- City of Portland
- An artist's rendering of the new R2DToo site, as proposed.
Following unexpected absences from Mayor Charlie Hales (sick) and Commissioner Steve Novick (personal matter), a meeting that will largely determine the fate of the self-managed homeless rest area has been pushed back two weeks. With Commissioner Nick Fish already scheduled to miss today's hearing, the unplanned absences would have meant only two commissioners would be on hand—short of the three-commissioner quorum required to vote on most matters.
The hearing's now scheduled for February 18, at 2 pm.
As we reported in this week's Mercury, the meeting is something of a sequel to a 2013 meeting. Back then, Commissioner Amanda Fritz was hoping to find a home for R2DToo beneath the Broadway Bridge, but the effort was repulsed by Pearl District developers (who instead gave R2DToo more than $840,000 to find new digs).
Now, Fritz and Hales have a new plot in mind, on the east side of the Tilikum Crossing bridge. Expect drama—today's hearing was slated to run four hours and might easily have gone longer. You've got two extra weeks to prepare.
