Fwiw www.army.mil/article/2104...

Nicely done!

This 1890s photo of Portland keeps showing up and people keep arguing about where it was taken from, despite some very obvious clues in the photo. So I did what any sane and reasonable person would do and triangulated landmarks to prove things once and for all.

Photo of the former Milwaukie City Hall in early 2026

Happy to say that the Milwaukie City Hall National Register of Historic Places nomination I've been working on for the past year or so, is up for review in June! If you want to read it, here's the pdf: www.oregon.gov/oprd/OH/Docu...

The Highway That Never Was  - Portland Mercury [What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury‘s 2026 Transportation issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds.] Over fifty years ago, a freeway almost destroyed a large […]

Portland almost demolished a good chunk of Southeast for a freeway. Almost! I wrote a bit about the never-constructed Mount Hood Freeway for the @portlandmercury.com Transportation Issue.

The Highway That Never Was  - Portland Mercury [What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury‘s 2026 Transportation issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds.] Over fifty years ago, a freeway almost destroyed a large […]

Recently had the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite topics, the Mt Hood Freeway. www.portlandmercury.com/transportati...

We won't last 33 more months of this.

This must stop.

We must make it stop.

Not as old as the website, but 14 years and still looks "peepy"

14 year old yellow Peep candy in a museum display cube.

It is risen! My 14 year old Peep, that is.

This is an actual post. This is not funny. This is beyond desperate. This is a deeply unwell man who doesn’t belong anywhere near the levers of power. Every member of his cabinet and Congress is complicit in not demanding his removal now.

I hear it's mostly in the Oval Office

“Oregonians have been voting by mail for decades. It’s safe and secure. Even the president does it. Vote by mail increases access to the ballot which is a cornerstone to our democracy, and we’ll use every legal tool available to us to fight this and protect Oregonians’ right to vote.”

Read our statement on today’s executive order limiting vote by mail. #orpol

Will it work? I don’t know. But it is certainly better than preemptively conceding ground to the Right’s claims that they deserve disproportionate power as representatives of “the people.”

It’s time for (small-d) democrats to assert their right to define what “real America” should be going forward.

No Kings-Power to the People in Milwaukie · No Kings **We have the power and are claiming it together. No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings.** What began in 2025 as a single day of defiance has become a sustained national resistance to tyranny, spreading fr...

No Kings! No kakistocracy! www.mobilize.us/nokings/even...

But hey, I'm sure he "left his heart" in Charlottesville 😀

"Gushing blood...USA! USA! .... stabbed...USA!USA!....
bodies...USA! USA!...."
WTF?! WTF?!

Vote by mail in Oregon has made it possible for more citizens to vote, including those in the most rural (and right leaning) places in the state. SAVE Act supporters can F right off.

At one point in that speech he told a story about his grandmother in Greenville. She could not afford a blanket, he said, but she did not complain, and the family did not freeze. Instead, she took pieces of old cloth — patches of wool, silk, gabardine, croker sack — “only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with,” and she sewed them together into a quilt, “a thing of beauty and power and culture.” He implored Democrats to build such a quilt. “Be as wise as my grandmama,” he said. “Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we’ll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our nation. We, the people, can win.”

"Be as wise as my Grandmama."
The New York Times obituary for Jesse Jackson concludes with these stirring words from his 1988 "Keep Hope Alive" speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention.

Democracy is when voters choose their leaders. Autocracy is when leaders choose their voters.

Sad to see them go. 😔

Infrastructure Week!

Outside of a very few designated stations with facilities like ticket offices and freight handling, the passenger facilities at most PRL&P interurban stops were very spartan, as this view of the waiting shed at Stanley in 1946 shows.

Was this Stanley Ave. near Johnson Creek?

I’ve reviewed proofs and the book is headed to the printer! Building Portland’s Memorial Coliseum: a Mid-Century Political Firestorm is due out to the public in April.

Cover sneak peak coming next month…

Downfall Bovino Edition. You're welcome.

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune

Black History Quest: The Enterprise Investment Company - Oregon Black Pioneers This episode of Black History Quest will discuss how the Enterprise Investment Company impacted Portland's Black community.

A little project I'm working on, coming up on January 28th! oregonblackpioneers.org/black-histor...

On Tender Systems An essay by Dawn Marie Knopf about the history of the US highway system, the costs of its creation, and conflicts over freeway expansion in Portland

A nice story in the latest Oregon Humanities magazine about Portland freeways for which I was interviewed. oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine...

Closeup of a cat

Zira for the timeline cleanse. Happy Friday!