The Southeast Examiner said the kit contains “a high eficiency bathroom faucet aerator, high efficiency shower head, shower timer, toilet leak-detection dye tablets, and a toilet fill-cycle diverter.”
The devices include simple instructions for self-installation.
Portland’s water district is eligible, and the other participating water districts are listed here.
Request your water savings kit by sending an email to: RWPCinfo at portlandoregon dot gov or by calling 503-823-7528. They request that you include how you heard about the offer.
Well, there’s a $1.9 million hole in Multnomah County’s budget, but at least their PR department is maintaining a sunny, collaborative attitude:
The budget gap could get even bigger— depending on what happens at the State Legislature this session, according to the statement.
Take the five-minute survey by calling 503-988-3450. The results will be analyzed and delivered to the county chair and Commissioners. The last day to participate in the survey is April 30.
It’s a hands-on seminar with Bob Hatton from Portland’s Fruit Tree Project. If you’ve never heard of it, the Fruit Tree Project organizes neighbors to collect and distribute the abundance of fruit and nuts this city’s trees provide.
From the invitation: “Do you have fruit trees in your yard? Ever want fruit trees but are intimidated by them?” This seminar will teach you about fruit trees and how to care for them. There’ll be refreshments and a raffle for trees.
3/3/12 * Emerson Street Garden, 822 NE Emerson Street * 1 – 2 PM * free
Don Carlos, a former member of Black Uhuru, keeps reggae’s torch burning… This first video is an example of Carlos’ solo work, the second features him with California’s Groundation. Dubvision Band and Ras Binghi and the 7th Seal are preforming as well.
Mt. Tabor Theater, 4811 SE Hawthorne * 8 PM * $20
This looks fun: Reed Arts Week Masquerade Ball, featuring experimental light and electronic music act Luck Dragons. Sounds like this would be a good one to break out the costumes and glitter.
Reed College Student Union, 3203 SE Woodstock * 9:30 PM * $5
SATURDAY:
Find an interactive map like the one to the left here, for this weekend’s self-guided SE Area ARTWalk. “Nearly 100 artists will provide a blaze of colors, shapes, textures, and visual stimuli in SE Portland neighborhoods.” The ARTWalk is between 9th Ave to 41st and Powell to Hawthorne Blvd.
Artists show in their own creative space or are hosted by local residents and businesses allowing you to visit indoor locations. The SE Area ARTWalk is a community-building event that has strengthened the connection between businesses, artists, and neighbors. It’s a free event.
SE Portland * Saturday & Sunday
Also Saturday is the Rhythm of Resistance Open Mic Night. From the invitation: “join us for an open mic night that prioritizes the voices of poets of color in our city! This will be a safe space, and we we will use poetry as the conduit for dialogues that center around issues that are pertinent to our communities.” To perform, send an email to the address on the invitation.
Center for Intercultural Organizing, 700 North Killingsworth * 6 – 8 PM
Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship— it’s an ambitious title— is a film that “takes us on an inspiring voyage to seaports and watersheds across the country—from the busy shipping lanes of Boston Harbor to an obscure little fishing community in the Pacific Northwest; from America’s coral reef playground in the Florida Keys to the nation’s premier seafood nursery in the Mississippi Delta. Here we meet an intermingling of unlikely allies, of industrial shippers and whale biologists, pig farmers and wetland ecologists, sport fishers and reef snorkelers and many more, all of them embarking on a new course of cooperation, in defense of the seas that sustain us.”
This film, premiering in Portland on Saturday, March 7, is sponsored by a long list of local activist groups. The showing will feature Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes and Port Orford Mayor James Aubor. A Q&A session with Oregon ocean experts will also be held.
The Ocean Frontier’s website offers an opportunity to contact to your representative about supporting 2010′s National Ocean Policy, the legislation examined in the film.
There’s a lot of awesome bird watching and conservation events sponsored by the Audabon Society of Portland, including a trip to Ocean Shores, Washington to see these snow owls that are rarely seen in this part of the world. Love Audubon, and his society.
3/7/12 * Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd * 7 PM * $5
In a mayor’s race with no clear leader, tonight’s candidate forum at Concordia University might give voters more answers on who to support.
The focus tonight will be community livability issues like jobs, transportation and safety. Community members are invited to attend and ask questions of the candidate. The ones not answered at the forum will be responded to in writing and shared with the public. The moderator will be Carl Talton.
A poll from KATU and Survey USA shows the majority of voters (28 percent) are undecided. Eileen Brady has the most support (25 percent), while Charlie Hales has 18 percent. Jefferson Smith has 10 percent, just ahead of newly-announced candidate Tre Arrow (7 percent).
Attending mayoral candidates: Eileen Brady, Jefferson Smith and Charlie Hales
Attending council candidates: Amanda Fritz, Mary Nolan, Steve Novick, Teressa Raiford, Mark White and Jeri Williams
Candidate Forum * 2/28 * Concordia University, 2811 NE Holman, Hagen Campus Center * 7 – 9 PM
UPDATE 2/28:The Charter Commission announced last night that ending their work early, according to a Portland Mercurystory. This means voters will not get a chance to vote on proposals to create an independent utility commission and ban horses and chemical weapons for crowd control. Charter Commission members complained that the City Council worked to frustrate their progress after they decided to tackle tough issues like police accountability.
The 20-member city council-appointed group is given the power to create proposals that (if 15 of them agree) are then placed on the ballot to be decided by voters. Housekeeping measures and an independent utility commission proposal were supported by the city council and mayor, but when the commission started considering other more radical ideas— like instant runoff voting and police accountability— the city leaders’ nervousness began.
Two votes are expected this week: Monday, February 27 on an independent utility commission proposal and Wednesday, February 29 on a proposals that would ban the use of horses and chemical weapons for crowd control. Activists are asking for more time to work on these issues, but the mayor hasn’t agreed so far.
At the subcommittee on police accountability on Wednesday, February 22, members said public comment on that issue was still being accepted for another week, so there’s still a few more days for submissions. Take action and comment by email at: villarreal at portlandoregon dot gov or byphone at 503-823-4151 or at their website at www.portlandonline.com/chartercommission/index.cfm?=54375.
The major point made by those testifying at the police accountability subcommittee meeting was that pepper spray, tear gas and horses don’t break up protests— they only make them more chaotic and dangerous. The commission asked for comments from protesters who have had to deal with horses and chemical weapons up close, so any comments based on personal experience would help inform their opinion.
Would Portlanders ban horses and chemical weapons if given the chance to vote on it? Possibly. Should Portlanders be given the chance to vote on these issues? Definitely.
Possible vote on police accountability measure * 2/29/12 * Portland City Hall, 1221 SW 4th Avenue, 3rd Floor, Rose Room * 6 – 9 PM
I ran across this last night on Portland Indymedia: it’s a zine responding to two journalists recent criticism of black bloc tactics. From a release about God Only Knows What Devils We Are (.pdf version): “we sought out our comrades from the heart of the black bloc and asked them to tell their side of the story: where they come from, why they participate, how they see the world”. The journalists were responding to Dear Occupiers a pamphlet that “endorsed a diversity of tactics” including black bloc (background here) and property destruction:
“All the pretty commodities in the window, usually the breadth of an entire social class away from me, are now a mere hammer’s distance from my proletarian hands. I can move through these spaces in which I am not authorized to be, transforming them. I can dance with mannequins or use them to smash out the windows of a storefront. I can trade the insanity of everyday misery for a collective madness that devastates the avenues of wealth.”
It’s clear the author believes the current political system has failed him and society… I’m not sure how a few (or many) broken windows and burned buildings is going to make things better, but as we see street battles in Greece and speculate how the Occupy movement will evolve— it’s important to hear the philosophy behind the destruction and the masks.
The Office of Neighborhood Involvement (ONI) wants more volunteers participating in graffiti removal and prevention. To get neighbors involved, they are offering $7,400 in grant money. The application deadline is February 24, so if you want it you better get busy.
“The goal of the program is to support community-driven improvement projects and community building opportunities with an emphasis on graffiti prevention, graffiti abatement and/or addressing locations chronically tagged with graffiti. Many projects may focus on community murals (development, implementation, repair), but the funds are also intended to be available for a broader range of improvement projects that prevent or abate graffiti and support ONI’s goals.”
I don’t know how open they are to granting individuals, but it seems like a good chance for a variety of neighborhood improvement projects. I have a couple of ideas myself…
A mural painted with help from the Office of Neighborhood Involvement.
