Clean & Safe: A Dirty and Dangerous Contract for Portland
Every year, Downtown Clean & Safe receives over $5 million to provide “enhanced services” to 213 blocks of Portland’s Central City. Yet below the surface of this seemingly benign contract lie threats to public transparency, public services, and even progressive public policies. In this segment, Guest Mole Alyssa Vitale explores how Portland business interests subsidize their anti-tax lobbying via a murky contract for sanitation and safety.
Portland (Oregon) area calligraphers! We're fortunate to be one stop on Spanish calligrapher and tattoo artist Viktor Kams' West Coast tour this spring.
Join us March 2-3 for an in-person weekend workshop at the beautiful Grotto to explore his double-stroke Gothic script!
Workshop cost is $125 (plus $30 membership if you're not in the guild yet). Lunch and supplies are bring-your-own, supply list is at the link.
Why do we hear so much about the supposed failures of recent progressive reforms in Portland? Why does there seem to be so much panic about downtown? Local organizer and activist Hyung Nam explains how Trump-era tax breaks have further incentivized the wealthiest developers and property owners to undermine the will of the real people of Portland.
(N.b., a plutocrat is someone who becomes powerful only because they are rich, and the dark-money group "People for Portland" might more accurately be named "Plutocrats for Portland.")
Oregon’s citizen-initiated ballot measure process is a tool of grassroots democracy, allowing collective action by an organized majority of the population. However, time and time again, those with vast resources have impeded attempts to make the city more equitable and safer for all. In this segment, Guest Mole Lauren Goldberg examines how business lobbyists have undermined citizen-led ballot initiatives (including PCEF, Preschool for All, Measure 110, City Charter reform, and more) – both before and after they were voted into law – to stop our elected officials from fully implementing the programs voters fought for, in favor of protecting capitalist interests.
Portland has so many empty storefronts and little spots that it's easy to daydream about opening your own place, but at the same time beloved PDX institutions are closing in droves. It's such a shame
I have an elderly Technics SL5300 that could use some TLC and a service.
I know @pyoor has recommended a place in #OlympiaWA but does anyone know someone in #PortlandOR#PDX?
It’s going to need a full clean because all the automatic stuff is misbehaving, likely because of the age of the grease inside. Electrics are okay AFAIK, and the direct drive behaves…
lots of things about the past two a half years have been terrible, physically, emotionally, and esp. financially
but seeing people send photos back of our #SatanicAntifascism fundraising stickers or flags in places around #Seattle and other cities sometimes literally around the world has been really amazing