How a city works...

[Lamplighter]

I really can not believe the lack of political savvy in this...

KATU News
May 29, 2013

Report suggests sales tax on new bikes to fund bike programs

PORTLAND, Ore. – A new report from Portland's City Club suggests
a statewide sales tax on new bikes in Oregon as one way
to pay for bike programs it says are underfunded.

The study says federal funding cutbacks leave bike programs underfunded.
One solution the City Club suggests is a 4 percent sales tax on every new bicycle sold in the state.
<snip>

Yeah, this will work

Oregon has no sales tax... only an income tax based on the federal income tax.

Oregon voters have formally already voted against any sales tax 7 or 8 times.

The rest of the state essentially politically hates Portland (and Eugene).

A large portion of automobile drivers hate bicyclists.

The Portland City Club is the remnants of "old Portland", and
while still influential in Portland-politics, it carries little weight elsewhere.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Their lack of political savvy comes from their world view. Only they, the wise seers, can lead the unwashed away from motor cars, back to the temple of the holy bicycle.

[Lamplighter]

We moved to PDX in the mid-70's, and found life here was different - very different.

The City Council was attempting to cope with cable TV,
so there were onslaughts by the broadcast networks,
the phone company, the electric company, and most importantly,
the unique and "weird" neighborhoods of Portland.

Eventually, the cable was installed, but among the concessions to the neighborhood groups,
the City Council demanded one channel be set aside for "public access" - with NO editing or censorship.

As a result, Portlanders were treated to TV as they had never seen before.
... silliness of all sorts, amateurs of all sorts, evangelists of all sorts,
and NUDITY
--- nudity in the studio and films of public-nudity on beaches, city streets, etc.

To say the least, the public access channel was a guilty-pleasure success.
Many people watched, but only a very few defended publicly
... and so eventually it's policies became compromised and the channel failed.
It was a great social experiment.

But, Larry Nielsen held on, and stayed in the public eye
with his-to-her store-front church and street-evangelism,
all at a time when such complex images and messages
were unacceptable to most of society.

OregonLive.com
Nancy Haught, The Oregonian
6/13/13

Sister Paula Nielsen, Portland's transgender Christian evangelist, tells all

<snip>
Born in Portland, the former Larry Maclean Nielsen often jokes
that she was born "with my mother's features and my father's fixtures."

May 1 marked her 50th year living as a woman, and part
of her anniversary celebration is the publication of her book,
"The Trans-Evangelist: The Life and Times of a Transgender Pentecostal Preacher."

It covers 70 of her 74 years, a childhood of teasing and bullying for being "different,"
her conversion when she was 12 and her gradual understanding of what it means to be a transgender person.
<snip>

[Lamplighter]

This Bill is a bit unexpected to the Oregon public,
but at the same time it is not all that surprising.

Fox News
Associated Press
July 03, 2013

Plan would make tuition free at Oregon colleges

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Oregon Legislature this week gave its final approval
to a bill that might someday allow students to attend public university without paying tuition.

The concept, called Pay It Forward, calls for students to pay a small percentage
of their future income into an education fund to support the next generation of students.
The bill that passed unanimously directs the state's Higher Education Coordination Commission
to develop a Pay It Forward pilot project for consideration by the 2015 Legislature.

Though the timing was coincidental, the bill won final approval on Monday,
the same day that federal student loan interest rates doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent.

It's expected to be signed this month by Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Just a week or so ago, the School of Medicine at OHSU,
announced that tuition for existing AND incoming med students
would remain constant.

Tuition rates have been rising, and people are concerned
about the "student loan" debt of graduates that is climbing.
This is particularly true for students of higher (post-graduate) degrees
because the Federal student loan is being cut for them.
(Thanks to the Republican Party)
.
ETA:
Oregon Live
Nick Budnick, The Oregonian
7/1/13

Updated: Oregon Health & Science University to lock in tuition for new, existing students

<snip>
This year, dental students face a 10 percent tuition jump in resident tuition;
while resident medical students face a 2.5 percent increase;
nursing and bachelor's degree students will be met with 5 percent boost in cost.

Specifically, OHSU first year medical students who are in-state residents
will pay tuition of $38,428; including fees the cost jumps to $44,463, according to the university.
Non-residents pay tuition of $53,596 or, with fees, $59,631.

These hikes come after years of increases:
tuition for first-year medical students averaged 6.6 percent hikes
over the previous five years, and first-year dental students averaged 13.5 percent
in the same period, according to figures provided by the university.

The problem is that students with huge debt loads and high interest rates
have little choice but to seek high-paying employment rather than
where they are most needed: underserved rural areas, inner cities and primary care.
So without curbing tuition costs for at least some people,
"we just won't have the spectrum of providers that we need," Mladenovic says.

.