Chuck Slothower

@chuckslothower.bsky.social

Reporter and editor, Daily Journal of Commerce, Portland. Interested in housing, development, CRE, design, construction, public policy. Oregonian. Typing at my kitchen table.

A Reuben sandwich. Photo is Grand Central propaganda.

Screenshot of the Dairy Queen from Google Maps.

Architectural rendering showing a new multifamily building. Modern, silver, metallic appearance.

A map showing a cluster of West Powellhurst, Mill Park and Lincoln Park elementary schools in southeast Portland.

Cover of the book, "The Long Winter," by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

NYT headline: “Nations respond with caution to Trump’s call to send warships to Strait of Hormuz.”

Oil futures (West Texas Intermediate) up 59% in the past five days.

Rendering of the Williams & Russell Business Hub, a largely mass timber building with large windows on the corner of a Portland intersection.

Three men discuss nuclear stuff at Oklahoma State University. My grandfather John B. West is seated.

Number go up. 5.98% today as of mid-afternoon.

Gas prices in Oregon average $3.92, up from $3.46 a month ago.

Foul language warning: frequent expletives/swearing.

Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, both dressed in military fatigues, along with several other men on the links.

Google Map of southern edge of Salem, Oregon.

State of Oregon WARN (layoff) notice:
"WARN #9429 Three Pirates, LLC dba Point Blank Distributing
On 1/29/26 the Office of Workforce Investments / Higher Education Coordinating Commission received WARN #9429 for three locations in Oregon. This is a permanent closure and will occur on 3-31-26. The number to be laid off is 177. The workers are not represented by a union."

Quote from Guardian story: She is dismissive of the suggestion that life on a small island may feel much like the repetitive time loops that her character experiences. “Here, at least, there’s the summer where you’re doing certain things and then there’s a winter – in the city people do the same things all the time,” she says. “Nowadays, cities are so much more conventional than the countryside, whereas it used to be the opposite.”

Capt. Picard's famous "There! Are! Four! Lights!" scene.

ODOT news release:
ODOT engineers and geotechnical experts continue to evaluate the site. There are still many unknowns, so it's too early to set a detailed timeline. Based on what is known right now, fully rebuilding OR 229 is expected to take years. The team will continue to assess over the winter months as conditions allow.

Washington Post photo of a midsized boat in a marina pointed bow to the sky in the snow and ice in Juneau, Alaska.

A raccoon, with the usual black mask and striped tail, rubs its paws together like a 1960s Bond villain.

National Weather Service forecast precipitation map showing widespread heavy rain in western Oregon through Friday.

Trump promises “aggressive” housing reform.

City Council document:
"Public Meetings Law: Update Oregon’s public meetings and serial communication laws to enable timely, informed decision-making and improve efficiency and compliance while maintaining transparency and public trust."

Alec MacGillis on X, quoting WSJ:
"The emerging recovery in the US office market is strikingly uneven, leaving many buildings, neighborhoods and entire cities behind.
A handful of business districts, from NY’s Park Ave to SoMa in SF, are leading a turnaround. But most office markets are still burdened w/ empty space and anemic rents.
The US office vacancy rate is 14.1%, near a record high."

$NYT story excerpt: "In the House, the 427-to-1 vote came after Democrats, joined by a tiny group of Republican defectors, succeeded in forcing the legislation to the floor over the vehement opposition of President Trump and G.O.P. leaders. It reflected how the Epstein affair and the president’s handling of it has fractured Mr. Trump’s political coalition and suggested a slip in his iron grip on his party."$

Vlad the Impaler discovers marshmallows.

Press release from Gov. Kotek's office:
Governor Kotek Signs Cooperation Agreement with the United Kingdom
Partnership to deepen economic development, energy, and trade relations between State of Oregon and United Kingdom
Salem, OR – Today, Governor Tina Kotek signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Kingdom to deepen economic development cooperation and trade relations between the State of Oregon and the United Kingdom.
"While the federal government creates uncertainty among our traditional trading partners, the State of Oregon continues to step forward, building bridges across oceans and borders to address the challenges that don't stop at our shores,” Governor Kotek said. “This agreement is a signal of a renewed, strengthened partnership between our state and the United Kingdom, because the work is too important to wait for Washington."

A small single-story building at the corner of an intersection. Image from Google Maps.

Streetscape of 1314 SE Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. shows a vacant, grassy lot where a new food cart pod is proposed.

“We’re used to hearing the ‘Big One’ — Cascadia — being this catastrophic huge thing,” said Goldfinger, a marine geologist at Oregon State University, in a news release. “It turns out it’s not the worst-case scenario.”

U.S. code 31 5114: "Only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities."

"The PSU New Housing Building (PSU NHB) will be a new, purpose-built residence hall designed for first-year students. Located along the South Park Blocks in the heart of campus, the project will strengthen connections to the surrounding academic and cultural environment while bringing renewed energy and vibrancy to PSU¿s central district. 124,000 SF, 6-story, 4 over 2 wood frame over concrete podium."

Notification that I was paid $38.16 to settle a Facebook class-action privacy lawsuit.

NYT: "Jimmy Fallon, one of NBC’s late-night hosts, bowed out of a scheduled appearance at a different New York conference on Thursday, Deadline reported. Spokeswomen for the conference and for NBC did not respond to requests for comment."

$"Tackling the supply side has obvious merit given the sclerotic planning system, acute regional shortages, the shortfall in social housing and the surge in total immigration since 2022. Yet even if the government were to meet its ambitious targets, it remains questionable whether this would do much to shrink the huge gap between house prices and household incomes. David Miles of Imperial College and the Office for Budget Responsibility and Victoria Monro of the Bank of England modelled the UK housing market with a view to explaining why house prices were so high relative to incomes and other consumer prices. At the model’s core was the demand for housing and the influence on home ownership costs including interest rates. Their findings were that a substantial rise in supply could probably only unwind a small fraction of the huge rise in house prices — even with a large increase in housebuilding over decades. This suggests that politicians’ primary focus on supply may be fundamentally misdirected."$