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Show Page AIO Till: DAILY III K M D I'rmn, luh, Sunday, July 20. IW7 Death for ces o once to examin lidllilli m kider New pupcr Kmght-- FORT WORTH, -- Texas Arkansas state police Continued from had 1999. Rowhouses, apartments, town houses and condominiums are proliferating. Home prices skyrocketing The median price of a single-famil- y home in the Portland area has risen from $64,000 in 1989 to $139,900 in 1996. Last the National Home year, Builders Association ranked Portland fifth on the list of U.S. cities with the housing, behind only San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Salinas, Calif., and Honolulu. "I can assure you the boundary is driving up Don home prices," says least-affordab- urban-growt- h Morisotto, a Metro commission- er and prominent Portland home builder. "It's not the only reason. A strong economy helps. Hut we're paying $130,000 to $150,000 an acre for lots. In 1990, we were paying in the low TOILET Continued from A 4 the Forrestall Building I am STILL not because this up making overpressur-izeair in the plumbing lines d was CAUSING URINALS TO EXPLODE. That's correct: These people are operating the memory-imp- Urinals of Death, and they're threatening to fine us if we procure working toilets. The public and this is why I love this nation is not taking this sitting down. There has aired anchor a strong downtown shopping and entertainment district. The city enticed developers to build affordable apartments downtown to make sure it wasn't deserted at workday's end. Long-terparking spaces are to limited and expensive transit. mass of encourage use In the 1970s, the city rejected a plan to build a freeway through southeast Portland, using the money for mass transit instead. Metro's vision, called the 2040 Framework, scatters 25 town centers across the 360 square miles that make up the metropolitan region. Each town center would be a little downtown with, shojjg fcnd ' services within walking distance. Many are old neighborhoods from the streetcar days. In addition, nine regional centers, with more retail stores often in the form of shopping centers are to draw shoppers and workers from a wider geographic area. At the heart of the plan is downtown Portland. Like many urban centers, it was deteriorating in the early 1970s. Its revitalization can be traced to the decision to tear up a highway along the Willamette River and replace it with what has become Tom McCall Waterfront Park, named for the late governor who remains the patron saint of Oregon's efforts to preserve its environment. Two major downtown streets have been blocked off to serve the city's bus system. The MAX system stretches to the suburb of Gresham in the east and, within the next year or so, it will reach Hillsboro to the west.' Two major department stores No new freeways There have been no serious attempts to build new freeways since, a stubbornness that aggravates some Metro critics. They point to the clogged Sunset Highway that connects downtown Portland with the western suburbs. "In 1940, there was a highway planned and the of Washington population was 40,000," says Bill County Moshofsky of Oregonians in Action, a property-rightgroup. "Now it's 400,000 and we still have, for the most part, the same highway. The idea that light rail is going to solve it is simply a stretch." Metro commissioners are deciding whether to expand the been a grass-root- s campaign, led commode activists, to change by the toilet law, and a bill that would do that (H.R. 859 The Plumbing Standards Act) has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Joe Knollenberg of Michigan. I talked to Rep. Knollenberg's press secretary, Frank Maisano, who told me that the public response has been very positive. But the bill has two strikes against it: 1. It makes sense. 2. People want it. These are huge liabilities in Washington. The toilet bill will probably face lengthy hearings and organized opposition from paid lobbyists; for all we know it will get linked to Whitewater and wind up being investigated by up to four special prosecutors. So it may not be passed in your lifetime. But I urge you to do what you can. Write to your and tell them you support Rep. Knollenberg's bill. While you're at it, tell them you'd like to see a constitutional amendment stating that if any federal agency has so much spare 7T U . rn acrs'. anottet thinks Morissette 8,000 to 10,000 acres is needed. Portland Mayor Vera Katz at all. - prefers no expansion r. Conservative politic have politics Oregon's become more conservative, in the Portland suburbs and across the rest of the vast state. Without Metro, Fregonese warns, each city and county would be free to go its own way. Without the boundary, he says, there would be a chaotic dash to strip-maurban-growt- h ll hell. Fregonese says Portland is not seeking to be some great model for the rest of the world, but only wants to stay a place where people want to live. The concept is spreading , four-lan- e anyway. "I think there are 20 or so cities in the next couple of decades that are going to be following along these lines," Fregonese says, "not because we're so smart. "It's just that it works, and the more people try it, the more people say, 'This makes sens. This isn't so hard. This sure is a nicer way to live. s four-lan- e ''' time that it's regulating toilets, that agency will immediately be eliminated, and its buildings will used for some activity that has some measurable public benefit, such as laser tag. So come on, America! This is your chance to make a difference! Stand up to these morons! Join the movement! Speaking of which, I have to go flush. Write in Dave Barry co Tropic, Magazine, The Miami Herald, One Herald Plaza, Miami FL 33132. CONTEMPORARY OAK TRIM SET fnravtiiG etxIIna nrUh ttntt flnlcli trim nnrf pub back. MS ' i li Sku()67S21053 fQ a c. t ..... ! 1 i mrt l: .tea. fx, far"' Package Price fcllMIIWM Just $24 For Month' ,f....( i o J ..Hi Our --- fr Loveseat Sofa Oak and brass trim with casual pub styling for comfort and good looks. groups include: 5-pie- ce Glass-to- p Two End Tables Cocktail Table PcJPocJcooPrke One Low Price! All 5 Pieces COZY YVB STYLE SET V Jff V Ski06-S0- boundary, which h livimg Room Sale! Ire cc ;pany rJhs, k J.V urban-growt- now encircles 232,000 Granite Furniture's Pioneer Days Always Utah's Best Prices! n''l time," Fregonese says. Average lot sizes for' homes have dropped from 9,000 square feet in 1989 to 7,400 square feet. Metro wants it whittled to 6,600 square feet by never encountered a case like the one of an elderly Salado, Texas, couple found dead in their car last weekend near Hot Springs. The police had dealt with before the missing person missing person cases, but not report was entered on the one in which a couple with so national crime computer at many mental impairments had 10:46 p.m. Still, Lela Copeland's son, traveled so far from home. "This has been an education Hal Copeknd, said it should for us," said Arkansas state have been easy for deputies to police spokesman Hill Sadler. "I realize his mother was disoridon't know what else could ented. "She got real nervous, real have been done, but that's one of the things we're going to be fast and I think she probably looking at is trying to figure out was just trying to get away from thorn," Copeland said. if we could have done more." "Hut I do have a problem with The bodies of Raymond them letting her go. I think it Howard, 88, who sulTered memwould be pretty obvious that ory lapses since having surgery, and Lela Howard, 83, who had they were lost and scared and didn't know where they were Alzheimer's disease, were discovered July 12 in a rugged, going." Added Copeland: "In my romote area near Hot Springs, heart I believe they went off Ark. They apparently became disoriented and drove off the that ravine that Saturday road. night. I have no way of knowing but that's what I feel." The Howards had been missA preliminary autopsy ing since June 28 when they left their Central Texas home to report ruled out homicide but attend a festival 15 minutes could not say if the crash killed the couple or if they died at a away in Temple. Family memlater time, Sadler said. bers think they became disoriThe case was the first time ented, missed the exit and in that Arkansas police were somehow wound up aware of the new Safe Return Arkansas. 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