backyard, and the price was right. Sure there are meth-heads a couple of blocks over on either side, but there is also a little Vietanamese restaurant that makes the best salad rolls in town two blocks down, and a taqueria that sells handmade tacos for a buck a piece. I have seen the “creep” starting to edge it’s way down Foster with the opening of a new bar and a new restaurant, but I think it’s going to be a couple of years before his zip code comes anywhere near to being attractive.

So, go ahead and be an elitist about your neighborhood, because we will be laughing at how much you paid for your cramped condo that used to be a cramped apartment, and the $600,000.00 you just spent on a house four blocks off the traintracks. We’ll just keep making Portland, and maybe even the ‘Couv’ a safe place for you to move to, and we’ll make sure to find a perfect spot for your Starbucks and New Seasons.

Wow, I don’t get out enough to the burbs. This past weekend, we were down off McLoughlin and I saw that G.I. Joe’s was no longer named that, but it was now named just Joe’s. It was kind of a shock. I remember G.I. Joe’s as the place to go when I was kid growing up in SE Portland out by Gresham. I knew the store chain had been sold to a private equity firm, but I didn’t realized the name would change. The O has a story about the change. The colors and logos are the same, so the change isn’t too drastic.
My best memories of G.I. Joe’s was waiting in line for concert tickets. Kids, before there was the internet and ubiquitous cell phones, you had to wait in line, sometimes overnight, to get the best tickets to shows. Back in the 80’s, the choices where you could get tickets were the venue and G.I. Joe’s. And, this wasn’t some cool computerized system that gave you the best choices, it was a crap shoot. You could have slept overnight and been first in line and still not get tickets in the first few rows because the tickets were pre-printed and divvied out to the stores randomly. Oh the heady days of camping overnight on a sidewalk for STING or getting up at 3am to get in line for Depeche Mode (I ended up getting front row tickets for the second show instead of the first – booya!)
Joe’s, I haven’t been your best customer as of late due to life changes. I just don’t ski or hunt or fish or work on my car as much as I used to. Good luck with the name change and the future. Do you have a good G.I. Joe’s memory?

Where in Portland?

Originally uploaded by dieselboii.

This one may be easy, but I wanted to post it anyway. I think Mayor Bud was ahead of his time. Maybe he should throw his hat back into the political ring.

Where is this?

I guess I stumped ya. Wow. Well, this plaque is on the busmall on SW 5th ave across from Pioneer Courthouse. It is for a bike rack. I assume it will be removed at some point during the Portland Mall construction, so wanted to capture it before it goes by by.

Why not? Certainly beats those increasingly-lame bobbleheads.

Local toolmaker Leatherman, citing Roy’s “versatility”, wants to help him win the NBA’s Rookie of the Year title, according to this BizJournal story. And they’re throwing their tools – or, more accurately, the new limited-edition Brandon Roy multi-tool – at the task:

The Portland-based company will mail the tools to the roughly 250 journalists who vote on the award, which will be given after the regular season concludes in mid-April.

You can get your own Brandon Roy Micra – complete with knife, scissors, screwdriver, ruler, bottle opener, file and key-ring attachment – here