Ben DeJarnette, Author at Bridgeliner

(55 posts)

No, Portland’s Neighborhood Associations Aren’t Going Away — And They Might Not Even Change

A proposed revision to the City of Portland’s civic code is either a bureaucratic tweak to bring more voices to the table, or it’s a Machiavellian power grab to silence critics and stifle democracy. It just depends who you ask. Confused? You’re not alone. The messaging from City Hall has been inconsistent at times, and […]

Neighborhoods / July 30, 2019

The 6 Things I’ve Learned About Foster Care in Oregon

Our readers sent in some great questions this month about Oregon’s foster care system, and I’ll be digging into them throughout the summer. For now, here’s an update on what I’ve learned: 1. First things first: what even is foster care? That’s not a stupid question. Sometimes foster care is a short-term arrangement for a kid […]

Real Talk / July 24, 2019

PDXplained: What We Learned About the Old ‘Comfy Inn’ in Kenton

Apartment construction is nothing new to North Portland (ICYMI, they’re going up everywhere), but the Kenton Korner development on N. Interstate Ave. has quite a story behind it. My sleuthing into that site began with a PDXplained question from reader Teresa Hill, who asked: “What’s going on with the old motel that’s being remodeled next […]

Kenton / July 22, 2019

The MLB-to-Portland Petition Has 35,000+ Signatures. So What’s Next?

(📸: Portland Diamond Project) It’s been nearly two years since the Portland Diamond Project first started hatching its plan to bring pro baseball to Portland, and the movement is starting to pick up steam. The celebrity duo of Russell Wilson and Ciara are on board as early investors, a tentative agreement is in place to […]

Community / June 24, 2019

Portland Can’t Fix Its Homelessness Crisis Without Learning from San Francisco

(📸: Erik Cooper on Flickr) “How does the Bay Area handle the homelessness issue?” When we invited questions about what Portland can learn from the Bay Area about managing growth, several readers asked us about homelessness — and it’s no surprise. Portland’s homelessness crisis ranks among the worst in the country, and on any given […]

Politics / June 18, 2019

Portlanders Are Riding Public Transit Less Often. Is More Housing the Fix?

(📸: Hector Chacon) “How can we get more people to ride public transit?” Reader Judy Welles submitted that question for our series on what Portland can learn from the Bay Area about managing growth — and it’s interesting timing. TriMet just announced that ridership has dipped nearly two percent since last year, continuing a downward […]

Politics / June 4, 2019

Think Local Government Is Gridlocked in Portland? Try Living in San Francisco

“How should the Portland metro area govern itself?” That’s the question that reader John Sieling sent me before my trip to the San Francisco Bay Area — and it’s one many Portlanders have been asking lately. In February, City Club released a 35-page report about Portland’s unusual form of government and proposed a series of […]

Politics / May 22, 2019

Is Congestion Pricing the Solution to Portland’s Traffic Woes?

(📸: Pix For our latest Real Talk series, we’re digging into what Portland can learn from the Bay Area’s successes and struggles with growth, starting with a reader’s question about tolling: Does the Bay Area have toll roads and how’s that working out? I hate the idea of toll roads because I’ve seen them abused […]

Real Talk / May 15, 2019

Neighborhood Spotlight on St. Johns

St. Johns might be a Portland neighborhood on paper, but to our friends on the peninsula, it’s really a town of its own. Located deep in the “fifth quadrant,” St. Johns hasn’t lost the blue-collar identity it gained as a hub for lumber and manufacturing jobs in the early 1900s. Dive bars like Slim’s are […]

Neighborhoods / May 9, 2019

How Gentrification is Changing St. Johns

📸: Phil Desveaux “What population(s) originally lived in St. Johns, and are those communities suffering now as a result of gentrification?” —Leah Drew That’s the winning question from our latest PDXplained voting round. Here’s what we learned, starting from the very beginning: The area now known as St. Johns was originally inhabited by members of […]

Neighborhoods / May 7, 2019