Lights! Cameras! News!

[December 3rd, 2008]

More street folks, but also more windmills and more Hollywood ! From the budget Gov. Ted Kulongoski unveiled this week, gone would be Eastern Oregon’s 60-bed Blue Mountain Recovery Center ($5.3 million savings) for the mentally ill and long-term care statewide for 4,000 seniors ($119 million). But the guv does want to give $5 million in new money to the Arts Commission and film office and $4 million for a “wind demonstration project.” Human services providers booed. “There’s huge human impact here,” says Oregon AARP director Jerry Cohen.

Still outraged by Proposition 8 in California and looking to show support for gay rights, the national Join the Impact group is holding candlelight vigils across the country, including Portland. On Dec. 20 at 5 pm, demonstrators will gather in Pioneer Square. Organizers ask protesters to wear shirts that say “Second Class Citizen” and stay silent instead of yelling and bringing signs. For more info, go to pdxjointheimpact.wordpress.com.

Man-bites-dog department: One new tax proposed by the Oregon Housing Alliance for the 2009 legislative session is drawing some counterintuitive support, A $15 fee on all documents —think house deeds, mortgages, etc., recorded at the county level—is backed by normally tax-averse Oregon bankers, Realtors and the Oregon Home Builders Association. The new proposed levy is projected to raise $10 million annually for affordable housing. “It’s about time we had a dedicated funding source for affordable housing,” says Home Builders lobbyist Jon Chandler, whose group opposed past affordable funding proposals such as a real estate transfer tax.

City Hall is pushing back on Portland Public Schools’ move to amend its policy guiding the sale and redevelopment of “surplus property” (i.e., closed schools and vacant lots). “A community-centered school functions much like a major department store in a shopping center, in that the community school serves as an ‘anchor’ to attract and retain families,” Gil Kelley, Portland’s planning bureau director, wrote PPS board members in a Nov. 18 letter. Kelley says any decision on surplus property “needs open and deliberate decision-making.” Point taken. The school district has extended until Dec. 15 the public-comment period on the proposal.

A few Hollywood District residents are mad that a Dollar Tree store might be moving into the old Trader Joe’s location on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. One anonymous resident is dropping off fliers urging residents to call Dollar Tree, New & Neville Real Estate, and Trader Joe’s, which still occupies the lease, to voice concern. The gripe against Dollar Tree? A belief the area doesn’t need another discount retail store. The flier’s author instead wants more family-friendly the Children’s Gym. New & Neville wouldn’t comment on how many calls it’s gotten.

Thank you, readers! Your generosity for WW’s Give!Guide in this year’s brutal economy has been incredible. As this issue of WW went to bed, you’d given more than $198,000—more than $100,000 ahead of last year at this time. For real-time updates—and to learn about the 55 nonprofits involved in this year’s effort, as well as our thank-you incentives—check out wweek.com/giveguide. In the meantime, you have through Dec. 31 to donate. Please keep the generosity coming!