Blog
The St. Johns Parade
It seemed that the past few years the St. John’s Parade had been dwindling in size and quality. This year, for whatever reason, it was back in full force. The large high school marching bands were back where there. Last year I only saw middle school bands. The big floats were back too as were a multitude of antique cars and trucks.
They Finally Closed North Precinct
For more than 15 years the Portland City Government has been intermittently trying to doing away with North Precinct and combine it with Northeast several miles away. Now, using the recession-caused budget shortfalls as the impetus, they’ve finally accomplished their goal. To me is seems that using money as the justification is somewhat disingenuous as the savings, at least in the short term, are dubious and an Assistant Chief from PPB told North Portlanders at a town meeting that even if the money magically appeared to closed the budget gap, the city would still want to go through with this plan.
Maybe administratively it makes sense, though I spoke with at least one police sergeant who thought not.
The day the city counsel voted on the new precinct plan, I spoke to a few local business owners to see how they felt about the decision. Pattie Dietz, owner of a popular St John’s Cafe was unhappy with the vote, but willing to see how things played out.
You can read my whole report here at the Portland Sentinel.
RIP Les Sarnoff
Most people who knew Les probably know by now that he died a couple of weeks ago after a year-long struggle with cancer. KINK Radio has been a long-time client of mine and was Les’ on-air home for almost three decades. For 20 years thousands of Portlanders woke up to Les’ morning show five days a week. Having had the opportunity to work with with him many times I can say that he was as nice a guy in person as he seemed on the air. The image posted above is being used as cover art for a CD which will be sold at Les’ memorial concert on Sunday May 17th. The proceeds will be used to help his wife pay for his outstanding medical bills. Though it’s a small contribution, I’m glad that I could be a part of this event.
The Archives of Portland
Located in a building which used to be a trash incinerator, the archives sit at the north end of the city in what is now Chimney Park. They house all public records dating back to 1851. Portland is one of the few US cities to maintain a public archive.
I met Brian a couple of months ago while working on an article for the Portland Sentinel.