Blazers guard as determined as ever — DAMIAN VS. DOUBTERS SEE SPORTS, B12 PortlandTHURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPERTribune • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY Reese retiring; O’Dea steps in Mayor sees smooth transition as chief leaves in January By JIM REDDEN The Tribune Portland Police C hief M ike R eese said T uesday that he will retire in J anuary. Mayor Charlie Hales has named Assistant Chief Larry O’Dea to replace him. “Larry O’Dea is one of the most decorated offi cers in the bureau — 11 medals and 75 let- ters of commendation,” Hales said in an announcement of Re- ese’s retirement. “He shares my goals and aspirations. He has been living the idea of commu- nity engagement. He has led the bureau’s equity work. He has the respect of the command staff, the rank-and-fi le, and the com- munity. He is the right leader at the right time.” O’Dea will immediately begin leading strategic plan- ning that has long-term im- pacts for the bureau, includ- ing the DOJ PUTTING REESE settlement im- plementation, budget, staffing study, promo- tions and transition to a new re- cords management system. Hales also praised Reese’s METERS Chloe Spahn takes a shot at buying parking time from one of the tenure as chief, citing not only downtown pay stations the city is considering for purchase. New the recent U.S. Department of machines will soon be installed on Northwest 2 1st and 2 3 rd av enues. Justice settlement, but also the opening last month of the most complete law enforcement train- ing facility in the region. Under TO THE Reese’s leadership, the bureau instituted new discipline guide- City tries out new downtown parking machines, lines, new training procedures and has hired a more diverse set of new offi cers. “I thank Mike Reese for his TEST but avoids variable-rate pricing — for now leadership and his service,” ere’s an unsolicited tip for the Port- hour stub? Thirty- Hales said. “Mike saw us land Bureau of Transportation: On a STORY BY four seconds on through the investigation and chilly mid-December afternoon all three ma- settlement with the DOJ. This Hwhen drizzle is fi nding its way down PETER KORN chines, give or was a key milestone for our city the neck of your raincoat and you’re waiting PHOTOS BY take a second or and the community’s relation- for the parking ticket machine to deliver your two. That was us- ship with the bureau.” stub, all you care about is speed. Not bells and JAIME VALDEZ ing a credit card Reese joined the bureau in whistles. on a sunny day, 1994 and served as a sergeant, The transportation bureau is road-testing mind you. But it lieutenant, captain and com- two new models of parking meters in prepara- means we didn’t come up with a clear winner, mander. A native Portlander and tion for placing 300 new machines in North- unless you speak Spanish or German or graduate of Roosevelt High west Portland. It is asking members of the pub- French. School, he has served as chief lic to use and comment on the two versions be- Southeast Portland resident Chloe, a fre- since May 2010. fore a choice is made on one. quent downtown visitor, took only a few sec- O’Dea has served with Port- In a completely unscientifi c survey, the Tri- onds to fi gure out the parking meter produced land Police Bureau since 1986. bune observed and interviewed downtown by vendor Parkeon. She was pleasantly sur- He has been a uniformed patrol drivers using the machines. We also per- prised to fi nd that as she added time to her to- offi cer, sergeant, lieutenant and formed our own timed test which mostly re- tal, the machine’s display told her in big letters Two hands are necessary to operate the parking machine proposed by captain. He has served as assis- vealed that the city’s current machines are and numbers the hour and minute her me- Cale America — one to hold open the plastic shield and one to shov e in tant chief of services and assis- faster than experience on rainy afternoons had a credit card. But the Cale America station offered directions in a tant chief of operations. led us to believe. The average time to get a one- See METERS / Page 2 v ariety of languages. O’Dea said he is honored to accept the position of police chief. “My four primary focus areas are: community trust and rela- tionship building; diversifying Old Town plan aims to the bureau and bureau leader- ship; communications and col- laboration; and being fiscally build a better block smart and responsible,” O’Dea said. of nonprofi t Better Block PDX, Pedestrian plaza may noted, “Part of what we wanted to do is test the worst-case become permanent scenario.” on Third Avenue The scenario was part of the latest re-imagining of Old Town/ By PETER K ORN Chinatown’s Entertainment Dis- The Tribune trict. The three-day pilot project Customers dine involved opening one lane of at street seating A t 3 p.m. last F riday, traffi c Third Avenue to cars. A part of a outside Dix ie on T hird A v enue north of second lane was given over to Tav ern on B urnside Street was backed bikes. The rest of the street was Northwest Third up four blocks, all the way to intended to become something Av enue as part G lisan Street. Hay bales and of a small-scale street fair. of a weekend wooden tables, most unattend- Kaganovich, very much a ex periment in ed, were taking up the second glass half-full kind of guy, was prov iding lane of traffi c that would hav e undeterred by the traffi c mess. daytime activ ity allowed driv ers to mov e along “It’s an experiment,” he said. on Old Town q uicker. “This is our prototype demon- streets. Looking at the line of stalled cars, Boris Kaganovich, founder See BLOCK / Page 11 TRIBUNE PHOTO: ADAM WICKH AM “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune deliver balanced news that refl ects the ARTISTS OPEN THEIR STUDIOS stories of our communities. Thank you — SEE LIFE, PAGE B1 for reading our newspapers.” Inside — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, October 9, 2014 Meters: NW neighbors wrestle with plan ■ From page 1 tered time would expire — be- fore she paid. But it didn’t give her the option of simply pressing one button to get an hour’s time, as do the stations currently in use. Chloe hesitated a bit when it was time to print her stub be- cause the machine didn’t have a simple Print button. It assumed instead that everybody would know the meaning of a green button with a check sign or a red button with an X. That bit of con- fusion shouldn’t come as a sur- prise since Parkeon is the same company that supplies the city’s confounding streetcar vending machines. But Chloe was impressed with how quickly the machine pro- duced her stub once she hit the check button, convinced her stub came faster than it does from the machines currently in use. “It’s potentially quicker once you know what you’re doing,” Chloe said. The machine produced by Cale America had Northeast Portland resident Brent immedi- ately making a comparison to the ticket machines in use. “It’s far more complicated,” Brent says. “The other one was pretty simple.” Too many buttons, Brent says. Some of those buttons allow us- TRIBUNE PHOTO: JAIME VALDEZ ers to change the language of Tavo Cruz, president of the Northwest Portland neighborhood association, stands where a parking meter will be installed along Northwest 23rd Avenue. Parking experts say the directions to follow, which eventually the city should consider charging higher hourly rates for parking on popular streets such as 23rd. Brent didn’t need. And the little slot where he shoved in his cred- parking plan for that section of ed the change with not too much Residents west of 25th ob- that Northwest Portland, after it card had a hinged plastic cover Register your opinions the city that will go into effect fuss, says Mike Estey, the city’s jected to having to buy per- so many years of confl ict involv- that might keep his card dry for Portland’s new test parking early next year and will include parking manger. Estey thinks mits, Cruz says, so that’s ing residents and shop owners the half-second or so required to meter machines can be found at $60 street parking permits for that’s because the springtime where the boundary was and developers, might fi nally be pull it out but really didn’t seem Southwest Salmon Street between residents. Portland Bureau of survey makes it clear that the drawn for the parking plan. getting a parking plan that is necessary. Though Brent said it Third and Fourth avenues and on Transportation offi cials say they policy isn’t arbitrary. But now it means visitors to obsolete the moment it is put in wasn’t too great a concern since Southwest Third Avenue between might consider variable-rate “We’re basically making data- Nob Hill might fl ock west of place. Developers in the neigh- he fi gured the cover would last a Taylor and Salmon streets.