🥾 Why you need to keep your hiking boots handy

Complicated Future of Toppled City Statues

City Commissioner Dan Ryan wanted to short-circuit a public process and instead reinstate five city statues toppled during the 2020 social justice protests, according to a point person on the project. Amara Pérez, a social justice educator and researcher, says a small group of political donors were pushing for the statue’s return as an election year approached. Pérez resigned over the plan. Ryan, who has since ruled out a run for mayor, and at least one donor deny that was the agenda. [OPB]

• Related: The seismic shift ahead in 2024 for Portland city politics. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

Approval for Pipelines

The city of Portland has approved Zenith Energy’s plan to build three new pipelines. The decision comes four years after the city rejected a similar expansion plan. Both times the company has acknowledged the pipes could be used for fossil fuels, but has said they will instead carry renewable fuels like biodiesel that are made from vegetable oils, greases, animal fats, or other waste products. [Oregonian]

Portland Home-Buying Still Unaffordable

Just 2.3% of Portland-area homes for sale in 2023 were affordable to local median-income earners, according to a report from the real-estate company Redfin. The Portland metro area is tied for 10th most unaffordable, according to this metric. A decline in mortgage interest rates is expected to make homes more affordable this year. [New York Times]

Why Portland’s Skaters Are Stoked

A long-discussed plan to build a skatepark under the west end of the Steel Bridge is finally moving forward with $15 million in city funding. It’s a development that would have never happened without the support of Portland’s grassroots skateboarding community. Today we’re revisiting a conversation with Sara Campos, co-founder of Queer Skate PDX, who makes the case for Portland needing more inclusive skating spaces that are open and free for everyone.