News Portland should spend more money on bicycle infrastructure—but the money should come from somewhere other than a mandatory licensing program. That's one of the recommendations of a report published today by the Portland City Club on bicycle transportation. Some people have pushed a licensing program that would require all bicyclists to register with the city and pay a small fee. The report found, ...   More

News E. Kimbark MacColl, an educator and school administrator who chronicled the history of Portland and its power establishment, died last night after a long illness, WW has learned. He was 86. Kim, as he was known, taught at Occidental and Reed colleges, Portland State University and Catlin Gabel School. He was a member of City Club and other prominent civic groups, and served on a number of committees ...   More

News Nearly one year after he became Portland's top cop, Police Chief Mike Reese today defended his officers, owed up to some of their mistakes and blasted the mental-health system in a speech to the City Club of Portland.Reese praised his officers' heroism in a non-lethal shooting encounter with a machete-wielding man earlier this year and discussed errors made in the January 2010 shooting of 25-year-old ...   More

News  The City Club of Portland today issued a study blasting Multnomah County's management of public mental-health services.The 42-page report (PDF), titled Improving the Delivery of Mental Health Services in Multnomah County, hammers county managers for operating under an opaque budget, failing to assess treatment outcomes and allowing needy patients to fall through the cracks."'Blow up the system ...   More

News Gov. John Kitzhaber brought a message of change to an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd at Portland's City Club today. "Putting people back to work – as important at that is – will not, by itself, reduce our prison population or the escalating cost of health care; it will not ensure that all our children are ready to learn when the reach kindergarten; or increase the number of Oregonians ...   More

News  U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), often mentioned as a possible candidate to challenge Portland Mayor Sam Adams in 2012, dodged a question today at the City Club of Portland on whether he plans to run. Instead of answering the question from a City Club member on whether he's considering a mayoral run, Blumenauer launched into a diatribe against the "corrosive" effects of nonstop political campaigns."This ...   More

News  Rest easy, City Club of Portland. Mayor Sam Adams never tires of giving a State of the City speech. We note this on the eve of the mayor's annual speech this Friday, Feb. 18 only because we asked Adams in this week's cover story if he ever felt like telling City Club "screw it" when officials asked him to do the traditional speech.You'd think Adams might at least consider skipping it one time ...   More

News "Give bikes a round of applause, somebody," Mayor Sam Adams said midway through his State of the City address at Portland City Club today. That odd request typified a rambling speech that began with Adams introducing his mother and grandmother, and that ended with Adams getting a standing ovation from about two-thirds of the room. Early on in his first State of the City speech, the mayor ...   More

News The caliber of public discussion about AIDS has greatly improved since 1988 when there were 863 people recorded as living with AIDS in Oregon. The Cascade AIDS Project was only five years old, and about to embark on an AIDS awareness ad campaign that was to appear on the side of TriMet vehicles, and in The Oregonian. TriMet lasted a few days before pulling the tame picture of two fully clothed ...   More

News Former Gov. John Kitzhaber got the political chattering classes wound up with a recent address to the City Club of Portland. Kitzhaber's speech ramped up speculation that he'll again seek the office he held from 19945 through 20023. (The Oregon Constitution limits a governor to serving no more than eight years in any 12-year period so Kitzhaber is eligible for a mulligan). Political insiders ...   More