Q. "Will grown-ups ever retake city government."
A. Not for at least another 4 years and 102 days.

5S in my kitchen? What's next - Quality Circles my the bedroom? Kanban in my bathroom? Six-Sigma pulling weeds in my garder?

I suggest Poka-Yoke in our government! And if you're not familiar with these terms consider yourself lucky. (Actually, Poka-Yoke is a worthwhile concept.)

It's just Portland's ongoing obsession with all things liberal and with people who, rather than fix potholes and other such mundane endeavors, want instead to micro-manage every detail of our personal lives so that everyone comports with their view of the correct way to conduct ourselves. And if we don't go along with the program they really get their jollies ensuring our compliance at gunpoint. These are the people you love to cynically skewer, but then inexplicably you keep voting for them, derisively calling the alternative "tighty righties." When the dust settles out, in the end, YOU represent the a part of the problem, Bojack, not the solution, because all you really want to do is rearrange the deckchairs on this sinking ship.

boycat...get a life!

Jack,

Surely, you understand that Sustainability means government jobs area sustained?

What can you expect from Friends of Neil and Democrats in general?

Just what you got, and getting weorse. Just like my spe\lelling.

Not that hard to figure... a nanny-state that advertises itself as "beneficent" is naturally going to attract residents who either given up on or never were capable of thinking for themselves, hence "a place for young and old to retire".

Your tax dollars are providing essential services for the confused and lobotomized.

"Your money, straight down a rat hole"

Hey! Leave Stenchy out of this. At least he's honest about who he is and what he does.

Could there be an ethics violation where a public entity is endorsing/recommending a particular business?

"Buy crafts and wares from local creators at Crafty Wonderland for a unique touch."

Hard to argue that government is not getting too big when you see silliness like this.

In Oregon, it's: "eh, thicks -- you just don't get it do you? Nothing to see here, folks...."

Jack, you do a huge service when you point out spending on non-priority items and the dangerous growth of debt due to big projects. I read your blog really as a local news source.
Unfortunately, you also spend a lot of time editorializing about how bad current city leadership is to allow these things to happen. Criticizing current city leadership is just pissing in the wind. This is a one-party town and current city leadership is exactly what the people of Portland want. (That's why they won the jobs.) I might add that you are as derisive of the other party as anyone.
So you don't like current city leadership, you think the other (almost non-existent) party are a bunch of Richy Rich dopes (which only occasionally hurts my feelings), and you don't like the result.
Maybe there are people who you would like, but they don't seem to run (or are so unknown that they can't mount a realistic campaign). My suggestion: write a post about a realistic way that you believe things around here could be improved. (Just saying "elect different people" doesn't count, because you need to suggest who they might be and why you think they'd have a chance to win.)
Just a suggestion by a regular reader.

"PORNLAND, the City that Wanks"

It seems like everytime we get a nanny state sighting those of us who still have a grip on reality roll our eyes, crack about the sorry state of government priorities and go on with lives. Then of course we get a comment from our friends on the Far Right that sounds positively unhinged. LIBERALS! Forcing us to wipe our tails at GUNPOINT! (I thought the Right loved guns...I guess only when they are pointed at the mentally ill)Does not take much to validate whatever hysterical fantasy they have of government and those nasty black helicopters. Of course they did not seem to mind it so much when the government, under GDub, went around violating civil rights, torturing and sending people to rot in Gitmo. I guess government is only bad when your guys are not at the wheel.

If only a Clint Eastwood type could just tell Sammyboy and The Hose Guy to do actually it to themselves

Maybe you should start you own blog boycat. I am so tired of pointmaking through perpetual widebrush liberal-conservative identity rhetoric.

To follow your analogy, our ship may be headed for an iceberg but (on the national level) liberals and conservatives elected the people who set and maintained that course. We will need liberal and conservatives finding common ground to change course to avoid local icebergs. Jack is doing more to highlight this common ground than anyone else in Portland.

Whats next?
Personal home inspections by our city for the good of the planet?
The new urbanites will be more than happy to comply? When will they have had enough?
...or has the education camp already prepared them for the lock step life?

"why are Portland taxpayers paying good money to have some clown sitting around posting this?"

Because you might be:

"Looking for a unique gift for that hard-to-please friend?"

Besides it justifies hiring even more people to burn tax money instead of spending on the people who give it to them.

"Personal home inspections by our city for the good of the planet?"

You laugh. There are already proposals to require compliance with an energy audit before you are allowed to sell your house.

After all, there is a century-old example of this sort of thing:

"The Sociological Department of the Ford Motor Company was organized in March, 1913, and oversaw a broad array of social benefits for Ford employees, including assistance in living in well-maintained single-family homes as opposed to small apartments. After the announcement of the Five Dollar Day in 1914, the Sociological Department was responsible for determining if employees’ personal lives and personal habits made them eligible for the full wage."

What are you worried about ?
This silliness was probably funded with Federal stimulus money.

After all, there is a century-old example of this sort of thing:
"The Sociological Department of the Ford Motor Company was organized in March, 1913, and oversaw a broad array of social benefits for Ford employees ...determining if employees’ personal lives and personal habits made them eligible for the full wage.

Not relevant. We're not employees that receive pay and benefits for our labors. We're taxpayers that give up our pay and have things taken away from us for our labors.

Random,
What happens if the house is not in compliance for sale? How much does this cost?
What if one could not afford to do so?

Guess what, guys?

It's possible to not like the current crop of elected hacks, and also not like the hacks that didn't get elected from the other party.

This isn't a system that is mutually exclusive. Oregon has elected Republicans before - they just happened to be moderate Republicans that didn't bend over backwards to the national party, or the religious right.

They however are a dying breed, so we're left with the hacks we have, or the hacks that are unelectable in the Tri-County area for some reason. The moderates all fled.

To everyone:

Why do you stay? Why would you want to?

What is keeping you here?

None of this is going to change any time soon. Look at your mayoral/city council candidates. Think they're going to do anything differently?

So again...why live in such a place?

Jimbo: I don't.

Moved two years ago.

However, my family and friends are still in Oregon, and I still own property there because the current city hall hacks can't figure out how to stop the downward slide of property values - something that other parts of the country did 18 months ago.

WTF.