Intel spun McAfee off into its own company back in 2016, but the security company still has a big presence here in Hillsboro. They recently moved to a new space, as Mike Rogoway profile in the Oregonian points out: Tech companies make a game of naming their conference rooms. Some name the rooms for favorite beers, or superheroes, or nearby mountains and rivers. At McAfee’s big new office in Hillsboro, the conference rooms are named for the company’s enemies. Stuxnet, Mydoom, Nimda and CodeRed are among the most famous viruses to afflict computers. 375 people work in that office, occasionally using those cleverly named conference rooms. For some reason they have scooters for moving between them. Read the article for[…]
Chas Hudley is my independent journalism buddy here in Washington County: he runs both the Gales Creek Journal and the Banks Post. If you’re at all curious about what happens west of Hillsboro these are must-read publications. This week two opinion articles in those rural papers respond to the Fairgrounds’ main exhibit hall coming down this summer—one against, one for. Both articles are worth reading. Opposing the change was Lyle Spiesschaert, a forth generation farmer, who is concerned the county’s plans to build an event center on the fairgrounds is crowding tradition: In the recent twenty years, the county leadership has methodically and purposefully destroyed buildings, relationships, and either sold or traded land to assure an Event Center for the fairgrounds.[…]
Turn right onto Brookwood off main and you’ll see 47th Avenue veering off to the right. That’s currently the only way to get to a small neighborhood, which has emergency workers concerned. So the city is extending Hidden Creek Drive west of 53rd, creating a new way in and out of that neighboorhood. To quote a memo from Rob Dixon, Assistant City Manager: At the present time, if NE 47th Avenue is blocked due to an accident or natural disaster, residents are unable to get home, and emergency services must access this neighborhood through a locked emergency access gate located in the back of a nearby parking lot. This project will add a second public street connection to the neighborhood.[…]
The City of Hillsboro has four main tools to combat homeless, according to a report commissioned by the city and put together by ECONorthwest and presented to City Council this week. Those four choices are: Reduced parking requirements to incentivize new construction Participation in tax abatement programs to help preserve and develop new regulated affordable housing Opportunities for land donations to support new construction Use of general fund dollars as direct contributions to affordable projects – both for new construction and preservation of regulated and naturally occurring affordable housing. Each of these potential tools have pros and cons according to Senior Project Manager Chris Hartye, who outlined the tools during a work session before the March 6 city council meeting.[…]
The Fairground’s Main Exhibit Hall will be taken down, Washington County announced today on their website: The Washington County Board of Commissioners approved a plan today to close and remove the 66-year-old Main Exhibit Hall on the fairgrounds in Hillsboro due to a “severe life safety hazard” identified in a recent structural report by Scott Edwards Architecture. The structural issues included concerns about each building’s risk of losing stability during a significant earthquake, snow event, windstorm or, in the case of the Main Exhibit Hall, even holding up its own roof. The idea is for the building to be completely gone before the fair later this year, which the county website implies will still happen in Hillsboro this year. A[…]
Tri-Met is changing up its fine structure this summer, introducing a tiered structure for offenders and even offering volunteering as an alternative to paying. Ride without paying your fare under the current structure and you owe $175. Tri-Met is changing that up as of July 2018. Andrew Theen, writing for The Oregonian, summarized everything: The new fare policy creates a tiered approach and slashes the fine for first-time offenders to $75. Second offense could face a $100 fine, then $150 for a third instance and $175 for fourth time fare evaders and beyond. Another change: those who can’t pay have the option to do volunteer work instead. Theen again: Community service would be offered as an alternative, with TriMet providing[…]
It’s one thing to hear local politicians brag about the economic growth here in Hillsboro; it’s quite another to read newspaper editorial boards in other cities outright complain about it. But that’s what an editorial in the Evertt Herald does this week. Arguing for tax incentives for data centers, the editorial says Hillsboro’s initiatives are attracting investments that previously would have gone to Washington state. As recently as 2011, Washington state was considered the data center hub of the Pacific Northwest, benefiting from that inexpensive electricity but also its proximity to Amazon, Microsoft and other leaders in information technology. But data center construction has slowed in the state’s rural areas and lags even more in the state’s suburban areas closest[…]
Laika is a stop motion animation company based right here in Hillsboro, famous for movies like Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. The detail in these films is remarkable, all the more so when you realize everything is physically made by someone right here in town. Eden Dawn, writing for the Portland Monthly, profiled their costum designer earlier this week. It’s a great read with a lot of great photos. Laika costume designer Deborah Cook chats about 17-inch-tall puppets the way most people reminisce about old friends. “I love the Sisters. There’s an elegance to them,” she says of the terrifyingly beautiful villains in the Hillsboro stop-motion animation studio’s 2016 hit, Kubo and the Two Strings. “Their faces are[…]
In 2016 the Hillsboro School Board voted to prevent a clinic in Century High School from distributing contraceptives, a 4-3 vote that broke down on gender lines. The men opposed contraception, the women supported it. In May of 2017 three of those men lose their seats in an election, only for another to step down in December. And now, in 2018, the school board has unanimously reversed course, allowing that clinic to provide contraceptives. Here’s what that change in policy looks like, per the packet (page 86): As you can see language specifically added to ban contraception was removed, replaced with language that instructs clinics to follow Oregon law. The change isn’t exactly surprising: the members who supported the ban lost[…]
Last night city employees briefed City Council on the Willamette Water Supply, a massive infrastructure project that will bring water from the Willamette in Wilsonville up to Hillsboro. Hillsboro’s water department is partnering with the Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD) on the project, which will cost an estimated $1.2 billion dollars. TVWD will pay for most of the project, leaving Hillsboro will pay 39.6 percent: $450 million. (TVWD, if you didn’t know, provides water to Hillsboro residents east of Cornelius Pass. The district, which is independent from any city government, also provides water to large pieces of Beaverton and various unincorporated Washington County communities, including nearby Aloha and Rock Creek.) Rob Dixon, Assistant City Manager in Hillsboro, said the project[…]