Primary election voters are choosing most of Portland’s elected officials, while general election voters are shut out of decisions about city leadership. Since 2008, Portlanders have voted in three mayoral elections and ten elections for city councilors. In nine of those races, one candidate won a majority of votes in the primary and got elected, … Read more
As our corner of the planet tips away from the sun and the rains we missed this summer return, Sightline’s Thin Green Line team is hitting the books. Since our last update to you in early August, we have been studying the coal, oil, and gas industries with an eye toward obstructing their plans to … Read more
New interactive map shows where Americans are getting better election results with different ballots.
How does a growing, prospering city stay affordable for all kinds of people? At the most basic level, when there aren’t enough homes, prices will keep rising. And when there are plenty of homes, it helps prices stay down. It’s like a huge game of musical chairs. If there aren’t enough chairs when the music … Read more
Editor’s note: We updated this article on May 29, 2018 to reflect projects that have been withdrawn, and include updated information about current projects. This article also features a third version of the graphic. The Northwest is home to a range of project proposals to expand gas consumption. At first glance, they appear quite different … Read more
Oregon’s New Motor Voter law is registering more young people to vote. Since registered voters skew older, Oregon’s automatic voter registration law is correcting the age bias and giving people of all ages access to the ballot. In 2015, Oregon became the first state in the nation to automatically register citizens to vote when they … Read more
Author’s Note: This article draws out one point from a longer article that outlines nine options for electing Portland councilors from single-winner or multi-winner districts. Say you want to run for Portland city council. In a presidential year, you need to win around 125,000 votes. That’s a lot of doors to knock on. You might … Read more
Author’s Note: This is the TL;DR version of a longer article that outlines nine options for electing Portland councilors from single-winner or multi-winner districts. Portland has a problem—the city council is, and always has been, dominated by white men. Unfortunately, the most commonly discussed reform—splitting the city up into council districts or wards—will not actually … Read more
Author’s note: This is the TL;DR version of a longer article about Portland’s unrepresentative city council. Portland has a glaring problem—white men dominate, and have always dominated, the city council. The city is nearly one-third people of color, half women, more than one-third renters, and about one-quarter of residents live east of 82nd. But in … Read more
The Pacific Northwest has been overloaded by fossil fuel development proposals including at least six coal export terminals, more than a dozen oil-by-rail facilities, and numerous fracked gas and petrochemical projects. Together, these projects add as much as 100 million tons of coal per year, a million barrels of oil per day, and staggering volumes … Read more