Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 15hIn my personal experience, people who don't obsess about the local news assume that WW has a strong left editorial lean because it's a weekly paper. And a lot of people I know go by endorsements without looking further into the candidates. 010
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 13/10/2026Thanks for outlining the process. I submitted my comment, and I'll get my neighborhood association started on a letter now that I know what steps the city can take. 030
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 07/10/2026This sounds like a great pitch for a Stephen Millhauser story. 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 02/10/2026I thought so too. My neighborhood in Portland is walkable. A church that's a safe 15-minute walk from my house hosts trunk or treat every year. 020
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I hadn't thought about the NIMBYs in a two year old tower complaining about another tower in a while. www.wweek.com/news/city/20...wweek.comA Fight Over The Height of Portland’s Skyline is Raging. Who Wins May Determine Whether The City’s Housing Crisis Ever Ends.A skyscraper backlash is rising. Stanley Penkin, a transplanted New Yorker who lives on the fourth floor of Cosmopolitan on the Park, the tallest condo building in the Pearl District, is on the front ... 030
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Driving on the camera-monitored freeway in Melbourne for 5 minutes makes it obvious how bad our US system is. Speed limits are real in Australia and everyone follows them. 031
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 14/08/2026I volunteered for city bike traffic counts and saw some kids riding one of these on the sidewalk in east Portland. At least they stayed out of mixed traffic, but I didn't love it. 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 26/07/2026I talked to Brian Owendoff for a while at today's district 2 town hall. How did I know it was Owendoff before I approached him? He was posting while holding up his phone with the brightness and text size way up. 120
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 14/07/2026It's not the beach, but I dug a 6-foot hole in our front yard for a drywell. I'm 5'8", and when the hole got deeper than I am tall, almost every man on my street stopped to ask about it. I met so many of my neighbors this way. 190
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 01/07/2026I didn't think I could laugh about that horrible news clip, but you've proven me wrong. 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 21/06/2026Can't feel bad for Gruden about anything now, but he tried to provide coach level commentary for a few weeks, and American TV wasn't having it. 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 21/06/2026When ESPN first put Jon Gruden on Monday Night Football, he would speak technically about tactics several times per game. The producers clearly worked on him weekly to dumb it down to "Titans played hard in the first half" by the end of the season. 100
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Why did they pick PCEF? I know it's a large pot of money, but is this campaign trying to undermine the PCEF goals along with hiring more cops? 100
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 04/06/2026Currently trying to get parks and rec to improve access to Sacajawea Park by removing a locked gate. NAs do plenty of bad stuff too, but progressive things are possible. 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 04/06/2026You can work on neighborhood scale issues. In Cully the NA joined a campaign to let Depave convert a parking lot into a preschool playground, chased away someone trying to build a truck dock next to houses, and got DEQ to make a factory install air filters. Also supported residential infill project. 110
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 04/06/2026I got on the Cully board in a 3-candidate race for two seats then ran unopposed for my second term. Most candidates run unopposed in Cully. Everyone on the current board ran unopposed. We're lucky and don't seem to have neighborhood Nazis seeking board seats. 020
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 30/05/2026I hope instead you get a new board that includes everyone in your neighborhood like they should. 010
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 30/05/2026Awful. If they're pretending the address of a place you rent doesn't count, they're definitely violating the Office of Neighborhood Involvement standards, and you could submit a grievance and complain to your district NA coalition if you really want to get on the list. 110
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 30/05/2026That's terrible. Do they make it impossible to get on the board or do they discourage you from even attending? Not going to tell you out NA in Cully is the most progressive org in town, but there are usually renters on the board. 110
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 21/05/2026OK I donated. Can I get a close up photo of Zora or is that quid pro quo? Good luck with the campaign. I'm in D2 but rooting for you. 120
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Fair. Denver and Boulder have great urban centers. The difference for me in their sprawl is going back and forth between empty fields and suburban pockets. It's a big contrast to the urban growth boundary in Oregon. We have sprawl in Portland but the suburbs all border each other. 010
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Both true. Denver is really fun, lively, and has some great urban sections. I walked and biked a lot. The Front Range suburbs sprawl in a way I've never seen. There are little dots of apartments and businesses surrounded by empty fields. Once you leave Denver nothing seems connected. 120
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 11/04/2026I took my bike on Amtrak from Portland to visit a friend in Capitol Hill. This stretch on Jackson was the only bad part of my ride, and it was truly bad. Love your idea of adding protected lanes. 010
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Much respect to my wife, who gave me these custom mugs as a birthday present two weeks before the Mercury published its Brian Owendoff story. 1448
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 16/11/2025So far I've had a chance to respond to one alert. So many of my neighbors showed up within 2 minutes that they left before I made it 5 minutes later. It works! 061
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 20/10/2025Before he even took questions, he told us a story about how all his old progressive friends couldn't believe he had become the law and order capitalist. Seemed totally unaware that they are telling him he became the bad guy. 050
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 20/10/2025At our Cully neighborhood meeting this summer, person after person kept directly telling Ryan, "We don't like what you're saying, and we don't believe your supporting reasons for your policies," and he couldn't take a hint. He just doubled down on all his re-fund the police nonsense. 120
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 13/08/2025PEMO helped fund a mural by a local artist in Cully and initiated some trash cleanup that our NA board assured me was not an encampment sweep. But I don't know what else they're up to in our neighborhood, and I doubt all of it is positive. 050
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 13/08/2025Thanks for this sorry. I served on my neighborhood association board for a few years and could try to connect you with people who attend PEMO meetings. I haven't been myself, but I know Cully board members who have. 010
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 30/07/2025I have a mansion-rich, conservative relative who moved from Marin County to Idaho and lasted less than a year. No surprise taxes or anything. It's just hard to find a place nicer than Marin if you have the money to live there. 020
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 16/07/2025Jordan is the city manager. The new council voted to keep him in that position. 050
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 28/06/2025Thanks! This sounds promising. Allowing plexes and clusters on unpaved streets could certainly have an effect here in Cully. 120
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 27/06/2025Thanks for the gift link and for advising on this bill. Does it have any effect in Portland? Seems like no from the article. 110
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 12/06/2025Ryan came to our neighborhood association meeting in Cully last night and basically only talked about increasing the police budget to supposedly help retailers. No one believed him, and looks like we were right. 010
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 10/06/2025Analyzing nearby competition is a classic GIS use case. There are software products made for this. Analysis is routine for large chains, but I don't think small businesses always do it. Depending on the type of business, nearby competition can sometimes be helpful. www.npr.org/sections/mon...npr.orgEpisode 128: Friend or Foe?On today's show, Planet Money stakes out New York City's diamond, plant, and chess districts to answer a nagging question: Why do stores that all sell the same thing set up shop right next to each oth... 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 19/05/2025Thank you for speaking plainly here about the old system of letting a few rich guys decide the policy. 070
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 13/05/2025She's at it again with KGW this month: www.kgw.com/article/news....kgw.com'It feels like the Wild West': Downtown resident critical of Multnomah County harm reduction fundingChair Jessica Vega Pederson released her $4 billion 2026 budget last month, and included within it is roughly $6 million for harm reduction services. 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 08/05/2025This is great advice. I'm glad I read it. I take it very slow in my car on neighborhood streets, but I don't always go slower on my bike. Not that I can get over 25 on my bike, but I can definitely go faster than 15. 010
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 21/12/2024Thanks! Look forward to speaking with you next Friday. 000
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 20/12/2024How can I attend your office hours? Is it a subscriber benefit? We have the same feeling in Cully and I'd love to hear your advice someday. 100
Zach Powers @zacharygpowers.bsky.social · 20/12/2024Yes. I attended the last steering committee meeting and Khan Pham questioned whether it met the definition of BRT. Answer was basically "enough to get grants." 010
