Category: City Council Review

With only six councilors in chambers on Wednesday, a hoped-for emergency measure to adopt Morningstar Road lacked sufficient votes for immediate adoption, leaving residents of the street with ten chilly days without services. A report from the Rent Board sheds light on as many as 471 non-compliant rental units, and concern for rats in Harborview Park brings out naturalists and pet enthusiasts alike.

The City Council meeting on January 3rd was shaping up to be a quiet one, but the inclusion of a resolution from Councilor Ali to take a stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict underway in Gaza brought out torrents of emotional comment, both from the public and from councilors. Before getting to this most sensitive of issues, however, the meeting started with a celebration of the bravery of Portland’s finest.

In the inaugural meeting of the new city council, chaired by Mayor Dion and with Councilors Bullett and Sykes around the dais, a surprisingly lively City Council meeting took place on December 18th, 2023. The State of the Schools address was read, a cadre of unlikely bedfellows passed a surprisingly broad zoning law, and most controversially, the looming sweep scheduled to take place the following day led the council to adopt (wildcat fashion) a resolution against sweeps.

After bidding Councilor Zarro and Mayor Snyder goodbye at the end of their terms, and congratulating Mayor-Elect Dion, the City Council took on two controversial issues: rezoning 900 Ocean Avenue to accommodate denser development, and Order 68. This latter issue resulted in 845 pages in written public comment, four hours of spoken comment, and a debate which stretched well past midnight and ended in physical disruption and arrests.

In the first City Council meeting since the election, Portland resolves in support of statewide gun control and gains a new sister city in Kenya. Creative Portland hosts their annual meeting, and more aid for asylum seekers is desperately requested. After two rounds of failure, enough votes are finally marshaled to enact a state of emergency at the mega-shelter, allowing for expansion of beds. And a wave of support from young soccer fans in the chamber precedes approval of a deal to bring a minor league soccer team to Portland.

: After killing the plan to use a limited state of emergency at the Homeless Services Center at the last meeting, Councilor Phillips had a change of heart and asked the Council to reconsider the plan for adding capacity to the shelter at this Monday’s meeting. A parade of neighbors from the Ocean Ave area turned out to oppose new housing construction there, and updates to Portland’s rules around parking, crosswalks, and marijuana delivery were considered and passed.

City Council meetings have reverted to in-person only as the norm, and still this meeting brought out heated debate. Following a State of the City address, a years-in-the-making impact study on the effects of Historic Preservation was presented to the Council, with unexpected results. A controversial but non-binding resolution on the “deprioritization” of psychedelic drugs inspired debate, and after a long grappling with the subject, the Council rejects adding more capacity to the Homelessness Services Center. Ashley Keenan fills in for Erica Snyder-Drummond on this week’s City Council Review.

Only one item of note concerned the City Council’s attention this past Monday, the establishment of a Tourism Development District, but a tsunami of slur-spewing Zoom trolls derailed the meeting. The Council spent an hour in executive session before returning to chambers, guillotining any further comments, and coming to an agonized conclusion on the future of tourism in Portland. Read all about it in Erica Snyder-Drummond’s City Council Review.