This is just one more step by Hero Randy and Mayor Creepy to put Portland in the line up of Rust-belt cities.

What is amazing is that even when Scammy and his band of merry pranksters get caught doing this sort of stuff, it really doesn't seem to matter. Thankfully, I don't live in the city anymore, but I grew up there and work downtown so I still care. It is amazing the amount of damage this moron of a Mayor has caused the city.

I've never seen Sam Adams work s-o-o-o-o hard to land a measly 20 jobs.

Maybe Columbia Biogas paid his mortgage ...

I think the question isn't "Is the mayor getting some serious payola for continuing to flog this dead horse?" The question should be "How much payola is he getting?" Sam Adams: the Richard Daley and Archibald Tweed of a new millenium.

So they're raising our garbage bill, water bill, cost to park on-street and in a city owned garage, and taking more money away from road construction and maintenance to pay at least $45k/year for each job that this project might create?

I'm getting pretty tired of the city prioritizing pet projects over basic municipal services. This city could use a little less "sustainability" and a little more livability.

Fret not. As soon as everyone in the city is broke they'll have to stop.

This is INSANE. F*cking insane!

And especially galling given the sewer lawsuit. I guess now we know exactly how seriously they're taking that.

Take money from Parks and Rec also. They're they're closing Fulton Community Center which is home to several pre-school programs and weekly dances two nights a week. "It's for the children."

I'm not certain in what county the stretch of US 26 that has sat idle for months for 'road repairs'is, but since I commute that daily eastbound I can tell you - the striping is almost non existant, there is a tire grabbing trench on the right and in the rain, cars are all over because you can't tell where the lanes are. I'd rather see some basic road maintenance than a "biogas facility" whatever the hell that might be. What the hell is wrong with CoP? Is absolutely NO ONE at the helm?

Insane, but also par for the Portlandia municipal par 3 pitch-n-putt course.

Regarding initiatives and petitions, I think that dog don't hunt well in The Peoples Republic. After Sam admitted he is a lying sack of sleaze and creepiness, Portlandia gave a collective shrug and mocked those involved in the recall of The Mayor. Both times.

Portland gets what Portland wants and deserves.

Really, it is a tough problem, when the adults who could provide supervision leave, replaced by more of the hipster kids that need to be supervised. The ratio is worsening, the future not so bright.

This is just plain wrong. These clowns cut sweetheart deals for their buddies that screw over the vast majority of the city, and dissent is shouted down with bleats of anti-environment or homophobe, whichever Sam and his cabal of loons find most useful. I need to move, this is a bad dream.

I'm with Harry on that. Get out while you can. I am.

The Sam/Rand twins lead all the conversations for the stupid and possibly criminal things they do to Portland. Yet no headlines calling out the brain donors who elected them.

This Biomess is the crowning glory of what this blog has been about for years. Besides being time for Initiatives, where is the media? Where are the editorials from the O, the Tribune, WW, Portland Business Journal, the Examiner? Where are the TV stations that seldom report issues like this, but incessantly report crime-Biomess is a crime too.

Local media, elected and appointed officials, and candidates are only reflecting the wishes and desires of the hordes of brain donors who've been and continue to flock to Portland in the hopes of building the new society. It's endemic now.

we left- and glad we did as we read from afar what the heck is happening to what used to be the city we were proud of. And now? Not so much.

One party rule in all it's glory.

If some intrepid reporter is looking for a Pulitzer, this story would be a bit like Chinatown minus the murder and incest, but plus a small dash of pederasty.

This is another attempt on Sam's desire to build another monument to his own ego no matter the cost to the well being of the community at large. Paved streets and so forth aren't sexy, and don't have the same "kick" as a biogas plant. He isn't getting his ridiculous and untenable Sustainabilty Center so now it's time to move onto the ridiculous and untenable Plan B with this biogas thing. Gotta love how the "O" article says that they will charge "commercial garbage haulers" an extra 15% when it should read "commercial garbage customers" an extra %15. So increase the costs to all of the businesses in the city, and potentially cause lay-offs or non-hiring across the board, so one business can get a handout to tinker around with something of unproven economic benefit and marginal efficacy to the environment...nice. Didn't we just lose a bunch of jobs at Siltronic due to issues regarding increased water rates? Increased commercial garbage rates and redirecting street maintenance funds to support this nonsense...the stupidity and lack of good judgment is astonishing.

Caligula would have made a better mayor.

And the biogas from his horse would have been a while lot cheaper...

It all comes back to the fact that the banks won't finance this, since the business plan sucks. Why should the City, therefore, come up with the money.

And, having worked for the City, I've lost all respect for Ken Rust. He ought to be banned from any contact with the City for at least ten years. What a slimeball.

Why is our city council so racist ?
Jamming this plant into a low income minority neighborhood.
If it's such a great thing for the city why not site it in NW Portland ?
There is plenty of industrial land laying vacant there.

NEPguy:.....this is a bad dream.

More like a nightmare!
276 days left!

A nightmare where we are being made complete fools of week after week.

It certainly seems there is zero to little respect for the people's interest,
for any semblance of transparency/democracy,
or for concerns regarding the financial implications of their mismanagement.

Whoever wins the race to become the next commander and Chief of P-Town Should call for a independent audit of Hipsterville, just to be safe and not become part of the legal actions that may come along with the departure of the crooked Adams administration.

OPB is reporting that Columbia Biogas has notified the city that it's no longer requesting public funding and will bankroll it's project exclusively using private capital.

Scepticism regarding the need for immediate and massive action against carbon emissions is a sickness of societies and individuals which needs to be "treated", according to an Oregon-based professor of "sociology and environmental studies". Professor Kari Norgaard compares the struggle against climate scepticism to that against racism and slavery in the US South.

Prof Norgaard holds a B.S. in biology and a master's and PhD in sociology.

"Over the past ten years I have published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions," she says.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/30/climate_scepticism_racism_slavery_treatment/

You're gonna be in big trouble if you don't buy into Sham's biogas thing. You'll be forced into "treatment".

Columbia Biogas and Sam theorized that there's a $8Million savings for Portland sewers so Portland taxpayers should subsidize them for $8M. Well, I'm now doo-dooing into Sam's Slop Bucket to save our sewers. So, am I eligible for subsidies?

What I said above. We've become the convergence point for a new movement that will probably take on fascist overtones.

Any chance of adults taking charge and saving whats left of property values any time soon, doubtful.
If only "corporations" could be as groovy and honest as the "creepster."

Ms. Slovic earns our thanks and respect for revealing the machinations of our governmental overlords.

But the Oregonian reveals that it is still the toady for all those in power by printing the words in the press releases as opposed to the words of reality:

Backstopping is to fraud as affair is to rape.

We deserve better.

...Is absolutely NO ONE at the helm?

Doesn't appear to be.
Any paint left to use for road stripes is used for bicycles lanes.
The rest have essentially become invisible in places.
Don't forget, the budget proposal is no roads paved for five years.
This would in most cities be laughable, a cartoon joke, but here?

Obviously we have egotistical thief in mayor’s clothing with Scammyboy. If a stink plant of this nature is to be built at all, it ought to be with private dollars and just down the bluff from Kenton, where with a North wind, Scammyboy can relish in the smell of success in his own mortgaged back yard.

Mr. Grumpy wrote: I'm with Harry on that. Get out while you can. I am.

KW wrote: we left- and glad we did as we read from afar what the heck is happening to what used to be the city we were proud of. And now? Not so much.

I know just how you feel. No place is perfect, but you can do a DAMN sight better than the City of Portland. I'm sad to say it, but they are truly on the road to ruin. After the slops bucket showed up, we couldn't get out fast enough.

The scary part is how Sam and his ilk actually *believe* that this could possibly work. If your basic grasp on economics and science is that shaky, then you have no business bankrolling a highly speculative energy business -- that the banks won't touch.