Oregon: Portland

An alert reader sends along this list of Post Office branches that are under closure watch. In Portland (page 11), in addition to the Central Station at 5th and Pine, the Gus Solomon Courthouse branch is on the list (apparently, but misspelled). And of course, the Main Post Office is doomed to demolition for "urban renewal." Nobody seems to want to be downtown any more -- even the Postal Service. Brooklyn's also about to lose its branch. And so it goes in the internet world. Go by cell phone!

By Ted Wheeler of Portland, Oregon. Ted is the county chair for Multnomah County. He can be found on Twitter here. Now that I’ve extricated most of the battle-flak out of my backside over Multnomah County’s recent effort to hire a Social Networking Coordinator, I want to answer the basic question posed by the Portland Tribune: "Ted Wheeler, what were you thinking?" Simply put, I was thinking that government should get with it and embrace the future. Local governments, in particular, can capitalize on the amazing opportunity that web-based technologies, including social networking (SN), provide. These tools are quickly reshaping...

Prolific blogger Jack Bogdanski, a master at tweaking Portland's city leaders, gleefully passes on a "15 greenest mayors" list that fails to include Mayor Sam Adams. The link on his post took me to an MSN city guides site that...

We made our second appearance in a row today at the Northwest Pilot Project's annual walk-a-thon in the Park Blocks at Portland State. People of all ages and from all walks of life walked, ran, or rode their motorized wheelchairs around the loop for an hour -- raising thousands of dollars for an important Portland charity.

Once again, we were blessed with exquisite weather, and friends of the NWPP provided all sorts of refreshments for everybody, and prizes for the best fundraisers. These guys supplied the soundtrack -- classic sounds that warmed us up and kept everybody on the beat for the whole event. Good vibrations all around.