Today, our family received a letter from the Oregon Republican Party. It seems that they weren't able to find a candidate for Senate District 25 (currently held by Laurie Monnes Anderson, D) in time to have him file to be on the ballot. However, they have located someone and they're running a write-in campaign for the seat.
This is a pretty stealth campaign, otherwise they must have found him at the last moment. There's been no letters to the editor, and I've heard nothing about it around town. But today, there was a letter from ORP Chair Vance Day sitting in my mailbox along with our ballots.
You can read the entire content of the letter, and view a PDF scan of the letter, in my full posting on this at Blog for Oregon.
I'm curious to see if they're doing this is any of the other districts around the state where no Republican is running.
I've been waiting and waiting to see something on this on the blogs, but nothing. It's a topic that's been going on for a week, ever since Gresham decided not to vote on the issue. Even the news media has been fairly quiet on it, except The Outlook (and maybe The Tribune since they share a lot of stories). Since it's a pretty big issue affecting the metro region, I decided to write something up...
For the past few months, Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler has been trying to talk the cities in the county to vote yes on a vehicle registration fee proposal. This proposal would add $24 a year to your vehicle registration to pay for fixing/replacing the Sellwood Bridge.
The county was required to get buy-in from all the cities because this proposal is that the county would keep the entire fee and use it on the bridge. Without the agreement, by state law each city would be able to keep a share of the fee.
Residents in east county have been extremely critical of the plan, as 70% of the bridge's users are from Clackamas County. Another sizeable chunk comes from Washington County. The rest are primarily Portland residents. It is a bridge rarely used by residents out this way. In contrast, there are plenty of transportation needs out this way, especially since we've seen huge population increases in the past 10 years with almost no new transportation capacity increases (roads, mass transit, etc.).
Well, as I'd been predicting for the past few months, it appears Gresham likely hit the 100,000 person mark just a few days ago (Feb 2). This is a big deal, as it becomes the fourth city in the state with at least 100,000 people.
It is also the fastest growing of the large cities in the state. We've nearly tripled our population since the early 1980s, as we've added 10,000 residents since the 2000 census. My family would account for three of those, as Andy and I were counted in the Texas census and Abby was born here in Gresham in 2002.
Hopefully with projects like the Cultural Marketplace in Rockwood, we'll be able to begin to show that we're more than a "bedroom community" or "Portland's suburb," but a large city in our own right.
I think it also means that we need leaders in our town that are going to work hard to change the perception of our city not only by outsiders, but residents as well.
The city of Gresham has selected Williams and Dame Development to develop the "Cultural Marketplace" in the heart of Rockwood.
Formerly the property contained a Fred Meyer, which closed down due to crime and other problems. Wal-Mart tried to purchase the property, but in mid-2005 the city's urban renewal commission outbid Wal-Mart for the property. Word is that Fred Meyer was not interested in selling to Wal-Mart, but was interested in the area being revitalized by the urban renewal commission.
The property is in a great location, just west of where Burnside and Stark cross. The Rockwood stop on the MAX sits on the property's northern edge.
The city took bids from developers on the property, asking for a mixed use "Cultural Marketplace" that could be part of the revitalization of Rockwood. In addition to this development, the new county Justice Center will go across the street just south of Stark.
(Jenni, the unoffical LO Voice of East Multnomah, sticks up for her peeps again--coz it seems like Fred Hansen won't... - promoted by torridjoe)
Normally I don't cross post items, but this has me so disgusted that I'm posting here as well...
Today, TriMet officials announced that they'll be adding five more police officers on the west end of the MAX line. But what about the east side?
TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen said there will be another similar bureau set up east of Portland, likely in the Gresham area. Likely in the Gresham area? Is TriMet blind?
Over and over again the news is filled with stories about major crimes happening in Gresham along the MAX line. It became so bad that Gresham has had to use its small number of police officers (which is 7-12 at any given time for a city of 100,000) to patrol the MAX line. Combine that with one of the lowest population/police officer ratios, an increase in violent and major crimes, and a county sheriff dept. in ruins and you get very few officers available to patrol the MAX plus the rest of the surrounding area.
But for a long time, Tri-Met has denied crime problems.
According to The Oregonian, "until recently, TriMet had denied crime problems along its MAX line, saying any troubles reflected the community it traveled through and not the system."
Just one day after Gresham Mayor Shane Bemis's November 2nd announcement, a 71 year-old man was brutally attacked. On November 29th a man was stabbed in the chest after getting off MAX. Just a few days ago a woman was sexually assaulted on a bench at a MAX station. For more than two months Bemis has been calling for additional security in Gresham.
The most recent incident was handled by TriMet security, which did not release details about the attack to the public. The victim was angry, saying that the public should be told about these incidents so they can protect themselves.
TriMet spokeswoman Mary Fetsch said the latest incident has prompted the agency to review whether it should immediately release information on serious assaults. "We already know there are safety issues, and we're addressing them," she said. "Unfortunately those steps didn't prevent this assault."
So does TriMet do in response to the incidents, Bemis calling for a solution, and east county residents calling for a solution? They hold meetings in which they don't allow the public to give input. And then they decide to add officers at the other end of the line.
With everything that's been going on with the election, I neglected to write about this a few days ago when the issue first came up...
Last Friday, Gresham's Mayor Shane Bemis wrote a letter to Tri-Met, stating the city's intention to begin patrolling the MAX line in Gresham. The city has already stepped up patrols in the Rockwood area, which surrounds the MAX line.
However, with the amount of crime that happens on and directly around the MAX line, Bemis felt the city had to do something more to protect the city's residents.
According to the city, in 2006 police responded to a number of calls immediately adjacent or within 1/4 mile around light rail stops in Gresham. These calls include 42% of all narcotics calls, 84% of all gang calls, and 40% of all fight calls.
These patrols would not only be on the MAX platforms, but also on the trains themselves. Both uniformed and plain clothes officers will be watching for criminal activity, checking for fares, and more.
They're also looking to add more lights and security cameras to the platforms.
Shortly after the news of the city's intended action hit the news, an elderly man was beaten with a baseball bat at the Gresham Central MAX station. This is a station I frequent, as it has a nice parking structure and I never had any problems with my car being broken into (unlike the Rockwood Park and Ride where my casette deck was stolen in early 2001). However, the last few times I was at this station, there did seem to be a lot of unecessary loitering around the premesis.
There were a number of people who seemed to be just hanging out - not waiting for a bus or someone to pick them up. I had to wait there with Abby one day for one of my husband's co-workers to come and pick us up so we could get the car from his work. I felt a bit uneasy standing there waiting.
These added patrols are going to put a huge burden on the city, though. We already have an extremely low police coverage rate for a city of this size. According to the Gresham Outlook:
The nearly 100,000 resident city also has one of the lowest per-capita rates of officers for an Oregon city its size at 1.22 officers per 1,000 residents in fiscal year 2006-07. Fairview and Hillsboro had ratios of 1.36, Troutdale’s was 1.42, Beaverton’s was 1.51 and Portland’s was 1.80
Thursday night, ACORN held a meeting in Gresham to address the problems of poor living conditions in the Gresham rental community. Due to a prior commitment, I was unable to attend the meeting. However, the Gresham Outlook had a great write up on the meeting. The Oregonian ran a story on the meeting.
At the meeting, some apartment residents wore masks to hide their faces so they could speak about the conditions they were living in without worrying about retribution from landlords.
They talked about roaches, electrical problems, windows and doors that won't close, and more.
Mayor Shane Bemis has vowed that this problem will be addressed before his first term as mayor is up. The Oregonian had a good piece on Bemis and how his mind was made up that something needed to be done. He toured units with major problems, including a hole in the ceiling above a child's bed.
It is an issue near and dear to my heart, since I've lived in apartments for nearly a decade - more than 7 years here in Gresham. I've seen good complexes, like the one I currently live in. And I've seen the bad. And I've watched as management and the owners turn a blind eye to problems and ignore complaints. It is an issue I ran on for the vacant council position, and plan to run on in my campaign for a city council seat in the 2008 election.
However, it's amazing the excuses that are now popping up to make it seem like the problem isn't really there. They blame the residents themselves - that they don't clean and that's why things are falling apartment, why there are roaches, etc. They blame illegal immigrants. They say that landlords are "hamstrung by state laws favoring renters." That the people living there are slum or criminals. That a manager would never evict someone who was a good resident unless there was a good reason.
(Gresham blew it, big time--not just in general along the lines Jenni talked about, but...they coulda had Jenni! How dumb is that?
And don'tcha love it; all they did was make her mad enough to file for real next year. If you're feeling cynical about beating back the wingnuts or even fair-weather Democrats, think about Jenni. - promoted by torridjoe)
Well, no surprise to many of us, the Gresham City Council today chose to fill their vacancy with a former member of the council.
They had several excellent candidates to choose from who would have each brought something new to the council. They could have also branched out and actually represented a larger section of the community. They chose not to.
And based on a public comment at the beginning of the meeting, as well as during the break after the vote, people were not happy. They had expected the council to pick a new voice for the city council. One of the questions they'd asked had been about getting people more involved, yet when they had the opportunity to do it themselves, they didn't.
Well, today was the deadline for people to submit their letters expressing their interest in the vacant city council seat in Gresham. There's been almost no news of this in The Oregonian as far as I can see, and only a few letters since the initial announcement at the beginning of the month.
Hopefully we'll soon hear how many people were interested and who they were.
You would think there would be a lot more in the news regarding the vacant position. Gresham has almost 100,000 people -- and our council has a lot of work on its plate. And unlike Portland, our council is 100% volunteer.
With crime rates skyrocketing, people flocking from Portland into Gresham, two low of a tax rate to truly run a city of this size, and now finally official reports on the sad state of apartments in this city, there is a lot for this council to get done.
Whoever they fill the position with needs to be ready to hit the ground running. They don't have to be former council members or know all the inner workings of the council. But what they do need is an idea of what the problems are in the city, what needs it has, etc. - and I mean beyond the oft repeated issues of Rockwood and the Arts Center.
I'm talking about things like major traffic problems that are only getting worse; a public transportation system that is better suited for a town of 20,000, not a large city of 97,000; less and less space available for homes, meaning people often have to choose to live in an apartment or buy a house whose footprint isn't much smaller than the lot; a growing rental community that often times is living in substandard and unsafe units; and a population that wants more services, yet doesn't seem to understand why they can't be paid for with the lowest taxes of a full service city in the state.
So not only does Troutdale City Counselor Robert Canfield attack Jenni Simonis on his hyperbolic blog, but then comes over here to begin troll rating mild-mannered substantive comments made by Jenni Simonis, when called on it at his blog, he proceeds to remove posts exposing his behavior.
When called on the removal of posts shinning a spotlight on his troll behavior here, he then removes more posts, emails people about the comment calling him on it, then disables anonymous posting. The GOP "la la la I can't hear you" defense writ large.
Guess Mr. Canfield's delicate sensibilities can't stomach being exposed, while rightly being labeled a moronic troll over such behavior. Like a chickenhawk or schoolyard bully, someone calls him on his crap, and he goes all wobbly and runs for cover.
Today we found out the process for the replacement of Karylinn Echols on the Gresham City Council. The city will be taking cover letters and resumes from interested persons through August 15th.
At their regularly scheduled meeting on August 21st, they will conduct interviews of everyone who has applied for the position. After that they will hold a vote, and the new member of the council will be sworn in at the end of the meeting.
I just finished speaking with reporters about an hour ago on the position. They confirmed that at this point, only John Kilian and myself have announced our interest in filling the vacancy.
Edit: I was told only one other person had expressed an interest, but the story in The Outlook now shows two other names as well: David Widmark, who previously served on the council, and Tom Giusto.
Democratic activist Jenni Simonis announced yesterday her intention to seek an appointment to the Gresham City Council.
From the press release:
Jenni Simonis, a local activist, announced today that she will be seeking appointment to the Gresham City Council to fill the vacancy that will be left after Karylinn Echols’ resignation later this month.
Simonis, who has been active in the community since moving to Gresham over seven years ago, had already been planning a run for the council in 2008. Joining the council now allows her to begin the work immediately of bridging the gap between the community, the city, and other local governmental entities.
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