🚙🔥 Amazon vans ‘intentionally’ set ablaze

Rising Costs Hit Portlanders Particularly Hard

We’re all feeling the global economy squeeze our wallets at the gas station and grocery store. But if you live in Portland city limits, there are a few more bills getting slapped onto your budget, including the city’s higher arts tax, a new parks tax, recent utility rate hikes for sewer and water, and a forthcoming transportation utility fee. [Oregonian / City Cast Portland 🎧]

• Pay up: Along with natural gas and electricity utility rate hikes, these increases will leave the average Portland household on the hook for an extra $578 annually. [Oregonian]
• Climate change costs: Scorching summers may spur Oregon lawmakers to revisit AC-funding programs, which could offer some utility-related relief. In 2022, lawmakers spent $25 million on a program to encourage owners and landlords to install heat pumps, an energy-efficient cooling system. The program has been on pause since 2024, but affordable utility advocates hope for a revival. [Oregon Capital Chronicle]
• Rent relief? One of the country’s largest property management companies must pay Oregon and eight other states $7 million after using software that artificially inflated rent prices. Company LivCor managed nearly 1,650 Oregon properties using this rent-fixing software. [Oregon Capital Chronicle]
• The bottom line: For some, the taxes are worth it, but a poll commissioned this spring by the Oregonian found that taxes and cost of living were the two fastest growing concerns for Portland voters. More than four in 10 city respondents said they were considering leaving Multnomah County in the next five years, with 55% citing taxes as their top reason. [Oregonian]

Four Amazon Vans Torched

Portland firefighters responded to a report of a brush fire early Monday morning and found multiple Amazon electric vans ablaze. There were no reported injuries, though Portland Fire & Rescue said the fire was intentionally set and the incident is under investigation. [OPB]

Small Donors Boost Council Hopefuls’ Coffers

So far, using the city’s Small Donor Elections Program, incumbent Tiffany Koyama Lane in District 3 has unlocked the most funds ($168,396) by a fairly significant margin. In District 4, the candidate who has unlocked the most matching funds ($148,600) is not an incumbent: Eli Arnold works as a Portland Police Bureau bike cop. The fall election has the chance to reshape the City Council, which is currently deadlocked with six moderates and six progressives.

Honoring Journalist Zane Sparling

A veteran Portland journalist who covered the city’s crimes, courts and characters for more than a decade, Sparling died Sunday morning at age 33. We loved featuring Zane’s work here and on the City Cast Portland podcast, and will miss his presence in the Portland news scene. [Oregonian / City Cast Portland 🎧]