Locus Focus

Every five years the city reviews its land use planning and determines if

there is enough industrial land to meet a state mandate requiring the city

to have sufficient industrial land for the next twenty years. This process

creates what's known as an Economic Opportuniti...

What a weird, wretched, gut-wrenching year 2025 has been. Probably even worse

than many of us had feared at the end of last year. But despite worsening

climate chaos and glimpses of the end of democracy, there are glimmers of

hope ahead.

On this episode of Locus Focus, ...

This program aired originally on November 3, 2025

The landscape of Washington County has been transformed from one of the most

productive agricultural regions in the world into a maze of gargantuan data

centers. On this episode of Locus Focus we continue the tale of how t...

Deadly algae blooms have desecrated sections of the Willamette River through

Portland for many years. With the warming climate they are only growing

worse. But it doesn't have to be this way.

On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Willie Levenson, director and

ring...

Multnomah County's Office of Sustainability has been working on a Climate

Justice Plan for the past several months. The plan is a shared vision and

roadmap for climate justice for Multnomah County, co-created by community

members and local government staff. Over the past...

Advocates recently secured a significant victory in the ongoing fight

against Zenith Energy. Last month, the Court of Appeals ruled that the Land

Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) issued by the City of Portland,

which included a series of conditions applicable to Zenith...

This Program aired originally on October 27, 2025

A high tech type of noxious weed is spreading across Oregon. For several

years data centers have been popping up across the state, destroying

farmland and habitat. Enticed by abundant water and energy and tax breaks

f...

As we tumble toward autocracy, we still don’t know exactly what’s in

store, yet it has become clear what we should fear, and that we need to

muster a movement that will stand up to everything hurtling toward us. But on

today’s Locus Focus, I want to go back in time and t...

It is heartening that over 7 million people participated in the last No Kings

demonstrations and that they are happening in countless places across the

country, in red and blue communities, rural, suburban and urban. But after

the exhilaration of these marches and rallie...

Francisco Aguirre is an influential leader in the immigrant rights and labor

movements. A long-time Portland resident, he fled El Salvador to escape the

military's extreme violence against him and his family. In 2014, ICE agents

came to Francisco’s home and tried to arre...