Here's a funny document from the City of Portland website -- the source of much comedy and tragedy alike. The Port of Portland is planting some kind of greenery on a lot out by the Ikea store, and of course, this being Portlandia, all manner of bureaucratic fussing has to be made over what kind of plants, how far apart, etc. We're surprised that only the city and the port are doing the "planning"; on a project of this scope, we'd expect Tri-Met, Metro, and the Portland State urban studies dean to have to sign off. The cost to the taxpayers in administrative processing alone probably works out to about $100 per plant.

Anyway, the application that the port authority bureaucrats filed with the city bureaucrats doesn't say much. One thing we do see in there, however, is that there are not one but two sets of rules governing the planting of plants in what used to be wetlands around the nearby airport and giant strip mall complex. The port is going to operate under these rules, instead of under these. There are probably several more pages to study if you want to put a bird on it.