Sitting in his office on a recent sunny afternoon, City Attorney Tom Carr gestured exasperatedly at the ad. Off-premises advertising (ads that don't promote anything sold on the premises), he noted, has been illegal since 1992. "It's like they're thumbing their noses at us," Carr said. Seems like the city attorney would be the best-placed person to crack down on the illicit ads, I pointed out. Carr threw up his hands. "We have a complaint-based system," he explained. In other words, nobody gets busted if nobody gets upset. The city's Department of Planning and Development says it's looking into the sign, which was slapped up by On-Site Advertising of Portland.
While he hasn't been getting far on the illegal-signage front, Carr did score a victory last week against backers of Initiative 80, which would have forced landowners to restore creeks throughout the city. Carr challenged the initiative, claiming citizens couldn't alter the city's land-use code by initiative. Last week, a state appeals court agreed. The decision sets a useful precedent for monorail supporters who are challenging the monorail recall initiative (I-83). They're arguing, in part, that the initiative goes beyond the legal scope of the initiative process--the exact same argument I-80 opponents made successfully last week.
The Stranger has lavished all sorts of praise on Peter Steinbrueck, the boyishly handsome, liberal council member with, direct quote, a "great ass." But last week, catty city hall observers pointed out a new addition to Steinbrueck's constantly evolving appearance: In addition to his '70s motorcycle cop mustache, Steinbrueck has lately been sporting a new style that's short on the sides, long on the top, and sort of all brushed forward like... well, to use one city hall staffer's words, "a certain German leader of the past."
When a group of waterfront business owners asked the state to study shutting down the Alaskan Way Viaduct temporarily to reduce viaduct construction impacts, the request garnered a rapid response from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), which said it would look into a temporary shutdown. But when the People's Waterfront Coalition, a ragtag band of transportation guerrillas that wants to replace the viaduct with transportation fixes downtown, suggested doing the same thing--only permanently--WSDOT wasn't impressed. "At this point, we're not going to consider the [PWC-backed] alternative," WSDOT spokeswoman Linda Mullen says. Why is the PWC plan getting such short shrift? PWC member Cary Moon says given that WSDOT officials "have said from day one that they want to rebuild the highway." she's "not surprised that they weren't receptive" to the highway-free proposal.
