This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, October 8, 2009
News Read The Goddamn News
Posted by Matt Davis on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 2:20 PM
KNOCK, KNOCK, TAX THE RICH Sarah Mirk went door-knocking in Creston Kenilworth last weekend with Steve Novick, talking to neighbors about January's upcoming tax vote. Turns out, Portlanders are overwhelmingly supportive of taxing rich corporations and people a little more to pay for basic services.
DOWN THE P-HOLE My column this week focuses on Portland's tendency to be smug—thereby undermining the value of most of the things we have to be smug about. Whether it's Nick Fish saying we'll be "Jesus' favorite city," or Oregonian arts columnists quoting architects comparing us to "Florence, circa 1400," the signs have been brewing for the last six months. We need to get out of this P-hole. Not your urethra, it's more like the "K-hole" experienced by club kids when they overdose on the dance drug, Ketamine.
COPS GONE WILD! The police bureau has apologized to the pastoral manager of St.Francis church for dragging a film crew from the TV show COPS into a homeless feed. The police bureau says the show increases "transparency." Copwatch activist Dan Handelman says the show is "propaganda for the police bureau."
KROGER VS. THE WILLAMETTE Attorney General John Kroger led journalists, citizens and environmentalists on a paddle in the Willamette last week, to kick off his environmental prosecution efforts. "Come back in a year and see how many people we have indicted," he said.
PRICING DIGNITY The city wants $23,000 in permit fees before it will allow the residents of Portland's "tent city," Dignity Village, to install permanent toilets. It's politically impossible for them to waive the permit fees, as they have in the past, because the permitting bureau just laid off 150 folks in the recession.
BONJOUR, BEAVERTON! Bicycle ambassadors from Denmark, France, Holland and Belgium visited the Portland region last week to talk to us about bike commuting. We need to get businesses on board—in Amsterdam, companies pay for employees to have bikes, for example, reducing sickness by 12 percent.
Read the goddamn news.
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