News Mayor Sam Adams plans to survey all Portland residents on their level of support for the city's new leaf fee as part of an effort to see whether to keep the program in the next budget cycle. The new fee ranging from $15 to $65 on about 30,000 Portland households and businesses has so far raised less than half of the city's $800,000 goal. And many assessed property owners are still smarting over the ...   More

News As you head to the airport this afternoon or stand in line awaiting your pat down from friendly TSA agents, here's a timely question to ponder, one put to WW by a reader recently: "Who approves elected leaders' junkets?" In Portland, the answer is ... the elected leaders themselves. In March, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission successfully adopted new statewide rules clarifying when and ...   More

News City officials will present Portland's five-year general fund forecast to City Council members next week. Until then, Mayor Sam Adams' budget memo [PDF] from November offers a close look at the city's current financial health. That memo notes: Most city bureaus will be expected to make cuts in the range of .75 to 1.5 percent in the 2011-12 budget. Bureaus won't be allowed to add new ...   More

News If you happened by City Hall about five months ago, you might have witnessed Commissioner Amanda Fritz wheeling outside the building in a wheelchair. Fritz did that as part of an effort to experience what it's like for disabled residents to get access to public spaces in Portland. Now there's new evidence City Hall is taking those access issues seriously. New chairs reserved for disabled residents ...   More

News It's not quite as exciting as yesterday's 5:30 pm kickoff in Arizona but at least it promises more successful results. Sorry, Ducks fans. At noon, Mayor Sam Adams was scheduled to kick off the new bicycle-and-pedestrian bridge over Interstate-5 at a press conference. The $12.6 million project will connect South Waterfront to Lair Hill. When completed in about a year, the span will run 700 ...   More

News One could make the argument that growing tomatoes right outside of City Hall is not a good idea, given the fruit's other uses. This morning, however, volunteers harvested 50 pounds of them from City Hall's Better Together garden (pictured above on Wednesday) for a good cause -- Loaves & Fishes. Jen Aron, a volunteer from Oregon State University's Master Gardener Program, says she also picked: 5 ...   More

News Tomorrow is the 21st World AIDS Day. And local organizers have scheduled several events as part of the effort to raise awareness of the 25 million-plus people who have died from AIDS and the estimated 33 million people worldwide currently living with HIV. Cascade AIDS Project has hung 500 posters around the city and bought space on 25 billboards around the metro area. And there will be ...   More

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News Mayor Sam Adams today released his budget memo [PDF] about the need for further cuts to this year's budget and the next. The news Tuesday comes a day later than expected. The mayor's memo to his City Council colleagues singled out the Portland Police Bureau, already battered by recent events, as having overspent its budget by "up to $5 million" but offered no explanation for how that happened ...   More

News As promised, Sisters of the Road led a "sidewalk parade" through downtown Portland this afternoon to protest the sidewalk management plan proposed by Mayor Sam Adams. The 30-person march began in Old Town at Sisters of the Road Cafe, the source of several vocal opponents of the mayor's plan. It ended at City Hall, where City Council held a public meeting to review the emergency ordinance behind the ...   More