Jack Bog's Blogby Jack Bogdanski of Portland, OregonNot funny, Part 2- July 11, 2008 Whatever the Chimp's hopped up on these days, it's not helping his humor any....http://bojack.org/2008/07/not_funny_part_2.html Who's watching the watchers- July 10, 2008 When we ask questions about whether the City of Portland is borrowing too much money, people like Mayor-Elect Sam the Tram always respond with some remark about the city's high bond ratings. Usually, these claims are exaggerated. The city doesn't have that great of a bond rating overall. Lately it's been borrowing tens of millions for "urban renewal" with a Moody's rating of Aa3 and interest rates higher than 6 percent. But even if the city's ratings are relatively strong, they may...http://bojack.org/2008/07/whos_watching_the_watchers.html Cutbacks on tap at the O- July 10, 2008 So says this website, which usually gets pretty good tips about such things....http://bojack.org/2008/07/cutbacks_on_tap_at_the_o.html U.S. Census: Portland State overstates Portland population- July 10, 2008 For a while now, we've been watching the population within the city limits of Portland as part of our ongoing monitoring of the frightening amount of debt per capita being incurred by the City Council. For the population figures, we have been going to the city's official source, which is a planning institute of some kind at Portland State University. As you can see from this report (page 18), the PSU folks say that as of a year ago -- July 1, 2007 -- the city's population was 568,380. But today.http://bojack.org/2008/07/us_census_portland_state_overs.html Iran: "We will destroy you...- July 10, 2008 ... with Photoshop."...http://bojack.org/2008/07/iran_we_will_destroy_you.html Izzle's Fourth- July 10, 2008 I smoked gloomily, staring occasionally with wonder at the cascading fireworks that looked sort of like Tina Turner's hair in 1987. "IT'S TINA TURNER'S HAIR FROM 1987!" I screamed. The only people that heard me either gave me glares or kind of sagged a little bit....http://bojack.org/2008/07/izzles_fourth.html Not funny- July 10, 2008 Politics can be an ugly business....http://bojack.org/2008/07/not_funny_1.html A pretty bad beat- July 10, 2008 My Nephew the Poker Player went down the hard way in his second day in the main event at the World Series of Poker yesterday. With two spades in the hole, the 8 and the 10 (or the T, as they say on the web), he watched as three of the five cards turned over by the dealer were spades: The ace and the 3 came over in the "flop," and the last card shown, a.k.a. "the river," was the 5. Another guy pushed him all in, and with an A-10 flush, the nephew had to call. There were only..http://bojack.org/2008/07/a_pretty_bad_beat.html And now that it's your birthday- July 10, 2008 Remember these guys Here they are nearly a year later:...http://bojack.org/2008/07/and_now_that_its_your_birthday.html Why the SmartPark garages are rotting: "It's the streetcars"- July 10, 2008 In response to our story of yesterday concerning the rehab project that's needed on the crumbling Portland SmartPark garages, an alert reader points out: The setup used to be that the operating costs of the parking garages was covered by the parking fees, which included a budgeted reserve for capital maintenance. However, that cash flow was tapped to fund the city's share of streetcar funding. Check on it. It follows the city strategy of letting the taxpayers' assets, which we paid taxes for,...http://bojack.org/2008/07/why_the_smartpark_garages_are.html |