News and Culture

Block Party: With Dave Chappelle in Town, NW 23rd Avenue Gets a Surprise Celebrity Visit

Aaron Mesh — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:45:23 +0000

Yes, we heard the rumors. No, we didn’t believe them. Just because Dave Chappelle is shopping at Local35 and dining at the Delta, that doesn’t mean he’s going to throw a free show in Pioneer Courthouse Square at midnight. That’s just provincial silliness, we thought.

But then we walked down NW 23rd Avenue to Escape from New York Pizza’s neighborhood block party, and we couldn’t believe our eyes! After the jump, exclusive photos of the reclusive, mercurial celebrity!

Yes. Really. It’s Rojo the Llama.

He’s from Washington. He has his own poop bag. He grunts softly, and is very good with children. Evidence:

The rest of the block party seemed to be proceeding smoothly, with a line of people waiting for free slices all the way to Hoyt:

It was, as pizza-parlor owner Phil Geffner predicted earlier this afternoon, “like a little Fellini movie.” But no Dave Chappelle. Sorry. Maybe he’ll do the midnight Pioneer thing. You can watch a live camera feed from the Square at KGW. It doesn’t look terribly promising (or even mildly promising) but then what is an impromptu comedy show supposed to look like?

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Cloudy with a Chance of Schmear

Emily Jensen — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:42:05 +0000

Even in a city with an abundance of good grub on the cheap, I often imagine what life would be like if the children’s book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs weren’t fiction. Free hamburgers would pile up on the hoods of cars with each gust of wind, and unlimited pancakes would tumble down from the heavens, drowning out the recession, eliminating world hunger, and keeping the whole planet fat and sassy. So when Kettleman Bagel Company announced that the opening of its new location would be heralded with twelve solid hours of free bagels and cream cheese, I pictured the clouds parting above to reveal a torrent of hearth-baked kosher goodness about to freefall into my mouth. Hey, a girl can dream.

Whether they fall from the sky or not, it’s safe to say that tomorrow it will be raining bagels on Southwest 4th Avenue and Taylor Street. Locally owned and operated Kettleman Bagels will bestow free bagels with cream cheese upon hungry downtown Portlanders from 6 am to 6 pm. The bagel gurus have specified one bagel per customer, but that, my friends, is what disguises are for. Arrive prepared with the costume arsenal I know you’ve been hoarding for just such an occasion and see how many you can rack up before the sky closes up and the bagel flow is cut off until the next location opens—the bagels are so good, there are sure to be more shops popping up all over town.

Yet Another Suggestion For The Made in Oregon Sign

Ben Waterhouse — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:59:08 +0000

Now that the city’s Historic Landmarks Commission has rejected the University of Oregon’s proposal to re-brand the Made in Oregon sign and the nearby “Old Town” water tower, blogger Curt Gardner has an alternative proposal. Looks good to me.

Look What Convention Is Coming to Portland In 2010

Hank Stern — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:11:50 +0000

Who says Portland needs to gamble on a convention center hotel to land conventions?

We learned this morning from Poker News Daily that the National Council on Problem Gambling is coming to town next June 10-12. This year’s convention in Indianapolis drew 350 people, most of whom are counselors.

And we also learn there’s another Oregon connection to the issues facing the council. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) is listed as a co-sponsor of HR 2268, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act — which would impose a license fee on Internet gambling operators.

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City Hosts Sotomayor “Confirmation Watch Party”

Beth Slovic — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 01:10:51 +0000

The divide in Washington, D.C., over the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court also reached Portland on Monday, but for different reasons.

After a director of a city bureau emailed all city employees on Friday to invite them to a “confirmation watch party” Monday morning, one outraged city employee who self-identified as “neither bigoted nor misogynistic nor a Republican” objected to the party and the use of city resources to send the invitation, calling it “irresponsible behavior.”

The employee also alleged the party violated city prohibitions on using city time to advocate political positions. But Linda Meng, Portland’s city attorney, rejected that allegation this afternoon.

“That’s not what this is,” Meng told WW. “I don’t think there’s a legal violation.”

The bureau director accused of breaking the rules (falsely, according to Meng) is María Lisa Johnson, of the Human Relations bureau. Johnson did not return a call from WW today. Below is the email she sent.

—–Original Message—–
From: Johnson, María Lisa
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 5:52 PM
To: Citywide All Employees Distribution List
Subject: Sotomayor Confirmation Watch Party – Portland Bldg Monday 10:30 am

Fellow City Employees,

President Obama has nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s seat. Judge Sotomayor will be the country’s third woman confirmed to the nation’s highest Court, and the first-ever Latina nominated for this distinct honor.On Monday, July 13 at 10:00a ET, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on this nominee. Judge Sotomayor will likely make her opening statement at approximately 11:00am PST, and we want to be watching and supporting her as she presents her qualifications to the country.

You are invited to join us to watch history in the making and witness this extraordinary moment by coming to a Sotomayor Watch Party, hosted by the Urban League of Portland, the Office of Human Relations and the Human Rights Commission.

What: Judge Sotomayor Hearing Watch Party
When: July 13, 2009 at 10:30am PTWHERE: Portland Building, Room C, 1120 SW 5th Ave, Portland 97204
Who: Community leaders, the media, & YOU!
Check out the invitation flyer.

MARIA LISA JOHNSON, DIRECTOR
Office of Human Relations – Human Rights Commission
5315 N VANCOUVER AVE, PORTLAND, OR 97217
Phone: 503-823-4428 Fax: 503-823-4420

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Illustration by Steve Garfield

Updated: Landmarks Commission Rejects “Made in Oregon” Proposal

Beth Slovic — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:35:58 +0000

The city’s Historic Landmarks Commission today unanimously rejected the University of Oregon’s proposal to change the “Made in Oregon” sign on the west bank of the Willamette River, despite Commissioner Randy Leonard’s campaign on behalf of the city this spring to strike a compromise deal with the university (pictured above) on the sign’s wording.

Leonard was not immediately available for comment on the commission’s rejection of the “Made in Oregon” compromise.

The proposal that went before the commission this afternoon also included an application to alter the water tower next to the “Made in Oregon” sign, which sits on top of the White Stag building where the university has its Portland campus. That aspect of the university’s plan called for putting neon yellow “O”s on the 100-year-old tower. And it was that idea that caused the most concern among commissioners, according to Carrie Richter, a member of the landmarks group.

The “no” vote this afternoon on the combined application for the “Made in Oregon” sign and the water tower is technically a tentative rejection. City staff had initially recommended the commission approve the application. Now that the commission has said it won’t approve the application, staff must put their objections in writing. On July 27, the commission will take a formal vote on the matter. At that point, the university can appeal the decision directly to City Council.

A representative for the university was not immediately available for comment.

Update at 9:20 pm: Leonard said his goal when negotiating the new wording for the “Made in Oregon” was to preserve “a civically neutral message that did not appeal to any partisan loyalties of Portlanders.” If City Council hears an appeal from the university, he says he would not vote on the matter “given my personal involvement in negotiating the proposal that went before the Landmarks Commission.”

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When Worlds Converge: Mississippi Street Fair

Emily Jensen — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:58:39 +0000

The Mississippi Street Fair is the everyday culture clash of North Mississippi on acid. Any other day of the year, you can pick your way through blocks of fastidious gentrification bearing down on the few original local fixtures that remain, in the company of everyone from greasy hipsters to housewives who converge in a stilted hodge-podge of scene, age, race and class. But on Saturday, the countless diverse facets of Mississippi exploded out of storefronts and side streets into the technicolor hullabaloo that is the Street Fair.

Hippie-dippy sustainable t-shirt stands with tangles of pastel garments swinging in the breeze stood mere feet from catfish fry booths and southern-style rib tents, swathed in a beefy haze billowing from smokers.

Restaurant seating spilled out across sidewalks and into the road, some, including the perpetually hectic ¿Por Que No?, taking up both traffic lanes, and oh-so-Portland bike parking lots book-ended the stretch.

The church on the corner of Lombard sold snow cones behind hand-made signs from its buzzing back lawn, while activists plugged their causes in pristine stands in just up the block. The cacophony of live banjoes and cheerful voices drowned out the usual tension that seems to hang over the main drag of Mississippi as every kind of Portlander imaginable roamed from stand to stand. The smooth fusion of the many faces of Mississippi may have been short-lived, but the Street Fair definitely brings out the good side of a collision.

Few Speak Out At Open House To Preserve Fareless Square For Buses

Allison Ferre — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:57:38 +0000

After the first of two open houses today about TriMet’s proposal to cut free bus rides out of Fareless Square, one might assume that Portlanders are either waiting to voice their opinion at tonight’s second open house or that they’ve given up the fight to preserve fareless service for buses downtown.

TriMet is considering two cost-savings measures — limiting Fareless Square to MAX and streetcar only beginning Jan. 3 and making some bus frequency reductions of two to four minutes during non-peak hours beginning Nov. 29.

Only three people signed up to speak in the Liberty Northwest Center’s auditorium this morning in opposition to the proposed cuts.

One of the speakers, Joe Uris, used his allotted three minutes to argue that diminishing Fareless Square would hurt the downtown economy. He also argued that the proposed “Honored Citizen Pass” that would give a reduced rate to seniors and disabled people in lieu of a fareless ride is “overpriced and would under-serve.”

Round two will take place tonight from 4pm to 7pm in Conference Room C of the City of Portland Building, with the public hearing starting at 5 pm.

TriMet’s Board of Directors will be presented with the transcripts from the public hearings and are scheduled to vote on the proposed cuts Aug. 12. So, if citizens don’t want 34 years of Fareless Square bus rides to end, they better get down there and speak up.

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May We Interrupt Your Day, July 13, 2009

Shawn O'Bryant — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:26:41 +0000

Now that the Recall Sam Adams Committee has begun to collect the 32,183 signatures needed to get a recall question on the ballot, May We Interrupt Your Day wanted to know how the Sam Adams situation has shaken out on the street. In this episode we ask: “Would you support a recall vote for Mayor Sam Adams?”

May We Interrupt Your Day, July 13, 2009 from Shawn O'Bryant on Vimeo.

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NW Oregon Labor Council Backs Single-Payer Health Plan

James Pitkin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:16:15 +0000

More bad news for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon’s embattled health care plan:

The largest central labor council in Oregon has endorsed House Resolution 676, the single-payer health care bill introduced by Michigan Congressman John Conyers. Here’s the council’s explanation of why single-payer is the best plan.

For Wyden’s views on a so-called public option and how it fits with his Healthy Americans Act, check out our Q&A with the Democratic senator here.

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