After starting a business in Portland proper a few years back I'll tell you right now I'd never do it again. The bureaucracy, costs, run around and lack of anyone who cares to help you is painful. Why anyone would want to start a business within Portland is beyond me.

Sick leave is a very good thing. Addressing it at the local level makes even less sense than having our cities and other local governments dabble in foreign policy with boycotts, embargoes and the like.

Starting a business is most likely intense in the first place, finding the right location or whatever other decisions, and there ought to go along with that some joy in doing so,
it shouldn't have to be "Portland Painful."

Like a friend on mine said over 10 years ago after quitting a job working in City Hall, "this place is more crooked than a box of corkscrews".

No big deal.
Here is the reality for those out of touch nanny's that infest this city:

The next pay raise will be less (or non-existent) to make up for the cost of sick leave. Some may also lose their jobs.

Too bad our masters are so financially illiterate that they do not understand this simplest of all concepts.

Thanks
JK

The policies of the city over the past many years have ensured that we have only minimum wage employment opportunity. They think they can make up for that by mandating benefits.

It's the same twisted logic that makes people think the minimum wage can be a living wage. Heck, if it were that easy, why not just set the minimum wage at 100K per year.

Ooops.... I may have just given them an idea.

Hey City Council, envision yourselves at the helm of the Detroit of the West.

Wealth is mobile. Most employers won't just slowly put themselves out of business for the sake of your pet causes. It's a business, not a social justice colloquium. As so many have said before: I never got a job from a poor man.

There are cities nearby who *want* businesses. We'll cross a tipping-point, and Portland will become the perpetual sick-man that you see in big Progressive cities. Try as you might, you can't be S.F. There's already an S.F., and they're broke too.

Sometimes I think the only idea they like is whatever they think keeps them in their secure perches. Whatever it takes and if it means to be a go along, along they will go. I keep hoping their horrendous decisions will catch up with them to oust them, but so far so luck.
People really need to pay attention. Maybe the head tax will finally get their attention.
I am sure the businesses now are having to pay attention. We do need more watchdogs and an engaged voting public.

Portland's incessant regulations could mean an excellent redevelopment opportunity for Raleigh Hills and the Tigard Triangle. Just think - a Portland address, Portland telephone numbers - but Washington County's business environment, lower taxes, less regulation, and you can spit (or throw your garbage) into Portland!

Well I have three appointments tomorrow, and four on Friday, to view Commercial office space in Washington County. My firm, which consists of myself and eight team members, will be out of town by the end on Q1. Can't wait.

AnyWC,
Good luck in your relocation, hate to lose your firm, but can't say I blame you for wanting to leave. Water rate increases are also troubling, to local businesses and businesses wanting to locate here most likely won't.
Yet we are told millions are coming! Don't they wish! I wonder how much in advertising has been done to "sway" people into our city with the appropriate buzz words.

Clineman - give up the hope that failure will cause anyone to change their minds. They only come back with excuses. The favorite one is,"if we only had more money."

"This is a historic moment for human rights in America," said Commissioner Amanda Fritz.

Hey Amanda,

Portland wasn't even the third entity in the US to pass such a legal action. The only history here is that you're piling onto someone else's idea.

What a self-aggrandizing egomaniac.

How about it Amanda? If you are so concerned about human rights, what about the rights of the people in your city that do not want to be medicated by fluoride in the drinking water?

Once again, fragmented thinking, situational ethics!! Whatever it takes to keep Amanda "seeming" to be for the people!

Yeah... and what about the people that want to wear cologne at City Hall!