Portland is in mourning this week with the loss of Kevin Duckworth, one of our beloved Blazers. Kevin Duckworth’s family and the Portland Trailblazers will have a public memorial service Sunday at Memorial Coliseum. Poignant since the Coliseum is where Portland has most of its collective memory of Kevin.

Memorial for Kevin Duckworth
Memorial Coliseum
Sunday, August 31, 11am.
Parking is free in the Garden Garage or take MAX

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi

I feel sorry for patrons of Baskin Robbins and Abercrombie and Fitch downtown. See, they are next to and in the same building as Heald College. At specific times during each day, the sidewalk in front of Heald College there in SW Broadway kitty corner from Pioneer Courthouse Square turns into the largest smoking section I have ever seen. Today, I and a few other pedestrians had to weave our way amongst the gaggle of smokers and their smoke. It is pretty disgusting.

To those hanging out on the sidewalk between classes: Have the manners not to take up the entire sidewalk with your smoking cliques. Either stand by the building or the curb and let pedestrians pass without bother.

…we don’t much like dealing with mostly-anonymous drive-by shooters who choose to act out in our comments section. We could just delete ’em as we see ’em—but we’d rather not—we like free speech as much as the next guy, and we really don’t want to be the Comment Police.

Instead—since we *do* love spirited, irreverent conversation as much as the next duke ‘em out debater—we’ve come up with the following comments policy (although we reserve the right to delete if we absolutely must.) We’d love to hear what you think - yes in the comments, of course!

First, Take Responsibility

All comments within this blog are the responsibility of the commenter, not OurPDX Networks. We’d prefer it if you used a real name or consistent handle (we like to know who we’re talking with), and we do ask you to fill in an email address. In return, we’ll never reveal, display, publicize or otherwise share your email address with anyone else - although we may contact you from time to time directly about your specific comment.

All email, snail mail, phone numbers or any other private information posted in any comment will be deleted as soon as possible to protect the privacy of our commenters.

By submitting a comment on our blog, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold OurPDX Networks, and all subsidiaries (hey, we can dream—can’t we?) and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability.

Second, Be Respectful

The best rule of thumb here is “Would you say it to my face?” “Would you say it in my living room?” If not - don’t say it at all. Comments that don’t add to the conversation or take it in an unpleasant direction may be removed or deleted. Personal attacks aren’t permitted - question or argue about the content all you’d like, but don’t attack the authors or other commenters. Finally, if you post a comment that is obviously an attempt to get people upset (also known as “flaming” or “trolling”), or post comments under multiple names, you should expect a warning and/or deletion.

OurPDX Networks reserves the right to delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments. Frequent comment violators may be blocked from future access and/or commenting on this blog. (Yes, this is waaay more draconian than we want to be. Please don’t make us do this!)

What do you think, oh commenters….?

(Revised at 8:40 pm on 8/27 after feedback from readers; developed with guidance from Lorelle VanFossen’s post Does your blog have a comments policy?, help from a punctuation expert, and advice from other comment policy creators.)

I was driving east up SE Division yesterday at 5:30pm when I saw the police traffic van that frequently sits in the westbound lane near the cross street of 13th Avenue. I’ve seen the van there many times, and the officer usually snaps pictures of westbound speeders out the back of the van. The light at 12th Avenue turned yellow five feet before I entered the intersection. I was traveling at 25 mph and there was no way I could safely stop, so I maintained my speed and made it through the intersection before the light turned red.

As I drove past, I saw that the officer fiddling with something on the dashboard and my stomach sank. It was a black camera, and his hand was on the lens. So I am almost certain that he took my picture. I googled it and found differing opinions. I’m wondering if I am going to get a ticket in the mail for this? And should I go to traffic court and contest it if I do? Suggestions?

Rebecca from Cooking Up a Story graciously offered up the following video that she thought would be of interest to Portlanders.

What’s Cooking Up a Story about, anyway? Well here’s what I stole shamelessly from the site itself:

Cooking Up A Story, part of the Local Food Sustainable Network, offers three distinct shows about people, food, and sustainable living: stories; food news; and cooking.

As Rebecca said in her email, this video is all about two local ladies (Donna Smith and Robyn Streeter) who started a business from a fantastic idea - reclaiming backyard space to create sustainable, organic farms for homeowners. They turned it into a business: Your Backyard Farmer, and even won the recent ‘Best’ award (Businesses for an Environmentally Sustainable Tomorrow) here in Portland this past March.

After viewing it, I think it’s a must-watch if you, too, have a backyard that could be made much more valuable/useful!

Head on over to read the Director’s Journal, and do follow what Rebecca’s up to over at Cooking Up A Story.