Foreclosure Map

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Predator and prey Bounty hunters stalk fish that eat young salmon — See SUSTAINABLE LIFE, C1

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED THURSDAY

■ More area homeowners at risk as foreclosure proceedings double

MORTGAGE LOSSES MOUNTING

97203

97217

128 97227

14 97209 17 52 97205 4 97204 97201 0 97221 21 97239 13 31 97210

By STEVE LAW The Tribune Uncle Sam is bailing out Wall Street wheeler-dealers who invested in home loans, but there’s no relief in sight for the homeowners on Main Street. On Southeast Main east of 144th Avenue, stretching from outer Southeast Portland into Gresham, 14 homeowners have been hit with foreclosure filings in the past year, plus scores more in nearby blocks. ■ Judy Myer pawned her wedding ring and stopped taking prescribed medicines in a futile bid to save her Southeast Main Street home of 18 years, after husband Mark Myer lost his job and his unemployment benefits expired. ■ Judy’s son, Steve, who lives down the street, got socked with foreclosure after his 7-year-old daughter required heart surgery. Steve took out a second mortgage to cover the medical bills, then fell behind on house payments after suf-

The bursting bubble

121 97211

97218

123

51

Map shows number of Portland homes in foreclosure or seized by banks as of early October, by zip code

97220

97212

135

97213

55 97232 10

59

97230

115

97214

97215

97216

97233

29

39

45

158

97202

97206

58

178

97266

97236

202

194

97219

83 TRIBUNE GRAPHIC: PETE VOGEL

Source: VisionCore, a division of First American Loan Performance

fering an on-the-job injury. ■ Across the street from the Myers, Ron Zitzewitz just got a six-month notice to vacate his mother’s home — one month after she died. Zitzewitz, 51, isn’t old enough to assume his mother’s reversible mortgage, and can’t refinance the loan because he’s permanently disabled. Portland is no real-estate basket case like Las Vegas or Phoenix. But the national foreclosure crisis that initially spared Portland has arrived here in a big

way, bringing more human suffering and dampening housing prices. The number of Multnomah County residents in jeopardy of losing their homes has nearly doubled in the last year, based on the number immersed in foreclosure proceedings. Over the spring and summer, 300 Multnomah County homeowners a month got slapped with foreclosure notices — topping the peak levels reached in the last recession of 2001-02. In August 2007, the Portland area had

an enviable 332nd- SOUND highest foreclosure rating among the na- OFF tion’s 383 metropolitan ■ Comment on this areas. But by August and other stories at www.portland 2008, Portland jumped tribune.com. to 254th-highest, according to First American CoreLogic, which provides real estate data services. “There’s a shakeout right now, and

See MORTGAGE / Page 2

“There’s a shakeout right now, and we’re failing on all cylinders.” — JERRY JOHNSON, REAL ESTATE ECONOMIST PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PETE VOGEL

All’s quiet in Recycling roll carts the race for are doing the job City Council Though inefficiency still mars process, collection rates are up

Publicly funded contest between Fritz, Lewis maintains low profile By JIM REDDEN The Tribune In less than three weeks, Portland taxpayers likely will have spent more than $1 million to fill the City Council seat being vacated by Mayorelect Sam Adams. The two remaining challengers for the seat — Amanda Fritz and Charles Lewis — both are funding their campaigns through the city’s public campaign finance program. They defeated four other publicly funded candidates in the 2008 primary election. Between them, Fritz and Lewis alone are on track to receive and spend more than half the public money that will be spent in the race — nearly $684,000. But despite the amount of money taxpayers are investing in the race, it has so far generated very little apparent public excite-

ment. Although it is the only council race on the Nov. 4 general election ballot, it has not been a referendum on the future of the city — or even on any of the issues facing it, ranging from the economic slowdown to the possible large population increases predicted for the next few Inside decades. “It’s like ■ Measure 56: they’ve fallen Should doubleoff the face of majority rule be the Earth,” said amended? Mike Fahey, a Page A7 former state ■ Measure 57 legislator from and 61: Two St. Johns who initiatives would also ran for the boost prison seat and re- population, for ceived a little a price. more than 10 Page A8 percent in the primary. Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts agreed. He sees several reasons for the lack of visibility, including the other higher-profile races on the November ballot. “The race has gotten lost in the

See RACE / Page 4

By PETER KORN The Tribune Some things just don’t make sense. Take the city’s latest recycling program, spearheaded by those new 60-gallon recycling bins on rollers that were introduced to most Portland neighborhoods this summer. They’re bigger than the old yellow bins that collected water in the ridges on the bottom. Heck — you can fit just about anything in the new ones, which has become a problem. More on that in a moment. But if efficiency is critical to recycling — and we’ve been told it is — then how can having people dump everything except glass containers into one large bin be more efficient? Somebody has to sort out the tin cans from the magazines from the junk mail from the newsprint. Until the new containers rolled out this summer, planting pots and most plastic tubs couldn’t be recycled curb-

TRIBUNE PHOTO: L.E. BASKOW

Workers at Far West Fibers do the initial sorting of commingled recycled products. With the new roll carts, residential customers don’t have to separate their trash as much, but more winnowing is required at the sorting station. side. Now we just throw them right in. Well, according to Steve Apotheker, senior recycling planner for Metro regional government — which is in charge of coordinating waste removal for the metro area — the new system is, and isn’t, more efficient. The new bins have attached covers. Which means people can put anything into them and the haulers, who just dump the whole load into their truck

compactors, won’t see. They won’t see the contraband Styrofoam pellets and blocks people have been putting in. Or the plastic bags that aren’t supposed to be in there, either. It’s become a problem. What Metro calls “prohibitives” have risen from 0.5 percent before the new cans were introduced to about 6 percent of recycling material people set out. And when haulers take all

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Local stories that you read about first at www.portlandtribune.com ■ NEWS — Freightliner announces closure of plant, layoffs — Mayor Tom Potter announces Freightliner’s plans to close its North American truck plant in Portland in 2010 and reduce its headquarters staff. (Published on portlandtribune.com Tuesday, Oct. 14.) Search word: Freightliner ■ A heated campaign — Two Portland men are arrested for allegedly tossing a Molotov cocktail at a large John McCain campaign sign in Southeast Portland early Saturday morning. (Published Saturday, Oct. 11.) Search word: McCain SPORTS — Vive le Batum! — Nicolas Batum, a 19-year-old Trail Blazer rookie from France, is earning playing time with his defense and overall improvement. Batum might start at small forward for the injured Martell Webster. (Published Sunday, Oct. 12) Search word: Batum BATUM

See RECYCLING / Page 5

OSU @ Washington Saturday, 4:00pm on KPAM Game day coverage with Ron Callan 3 hours prior to kickoff KPAM 08_OSU Football Banner4.indd 1

9/19/08 4:07:09 PM