On the town

Here's another edition of the new feature of this blog, a breezy column boiling big things down to a sound bite each. Time is money!

I'm still taking suggestions for a title for this column, but so far I've got a working one that's an answer to the concept of Portland Polite. And why not revive my old pen name? It worked 50 years ago at the JJ. Here goes.

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Oregon's spritely "junior" U.S. senator, Jeff Merkley (b. 1956) went on a tear the other night, speaking for 22 hours straight against the dictatorship in which we find ourselves. I believe that comes close to the similar performance by New Jersey Senator Cory Booker last spring.... My question: How do those guys go that long without excusing themselves to pee? They must be using the "stadium buddy"... I hope Oregon's other senator doesn't try anything like this. He looks like he'd keel over within an hour or two! And they'd miss him on Martha's Vineyard...

Oh, SNAP! Just got word from the Oregon Health Authority (go Blazers) that if the federal government shutdown doesn't end soon, food stamps aren't going to be forthcoming until the boys and girls in D.C. cut a deal... So this is what we've come to? Sheesh. That flag we used to fly over our front door is long gone to the Goodwill, and it ain't coming back...

Speaking of MAGA, apparently Christine Drazan is going to run for Oregon governor again... So far her campaign theme seems to be "Let's lose harder"...

Had an elegant lunch with a couple of former co-workers downtown yesterday. They were buying... And it's a good thing, because parking on the street for two hours set me back $6.60... There were actually a few more people walking around than the last time I was down there, but that parking fee is just screaming "We don't want your business"... At least nobody prowled my car, which is quite the thing in those parts... If the politicos really want to revive the city core, they should make parking free for a few years. But let's face it, they don't really care... Just run against Trump and they're in the comfy chair for life...

Remember that "truth in accounting" outfit that blasted Portland City Hall's finances a couple of years ago? They gave the city an "F" and said it was the fourth-worst city in the country on the money front... Well, I just went back and checked what they're saying in 2025, and the good news is that our fair burg has moved up from and "F" to a "D"... But on the other hand, we've slipped from fourth-worst to third-worst... Only Chicago and the Big Apple are in worse shape...

Boy, you don't hear much from the county chair, Jessica Chevy Vega of Council Crest, these days. What's up with that? Somebody probably took a poll and realized that the lower she lies, the better her chances are for a continuing career in government ineptitude... She's up for re-election next year... Light a candle, people...

I have to chuckle when I see all the hubbub about the ICE jail down in South Waterfront... I was all over it back when the city was granting the permit for it 14 years ago. They were trying to pass it off as an office building. An alert reader sent me the floor plan, and I posted it, jail cells and all, but the federales made me take it down... That was not coolio. As a blogger, you want to write the story, not be in it yourself...

In the end, even after the ruse was exposed, good old Admiral Randy Leonard rammed the permit through the City Council for his landlord buddy, who apparently still owns the joint and rents it to the government "agents"... Somebody ought to be picketing that old coot's office, wherever it is. He's making nice bank off that awful facility, which never should have been sited there.