There's No Such Thing as Free Lunch or Free Parking Today

Fair warning: While most non-emergency City of Portland employees have the day off today, parking-meter attendants do not. They're working overtime, which means there is NO free parking in Portland today.

And now that Thanksgiving is over, you're free to complain about this situation. Just make sure to leave Commissioner Randy Leonard out of your kvetch-fest. When city commissioners approved new labor contracts earlier this month, they all agreed to make the Friday after Thanksgiving a new holiday for represented and non-represented employees. (They did this because labor groups gave up cost-of-living increases in 2010.)

Leonard, at the time, made the suggestion Portland officials also refrain from enforcing parking rules today. But Mayor Sam Adams killed that idea, saying it would hurt retailers by encouraging motorists to park all day and take spaces that would otherwise go to holiday shoppers.