🚲 The latest pop star on the Portland bike bus

Reopened Hollywood Library Features Beverly Cleary Mural

One of the many Multnomah County libraries to recently undergo a renovation, the Hollywood Library reopened last month. And one of the new features is a mural honoring the writer Beverly Cleary, who once lived nearby. The mural features her fictional characters, including Ramona. [Oregonian]

• Related: The neighborhoods that inspired Beverly Cleary’s fiction. [City Cast Portland ✏️]

Portland Weather Returns to Normal

December 2025 was Portland's warmest December on record, and January had less rain than we usually get. But February saw 4.75 inches of rain — more than an inch above normal — with an average temperature just 0.5 degrees higher than the typical February. Now meteorologists say that Portland may be looking at a normal spring — with equal chances of hotter, cooler, or just average temperatures. [Oregonian]

Portland Public Schools Update

With a $10 million budget shortfall right now, Portland Public Schools is weighing layoffs or furloughs this spring. The district also faces a $50 million gap for next school year’s budget, and the Legislature isn’t expected to come up with any more funding for education during its current session amid a state budget crunch. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

The vote on repealing a 6-cent gas tax increase is now scheduled for the May ballot — after the governor signed Senate Bill 1599 on Monday (the vote was previously scheduled for November). OPB called it “the most hotly-debated bill of this year’s session.” (Yes, a date change proved exceedingly controversial.)

• Both parties agree that the voters are very likely to repeal the 6-cent gas tax increase. Other taxes and fees are also part of the referendum: increases to vehicle registration and titling fees, as well as a temporary doubling of a payroll tax (earmarked for public transit funding). [OPB]
• The policy disagreement: Republicans say more voters will be at the polls in November and so it’s antidemocratic to move the date set by people who supported the change. (But no one is arguing this referendum will fail in May.)
• Democrats say that it’s better to know the Oregon Department of Transportation's budget situation sooner. (But they already know what’s likely coming.) And right now ODOT has a $289 million budget shortfall, because the taxes are already on hold. [Oregonian]
• The political stakes: It’s a hot mess for Democrats to have passed a bill in a Special Session last fall, and now to be facing a referendum. Democrats clearly don’t want to remind voters of this unpopular issue in November, when Gov. Kotek is up for reelection. And Republicans very much would like to have that in front of voters. “Both parties want the election date they want for partisan political reasons. Everyone in this chamber knows it,” Sen. Jeff Golden (D. - Ashland) said during the legislative fight over the bill. [Oregonian]

Court fight: After failing to block the Legislation, Republicans took the issue to court, filing a lawsuit on Tuesday, seeking to overturn the bill:

• They argue it’s illegal for the Legislature to overturn the will of roughly 250,000 voters, whose signatures helped put the issue on the November ballot. [OPB]
• They also argue the timing of the bill shortchanges citizens’ ability to weigh in on the ballot measure. Secretary of State Tobias Read mentioned that issue when warning legislators about missing last week’s deadline he’d set for passage of the bill. (Democrats viewed that deadline as a recommendation.) [Oregon Capitol Chronicle]
• The details: In Oregon you can submit a statement on a statewide measure to the voter pamphlet for free if you have 500 signatures supporting it. Or you can pay $1,200. The deadline for both is March 12. (Nobody could gather signatures for a free voter pamphlet statement until the election date was set.) [Oregon Capitol Chronicle]

Future fights: Republicans say they have now shown that they can overturn laws passed by the Democratic-controlled legislators.

• One of the leaders of the gas tax repeal, state Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, is looking to repeal another recent tax bill, which blocked elements of the new Trump tax code from automatically applying to Oregon. The bill preserves $291 million in revenue for Oregon over the next year and a half. Diehl’s new effort may be a harder sell: This tax code bill is more technical than a gas tax increase, and the decision by the Legislature may be more popular. [Oregon Capital Chronicle]