Housing affordability remains one of Portland's most pressing challenges, and if we're serious about increasing housing production, we need to be willing to examine every part of the development process—from land use and permitting to building codes.

I don’t really understand how planning at PDX failed to consider the difficulty of growing trees indoors.

Willamette Week@wweek.com · 7d ago

Is it dog pee and coffee or just flawed interior landscape design?

speaking of, the portland puppet museum is one of the most delightful small boutique museums i have ever been to. should you venture that way, definitely opt for the tour

GOLIKEHELLMACHINE@golikehellmachine.com · 2w ago

the best part of having guests visit you is the experience of getting to be a tourist in your own city and seeing things through their eyes

It might be helpful for current councilors who support this to identify the ~$17 million in low-priority spending that would be easy to cut from the current budget. www.oregonlive.com/portland/202...

Portland initiative on community budgeting qualifies for November ballot

"Community Budgeting for All" would let Portlanders pick how to spend at least 2% of the city’s general fund budget.

oregonlive.com

Finally made it to the ground zero of Euclidean zoning.

new (sort of) from me! in sightline! thanks to michael for making this happen 😃

Michael Andersen@andersem.bsky.social · 3w ago

Proud to be crossposting @fischer.bsky.social today at @sightline.org: The Case for a Homes-Near-Transit Bill in Oregon in 2027 www.sightline.org/2026/07/17/t...

This too is Glonzo.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez@ocasio-cortez.house.gov · 3w ago

The Supreme Court is facing a major corruption crisis. I'm proud to introduce the High Court Gift Ban Act, with @raskin.house.gov and @lujan.senate.gov, to remove the influence of dark money from our nation’s highest judicial body. We must safeguard the sanctity of our democracy.

Hey, you should come to our 4th Annual Inner Eastside for All Ride on July 26th! We are hosting it with our amazing friends at @strongtownspdx.bsky.social and @bikeloudpdx.bsky.social, and we're excited to envision an even more welcoming and wonderful Inner Eastside with you!

My taxonomy of this is that there are kind of three meta-schools of urbanism: There’s (1) the style of high-theoretic utopian planning that Jacobs opposed—le Corbusier, Ebenezer Howard, probably you can ultimately blame Plato.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias.bsky.social · 4w ago

I went and actually read Jane Jacobs' urbanist classic "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" and was surprised by how much I hated it! @jerusalem.bsky.social and I discuss. www.slowboring.com/p/jane-jacob...

A lot going on in the April 28, 1922 Oregonian.

This kind of smart, mixed-use urbanism is illegal in most American cities.

NPR@npr.org · 4w ago

The story of Motown Records is quintessentially American. It’s about the American Dream, civil rights and entrepreneurship. But that story has a special significance in the place where it all got started.

Councilor Kanal just said: the old world is dying. The new world is struggling to be born. Now is the time of land use.

Beautiful vignette of Portland here

Fischer 🛠️🚇@fischer.bsky.social · 4w ago

the livestream fades to soft jazz as someone shouts "shame on all of you" from the audience

The only question in front of City Council today is “was the Design Commission correct that the Lloyd Center master plan meets the applicable design guidelines?” I’ll be disappointed if the council doesn’t vote 11-0 that it was. Every other talking point is distraction.

Don’t Save Lloyd@dontsavelloyd.com · last mo.

Save the date: Lloyd center is back in front of the city council at 10am on Wednesday this week! Council will be discussing the appeal and voting on the outcome -- no need for testimony or attendance at this time www.portland.gov/council/docu...

I’m fascinated by the gap between things my kid draws from conceptual knowledge (head, tail, n legs) and things she draws by actually looking at the shapes.

One of the things I find off-putting about the participatory budgeting campaign is the implicit contempt for representative democracy.

When your beach read matches the blanket.

“Capital” is funny because after ~2,000 pages Marx says “now I will finally explain what defines classes” and then … dies.

portland metro industrial land use planning seems to be not going that well. the inner eastside industrial sanctuary has a ton of retail and even just straight up empty buildings, we’re going all in on a fossil fuel terminal during the climate crisis, and new industry in washco is all datacenters

Brendan Dawe@dawe.bsky.social · last mo.

We talk a lot about residential land use but what’s one big non-residential change that you would make to your city’s planning policies?

If you haven't thrown a $5 Brandon's way, now's your chance

Brandon Mullen@brandonmullen.com · last mo.

Just 50 more 🙏 I checked a moment ago; we need just FIFTY more Portland donors to get the 250 donors we need to unlock a 10x match. We NEED to hit this soon. I need your help: please repost and donate, or text / DM a friend or family member if you have already. secure.actblue.com/donate/mulle...

Can we use Parks SDC funds to build a municipal ice rink?

Fischer 🛠️🚇@fischer.bsky.social · last mo.

note: to me this is clearly a much better option than blocking the master plan -- let's buy a lot and build a public ice rink.

Signature gatherer for the PCEF-police funding petition today told me he didn’t have a copy of the initiative text, which I’m pretty sure is against state law?

Success for a bike network is seeing people in their regular clothing riding helmet free.

A lot of Paris bike infrastructure is pretty basic but it’s enough because they have an entire network that lets you travel around the whole city. Every major road in the city, at least that I encountered, has bike infrastructure. It’s the anti-greenway approach.

Nearly 2 months ago I got hit by a car while I was riding my bike. I won’t rehash the whole story here, I have posted about it enough already, but I have not stopped being furious about the way I was treated afterwards by the PPB. www.portlandmercury.com/news/road-ru...

Road Rules - Portland Mercury

In early April, Portlander Jennifer Shuch was biking across Northeast Halsey Street near the Hollywood Transit Center when she was struck by a driver running a red light. The impact, which was caught ...

portlandmercury.com

Not sure what the competition is but “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” has to be one of the best novels about a residential upzoning fight.

You can still ride your patriotically-decorated bike and know your neighbors, even (especially?) in Portland, Oregon.

Everyone mark your calendars! Today is the very first day in four months that both Bob Stacey Overcrossing elevators are working again

The supply-side solution here is creating more natural wonders in high-demand areas (draining the Hetch Hetchy reservoir).

Luke Steuber@coolhand.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Jesus Christ