Murmurs: What Happens at the Heathman...

1. Chris and Tom Maletis’ long-running effort to get their Langdon Farms Golf Club, located on I-5 just south of the Wilsonville, inside the urban-growth boundary took a dramatic turn May 25 when the brothers sued Metro, the state Land Conservation and Development Commission and Clackamas County in U.S. District Court for having “intentionally and irrationally treated plaintiffs different from similarly situated landowners.” The Maletis brothers want to turn the course into a warehouse and transportation hub. Metro spokesman Jim Middaugh says his agency does not comment on pending litigation.

1. Fox 12 broke the troubling news last week that scenes in the “mommy porn” novel Fifty Shades of Grey take place in Portland’s downtown Heathman Hotel—and the Heathman is now offering guest packages based on E.L. James’ No. 1 New York Times bestseller. The Heathman’s Fifty Shades scenes mostly involve flirtation (oyster eating) but lead to Anastasia Steele getting spanked. “You wanted to run to the Heathman for sex—you had it express-delivered,” Anastasia says to herself. (See this blog post for a complete accounting of Heathman-based breathlessness.) The Heathman didn’t respond to WW’s calls, but Fox 12 says the hotel’s packages include a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé and a gray necktie (room rate, plus $40), and helicopter ride for six (add $2,700).

1. A legal dispute has left a small forest’s worth of Oregon trees floating in limbo in Hong Kong. A U.S. District Court complaint filed last week in Portland says the Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific Agricultural and Forestry Co. ordered thousands of live trees from Gresham-based Sester Farms, paying the $532,000 price before delivery. The trees arrived in Hong Kong on May 21, the complaint alleges, but the buyers couldn’t claim them because Sester had neglected to attach necessary import documents, including a “phytosanitary certificate” affirming that the trees are pest-free. Sester Farms managers didn’t respond to messages. “It’s kind of tragic, as far as the trees are concerned,” says Eric K. Helmy, the Hong Kong company’s attorney in Portland. “They were shipped in a manner that’s designed to preserve them—but it’s very hot in Hong Kong.”

1. Occupy Portland announced May 28 that park rangers for the city’s bureau of Parks & Recreation challenged the formerly park-residing activists to a June 10 softball game at Overlook Park. But the bureau—which estimated the Occupation cleanup costs of Chapman and Lownsdale squares at $130,000—denies official ties to the softball game. “It’s not rangers vs. Occupiers,” says Parks spokesman Mark Ross. “The City and [Parks] don’t have a position on this, other than to confirm it is a permitted event.”

WWeek 2015