Next Up at City Council, April 11-12, 2007

Portland City Council’s Agenda for this upcoming week features two important Parks issues:
*355 TIME CERTAIN: 9:30 AM – Intergovernmental Agreement with Metro to receive the local share component of the 2006 Open Spaces Bond Measure, and
356 TIME CERTAIN: 10:30 AM – Direct Portland Parks and Recreation to adopt new sponsorship and naming policies.

I’ll be out of town on Wednesday, as I’m a delegate at the Oregon Nurses Association’s convention in Eugene, so I’ll be sending in written comments and posting them here tomorrow or Tuesday. OK, probably Tuesday. The Metro item is fairly straightforward, giving the City of Portland control over their allocation of local share money funded by the latest Greenspaces levy (good choice, voters!). I’ve covered the Sponsorship and Naming issue before, and still have concerns. In fact, I may even go down to Eugene later in the day, if it seems like testifying in person might make a difference. In general, if citizens wait until the hearing, the potential for effecting changes at Council is slim (see Testimony Tips). But on the other hand, it’s hard for Council members to propose amendments, if no citizens show up to ask for them. Decisions, decisions.

This week, there are 17 items on the Consent Agenda that would likely not require a Council vote or public notice if Measure 26-91 passes. I appreciate being able to read through them and see what services my taxpayer dollars are funding.

The big issue on the Regular Agenda (after Communications and the Time Certain items) is extending the expiration date of the drug-free and prostitution-free zones. These zones allow police to exclude citizens from certain areas of the city, without having to prove a crime has been committed. They basically shift potential problems with drug and sex sales to other neighborhoods. Coverage by The Mercury here and here (and a bunch of other places – search their site, if you want to know more).

Here’s a committee forming that sounds needed: 382 Support the creation of the Quality Rental Housing Work Group to explore the issue of environmental health and substandard housing conditions that threaten the health and safety of low-income tenants and develop corresponding policy and program recommendations.

Lots o’ Land Use Stuff on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Two Measure 37 claims on Wednesday at 2 p.m., which again I’ll review in another post. Y’know, taking Ali to Ashland on Thursday and Friday really cramped my blogging activities. The ONA convention will, too. Real life is so inconvenient and time-consuming. But you meet such nice people. Burnside/Couch couplet at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

A couple of odd items on Thursday afternoon: the vote on the NW District garage Design Review, and the Second Reading on Income Guidelines for the Affordable Housing Tax Increment Financing Set Aside Policy. I term these “odd”, because usually they would be one minute vote items on a Wednesday morning agenda, rather than being the only items on Thursday afternoon. If anyone knows any reason why these two aren’t routine, already-had-the-hearing votes, please comment here.