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CITY FINES "BLACK LIVES MATTER" SIGN OWNER: Just off Interstate 5 at the Columbia Boulevard exit in North Portland, motorists are presented with a 42-foot-long "Black Lives Matter" sign on the front of an industrial building at 866 North Columbia Blvd. Somebody didn't like the sign and, on Nov. 23, filed a complaint with the city's Bureau of Development Services. On Dec. 10, BDS fined owner David Gold $292 for violating the city's sign code—the BLM banner, bureau determined, is too big and was installed without a permit. BDS spokesman Ken Ray says that before citing Gold, the bureau notified him he'd need to remove the sign or apply for a permit, neither of which Gold did. "The Bureau of Development Services reviews permit applications and enforces the city's sign code without regard to a sign's message or content," Ray says. Gold isn't happy. "With all of the current protest signage and all other problems facing Portland," he says, "it's unbelievable that city resources are being used to fine political speech."
LET'S GET A ROUND OF SHOTS: The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines arrived Dec. 14 in the state of Oregon, a watershed moment marked with little fanfare. Other states announced the arrival of the plane delivering the vaccine (California) and/or administered vaccines in front of the press (New York, Ohio, California). Oregon officials didn't announce the vaccine's arrival for more than four hours. Oregon Health & Science University officials announced plans to vaccinate health care workers beginning Wednesday, Dec. 16. They also laid out the way they will decide which workers get it first: "We are further prioritizing health care workers who are physically present and necessary for patient care who are 55 or older, who self-identify as members of the BIPOC community and/or who have a self-disclosed medical risk factor, as defined by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]," says a news release from OHSU.
"TINY" TOESE TO BE RELEASED EARLY FROM JAIL: Tusitala "Tiny" Toese, a regular at Proud Boy rallies in Portland and Vancouver, Wash., is scheduled to be released from the Multnomah County Inverness Jail on Dec. 21. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kathleen Dailey sentenced Toese to 181 days in jail Oct. 20 for violating his probation agreement by, among other things, leaving the state where he lived, Washington, without permission to attend a protest in Portland this summer. Toese's sentence was reduced to 121 days with credit for time served during previous jail stints dating back to October 2019, plus an additional 30 days of "good time" credit for completing an in-custody work program, says Chris Liedle, a spokesman for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
NEW LIFE FOR HOPEWELL HOUSE: Cash gifts could well mean hope for Hopewell House, a pioneering end-of-life center in the Hillsdale neighborhood closed by Legacy Health in September after 30 years of operation. About 10,000 people have died there over three decades and another 9,000 received care there before returning home to die. The closure left Portland without a hospice—so a group called Friends of Hopewell House set out to buy the 12-room structure from Legacy. Earlier this month, real estate investor Joe Weston gave the group $500,000, which came on top of $500,000 from Priscilla Wieden, whose husband co-founded the city's leading ad agency, and $1 million from the Marcia H. Randall Foundation. The group hopes to reopen Hopewell House and is still raising money through a crowdfunding campaign. With Weston's gift, the Friends made Legacy a bid. "We have received a proposal from FOHH to purchase the land," says Legacy spokeswoman Vicki Guinn, "and will evaluate that proposal over the next month."