Politics

May Day in Portland 2012

April 29, 2012 by Dave Leave a Comment

International Workers’s Day, also known as May Day, takes place on May 1st world wide – including in Portland.

Portland’s leftists, labor rights advocates, and May Pole aficionados will be celebrating, protesting, and dancing.

2012 Portland May Day activities and events:

What: This is the permitted, family-friendly May Day March & Rally organized by the Pdx May Day Coalition.
When: 2 p.m – 7 p.m.
Where: South Park Blocks – SW Park & SW Salmon

Find more details at the Portland May Day website and Facebook event page.

Liberate May Day

What: The Portland Liberation Organizing Council, a group of organizations dedicated to addressing the current economic crisis with community-led solutions focusing on the systemic problems that enabled this crisis is ready to reclaim land.
When: 9 a.m.
Where: Woodlawn Park (near NE 13th and Dekum)

Visit LiberatePDX.org and the Facebook page for more information.

May Day Celebration

What: Watch local Laurelhurst Elementary kids skip around the may pole, reenacting a century-old Portland public school tradition. Stay for dinner and maybe a movie in the theater.
When: 4 pm – 9 p.m.
Where: Kennedy School (5736 NE 33rd)

May Day McMenamins-style – food, beer, music, and dancing kids, can’t get more wholesome than that!

Find more May Day actions and events at the Portland May Day website.

Local Motion: Portland Mayoral Candidates Discuss Active Transportation (6-February-2012)

February 5, 2012 by Dave Leave a Comment

The PSU Planning Club presents Local Motion: Portland Mayoral Candidates Discuss Active Transportation on Monday, February 6, 2012 at the Lincoln Performance Hall (1620 SW Park).

The [Mayoral Candidates] Forum will pose questions to the candidates regarding active transportation issues such as transit, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, funding concerns, and major projects such as the CRC.

This event is co-sponsored by a strong team of student clubs and regional non-profit organizations, including the PSU Environmental Club, 1000 Friends of Oregon, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Coalition for a Livable Future, the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, the Community Cycling Center, Ride Connect, and OPAL Environmental Justice.

Three mayoral candidates will be present, Eileen Brady, Charlie Hales, and Jefferson Smith. Portland Mercury’s Sarah Mirk and Larry Wallack, Dean of PSU’s College of Urban and Public Affairs, will serve as emcees.

This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:15pm (light refreshments will be served in the lobby), and the forum will run from 7pm to 8:30pm. A reception with the candidates will follow the forum.

December 31, 1915: Prohibition Eve in Oregon

December 31, 2011 by Dave Leave a Comment

Three years before Prohibition took effect nationwide, the Oregon Legislative Assembly passed the Anderson Act, which prohibited the consumption and sale of alcohol in Oregon after December 31, 1915.

On the last day Oregonians could legally consume a beer, the Morning Oregonian employed the death penalty metaphor:

Here we are at the saloon’s last day on Oregon earth.

The gibbet is ready. The rope is rigged and tested. All the formalities of the execution are arranged.

Capital punishment has been taken off the shelf for the great occasion, and it will be a public hanging.

January 1, 1916 was a dark day in Oregon history.

Of course, prohibition was a failure – soon enterprising individuals -and organized crime- filled the void with illegal stills, rumrunning, and speakeasies.

Mercifully in 1933 the failed experiment was repealed on both the federal level and in Oregon.

In Oregon this did not, however, mark the end of government control of liquor – the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) was established that year, and continues operating today, to selectively regulate liquor production and sale throughout the state.

December 24, 2008: Voodoo Doughnut’s Portland Creme Declared Official Portland Doughnut

December 24, 2011 by Dave Leave a Comment

At the last city council meeting presided over by Portland Mayor Tom Potter, a resolution was passed declaring Voodoo Doughnut‘s Portland Creme the official doughnut of the city (The Oregonian, 25 December 2008).

The official Voodoo Doughnut’s menu description:

Portland Cream
Raised yeast doughnut filled with Bavarian cream with chocolate on the top and two eyeballs!

At the city council meeting, Tres Shannon, co-owner of Voodoo Doughnuts, explained: “We wanted to come up with something that represented Portland . . . Take that, Boston.”

Photo credit: “my donut” by Flickr user byebluemonday, used here under the Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) license.

December 22, 1854: Multnomah County Created

December 22, 2011 by Dave 1 Comment

Multnomah County, Oregon’s thirteenth, was created from parts of Washington and Clackamas Counties on December 22, 1854.

Multnomah County was created when the people living in Portland found it difficult to travel to Hillsboro to conduct business at the county seat of Washington County. They also thought that they were paying too much in taxes to support the farmers in the rural areas surrounding Portland. In 1854, Portland businessmen petitioned the Territorial Legislature for a new county and Multnomah County was created at the subsequent session. The county was named after the Multnomah Indians who were part of the Chinookan tribe that lived on the eastern tip of what is now Sauvie Island in the Columbia River. The City of Portland was chartered in 1851 and made the county seat in 1854. The Multnomah County Commissioners met for the first time on January 17, 1855.

Multnomah County is Oregon’s smallest and most populous county.