 |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Susan's Online Guide to Portland Let me Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood |
|||||
|
Welcome to my Web site about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It's my way of helping you become acquainted with the neighborhoods and communities of the Portland metro area and to inform you about the Portland area housing market. Your comments and suggestions about my Web site are always welcome. If you have questions or if you are interested in buying or selling a home in the Portland area, contact me online or call me at (503) 497-2984.
|
|||||
|
Community News |
|||||
|
UO Index: Economy continues to improve March 11 − The University of Oregon Index of Economic Indicators jumped 1.7 percent in January to 88.5, based on a 1997 benchmark of 100. This is the third consecutive month of gains in excess of 1 percent. Over the past six months the index has risen 10.7 percent, and all indicators have shown improvement over that period. While the UO Index is consistent with solid economic growth, that growth has yet to translate into significant overall job gains, said Tim Duy, director of the Oregon Economic Forum and a UO adjunct assistant professor. Labor market indicators are showing improvement. The pace of layoffs is clearly moderating; initial unemployment claims declined again, finally slipping below the highs reached in the 2001 recession. Read more...
Cheap Eats 2010 March 10 − Let us help you out with that. You are holding in your hands our biggest Cheap Eats ever. Since January, we’ve eaten our way across the city, from St. Johns to Powellhurst-Gilbert and as far afield as Gresham and Hillsboro, in search of the best places to fill your stomach without emptying your wallet. In these listings you’ll find an all-encompassing guide to eating well on a budget—call it a gastronomic stimulus package. In addition to the usual list of restaurants (over 150 of them) where you can eat lunch for $10 or less and dinner for under $15. Read more...
Oregon puts consumer complaints data online March 10 − The Oregon attorney general's office has put its complaints database online, meaning consumers can better research companies before deciding where to take their business. Consumers without Internet access may call the agency at 1-877-877-9392. Entries on the database, which contains complaints received since Jan. 1, 2008, do not include consumers' names and offer limited information, such as a company's address, the general category of the complaint and whether it was resolved. Read more... |
|||||
|
House, Home, & Health |
|||||
|
Home buyers check out apps March 10 − Just in time for the spring house-hunting season, smart-phone applications that provide information to home buyers are proliferating. Real-estate firms have long vied to have the most engaging Web site to attract people searching for homes. Now they also feel compelled to have an "app" for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other smart phones. Rather than being moneymakers—brokers tend to offer their apps for free—the apps are seen as a tool to make the home-buying process easier. "I don't think it's driving revenue for us, but it's making customers happier," says Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin Corp., a Seattle-based broker that operates in nine states. Read more... |
|||||
|
Living Green |
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
Sports and Outdoors |
|||||
|
Northwest outdoor calendar for March − On March 13-14, head to Mazama Lodge and join the Mazamas Nordic Committee and Trails Committee in this event for the whole family. Activities include cross-country ski lessons, a snow-leprechaun building contest, storytelling by the fireplace and a snowshoe race. Visit the Web site or call the lodge for directions. Register for the event by e-mail to mwynton@lycos.com. Lodging $22 adults, $15 children; all event-related activities free; www.mazamas.org or 503-272-9214. Read more...
|
|||||
|
Portland Blogs and Web Sites
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
|
|
Susan Marthens |
|
|||
|
© Copyright 2000-2009 All rights reserved Web by Dasan Design ● Telephone (503) 819-0011 |
|||||
Portland
officials call for overhaul of police oversight March 11
− The city auditor and Commissioner Randy Leonard, faced with growing community
demands for accountability after controversial police shootings and
a death in police custody that's taken three years to investigate, want
to give Portland's police oversight division the muscle they say it needs
to be effective. Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade and Leonard spent 2 1/2
months drafting a resolution that would give the director of the Independent
Police Review Division the power to subpoena witnesses for independent inquiries
and recommend discipline in police misconduct cases. These would be the
first changes to the city's police oversight system created by former City
Auditor Gary Blackmer nine years ago. "It's time we actually put teeth in
the IPR ordinance with sanctions and authority to investigate police abuse,"
Leonard said.
Portland
cyclists give debut of Google's new bike maps mixed reviews March
11 − Like a lot of Portland bicycle commuters, Dat Nguyen was popping mental
wheelies after Google unveiled bike directions Wednesday on its wildly popular
online mapping site. But that excitement deflated as soon as Nguyen asked
Developers
suspend massive Oregon City project March 10 − The developer
behind a proposed retail-entertainment-office complex that would be twice
the size of Bridgeport Village suspended the project this week, citing concerns
about support from city officials. "We are not certain whether we will continue
to have the support of the (Oregon City) council necessary to move our project
forward," CenterCal CEO Officer Fred Bruning said in a letter to City Manager
Larry Patterson. Two of Oregon City's five commission members have opposed
the project, called The Rivers for its location near the confluence of the
Clackamas and Willamette Rivers. In addition, two supporters, Patterson
and Mayor Alice Norris, both will be leaving office. Patterson is retiring,
and Norris, because of term limits, will not seek re-election. Bruning said
CenterCal will reassess after the November election.
A
remodeled kitchen artfully blends old and new March 11 −
There was a war going on in the kitchen of my 1921 Dutch Colonial. A
louvered 1950s lanai window battled it out with circa-1970 fiberboard cabinets
and a metal-framed greenhouse window, while across the room a giant black
mid-'90s fridge stood proudly under contemporary halogen track lights. And
my mixed-message kitchen was not even on speaking terms with the rest of
the period-style house. I cooked my heart out in it for a decade, until
we marshaled the funds and the fortitude to take on a remodel. So who would
have guessed that, when the contractor's dust settled, I would once again
have a kitchen combining old, new and somewhere in between.
Ratproofing
the composter by a frugal Portland gardener who doesn't give up
March 11 − Last weekend found me chuckling over the sound of my power
drill as I attempted to rat proof my composter. "Just try to get in here
now," I told myself, feeling slightly crazy, as I drilled quarter-inch metal
hardware cloth squares over all the vents in my Earth Machine composter.
The rodents had recently chewed through those vents and I wrote about how
they feasted nightly in my
Sideways
on the Siletz March 10 − There are moments when it
seems everything is going sideways on the scenic river that encircles its
namesake town like a green jade necklace. The rain comes down sideways.
Alder and vine maple trees grow sideways out of moss-covered canyon walls.
And, of course, there’s that definite sideways tilt to the winter steelhead
fishing on the Siletz River.“ ‘Side drifting’ is by far the most popular
method,” said Phil Paradis, of Paradise Guide Service in Canby. “I’d say
90 percent of the boat anglers side drift.” Side drifting is a technique
in which anglers allow small bits of lightly-weighted bait to drift downstream
alongside or slightly behind their boats, with boat and bait both moving
at the speed of the current. Properly executed, the technique results in
a “nice natural drift,” Paradis said. It also produces a high percentage
of “hook-ups” because the downstream angle of the fishing line tends to
pull the hook back into the fish’s mouth rather than out of it.
