Will 21st century public meetings law in Oregon be bound by 20th century definitions? The City of Lake Oswego seems to hope so.
Oregon has a reputation as a state with a high degree of transparency, thanks largely to its open meetings laws (see ORS 192.610, or the Oregon Department of Justice’s Public Meetings Handbook). Yet [...]

The redevelopment of the old Macadam industrial area into the South Waterfront district with its Vancouverist condominium towers has long been a controversial subject in the public realm. Critics of modern Portland regional planning goals have cited it as an example of everything that is wrong with the region, even noting (with barely repressed glee) [...]

Industrial parks have always held a fascination for me. I’ve previously written about the role of industrial parks as a prototype for form-based-code principles. I think the notion deserves more examination, especially as it relates to how industrial parks and their child, the business park, have become economic engines, and at the same time examples [...]

This morning, a fighter, a citizen activist, a pillar of local politics, and a vast influence on my life passed away. Her name was Martha Bishop, and she was 87 years old.
I first met Martha when, at the age of 17, I walked into a City of Tigard committee meeting and got “hooked.” To me, [...]

Certainly, downtown Portland has always been a center of metropolitan political and economic power, but policy makers and political movers-and-shakers must not forget that the true center of politics in Portland does not lie in glass office buildings. Instead, it lies in the inner neighborhoods that developed in the early 20th century along the streetcar [...]

Anyone who is a transportation and transit geek has likely heard arguments about the superiority of buses over rail. Usually the argument is based on a notion known as “bus flexibility,” the idea being that buses can reroute to meet changing market demands.
At least in the case of Portland, however, this idea may need revising. [...]

Prior to the recession, much of the buzz in the Portland food scene revolved around the latest and greatest in haute cuisine. Newsmakers were places like Higgins, Blue Hour, ClarkLewis, the ill-fated Lucier, or the all-too-LA-for-Portland Departure at The Nines Hotel (what the rest of us will always call Meier & Frank). Named star chefs [...]

I’ve been watching the progress of WES, TriMet’s first commuter rail line, with great interest since its opening in February. One of the many aspects of it that strikes me as fascinating is the total lack of understanding by some of the function of commuter rail. On more than one occasion, I have heard people [...]

Last week’s news was a bit of a shocker in the region, as Washington State went through its primary election. Voters seemed to be bludgeoning incumbents, from rural port commissioners through to mayors of significant municipalities. As Jeff Mapes put it, it was a bad day for incumbents. The biggest upset, however, was the defeat [...]

Industrial parks have fascinated me for a long time. They are largely an artifact of the 20th century, but with their arrangement of small-to-medium industrial buildings and extensive rail infrastructure, in many ways they were the last expression of 19th century economics, philosophically obsolete from the moment they were built. A visit to the average [...]