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Susan's Online Guide to Portland Let me Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood |
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Welcome to my Web site about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It's my way of helping you become acquainted with the neighborhoods and communities of the Portland metro area and to inform you about the Portland area housing market. Your comments and suggestions about my Web site are always welcome. 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.
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Community News |
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Bull Run land swap stirs environmentalists’ ire February 9 − Environmentalists are raising questions about a Portland proposal to swap land with the federal government within the Bull Run Watershed. The City Council will consider the proposal from the Water Bureau on Thursday. It would swap approximately 2,500 acres of city-owned land within the watershed for approximately 2,800 acres of federally owned land. The swap is intended to improvement management of the parcels, which are scattered randomly within the 107-square-mile watershed. Read more... Public bathrooms February 9 − In the first video of a two-part series, New York–based firm Smart Design examines the intersection between Universal Design principles and the limitations of public bathrooms. Smart Design opened its first office almost three decades ago in a small apartment on West 21st Street in New York. Over the years, they opened offices in San Francisco and Barcelona, and moved the New York office to the famed Starrett-Lehigh building on the west side of Manhattan. Read more...
'Leverage' holds 'thug camp' casting workshop to help unemployed construction workers in Portland February 8 − Douglas Hines is feeling, in his words, like "a fish out of water." "I've never done this before," he says, as he looks at a script. Hines, a burly 42-year-old, is attending "thug camp," part of a weekend "Leverage"; seminar. Hines has never acted before. Now the Vancouver resident, who's unemployed, is trying to figure out how to convincingly portray the prosperous owner of a sports team on TV. It is, Hines says, kind of a stretch. The "Leverage" event, which ended Sunday at the University of Oregon's Portland campus, was designed as a combination showbiz/work-force development effort, according to organizer Lana Veenker. Classes for experienced local actors provided behind-the-scenes insights about "Leverage," which stars Oscar-winner Timothy Hutton. Read more... |
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House, Home, & Health |
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Oregon home insurance costs among lowest in nation February 9 − Oregon homeowner insurance is among the least costly in the nation, averaging $496 a year, according to a nationwide survey. That compares to an average $822 nationwide and is lower than all states except Idaho and Wisconsin. The 2007 data, the most recent available, was released recently by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. “Oregon’s competitive insurance market helps keep premiums low, as does the lack of hurricanes and tornadoes in the state,” Teresa Miller, administrator of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services’ Insurance Division, said in a statement. Flooding, earthquakes, and wildfire are more common concerns in the West. “Homeowner policies typically don’t cover floods or earthquakes but coverage can be purchased separately for both,” Miller said. Read more...
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Living Green |
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Metro and 3 Portland counties approve urban expansion, farm protections February 9 − Metro and the three Portland-area counties rolled the dice on a collaborative future Monday, approving a long-range planning map that designates which areas will be developed and which will be reserved for farms and forests for the next 40 to 50 years. The unprecedented agreement to designate urban and rural reserves capped two years of meetings and public hearings, stacks of maps and reports and tense exchanges among the "Core Four" -- representatives of Metro, the regional government, and Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. The agreement isn't a done deal. It could still unravel by the end of the month if rival counties object to each other's handling of a few contentious areas. Read more... Cornelius center of reserves dispute February 9 − On a map, an agreement that could prevent major land-use fights for a half century seems tantalizingly close. On the ground near Cornelius, however, it feels like the fight of a century. A group representing Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties and regional government Metro faces a deadline Monday to identify land where cities can grow over the next 40 to 50 years. They’ve come to an agreement on nearly the entire 240,000-acre area, identifying which areas may be developed and which will be preserved. The battleground has now narrowed to a couple hundred acres north of Cornelius, in Washington County. And Cornelius officials say they’re in a bind: accept a deal that cuts off the city’s job base for the foreseeable future, or risk derailing a unique planning process that promises to benefit the entire Portland-metro area. Read more... |
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Sports and Outdoors |
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Northwest Outdoors calendar, Feb. 6-21 − Saturday, February 6, 1 p.m. Learn how you can join other outdoor enthusiasts to raise funds for breast cancer research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Peaks include Mount Adams and Mount Kilimanjaro. To register for the meeting, call 206-667-6252 or send e-mail to dkirsner@fhcrc.org; to register for Climb to Fight Breast Cancer, go to www.fhcrc.org/climb. REI Portland, 1405 N.W. Johnson St. Read more...
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Portland Blogs and Web Sites
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Susan Marthens |
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© Copyright 2000-2009 All rights reserved Web by Dasan Design ● Telephone (503) 819-0011 |
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Oregon's
economy in slow recovery, state economist Tom Potiowsky tells lawmakers
February 9 − Oregon's economy is on the mend but still wheezing and not
close to replacing the tens of thousands of jobs lost in the recession,
the state's chief economist reported Monday. "We're in recovery," said Tom
Potiowsky of the state Office of Economic Analysis. "But it's going to be
a slow, long recovery." Potiowsky, who laid out his diagnosis to a joint
meeting of House and Senate revenue committees, said he doesn't expect to
see much growth until 2011. By then, he said, hiring could start to pick
up, particularly in the high-tech and solar energy sectors. Many businesses
are operating with skeletal crews or have ordered workers to take unpaid
furlough days to save money. Any recovery has to work through those factors
first, he said.
University
of Portland among top producers of Peace Corps volunteers
February 9 − 
Stumptown
rock February 7 − Even before construction was complete,
the Stump House was turning heads. When its green-minded future owners learned
of its shining environmental résumé, they knew they’d found a place to call
home. Perhaps it was Jess and Jered Bogli’s colossal-but-cordial rottweiler,
Oliver, who spearheaded their move to a highly sustainable home in Portland,
Oregon’s Alameda neighborhood. While walking Oliver one day, the couple
spotted a contemporary-looking house under construction and got to talking
with the builder, Darryl Erlandson, about its green features. They passed
by the house frequently after that. “It was on my running route,” Jess recalls,
“and eventually one of the builders yelled to me, ‘Come in!’ Another day
one of them even said, ‘Throw out an offer.’ And we did.’”
Columbia
River salmon runs plentiful now, but don't count on the trend continuing
February 8 − In some Northwest streams, it seems like a return to the storied
days when it was said salmon ran so thick you could walk across their backs.
Record numbers of coho have returned to the Columbia River in recent years,
and this year forecasters predict the same for spring chinook. But it's
not time to pop the champagne corks and declare victory in the nation's
most expensive wildlife restoration venture. The reason: Most scientists
agree much of the thanks for the recent runs, in addition to improved river
conditions and more hatchery fish, goes to favorable circumstances in the
ocean where the salmon mature after being born in fresh water. "It looks
like the abundance of adult salmon that we see come back to the rivers appears
to be set or at least strongly regulated by their early ocean experience,"
said Nate Mantua, a climate scientist and fisheries researcher at the University
of Washington.
