water bottle bill
Posted by: Matt McCormick
OREGON Future Awesome...
Deposits on the way for bottled water from from The Oregonian:
Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, Oregonians will have to plunk down a nickel deposit on every bottle of water they buy. A proposal adding water to the list of beverage containers covered under Oregon's Bottle Bill law sailed through the House Thursday on a 42-16 vote. The Senate, which already passed Senate Bill 707, must agree to minor amendments. Then the bill is off to the governor for signing. Democrats --and Republican Rep. Vicki Berger --celebrated Thursday's House vote as the first major update of Oregon's landmark bottle recycling law in 36 years.
Holding a bottle of water in her hand during floor debate, Berger said: "Who would have envisioned in 1971, that Oregonians would have embraced this product?"
In fact, Oregonians buy nearly 200 million bottles of water each year and most are not recycled. The state Department of Environmental Quality estimates that Oregonians trash as many as 126 million bottles every year.
Oregon grocers continued to fight the measure, arguing that their stores will be swamped with bottles creating both hygiene and storage problems. The industry has put forward a counter-proposal that would move bottle returns out of the stores.
If grocers fail in the Legislature, an industry lobbyist said Thursday that they will collect signatures for a 2008 ballot initiative. --Michelle Cole
Bizjournal Roundup
Posted by: kmikeym
Quick bits from Bizjournals.com:
Portland drivers most courteous.
Portland getting Spanish TV station.
Portland No. 3 on 'Best Places to Live' list.
Organic Beer Festival
Posted by: kmikeym
BizJournal reports the world's largest organic beer festival is happening in June here in Portland.
The North American Organic Brewers Festival will be held at North Portland's Overlook Park on June 8 and 9. More than 25 breweries from the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, Wisconsin, Vermont, Germany, England and Belgium will be represented.
What better for Portland's future than to be the world center of organic beer?
Portland's Future Today: May 2007
Posted by: kmikeym
Part of the reason of creating the PFA blog is to track the developments and promises people make about our city. BAck in May 2006 we posted three times:
Mayor Potter Says, "Our Secret is Out"
May 5: Mayor Tom Potter links to some of the positive press Portland has received. We mentioned that Tom Potter had recently launched his own blog, which was pretty exciting! But looking at the Mayor's blog now is pretty embarrassing. A prominent tab on the Mayor's page and the last update was December 6th, 2006. There was a rash of posts in early December, but previous posts were only a few each month (sometimes just one). So while "Our Secret is Out" it's certainly no thanks to Tom Potter's blog.
Future City Charter
May 18: Back in 2005 Tom Potter started his plan to change the charter. This update was about the Charter Review Commission missing their deadline, but the line that really stuck out to me was, "the charter-reform debate likely will set the stage for the 2008 mayoral election, in which many City Hall observers expect Potter to run for another term." From my perspective there seems to be a lot more people against the idea of changing the charter than are for it, with the general attitude being "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The best source of information is the unaffiliated Portland's Future Charter site.
Daisy Kingdom's Future Awesome
May 31: Jim Winkler's DeSoto project rounds out May 2006. The project was first mentioned in April of 2005, and we're been seeing constant construction underway on the block and the Grand Opening of the Museum of Contemporary Craft is scheduled for July 22, 2007.
