The work behind Portland’s handmade city.
Follow actual projects, explore 597 public artist and craft listings, and examine the business receipts, payroll jobs, and production costs behind Portland’s maker economy.
Read the deep-dive597
public listings across four artist and craft networks
Where the next dollar goes.
Portland Public Schools cut 322 positions the same year its budget hit $2.77 billion, and both facts are true. Eleven years of budget books, every audit, and the district's own watchdogs, read so you don't have to. What actually decides whether a dollar reaches a student, where money is doing less than it could, and the ten decisions, red-teamed until they survived, that would change it.
Read the deep-dive$1.51
what the $1.99 teachers levy actually delivers
Portland just rebuilt its libraries. Now it has to decide what they're for.
A $459 million bond is finished and all nineteen locations are open at full capacity. The district that owns them runs a deficit every year through 2031, even at the maximum levy. Fewer than four in ten households have a card; one building generates half the incident reports. The gap to 2040 in one chart, a real map of every branch, who has to approve what, and the decisions that can actually be made this year.
Read the deep-dive38%
of households have an active card; the 2040 target is 70%
Every big stage in Portland belongs to you. So do the bills.
The arena, the sold-out stadium, five theaters, the raceway, the town square. The public owns them all. Their repairs could top a billion dollars over the next decade, and City Hall can't say what any of its buildings earn, cost, or need. An accounting of what you own, and a plan for running it well.
Read the deep-dive$1B+
in building bills coming due by 2036
Portland is about to run the experiment by accident
On September 11 southbound I-5 closes for five weeks and the traffic goes to I-405 and I-205, nearly what freeway-removal advocates propose permanently. Both sides' predictions, and the test that decides them, published before the closure begins.
Read the deep-dive$2.1B
for 1.8 miles, up from $450M promised in 2017
Portland's $8.5 billion, line by line
Every fund, every bureau, every program in the FY 2026-27 adopted budget, parsed from 1,478 pages of PDF and reconciled to the dollar. Trace where the money comes from, what it buys, and which 9% Council actually controls.
Read the deep-dive$8.55B
traced to the dollar
Oregon built the cloud. Was it worth the bill?
Roughly 125 data centers, $450M+ a year in tax breaks, surging power demand, secretive water deals, and a state that just hit pause. The strongest case for the deals, the strongest case against, and an honest six-condition test of when a data center is truly a win-win.
Read the deep-dive$450M+
a year in tax breaks, and the state just hit pause
Lloyd Center: demolished on a promise
Portland's dead mall is coming down for up to 5,141 homes. But the approval requires zero affordable units and no ice rink, and the city is building fewer homes than any year since 2009. Both sides, the fine print, and an interactive look at whether the homes actually get built.
Read the deep-dive5,141
homes promised, zero of them required
Is Oregon serious about its own economy?
Governor Kotek's Prosperity Council wants to blow up Business Oregon and build a Department of Commerce. The case against the agency, and the asterisks the headline numbers hide, with the scorecard, the $1B decoded, the front door no CEO would use, and a four-state field test on whether a reorg actually works.
Read the deep-dive1,200 → 800
where the job target moved after years of missing it
The hidden contradictions in Portland's growth politics
Portland wants affordability, climate infill, stable neighborhoods, tenant protections, progressive taxes, and enough homes for the next generation. This deep dive shows where those goals collide, who benefits, who pays, and what changes when you move the levers.
Read the deep-dive120,560
homes Portland must plan for by 2045
Who actually runs Portland?
Portland's biggest fights often happen because power is spread across the city, county, Metro, state, transit, schools, hospitals, providers, and funders. This is the map of who owns what - and the Street-to-Stability system Civic Lab is building first.
Read the deep-dive9
major layers of civic power
The pension on your property tax bill
What Portland’s police and fire pensions cost you, why the levy is growing, and the competing cases for prefunding and caution—with a household calculator and an interactive funding model.
Read the deep-dive$3.36B
pension liability at June 2025; 0.82% backed by plan assets
Mass timber: Oregon's big housing bet
Can building homes out of wood in factories help fix the housing shortage? What mass timber is, what it's good for, how much housing it can provide and at what cost, with a factory-cost calculator, the success stories, and the long graveyard of failures.
Read the deep-dive491,347
homes Oregon needs in 20 years
From a bed to a home: where the system breaks.
An interactive guide to the barriers between needing help and reaching a home that lasts. Follow three illustrative journeys, compare reported local costs, and see how housing, care and completed handoffs fit together—with the evidence and its limits in view.
Read the deep-dive3
illustrative journeys through housing and care
Why Portland can't end homelessness
Portland spends more than ever and it keeps growing. The math that explains why: the inflow/outflow simulator, who's actually homeless, the true cost of doing nothing, why nobody can see the beds, and what would actually work.
Read the deep-dive+~400
net added to the list every month
More deep-dives coming: housing, public safety spending, and climate. Suggest a topic.