Here comes a rant.

Since the proposed city-wide Portland Parks & Recreation levy Lee Perlman reported on last month was heavy on the catalog of long overdue east Portland park projects, expectations PP&R would go the extra mile for Mid-county residents was not unwarranted.

However, as usual, the City falls short where it comes to delivering long-needed and neglected infrastructure east of 82nd Avenue.
One wonders how much money PP&R spent with their “outreach” to come to the vaunted, high-priest like conclusion that the economic climate “makes it too difficult” Too difficult? Please. As if that is a revelation. If not now, when?

Received an e-mail from Argay neighborhood activist Sharon Mershon (profiled in November 2003 f or volunteer work Mershon and husband Clare did—and still do—in the Argay neighborhood) asking us to sign the recall Mayor Sam Adams petition. Told her we had previously  signed, then asked if the campaign to recall Adams was collecting signatures at the Parkrose Post Office, when the deadline was and how close she thought they were to achieving the goal; her answers follow.

“Yes, we have seen people collecting signatures at the (Parkrose) Post Office.

And, on a personal note … I met, worked with, and played softball against Pete, and “the boys” in my salad days (early 80s) when I was booking, managing and promoting bands around Portland. It was sad to hear about Pete.  This e-mail below is from Jon DuFresne (Jon@compphys.com). Besides helping Pete out, this will be a good show tonight at Duff’s Garage.

Dear advertisers (and prospective), we thought this press release from the Better Business Bureau about unscrupulous publishers, targeting restaurants primarily, might possibly save you time, hassle and money.

ADVERTISEMENT PUBLISHER CHEATS BUSINESSES
Avoid Wasting Hard Earned Advertising Dollars

Lake Oswego, OR – June 19, 2009 – The “Trivia Pages” is presented as an entertaining laminated booklet displayed in restaurants and other high traffic eating establishments. However, businesses complain they are getting cheated when they purchase advertising space from Northwest Publishing the Portland, Oregon-based company, located at 2705 SE Ankeny St.,  in east Portland also goes by NW Publishing, NWP, and Table Topics. Accusations that the company over-promises and under-delivers are common.

James Mayer had a good story in yesterday’s (Thursday’s) inPortland section of the Oregonian entitled “Potholes are the pits, Portlanders say.”

It talks about new Mayor Sam Adams and his obsession with potholes. Another Adams stunt or is he serious?
Portland has a backlog of street maintenance (30%) that grows larger every year. True, potholes are a small part of the problem, but they are the most visible.

And, last month’s December to Remember storms only exacerbated the situation.

Take Sandy Boulevard in east Portland for instance, from Northeast 82nd to around 47th Avenues to be exact. Let us now call it “Pothole Boulevard.” please, take it and fix it Mayor Adams.

We subscribe to Portland Online, an information service run by the city that notifies you, if you subscribe, of various events and happeningings in the city.

Specifically, of course, we receive notice of events and happenings in the Mid-county area.

So, the other day we receive an e-mail from Portland Online informing us of the Parkrose Community Fair happening on Saturday, September 20.

Parkrose Community Fair? Wasn’t this an event held at Parkrose High School at the end of the regular school year?
It has moved, apparently, to September and will be held in the parking lot at Eastminster Church on Northeast Halsey Street at 125th Avenue in east Portland.

First of all, I’m going to admit this is a bit off the usual track and tact of staying within the borders of our outer east Portland circulation area, but I am so tired of not seeing anyone comment on our blog site that I’m taking a chance.

I watched with keen interest the CBS 60 Minutes interview last night with Mike Wallace interviewing Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, purveyor of “The O’Reilly Factor” on that cable television network.

Mid-county Memo Executive Editor Rich Riegel has a question for the Memo’s blog readers. I’m looking for some comment on the story we ran in the September 2006 Memo, “Bus restaurant riles Argay neighborhood.”

Although I may have my priorities mixed up, I’ll ask my own personal and professional question first.

In the story by our excellent reporter Lee Perlman, he said, “Since March an old bus has been sitting at the intersection of Northeast Sandy Boulevard and 141st Avenue. Since July a sign has proclaimed it to be the El Carreton restaurant.”

Judy Alley, executive director of SnowCap Community Charities in outer east portland  sat down last month for an in-dept interview for Women in Portland Publishing.

WiPP is a group of young women involved in the publishing, writing and graphic arts business in Portland. It is a good read and we recommend it.

In October 2006, Willamette Week, Portland’s News Weekly, published an in-depth look at  Physicians’ Hospital, formerly Woodland Park Hospital in Mid-county by Pulitzer Prize winner Nigel Jaquiss. Jaquiss did an outstanding job chronicling the ills at this doctor-owned hospital, an institution that to date has done nothing to enhance the reputaion of the area.

http://www.wweek.com/story.php?story=6856

Thanks go to Nigel Jaquiss for ripping the facade off this operation. Operate they do. Well they used to. Below is a Willamette Week follow-up to more self-inflicted ailments at Physicians’ Hospital, also ably reported by Jaquiss.

http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3217/7297/