Susan Marthens

Principal
Real Estate Broker
GRI

Phone
(503) 497-2984

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Custom "Oregon Trail" plate - the last "Trail" plate was issued in 2001.

Oregon standard "tree" plate that has been issued since 1989.

This blue-on-yellow baseplate was introduced in 1975 and was issued through 1987 - you still see the plate on a few Oregon vehicles today.

Custom salmon plate.  The extra proceeds from sales are used for the following: Litter Patrol Fund, Governors' Watershed Enhancement Board, and State parks.

1947 Oregon plate.

Custom Crater Lake National Park Centennial plate - released in 2002.  The extra proceeds are distiributed to the Litter Patrol Fund and National Park Foundation.


Susan's Online Guide to Portland

Let me Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood

Welcome to my Web site about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area.  It is my way of helping you become acquainted with the neighborhoods and communities of the city and to inform you about the Portland area housing market. Your comments and suggestions about my Web site are always appreciated.

If you have questions or if you are interested in buying or selling a home in the Portland area, contact me online or call me at (503) 497-2984.

Susan Marthens

Principal Real Estate Broker/GRI


House and Home

Green beans   July 23 − Recently I've gotten into the habit of taking Sebastian to the park late in the afternoon. We're often still there when my husband is walking home from work; he joins us and we play together for a half hour or so before heading home for dinner. The other day, we played for longer than we should have, and so we stopped at a diner for dinner. I wanted a side of vegetables for Sebastian but didn't have high hopes. Diners usually serve good grilled cheese sandwiches but the vegetable sides leave a lot to be desired. I was trying to decide between the overcooked broccoli and the under-cooked cauliflower when the waiter suggested the sautéed green beans. Since green beans are one of Sebastian's favorites, we ordered them.  Read more at the Greeen Guide Website...

Rising gas prices drive fundamental shift in homebuying   July 20 − In his hunt for a new home, Demetrius Stroud crunched the numbers to find out that, with gas prices climbing, moving near an Amtrak station is the best thing for his wallet. Stroud was looking in Elk Grove., Calif. -- about 85 miles away from his job in the San Francisco Bay Area -- because homes there are more affordable. But with gas at $4.50 and a car that gets about 22 miles per gallon, Stroud would be pumping $560 a month into his tank. So instead he made an offer on a home near the train station in Davis, Calif., which will shave $160 off his commuting costs. Read more in The Oregonian...


Green Zone

THOMAS BOYD/THE OREGONIAN      Wind turbines have become a familiar sight in the Columbia Gorge, where strong breezes and high-voltage transmission lines offer developers a tempting combination or renewable resource and customer access. The amount of wind power in the Northwest could triple in the next five years.Rush of wind power to hit the Northwest   July 21 − Utilities and independent developers are poised to more than triple the amount of wind power in the Northwest, a huge increase that underscores the region's push for renewable energy. "It's phenomenal," said Elliot Mainzer, a transmission manager with the federal Bonneville Power Administration. "It's more than we expected." Evidence of the wind rush shows up in a recent BPA assessment aimed at finding out how much more electricity will fit on transmission lines now in place for delivery to customers in urban centers like Portland and Seattle. While the tally shows a whole-hearted embrace of clean, renewable energy, it also exposes the limits of the transmission network, or grid. Unless more power lines are added, the Northwest won't be able to handle so much wind so quickly, BPA officials said. BPA says it has only enough space on the grid for just one-third of the anticipated 4,716 megawatts.  Read more in The Oregonian...


Sports and Outdoors

Wolves breeding again in Oregon   July 22 − Biologists in northeast Oregon have confirmed the presence of Oregon's first reproducing pack of wild wolves since the predators were exterminated from the state decades ago. State biologist Russ Morgan and another biologist heard the howls of at least two adult wolves and two pups in the predawn hours Friday in northern Union County, north of La Grande, Morgan said Monday. The biologists themselves were howling under a bright moon, trying to produce an audible response from wolves. That's a common method of surveying for the animals. "It was pretty thrilling to get a response like that," said Morgan, who has been conducting the howling surveys for years. "It was definitely surprising after two years of looking."  Read more in The Oregonian...


Neighborhood and Communities News

Hollywood says hurray for Portland comic books   July 23 − If there were any doubts about the hottest trend in movies, they were crushed like a Gotham City police car last weekend. "The Dark Knight," the latest interpretation of the Batman saga, swooped off with 158.3 million box-office dollars, the highest weekend opening ever, according to Variety. The superhero sensation is the most dramatic demonstration yet that movies are cashing in as never before on stories from comic books and graphic novels. While "The Dark Knight" is adapted from the venerable DC Comics franchise, Hollywood's growing infatuation with comics has spread north. Portland's thriving community of comics creators and publishers -- including Dark Horse Comics, Oni Press and Top Shelf Productions -- is playing a major role in feeding the silver screen's voracious appetite. Read more in The Oregonian...

Best of Portland 20088   July 23 − This is America. And in America, dammit, we vote. For presidents, idols, dogs, city commissioners, you name it—we live and breathe and sweat beautiful, shimmering beads of democracy. And with WW’s annual celebration of everything that makes this burg such an invigorating, amazing and sometimes bizarre place to live, we asked you to vote once again. Every other week of the year, we tell you what we like (and loathe). But this week is different. Because nobody knows this city better than you. So we’ve made the heart of this year’s Best of Portland our improved, expanded, hyper-local readers’ poll. We carved up our city into 12 districts (look right) that we figure are a good match to the city’s geographical and cultural diversity.  Read more in the Willamette Week...

Boeing swoops into gorge life   July 23 − The only thing moving faster here Tuesday than the 30-knot Columbia River Gorge wind was news that giant Boeing Co. was buying local success story Insitu -- maker of unmanned, drone aircraft. Boeing officials said immediate plans under the $400 million deal call for keeping Insitu's leadership and location just as they are. The company's 360 employees are spread among a dozen buildings in the neighboring towns of White Salmon and Bingen. For several years now, the company's fortunes have soared alongside the U.S. military's need for unmanned drones in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones. Boeing and Insitu have been partners since 2002 in developing the company's main product, a robotic airplane dubbed the ScanEagle.  Read more in The Oregonian...

BENJAMIN BRINK/THE OREGONIAN     Dorina Cornea-Hasegan (left), instructor of microelectronics at the Rock Creek campus of Portland Community College, and students Dexter Yee (center) and Landon Bigelow work in a lab.Oregon solar industry approaching solstice   July 22 − At least three big solar companies are considering Oregon for manufacturing plants that, along with the unannounced expansion of an existing project, could provide thousands of family-wage jobs. Government and business brokers of the potential deals -- including Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who recently hinted at imminent news -- refuse to name companies. But The Oregonian has uncovered expansion plans and potential plants that would build the state into something of a Solar Forest, capitalizing on Oregon's expertise in silicon, an ingredient of both solar cells and semiconductors. Recruiters use cloak-and-dagger terms in discussing the solar manufacturers eyeing Oregon: Project Ark. Project Harvester. And an especially big one, Project Tahoe.  Read more in The Oregonian...

Undocumented worker ruling could rattle Oregon's economy   July 22 − As a federal court decision nears that could require employers to verify workers' Social Security numbers, Oregon employers and economists are trying to gauge the possible economic impacts. The most recent analysis says the state could lose up to $656 million in tax revenues and 173,500 jobs -- a huge rock in Oregon's economic pond that could ripple beyond undocumented workers to the services, businesses and industries they support and spend money on. Last fall, a federal judge barred the government from mailing 140,000 so-called no-match letters to employers that warned they could face penalties if employees' names didn't match with Social Security numbers. About 8 million employees nationally would have been affected by the letters.  Read more in The Oregonian...


Blogs

Newspapers

  • inPortland  A magazine, published every Thursday, has stories about neighborhoods and communities.

  • Portland Tribune  Published on Thursday, one of the Tribune's strength is their neighborhood news.

  • Oregon Newspapers  Links to over 100 newspapers in Oregon. This includes community weekly papers - check out the stories in smaller towns like Astoria and Pendleton.


Web by
Dasan Design
(503) 819-0011
Fax (503) 224-9083


6443 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, Suite 100
Portland, Oregon 97221
(503) 297-1033

Susan Marthens
Principal Real Estate Broker, GRI
(503) 497-298484
Fax (503) 220-1131

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