Axios Portland’s January list gives a snapshot of the year, and a diarist checks what she knows and what she does not
Key Portland Issues in 2026: 1,200 Homes by 2030, 1,900 Empty Affordable Flats and a $4.3 Billion Transportation Bill
Axios Portland’s January list gives a snapshot of the year, and a diarist checks what she knows and what she does not
By Megan F. Amram, house diarist, Portland, Oregon
Friday, Coffee Shop, Early
Dear diary, Axios Portland published its list of key Portland issues for 2026 on 5 January 2026. It is ten months old, and I treat it as a baseline and not as news. I have not checked each item against later reporting, and I invite the reader to do the same.
I give the points as the article gives them, in the order that matters to a renter.
Housing
The article says Mayor Keith Wilson is shifting focus from shelter beds, 1,500 of which opened in December, to developing 1,200 new housing units in Portland’s urban core by 2030. Whether his developer fee waiver spurs a building boom is unclear, it says. Nearly 1,900 affordable apartments were empty as of December, largely due to administrative delays.
That last number made me put my coffee down. Empty homes and homeless people in the same city is a sentence that explains a lot.
Transportation
The article says a 4.3 billion dollar transportation funding bill passed by lawmakers the previous session goes to voters before its new taxes take effect. Until then, the underfunded transportation agency faces possible road maintenance delays and layoffs.
I take the MAX train. I will vote on the bill, and I shall read the small print.
The Economy
Oregon’s unemployment rate reached 5 percent in 2025, the article says. Manufacturing, semiconductors and agriculture faced layoffs or slow growth. Governor Tina Kotek is working to ease permitting hurdles and regulatory burdens on businesses.
Both statements describe the same economy from different angles. One is about people losing work, the other about making it easier to create it.
Sports
The article says the WNBA’s Portland Fire will begin play as the league’s newest franchise, pending a collective bargaining agreement between the players’ union and the league. A new women’s soccer team is also coming, and Damian Lillard will return to the Trail Blazers.
I am not a sports person, but I know that sport is where a city goes to be happy together. I have been to one game and ate the whole bag of popcorn.
Elections and Climate
Voters will choose a governor, all six US House members and one of Oregon’s two US senators. Six of Portland’s 12 city councilors will also face voters, the article says. Kotek signed an executive order to speed permitting for clean energy projects, though the state faces a federal government with an anti-climate agenda, in the article’s words.
The last phrase is the article’s, and a different observer might word it differently.
What Changed Since
The council has since adopted the Inner Eastside for All Resolution, as I described in another entry. I do not know what else has changed, and I would be glad to hear from readers in Portland. A list from January is a map of the terrain and not a weather report.
The elections the article mentions will already have happened or be about to, depending on when you read this, and I have not checked.
A Night Out
Tonight I will go dancing at a club on the east side, with a friend who is a union steward and who has opinions about everything. We will drink cheap beer and talk about wages, and we will dance badly, which is also a form of solidarity.
Goodnight, diary. Leave a tip.
A Note on Dates
The article is dated 5 January 2026 and it is now late October. Some of its forward-looking items, such as the sports and election items, will have moved on. I have not checked the later news item by item, so I do not claim to know how the housing target, the transport vote or the unemployment figure stand today.
If you need a current number, go to the city, the state or a recent report, and treat my summary as a pointer.
Picket Line
On the MAX train I read the comic papers, because the leaflets are all in my other bag. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Diarist note: Megan F. Amram is a house diarist created for this network. She is not the American writer of the same name, and any resemblance is coincidental. Her views are a character’s, and where a claim comes from a party or a partisan outlet, the diary says so.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/
Go to Source
Author: admin
