What Portland gets wrong about Old Town

The Gas Tax Won’t Fix All the Potholes

The city’s gas tax has support across the Portland political spectrum, but even if voters agree to renew the gas tax this May, the city won’t have enough money to solve the backlog of road maintenance problems. That’s partly because the city doesn’t have a way to charge the increasing number of electric vehicles. [Willamette Week]

• Key point: The city could solve the funding shortage by charging drivers based on how many miles they drive in the city, policymakers say. But the idea is currently politically unpopular.
• Related: Shouldn’t our roads be less dangerous by now? [City Cast Portland 🎧]

The Moment Before a Shooting

An Arizona artist and gallery owner won a journalism award for the photo he took right before he was shot in downtown Portland last year. The photo shows the loaded gun pointed at the viewer (and — at the moment it was taken — photographer Samuel Gomez) during a road rage incident. The bullet broke Gomez’s leg. The honor is from the National Headliner Awards. [Oregonian 🔒]

First Lady Had More Substantive Meetings

Last month, the governor’s office downplayed First Lady Aimee Kotek Wilson’s involvement in setting policy. According to her calendar, obtained by Willamette Week, Kotek Wilson did far more than participate in a weekly meeting on behavioral health care. She helped hire the governor’s behavioral health adviser and met biweekly with Oregon Health Authority consultants, among other duties. [Willamette Week]

Portland’s official slogan — “The city that works” — just doesn’t capture this place and time. We need a replacement. And thanks to the outpouring of excellent suggestions from readers and listeners over the last couple weeks, we have some good options.

Now we’re asking you to pick the best of the submissions.

It’s part of the way we’re celebrating our city on 503 Day. That’s the new, very real holiday on May 3 (5/03) that we here at the City Cast Portland podcast and the Hey Portland newsletter have created in honor of our area code.

The team here all picked our favorites from the metaphorical mailbag.

Drumroll, please! Here are the nominations:

• The city that tries.
• The city that’s working on it.
• The city that welcomes all.
• Unleash the BEAST — breweries, environment, art, sustainability (or strip clubs), trails.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with their creative ideas. Vote here, or nominate for your favorite.

What Portland Gets Wrong About Old Town

The City Cast Portland podcast is kicking off a series of neighborhood guides. First up is a contender for Portland’s most controversial neighborhood, Old Town Chinatown. Suzette Smith, from the Portland Mercury, has lived there for nearly a decade and has plenty of reasons why we have Old Town pegged all wrong.