Thursday oh Thursday. Cooler weather today, with chance of rain. Jerry Seinfeld is in town, 911 dispatchers times are improving, while the cost to live here increases and increases.
🚨 THE NEWS
photo by Scott Nichols on Flickr
Portland's tax bill just got $578 heavier
Add it up and Portland got a lot more expensive to live in. New street fees, a higher arts tax, and steep water, sewer and garbage hikes will cost the average household an extra $578 a year, on top of last fall's 75 percent parks levy increase. Higher earners could face $600 more in income tax for preschool funding, pending an August vote. A new Oregonian/OregonLive poll found taxes and cost of living are Portlanders' fastest growing worries, with more than four in ten considering leaving the county within five years. Council President Jamie Dunphy says the pain is real, but argues the city can't afford to keep deferring repairs. OregonLive
Portland's 911 dispatchers finally caught a break
Portland's 911 dispatchers are now answering calls four times faster than they did four years ago, according to a city auditor's report released Wednesday. The Bureau of Emergency Communications has gone from a brutal staffing crisis, 40 vacancies and a multi-minute wait in 2023, to just 13 vacancies and an 18-second average answer time by January. Overtime pay, extra training academies, and aggressive recruiting did the heavy lifting. But the audit isn't all high-fives. It found the bureau doesn't meet the national 90-percent-in-15-seconds standard, and new trainees keep walking away before they finish training. One line from the report says it plainly, the bureau still tends to eat its young. OPB
A tree picked a fight with a power pole
A tree took out a power line on Southeast Ramona Street early Wednesday morning, snapping a utility pole and leaving nearly 5,000 PGE customers without electricity in the Woodstock neighborhood. The first call to 911, around 3:30 a.m., was dispatched as a possible house fire. Firefighters arrived to find no flames, just several sheared-off poles dangling over the road and power lines draped across parked cars. Nobody was hurt. Southeast Ramona was closed between 41st and 43rd avenues for hours while crews worked, and PGE had most of the lights back on by 9:30 a.m. A reminder that Portland's tree canopy, beloved as it is, occasionally fights dirty. KATU
🍝 NEW RESTAURANT SPOTLIGHT
photo from Google
BBANG! opened in February next to Holy Ghost on SE 28th, from the team behind food cart favorite Doyaji. The bulgogi burger and shrimp burger have cult followings, both born at Doyaji. Also order the kimchi smashburger, Korean fried chicken, or the tofu katsu sandwich. Beer and soju too. WEBSITE
John W gave ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on Google: “Just get the Bulgogi Burger. Don’t overthink it. Just kidding, do whatever you want. But seriously, get the Bulgogi Burger. Add the fries and ranch while you're at it. That combo was absolutely out of this world.”
📚 ON THIS DAY
On June 25, 1978, Gilbert Baker's rainbow flag flew for the first time at San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day Parade, a design that came to define Pride everywhere, including here.
🥳 UPCOMING EVENTS
