AltWeeklies Wire
Questioning the Questionersnew

Feds Investigate Portland Police—But Miss Crucial Input
The Portland Mercury |
Sarah Mirk |
08-15-2011 |
Crime & Justice
Saving Ryannew

Why it was left to two Portland judges to bring a heroin junkie back from the brink.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
09-20-2010 |
Policy Issues
Tags: Portland, Ryan Santana
A 22-Year-Old Southeast Portlander Vanished on His Bike Two Weeks Agonew
Tyler Brady was last seen riding home on his fixed-gear bike, a black frame and white handlebar Schwinn, on the night of February 17. A friend says the bar Tube had turned him away for being too drunk.
The Portland Mercury |
Sarah Mirk |
03-11-2010 |
Crime & Justice
Changing the Cop Culture that Led to the Death of Aaron Campbellnew
Portlanders remain outraged over Aaron Campbell's death. A day after the police chief's radio appearance, a group of 50 people carpooled to Salem to meet with legislators. Reverend Renee Ward wants prevent the further "murder" of young men like Campbell, she says.
The Portland Mercury |
Matt Davis |
03-04-2010 |
Crime & Justice
A Portland Street Changes its Name to César E. Chávez Blvd., After a Fightnew
The city's effort to rename a major street after the activist and farm worker crumbled in 2007 after a push to rename Interstate Avenue spurred allegations of racism against opponents. The rename process kicked off for a second time last winter, this time with a professional consultant and a new street.
The Portland Mercury |
Sarah Mirk |
02-04-2010 |
Transportation
Tags: César E. Chávez, Portland
A Portland Family With Haiti Ties Suspends Moving Plans to Aid Relief Effortnew

Bagel Land’s owners are most often the ones who take your order and toast your Cheddar Garlic for you. After five visits, they’ll know your name, your job, and how you take your bagel. It is a family business at 4118 NE Fremont St. That family has been reeling since the earthquake in Haiti.
Willamette Week |
India Nicholas |
01-20-2010 |
Disasters
New Report Raises Questions About Portland as 'Bike City USA'new

The number of bike trips in Portland dropped for the first time in five years, according to a new report. Meanwhile, city officials are launching their most ambitious plan yet to upgrade the city’s bicycle infrastructure to meet what they say is strong demand.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
12-16-2009 |
Transportation
Natural Seletion: A Field Guide to Portland's Legal Pharmacopeianew
While DIY mushroom hunters are pulling on rain gear and heading outdoors in search of forbidden fruit, others are staying high and dry by sampling a crop of legal psychoactive plants found right here in the city limits.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
10-29-2009 |
Drugs
The Dead Freeway Society: The Strange History of Portland's Unbuilt Roadsnew

While other American cities have built, built, built, Portland's freeway history is boom and bust: massive road projects were planned, mapped, and sold as progress by one generation, then killed by another.
The Portland Mercury |
Sarah Mirk |
09-25-2009 |
Transportation
It's Not My Fault: What People Will Say to Get Out of a Portland Parking Ticketnew
They pile up each week; the letters about dogs, diarrhea and dyslexia. Stories about autistic children and encounters with Sen. Ron Wyden. Diagrams, photographs, snide remarks and accusations. Pleas for mercy. And excuses, excuses, excuses. They're the things people say to get out of a Portland parking ticket.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
09-09-2009 |
Transportation
Mentally Ill are Most Likely to Get Tasered by Portland Policenew

A new Independent Police Review Division report finds that subjects with mental illness are now the most likely out of all groups to get Tasered by Portland cops -- even more than people who are actually armed or who assault an officer.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
07-22-2009 |
Crime & Justice
A Portland Company Is Building a House You Can Heat with a Blow-Dryernew

Root Design Build's Shift House, a project that has the potential to change the way the Northwest (and maybe the United States) thinks about green architecture, packs a lot of innovative technology, but one thing you won't find in it is a furnace.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
06-03-2009 |
Housing & Development
Can Portland Score a Big-League Soccer Deal?new
Why did Portland Commissioner Randy Leonard fight for a Major League Soccer team? And what are the chances he can close the deal? After all, there’s now a $15 million hole in the package, shaky financial assumptions and a trail of local leaders upset by his brash approach.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
04-01-2009 |
Policy Issues
Portland's New Accounting System Costs Extra $3 Millionnew
A delay in the implementation of a new payroll system could cost the City of Portland an extra $3 million, in a year when budgets are being slashed across the board and the city is struggling to pay for even basic services.
The Portland Mercury |
Matt Davis |
03-26-2009 |
Policy Issues
Thomas Friedman Tells Portlanders to Stop Futzing Aroundnew
Say what you will about incendiary Pulitzer-Prize-winning columnist and reporter Thomas Friedman: It takes some serious chutzpah to stand in front of a packed house of Portlanders and tell them that all of their green activism is nothing more than a hobby.
Willamette Week |
Adrienne So |
03-11-2009 |
Environment