Website Saved?

I'm not exactly clear on the details but my website and email may have been down some time from Monday - Wednesday, October 26-28th. For some reason my domain renewal was delayed. However, I'm glad to say that it looks like this has been remedied and the website, blog, domain, and email saved for at least another year.

While I still need to see confirmation on the Whois Database, I'm certain this will be forthcoming.

I apologize for an inconvenience, annoyance, misplaced hopes or other feelings this may have caused. I've still got plans for my website and have no intention of relinquishing it as long as I have a say in the matter.

What Hillsboro's Mayor Really Needs to Know

But couldn't be bothered hearing.

I am reading with utter horror Mr Willey's comments in the October 16th Argus. I am a Hillsboro resident, taxpayer, and voter and MR WILLEY DOES NOT SPEAK FOR ME! I've tried to communicate repeatedly with the Mayor and City Council and it's clear, they don't care what citizen's think. They have their own economic and social agendas they are going to ram down the populace's collective throat.

Here are Hillsboro's most pressing problems:

1. Racial/Economic Segregation – There is a rich, mostly white Hillsboro and poor, mostly Hispanic Hillsboro. They don't mix. They don't really want to mix and it's very much a two-way street.
2. Hillsboro is a community of Rabbit Warren Neighborhoods designed around and for automobiles – pedestrians beware. If you are don't have a car, you are simply not wanted in Hillsboro.
3. City and County leadership, if it can be called that, are an 'old boy's club' of moneyed interests that are always looking out for themselves and their buddies at the expense of the citizens. I mean, what was the Fairgrounds Giveaway really other than easy money for developers? And what are these political junkets to Latin America and Europe but free vacations for Hillsboro's 'elected' officials? And don't even get me started and the tax breaks and corporate giveaways to 'attract' big corporations just long enough for the free tax ride to expire and the jobs to mysteriously vanish. What has this city done to keep the doors open at Hillsboro's small business employers? NOTHING! And every time I go out to visit one of these stores, I'm greeted with a going or gone out of business sign. But of course how many millions were spent on the Taj Mahal (aka the new city hall) so the Mayor and City Council could have a Starbucks in the building. We see where this government's priorities are – you wear them on your shirtsleeves.
4. City and County leadership is living in some never-never-land where they somehow see this area bucking the trends of our larger region and being some Los Angeles style oasis of urban sprawl and suburban decay. We need leaders who fight to keep the crappy transit system we used to have, not to bend over and take it when TriMet says Hillsboro no longer needs weekend or evening bus service in the neighborhoods. Portland and its neighborhood associations fought and kept much of their proposed cuts. But not Hillsboro. No, they want a new freeway and one train and one bus is good enough for all 100,000 residents.
5. Technology is not the panacea. More factories will not make Hillsboro better. After all, it seems your beloved Solar World might be the place where the noxious fumes originate that make the nighttime air disgusting to breath. Some of us do value things like parks, farms and wild areas and I would really rather eat food produced locally than more corporate junk food brought in from Indonesia or Brazil at the expense of what's left of this planet's tropical rain forest. Did you ever bother to think this is just as important to me as jobs, jobs and more jobs – and please give the exact number of Hillsboro residents (not transplants) who have been hired by Solar World. And how many have been imported from other states and countries? And how many are driving in their car alone each and every day from Portland, Wilsonville, Vancouver, or Vernonia?

Get a clue! Pay attention to what citizens think and at least try and communicate with voters or you will have an opponent in the next election. We desperately need a real discussion of issues in this city.

But don't come off all high and mighty, like you have all the answers when all you really are is the guy who got be Mayor because – was it because you cut a deal so you'd get to run unopposed or was there really no one in this City willing to step and take a bit of responsibility? I find the latter a bit hard to believe so that seems to only leave the former.

Why I Didn't Visit Downtown Portland Businesses Yesterday

Dear TriMet

Today I had two hours to kill while waiting in downtown Portland. In the past, I would have traveled 1/2 block to the nearest corner, hopped on a bus, and spent the time, and maybe a bit of money, at Pioneer Place or one of the many other businesses in Downtown Portland.

However, now that I either have to pay to ride a bus downtown a couple of blocks or have to travel eight times as far to get the train for free, I chose to stay at the office and read a book I did NOT buy in Portland.

Thank you TriMet for saving me from spending money with downtown merchants today (and honestly, many days in the future). I'm going to make sure they know they missed out on business each and every time your Fareless Square destruction affects how I spend my money.

By the way, I'm in a manual wheelchair, so each and every extra block comes at a price worth much, much more than you seem able to comprehend.