News A 15-year-old Beaverton girl jumped to her death from the Vista Bridge yesterday, the latest in a string of well-documented suicides on the historic bridge.City leaders have come up with a plan that would place barriers on Southwest Portland bridge and still satisfy the Oregon Office of Historic Preservation. The price tag? $2.5 million, says Portland Commissioner and new Bureau of Transportation ...   More

News City Commissioner Steve Novick wasted no time assuring the Portland Bureau of Transportation that he'll seek new revenue for street paving and calm any backlash against bicycles.Upon getting official word from Mayor Charlie Hales on Monday that he'll oversee the embattled transportation bureau, the rookie commissioner sent a morale booster to PBOT staff: The city's backlog of road maintenance is not ...   More

Murmurs City Commissioner Steve Novick is ready to flush Portland’s toilet-sales department. The newest member of the City Council says the efforts to market the patent sidewalk commode known as the P   More

News With Portland City Council poised to pass new parking requirements for apartments in transit corridors this week, Commissioner Steve Novick sees an opening to revive a longtime enthusiasm: parking permits on the east side. Novick mentioned at the end of an April 4 public hearing that he's spoken with officials at the Portland Bureau of Transportation about creating parking permits in the Richmond neighborhood, ...   More

News  Portland City Council moved forward last night with new new parking requirements for apartment buildings, adding an amendment by Commissioner Nick Fish that would trigger parking minimums for buildings with more than 30 units.But as WW reported yesterday, the council backed away from forcing Beaverton-based developer Dennis Sackhoff to add 20 parking spaces to his half-finished 81-unit apartment ...   More

News  Portland City Council on Wednesday directed the city revenue bureau to look for more potential changes to the arts tax. City Commissioner Steve Novick has one in mind: He wants to change the very structure of the tax.Novick described the arts tax as "beyond regressive" when it was a ballot measure in November, because it charges every person above federal poverty levels the same $35, regardless ...   More

News  Even as Portland City Council today accepted the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force's annual report in a 3-2 vote, several commissioners voiced reservations about the lack of specific information in the report about the cases the task force investigates."I had different expectations for the report than what was in it. I was expecting more information," said Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who voted ...   More

News Mayor Charlie Hales is responding to pressure over a controversial 81-unit apartment complex on Southeast Division Street, forcing the developer to apply for a new permit next month.The apartment complex has drawn fire from neighbors since last summer because of its size and lack of on-site parking.Two days ago, the city announced it was reviewing a revised permit for the half-completed building without ...   More

News It’s budget season at City Hall, the time of year when we’re told what a dystopian Portland would look like. Streets without cops. Homes burning out of control. Empty swimming pools, vagrants    More

News Clean Water Portland and Healthy Kids Healthy Portland—the "No" and "Yes" campaigns on fluoride—held their first community meetings over the last two weeks as both sides geared up for battle over Measure 26-151, a city council-approved proposal to fluoridate Portland's water supply, which faces a referendum vote in May. WW stopped by both events to eat both sides' food, drink both sides' booze ...   More