Biodiesel, boos for Council, and other print news today

Scott Moore writes a fine article in today’s Portland Mercury regarding controversy over siting a biodiesel refinery in Linnton. In my opinion, it nails the “fair and balanced” line, giving both sides of the story without inserting the reporter’s opinions or biases. Please read it for yourself. I plan to post my analysis of issues in Linnton as soon as my brain settles down from our trip.

I have to disagree with the content of another of Scott’s posts today, in Hall Monitor. A perennially fine section, by the way, which is on my weekly Must Read list. Today, he chides the City Council members for taking the entire week off for July 4th, with the cancellation of today’s Council session due to lack of a quorum. I think it’s fine that there’s no meeting today. In the past, citizens have suspected Council members have planned major public hearings during holiday periods, with the express purpose of decreasing the number of people wanting to attend or comment. I’d like the adoption of a standing rule of no City Council sessions the weeks of July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. That way, Commissioners, City staff, and citizens (including City Hall press reporters) could plan their vacations and family time, secure in the knowledge they wouldn’t miss something important. When I served on the Planning Commission, I scheduled my family’s out-of-town trips to avoid second and fourth Tuesdays, and missed only three meetings in seven years.

I’m not seeing the InPortland section on the O‘s web site yet today, and since they no longer list the Metro articles under one heading, I’ll have to wait until Steve brings the paper home tonight to see if there is anything particularly comment-worthy for Portland in our daily news journal. I’m amused to see the verbiage on the main page of the web site, enticing readers to coverage of Vancouver: “Vancouver is a vibrant metropolis with an urban core and historical texture without peer in the Northwest.” Gag me with a spoon. Could more buzz words possibly have been slotted into that sentence? I think not. Oh, maybe “linchpin”, right, BoJack? The surprising part, if you read the article, is that they’re talking about Vancouver Washington, not the one in British Columbia. Whoda thunk.