Multnomah County More than 17,500 people in Portland don’t have easy access to supermarkets or full-service grocery stores—a problem city officials say they want to fix.     Many of their neighborho   More

News The Portland Development Commission announced today that it is laying off 17 employees. The layoffs come as no surprise as then-Executive Director Bruce Warner in January announced large budget cuts. The city-owned agency generates most of its operating budget from urban renewal districts, which produce less money as they age.Here's the announcement from PDC spokesman Shawn Uhlman:·       ...   More

News The systematic dismantling of the city-owned Portland Development Commission took a major leap forward today. In perhaps the most consequential decision from his reorganization of the City that Works, Mayor-elect Sam Adams took away the Portland Development Commission's responsibilities for housing. And as a result, now gone are 42 of the agency's 209 employees (about 20 percent of the staff) ...   More

News Barring a last-minute miracle, Metro, City of Portland and Multnomah County leaders will pull the plug Monday morning on the latest chapter in the long-running effort to finance a so-called "headquarters hotel" next to the Oregon Convention Center. Speaking on background, sources familiar with the decision-making process say that the hotel is dead unless Mayor-elect Sam Adams produces a previously ...   More

News OK, that headline might be a little confusing but so is the underlying issue. Here's what you need to know: Last March, Portland's City Council voted to use some money from the River District Urban Renewal Area build a new school in the David Douglas school district on land east Portland school district already owns. That was a novel plan, given that David Douglas is about 10 miles away from ...   More

News One of the big questions around Portland Beavers/Timbers owner Merritt Paulson's proposal to bring Major League Soccer to Portland is what's going to be the source for the $85 million needed to renovate PGE Park and build a new AAA stadium for the Beavers? A seemingly innocuous late-Friday announcement from the Portland Development Commission (below) may provide an answer. The PDC, the city's ...   More

News This week, Mayor Sam Adams made an unscheduled appearance at a meeting of the Oregon Convention Center Urban Renewal Advisory Committee. Although that group may be obscure, it is involved in overseeing money earmarked for projects crucial to Adams' vision for Portland. The group was meeting Tuesday Monday afternoon to discuss its budget—which shows that it has about $35 million to spend ...   More