During our endorsement interview this spring—and at several candidate forums—city council candidate Charles Lewis made it clear there was one issue where he held a different view from his challengers: He opposed the city’s creation of a day laborer center.

Back then, Lewis cited concerns about “where the funds would come from,” as well as the city’s involvement in a messy federal issue. Now, after speaking with center booster Mayor Tom Potter, as well as center organizers, Lewis has a different perspective. Lewis sent out a “letter to the editor” with his thoughts, which is after the cut, but I called him to get the details on his changed mind.

“I had a great conversation with Mayor Potter on the day center. The thing that really got me thinking about it is he said this is an issue of civil disobedience. You’ve got the idea that the governments can actually practice civil disobedience against another government,” Lewis says. “I’ve done stuff in the past where as an individual I can speak out about government… [Portland is] doing something against another government to strike out against injustice there. I feel much more at peace about the whole thing.”

He also was concerned that the center would perpetuate exploitation of vulnerable workers, but was happy to hear that the workers recently voted to impose a $10 minimum wage, “which I thought was an absolute necessity,” says Lewis—who’s facing Amanda Fritz in the runoff for council seat #1.

He points out that the city’s $200,000 investment is “a very miniscule amount of funding to get the ball rolling.” Moreover, “this isn’t the end all be all solution to all of this, but it’s something that we can do as a community to say we’re going to protect people in our community regardless of what the federal government says. We believe that people shouldn’t be exploited, and we will do things as a community to protect the most vulnerable people in our society.” (To that end, Lewis noticed that the center was missing basics like desks and chairs, and he donated a dozen chairs from his campaign office.)

Finally, to set the record straight: Lewis’ opposition to the center seemed to curry favor with the anti-immigration set, and portrayed him as a conservative on the issue. Is that true? “Not at all,” he says. So what are his thoughts on federal immigration policy? “I think it’s a mess, and I think something needs to be done to address all of the issues. I don’t think anyone would think that it’s without problems at all. We need laws for people to become citizens. Immigrants built America and I think we should welcome them with open arms.”

Lewis’ letter is after the cut. And check out this week’s forthcoming Mercury for an excellent feature on the center through two workers’ eyes, written by Sarah Mirk.

Last week, the five members of the city council signed onto a letter outlining their thoughts on the massive Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project—a letter meant to guide tomorrow night’s CRC task force when it takes a vote to recommend a “locally preferred option” for the project.

The problem is, the council isn’t holding a public hearing about the issue until July 9, when they’ll take a position on whatever the task force recommends. (The council’s having a work session this Thursday, but there’s no public testimony at those.)

Shoshanah Oppenheim, a policy advisor on transportation issues in Commissioner Sam Adams’ office, explains that the letter—you can download it here—was the best way to present recommendations and “things that are of concern,” says Oppenheim, from the city’s Planning Commission (which has already held public hearings) and the city’s Offices of Transportation and Sustainable Development.

An early letter from the council gave those bodies’ critiques of the project “the credence that we felt it deserved,” says Oppenheim. “We couldn’t figure out how else to send the testimony heard by the Planning Commission… it’s an opportunity for us to weigh in as a city” before the task force votes.

So what does the city council have to say, before hearing from its constituents? This is a good summary of the letter’s four pages of recommendations:

School’s out for the summer, but PolitiCorps—a national political leadership training program, or “political bootcamp,” based here in Portland—is now in session. I’m on the campus of the Catlin Gabel School, just over the West Hills, where 24 college-aged future political leaders are listening to the Bus Project’s Emily Kintzer, as she gives an overview of the program.

Last year, the program registered 1300 voters, canvassed for ballot measures, and recruited political volunteers—and the PolitiCorps fellows also juggled classes that taught them how to do political organizing. It’s a long, tough summer: They work all day long, seven days a week, for eight weeks. The current crop, who arrived in town over the weekend, spend the night here at Catlin Gabel, crashing on the floor in this academic building.

Kintzer polls the group, to find out why they signed up for the stint: Did they like the idea of spending a summer in Portland? A few raised their hands. How about “the appeal of learning how to do grassroots organizing?” she asked. Nearly everyone raised their hand.

Watch out for this crew—they’ll be out in communities around the state this summer, with an eye toward outreach about the fall election. And after the summer’s over, these folks will fan out across the country—direct Caitlin Baggott is telling the group about future opportunities in political campaigns and civic nonprofits, and how what they’ll learn this summer in Oregon will prepare them for those roles, if they want them.

True or false: New City Commissioner Nick Fish plans to join a camp out on city hall’s steps this Saturday night—a continuation of last month’s long protest against the sit-lie and camping ordinances.

False!

Chalk that rumor up to a “lame attempt at humor” on Fish’s part, he says. On Wednesday, when Fish presented Sisters of the Road’s Patrick Nolen with an award, Fish remarked: “Patrick and I had lunch the other day and today I gave him an award. By this rate we’re going to go camping this weekend,” Fish relayed to me last night. It was a joke, “since we were spending a lot of quality time together,” he says.

Fish didn’t realize there is a camp out protest this weekend, but his comments at the awards ceremony sparked speculation that he’d be swinging by. That’s a big deal, as it appears Fish will be the swing vote if the council revisits the sit-lie or camping ordinances this fall.

As for his views on those ordinances, Fish is still exploring the issue before he makes up his mind. “What I said to [Nolen] was I need some time to go around the horn. There’s a half dozen people I’m going to meet with to talk about it,” he says, including Police Chief Rosie Sizer, the PBA’s Mike Kuykendall, folks from the advocacy community like Marc Jolin and Nolen, his colleagues, and representatives from those who’ve been testifying in front of city council on a weekly basis about the ordinances. “As the new commissioner and as someone who is now going to play a leadership role on this issue, I wanted to make sure I understand this issue completely.”

And as for Fish’s weekend? “I’m hoping to spend the weekend in bed. I have these flu symptoms.”

Remember that event we used to have every month with the Bus Project? I think it was called Debate Club.

Well.

It’s been reborn! Meet Brewhaha, our new, shinier, funner, faster-paced, variety-show style monthly forum on the weighty topics of our day.

This month, we’re kicking global warming’s ass, with an hour-long program that’ll cram in a pub quiz, a policy 101 that’ll explain what you can do to impact climate change in Oregon, a guide to the most fashionable ways to live more sustainably, and a very exciting presentation on some of the City of Portland’s biggest ideas for combating global warming (those ideas are so big, I can’t even mention them on this blog). We’ll have special guests from 1000 Friends of Oregon, and a special appearance by enviro-smarty pants Jules Kopel-Bailey, candidate for the Oregon House. (If he can’t explain the difference between a carbon tax and a cap and trade system, no one can.)

That’s all going down next Wednesday evening at edge of belmont, at 33rd and SE Morrison, 7 pm, all ages—and it’s free! (And through the magic of edge of belmont, it’s both all ages and there’s drinking.)

A new report carried out by the Portland Bureau of Planning and Portland State University says food carts are good for neighborhood vitality, and is encouraging the City of Portland to identify more locations for them. The report, which you can download here, makes for interesting reading, but it does rather gloss over conflicts that have arisen between food carts and storefront business owners in the past.

For example, the first paragraph reads: “According to an Oregonian article, a business owner near a new cluster of food carts on Hawthorne Blvd. acknowledged that the carts have increased his business due to the popularity of the carts.” Then it references this article by Steve Duin at the Oregonian, which spends 11 paragraphs describing tension between the owners of a new food cart in the parking lot next door to Tiny’s Coffee, and Tiny’s owner Phil Ragaway, who said:

“I’m all for small business; I’m a small business,” Ragaway said. “But the carts aren’t playing by the same rules. I’m the guy paying the development charges. They don’t have facilities such as bathrooms and (running) water. My water bills have more than doubled. My trash cans were overflowing.”

Come on, people. If you’re writing with an agenda, at least be honest about it. Now, what do people think of a food cart catering to the needs of homeless people? How’s that for increasing pedestrian foot traffic? Or would it be the wrong kind of foot traffic? Perhaps Peterson’s could open a downtown convenience cart aimed specifically at liberal Nazi gentrifiers in need a pack of smokes. He could call it “A Convenient Truth.” Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.

Today at city hall, I found a stack of these on the front desk in Commissioner Sam Adams’ office:

It’s a temporary tattoo. Advertising the city’s one-stop phone number. Um… why? And who would slap this on their body? Note that mine’s on my fridge.

And what happens when I need some city info, but my temporary tattoo with the magical “who to call in city hall” phone number has washed off? Who do I call then??

I’m going to be upfront about my complete conflict of interest here: My friend Greg came up with these t-shirts (and thongs) over the weekend, and since they’re pretty much entirely awesome, I’m going to post them here. When sales undoubtedly skyrocket, I’ll probably heckle him for a cut of the profits.

Also, BEFORE ANYBODY SAYS ANYTHING IN THE COMMENTS, WHICH I’M NOT GOING TO READ JUST TO BE SAFE ANYWAY, I’m not caught up on Battlestar Galactica. I’m like three episodes behind. I know. I know. But whoever the kind and/or oblivious neighbor was in my apartment building who was letting me leech their wifi either moved away or got wise to my thievery. Either way, they can go to hell, as they’ve left me BSG-less until I have a chance to download the episodes later this week. In the meantime, I’ll be waiting, desparately keeping my fingers crossed, hoping against hope that there’ll be more of Gaeta’s goofy-ass ballads.

As you may have heard, Tim Russert, the longtime host of Meet the Press died of a massive coronary on Friday. One of the great interviewer/reporters, Russert always did a kickass job regardless of who was sitting in the seat opposite, and he will be missed.

Yesterday’s edition of Meet the Press (hosted by Tom Brokaw) was devoted to Russert’s legacy, and is pretty moving stuff. CHECK OUT THE ENTIRE EPISODE HERE. No time today? Check out this quick recap here.

Democratic (and bizarrely, it seems, Republican, too) Attorney general candidate John Kroger wants to put together a multi-state lawsuit against banks across the country to force them to stop cheating hard-working families out of debt through unscrupulous practices, he said last night.

Kroger, a charismatic Lewis & Clark professor who has prosecuted Enron and mafia bosses, held up a credit card offer received by his campaign at a Town Hall sponsored by economic fairness group Our Oregon, SEIU and OSPIRG, at Portland State University last night. The card offered an interest rate of 5.25%, or 9.24%, or 12.24%, or 15.24%, “as determined by us, based on a credit evaluation and a number of factors,” Kroger quoted. “And it goes on to quote one other factor, including the size of your credit line. But the point is, the box that’s supposed to tell you what you’re getting doesn’t tell you what you’re getting.”

“And then at the bottom of the offer in four point type, it says ‘I acknowledge that any service or benefit may be modified at any time’,” Kroger continued. “So the bottom line is, none of this counts.”

“What angers me is the idea that consumers are blamed,” he said. “I can’t tell you what the legal impact of this offer is, and I’m a pretty reasonable lawyer. So what is the average consumer going to be able to do?”

“I don’t think we in Oregon have enough money to fight the banks on our own,” he said. “But if we ally ourselves with other states, just like with tobacco, we can have a huge positive impact.”

A credit card company was the biggest contributor to the Bush campaign in 2000. In 2006, credit card companies charged consumers $36bn in fees. In 2007, they charged consumers $192bn in penalty fees, that’s $872 for every adult in the US. You might like to check out the movie Overdrawn, by Portland director Karney Hatch, if you want to learn more.

Jeff Merkley, who is running for US senate, listed the ways credit card companies screw people over. From double cycle billing, which means you pay interest on a balance you’ve already paid off, to giving unfair notice to get your payments in on time. Then there’s misleading terms, unfair payment allocation, so you pay off the lower interest debt before the screwy, high interest debt, not to mention inadequate notice of going over your limit. “This makes credit cards an ‘I gotcha’ type of operation,” he said.

Our Oregon is looking for people to tell stories of getting screwed over by credit card companies. This is Blogtown: You know what to do…

This week, in gentrification:

BROOKS BROTHERS: Too chi-chi to have people buying cigarettes opposite?

Downtown retailer Doug Peterson has owned his store on SW 10th and Morrison for 23 years. “I’m a downtown booster, I always have been,” he says. “I opened that store when the MAX was under construction and there were jackhammers all over the place. I saw the future for downtown Portland, and took advantage of it. “
Now, with the arrival of a Brooks Brothers store directly opposite, it appears Peterson’s welcome with the downtown business community and in turn, the city of Portland, which owns his store’s building, has worn out. He has until August 15th to get out.

Peterson owns three stores in downtown Portland, making $2.87m a year in sales. The Morrison Street store, which is his flagship store, makes annual sales of $1.4m.

“I’m really very upset about this,” he says. “I haven’t really told my employees yet, I’ve been hoping I could do something quietly behind the scenes without attracting too much attention.”

The arrival of the Brooks Brothers store in the Galleria building opposite was greeted with glee by Portland Business Alliance boss Sandra McDonogh when she announced it to City Club in May, 2007. Brooks Brothers would have a “galvanizing and important effect on the West End of Downtown,” she said. Yet that’s not how Peterson sees it, and the city, which has been charging Peterson $2935 a month to rent the space, says the store is now a problem location. Read the full story after the jump.

After a fairly awkward interview with the less-charming-than-hoped-for Zooey Deschanel last night, Letterman welcomed former White House PR guy Scott McClellan onto the show.

LETTERMAN: My feeling about Cheney and also Bush, but especially Cheney, is he just couldn’t care less about Americans. And that the same is true of George Bush. And all they really want to do is somehow kiss up to the oil people so they can get some great annuity when they’re out of office. “There you go, Dick, nice job. There’s a couple of billion for your troubles.” I mean, he pretty much put Halliburton in business, and the outsourcing of the military resources to private mercenary groups, and so forth. Is there any humanity in either of these guys?

McCLELLAN: Look, I still have personal affection for the president. I can’t speak to the vice president’s thinking that well because he’s someone that keeps things himself and he believes in doing it his way, and he doesn’t care what anybody else thinks. He is going to do what he feels is best and that’s not always in the best interests of the country. As we’ve seen.

LETTERMAN: You told me backstage that you thought he was a goon!

McClellan then fake laughed and looked really, really uncomfortable. It was great.

Speaking of Letterman’s radness, this also gives me an excuse, however flimsy, to post one my favorite Letterman segments of late: “Great Moments in Presidential Speeches.”

Transcript from Huffington, and you can watch a video of the appearance there, too.