7:15 a.m. at Fire Station 21 Dock on a recent Monday.

The River Huggers are already in the water, taking their first dip of the day into the Willamette River, a relaxed swim from east bank to the west side and back again, a distance of 1/2 mile.

Bright-orange floaties bob in the water, and it’s quiet except for the sound lapping water. A kayaker and upright paddle boarder (volunteer safety paddlers) keep their eyes peeled and create a buffer lane for the swimmers. Later, dragon boats glide beneath the Hawthorne Bridge and pass by.

At 7:45, a different crew of swimmers jump in for the second swim of the day. Some do both morning swims. And at 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, a another pod heads north along the bank of the river. I spotted them while walking across the Morrison Bridge after work.

Some people are training for a triathlon, others are just regular swimmers, said Sage Bachman, community outreach for River Huggers. New swimmers are angels, who wear pink swim caps until they prove they can handle the swim and graduate to a bright green cap. A pre-swim qualification form is required. The rule of thumb is that one be strong enough to swim about 45 minutes in a pool without stopping. One regular swimmer, Bachman said, is over 80.

“River Huggers bring visibility to the river and highlight access points,” Sage said.

The swim is operated Human Access Research Project, which created Audrey McCall Park and Poet’s Beach. A low-key family swimming event is planned for Poet’s Beach on July 9.

Next year, the Human Access Research Project wants to bring back the Big Float, in which people hanging out on colorful inflatables (unicorns, donuts, etc.) drift within a roped-off area on the Willamette’s west bank.

How are the river conditions?

“The water is a little warmer than normal for this time of year,” Sage said, adding that Oregon State University Professor Desirée Tullos is working on a project that would prevent migrating algae blooms from the Ross Island Lagoon from entering the area. Right now, the water’s fine.

The city of Portland has agreed to support a Portland General Electric power line through Forest Park, a project rejected 12-0 by the City Council in May 2025.

In an agreement signed by Portland City Administrator Raymond Lee on July 2, the “city shall prepare a staff report recommending approval of the new application.”

City staff submitted comprehensive opposition to the original application, joined by the Forest Park Neighborhood Association, Forest Park Conservancy and Bird Alliance of Oregon.

The other organizations did not participate in the agreement, which does not bind the City Council.

“The Parties acknowledge that final approval of the Project rests with the Hearings Officer, subject to potential appeal to City Council, acting in their quasi-judicial capacity. Nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to bind the Hearings Officer, City Council, any elected official, or any decision-maker to approve the Project,” the agreement states.

For the second year in a row, Juan Padilla held the men’s singles trophy aloft at the Mt. Tabor Open all-comers tennis tournament. On the video above, you can see Padilla’s stinging serve for yourself and how opponent Andrew Finkelman’s won this particular point with a hypersonic forehand.

Billed as “the highest-altitude slam,” the Mt. Tabor Open is also called “the fourth grand slam,” by the organizers and their acolytes. For the uninitiated, four grand slams currently exist in tennis: the French Open, Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. Apparently, Mt. Tabor Open’s marketing team brazenly scratched one from that list and inserted itself. Tyler Pell, of Portland Tennis Courterly, clears things up. “There are a few reasons it’s called the 4th grand slam. While not the original story, that it takes place on 4th of July weekend is now the leading theory.”

The action takes place in Mt. Tabor Park in Southeast Portland, a locale tournament organizers call Tennis City, USA.

The free-to-attend event happens at Mt. Tabor Park, where a blue-green reservoir serves as backdrop to the unimproved hard courts. Fans sit on blankets on the grass or behind a fence near the baseline on a bed of pine needles. It’s incredibly pleasant. Some pay attention, some just enjoy a picnic and try to understand the illusive math behind tennis scoring. We come to watch the best tennis Portland has to offer.

A toddler told me, “I’m going to get my soccer ball,” as she wobbled past the back court.

The men’s doubles final preceded the singles finals. A team wearing matching black togs and sponsored by an apparel brand called Taango Tennis from Austin, Texas, beat the local boys in a 10-point tiebreaker played in lieu of a third set. The Portland team dressed in a winning nonchalant style all their own.

The Mt. Tabor Open is sponsored by Tennis Courterly, a literary tennis magazine that just published its latest and biggest issue despite getting its funding cut from the Regional Arts and Culture Council. Tennis Courterly’s offices are in downtown Portland, where a tennis-adjacent bookclub is held in a historic building constructed of unreinforced masonry. A black tennis net sits in a jumble on the floor.

Tournament co-director Scott Korb is an ex-Northwest Portland resident. He and Pell started what was called Chapman Cup in Wallace Park in 2024. When the event outgrew the weeds in the cracks in the courts, the tourney decamped to the east side.

The book club just read “The Racquet,” an out-of-print book by Oregon poet George Hitchcock. Actually, just four chapters from a shared PDF were all that was required, because no one could get our hands on a copy of the book. But the downtown library has one copy a motivated person can read on premises during limited weekend hours. Sensing high demand to lift “The Racquet” from obscurity, Tennis Quarterly is pursuing the rights to reprint it in a new translation.

Mt. Tabor Open is serious tennis, but as should be clear by now, it’s also a send-up.

The chair umpire was a low-key man with a long beard known as Big Willie. A local tennis legend who fixes fences and benches, he was a little shaky on 10-point tie-breakers and why a 12-point tiebreaker is first to seven, win by two.

There were ball kids in green vests, the smallest of whom appeared to receive training from a big brother moments before the match got underway. She mastered rolling the ball on the outside line of the doubles alley quickly. There was music on changeovers between games and color commentary throughout the match by Tennis Courterly managing editor Jay Boss Rubin.

“We’ve got a seismologist from PSU in the box here with us today, and the chance of an earthquake is zero,” he murmured, reminding us that Mt. Tabor Park sits on a dormant volcano. When not calling matches Rubin works at NW Portland’s Escape from New York Pizza on mushroom and olive day.

A slightly altered version of Allen Ginsberg’s “America” was read between matches.

On Sunday, Padilla battled against Grant High School alum Andrew Finkelman, who was grinding out every point with deep passion and focus. I can’t quite say why he didn’t win. But Padilla was unflappable and calm. Originally from Florida, Padilla is head tennis coach at Vancouver Tennis Center.

But he lives in Tennis City, USA.

Tickets for tonight’s game, United States vs. Belgium, start at $10 to access the Fan Zone. There might be a table; it might be standing room only. There are no guarantees in these giddy times. Falorin Balogun could play tonight after a red card reversal, that’s all we know.

Southeast Portland’s AwayDays Brewing is behind the joyous adaptive reuse of the landmark building’s lobby. For tickets and a full schedule of matches, visit SoccerFest.

OMSI has opened up the very immersive Empirical Theater for the remainder of the World Cup games, including tonight’s 5 p.m. game. There is no charge to attend. Refreshments will be sold at the cafe, and beer, wine and cider are available with ID. Seating is first come, first served.

Let me start things off with a belated but heartfelt public thanks to the Portland Police officer who followed up on my 911 call after I was assaulted by a man either drug addled and/or in the throes of a psychotic episode while I walked Rosie (my English lab) and Junie (my son’s and his partner’s dog) one lovely mid-September evening in 2022 on Northwest Raleigh Street a half block east from Wallace Park. The officer was professional and gracious, his questions cogent, his empathy for me, given the circumstances, sincere and comforting.

Mea culpa. A four-year delay for a thank you is inexcusable. I was raised better.

By the time of that perhaps 15-minute phone conversation with the officer two full days after the assault, I was settled down, emotionally, albeit still a little sore, physically, from the coldcock to the side of my unprotected head while my arms were pulled in opposite directions by the taut leashes connected to the dogs as they were trying like hell to get away. The kick to my shoulder after I fell to my knees rendered subsequent walks with them a rather tender exercise for a few days.

In case you missed it in the previous paragraph: TWO FULL DAYS AFTER THE ASSAULT!

Which is, I should point out, a much better response than that from my 911 call to report a man swinging an unsheathed machete on the sidewalk across from New Seasons on Raleigh Street (again!) a couple of years ago. Assuming 911 calls are recorded and archived, some sleuthing might turn up the actual conversation. Until then, I present, for your consideration, the gist of it reconstructed from memory:

[911 Operator] 911. What is your name and location?

[Me, after providing requested info] There is a man swinging a machete and screaming like a maniac across Raleigh Street from the New Seasons in Northwest Portland.

[911 Operator] Has he injured anyone?

[Me] I don’t know. I just got here and I noticed a panicked woman running across the street and into the store. He is now slamming the machete against the brick wall and screaming incoherently outside Mama Bird restaurant, if that helps.

[911 Operator] So you don’t know if he has injured anyone?

[Me] Ma’am, I repeat; he is swinging a machete, screaming expletives. He’s raging. He’s striking the machete into the brick wall outside Mama Bird. I saw a woman running away from him. If he hasn’t injured someone, he’s going to.

[911 Operator] It is not illegal to swing a machete in Portland.

[Me] Please tell me that you are kidding.

[911 Operator] It is not illegal to swing a machete in Portland.

Click.

Not to mention all the times I didn’t call 911 since 2020 when the City Council cut the Portland Police budget by $15 million and the electorate approved Measure 110, legalizing hard drugs on our streets. A quick brain dump of that inventory: three or four (I forget, although I did file police reports online for all of them, if you want to fact check me) incidents of car windows smashed and car contents cleaned out; stolen mail; the guy defecating on the corner on West Burnside and Northwest 23rd Place; the morning reverie of people screaming profanity at sunrise; the woman who almost ran me and Rosie down at the pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Northwest Savier and 23rd Avenue (‘Stop in the Name of Something, Anything’, NW Examiner, Sept. 27, 2025) and, last but not last (pun, sad as it is, intended), the guy who less than two weeks ago almost ran over Rosie with his gas powered mini-bike going about 20 miles an hour down the sidewalk in front of McMenamins Tavern and Pool while a friend and I discussed literature and movies at a table over a cold one. When I stood up and held out my hands to STOP the guy before he hurt Rosie, he complied. Kinda. Shirtless with vacant, glassy eyes and a line of inked, somehow menacing, symbols tattooed in a vertical line down the side of his neck, he sat on the purring bike and informed me that he was going to “slap me f***ing silly” for the audacity of interrupting his drug-fueled joy ride on said sidewalk. After a few moments of tense standoff, he powered away, sans slap, around the corner heading east on Savier.

To paraphrase a song from Van Morrison’s last album:

This is who we are/ This is where we’re from

Enough is enough. Mess with me, and that’s one thing. Mess with Rosie, and it’s gloves off.

If there’s any uncertainty about who should be issuing the mea culpas to the residents of Portland and Multnomah County for the new normal of havoc and violence on our streets, there was none after I attended the Pearl District Neighborhood Association’s “Reignite the Pearl” event on public safety at the Portland Armory on June 22 featuring Portland Police Chief Bob Day and Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez.

Their somewhat nuanced responses to the pointed questions written on little white index cards from the near-full house crowd made clear that the Democratic Socialists of America on Portland’s City Council and our Multnomah County chair (and some commissioners) fully own Portland’s spiraling descent. And, if the hair on the back of your neck doesn’t rise when you hear your two top law enforcement officials utter sentences like “We are failing you” and “We’re a train wreck,” I might suggest that perhaps, just perhaps, your apathy or outright contempt for a society built on civility and a set of values around respect and common law render you an enabler as well.

Riddle me this, Batman: How can our city and county leaders look at the correlation of our crime statistics and police funding compared against other major American cities and twice—TWICE!—vote for MORE CUTS in the funding?

This, dear reader, is the work of ideologues who are either ignorant or intentional or both (my choice). They need to be voted out. The message they are delivering to us is crystal clear. Safety and security and a vibrant urban community are not their priorities. They are too busy saving the world to be preoccupied with something so mundane as the health and well-being of Portland and Multnomah County and their residents.

What’s it gonna take to get the adults in the room vocal and active in the reclamation of Portland before it’s too late? When are we going to stop dilly dallying with soft rhetoric in fear of “offending” someone and getting canceled in these oh so precious days? How did longstanding progressives like us allow the rigging of our city government structure to ensure that incompetent ideologues are elected without a majority of the vote?

The Portland version of the DSA is to principled progressive Democratic politics what MAGA is to principled Republican conservatism (and if you think there isn’t one, then you sit at the children’s table for this discussion); a cancer squelching everything good in the values of responsible citizenship that many of us hold dear, contextualizing criminal behavior as a by-product of systemic injustice rather than degrading values and leftist ideologies, extorting silence in the opposition by hurling fear- and guilt- mongering epithets (Karen, NIMBY, racist, fascist, entitled, etc.) and legislating policies designed to dismantle the institutions and laws that allow a diverse society to not only coexist but to thrive, if not perfectly, as our once fair city did. The DSA does not want true diversity.

They are of one mindset, angry and intolerant of any worldview other than their own. The current state of the city of Portland is their doing.

Do not yield the moral high ground to them. We must join in a pragmatic effort to make our city, our streets, and our merchant community vital and whole. To be anti-DSA is not to be pro-MAGA. Extremist ideologues are all cut from the same cloth. They don’t seek compromise. They consider as enemies those who oppose their agenda. They don’t disagree, they despise. They don’t want a seat at the table, they want the table and they can have it as long as it’s not at City Hall. I want the DSA out as much as I want Donald Trump to spend the rest of his life, (which I hope is long and non-prosperous) in prison somewhere in the Midwest or, better yet, El Salvador.

You may call me a dreamer, but (I hope) I’m not the only one.

DA Nate and Chief Bob were unequivocal about the pragmatic next steps to begin the climb out of the hole the extreme left has dug:

1. Now: Sign the Safer Portland petition to fund a police force equal to the task of significantly reducing the safety and security issues rampant on our streets. For perspective on the matter, Portland, population ~645,000, has a force of ~809 police officers; Boston, population, ~675,000, has a force of ~2,127.

2. This November: Vote Out those DSA members of the City Council who are up for reelection. In District 4, that means vote out Mitch Green, who had two opportunities to protect the latest round of cuts in the Portland Police Bureau budget and failed to do so both times.

That’s a middle finger to mainstream, law abiding citizens. Cast your vote for Eli Arnold, a progressive centrist whose focus on safe and secure streets and a revitalized downtown merchant center are refreshing in these difficult times.

Mitch Green purports to be an economist. How an economist expects a city to thrive when taxes are skyrocketing, fundamental services are being axed, streets are unsafe and insecure, property crime is close to the top of comparative cities across the U.S. and commercial properties are being sold for a few cents on the dollar baffles me (and I hope you, as well). Any run-of-the-mill economist should be able to detect a doom loop in the making. Green supports Portland’s descent. He needs to go.

3. This November:

a. Cast your vote for both Julia Brim-Edwards and Sharon Meieran for Multnomah County chair. This is a rare chance to use the cynical rank choice voting system to defeat the extreme left candidates that it was designed to elect. Take it.

b. Leave the extreme left candidate for Multnomah County chair, Shannon Singleton, off your list of rank choice candidates. She will continue the policies of inaction from current chair Jessica Vega Pederson.

Lest I be accused of omitting some of the good news, Chief Day also announced that Mayor Wilson has recently won the budget battle to repave Burnside Street. Now, if that isn’t the textbook example of putting lipstick on a pig, then tell me what is. It’s the sidewalks, Mayor Wilson, that need your attention.

Progressives: Stand up and take back the Democratic principles that we have stood for. Portland’s survival is counting on you. It’s imperative that your financial support and your vote get us back on track.

Joe McAvoy lives in Portland with his wife, Kyle, and their English lab, Rosie.

I don’t think the socialists of Portland consider me one of their own. I frequently criticize government programs and do not trust our city and county to spend wisely or to motivate employees toward accountability and excellence.

Nevertheless, I believe the Peacocks and lefties are too timid in their approach to Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon’s extortionate demands that the public build an arena to his specifications or he will find another city that will.

District 4 City Councilor Mitch Green has laid out their most detailed approach on the issue. He thinks Dundon is bluffing and that a deal that protects Portland taxpayers and even ensures “street level” pricing for hot dogs and other concessions is possible.

Dundon may be bluffing, but that misses the point: He believes the NBA franchise he owns would be more valuable if moved it to a growing city waiting with open arms, a new arena, tax abatement and all imaginable sweeteners. He has no loyalty to Portland, as he has gone out of his way to demonstrate. If he can convince other NBA owners—who have to approve a move—that his relationship with Portland is not salvageable or that the city itself is in longterm decline, he wins.

You cannot negotiate with someone who does not want to make a deal.

The bigger problem is that Portland fans believe in their hearts that the Blazers are their team. That’s the essential relationship of every sports team (except perhaps the Harlem Globetrotters) and the town it calls home. The reality is that a professional sports franchise is a private business, no more tied to a locale than its owners are.

Increasingly, cosmopolitan ownership groups exploit the emotional ties of home fans and communities. W.C. Fields said (and Dundon apparently agrees): “Never give a sucker an even break.” It’s no wonder that things get broken in this showdown of unequals.

Sports franchises are “of right and ought to be” public trusts, permanently bound to their host cities. There is one such arrangement in American professional sports—the Green Bay Packers—a broadly held stock arrangement that works so perfectly for the city and its fans that NFL owners have forbidden the model to ever be repeated.

If Portland officials were to declare such a right of local control, league owners in all sports would surely blacklist Stumptown. Major League Baseball would write us off, and the NBA would not consider us for a replacement team. Of course, the same result may occur even if we sit like Charlie Brown in our patch trying to convince the Great Pumpkin that we are sincere.

Our new Portland Fire WNBA team is drawing 15,000 a game, more than the Blazers ever could in the 12,666 capacity Memorial Coliseum when that was a match made in heaven. Without having to share the limelight with the Blazers, they might become the top women’s franchise in the world.

I am touched by Portland’s weird and wonderful sports history. Could there be new chapters like the 1970s Portland Mavericks of “The Battered Bastards of Baseball,” my all-time favorite sports film?

Certain kinds of businesses—such as public utilities—are well suited for public ownership. Ambulance and garbage-hauling services are others that provide better service and lower costs than their private alternatives. National health care seems obvious to me.

That does not mean there is an obvious course for Portland’s ex-major league sports future. Even as a lifelong basketball lover, my instincts say we must free ourselves from the bondage of the rigged poker hand we’ve been dealt and find our own path.

All good socialists should share my antipathy toward the multibillionaires who make us pay-to-play in their monopoly game.

The document contains some surprising anomalies and embarrassing cultural observations, but it ends well:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Our founders then signed their death warrants for something more important to them.

An African American man passing by joined the reading circle. Afterwards, he declared that this document did not apply to him, and that he was not subject to the nation’s laws.

All in a day of contemplating that “more perfect union.”

Just days after news reports documented what Portland families already know—that the cost of living in our city continues to climb under a steady accumulation of taxes, fees, utility increases and surcharges—City Hall decided it’s time to make downtown parking more expensive.

Beginning July 1, parking meter rates in downtown Portland increased from $3 to $3.20 per hour. Event parking around Providence Park and the Moda Center will cost more. Annual parking permits are also increasing. Even the transaction fee charged through Parking Kitty is going up.

By itself, a 20-cent increase may not sound like much. But this isn’t about 20 cents.

It’s about one more increase piled on top of dozens of others. And it’s about a city government that keeps asking more of its residents while giving less and less thought to what they can bear.

Pattern undermines

In the past year, Portlanders have been hit with a steady stream of new taxes, fees and rate increases: a new Transportation Utility Fee, a new Street Damage Restoration Fee, higher water rates, higher sewer rates, higher electric bills, the recently approved Parks Levy increase and the major increase in the Arts Tax. Property taxes continue to climb as well.

Each increase is defended as reasonable. Each is relatively small, but together they tell a very different story.

Portland is becoming steadily more expensive, not because of one major decision, but because of dozens of smaller ones.

Residents are doing their part. They balance household budgets, absorb rising costs and make difficult choices every month. They have every right to expect their government to exercise the same discipline before asking them to pay more again.

Won’t help downtown recovery

City leaders have said downtown revitalization is one of Portland’s highest priorities.

They’ve spent the past several years trying to coax people, shoppers and employers back downtown after a painful stretch of vacancies and lost foot traffic.

Downtown recovery depends on making Portland easier to visit, but every new tax, fee and rate increase makes it more expensive to live, work, shop, dine and do business in Portland. Business owners in downtown, the Pearl and elsewhere have already warned that raising rates makes it harder to persuade people to return. If we want downtown to recover, our policies should welcome people back, not make every visit a little more expensive than the last.

You cannot tax and fee your way into a revitalized downtown, certainly not while simultaneously making it more expensive to park there, eat there and get a ride home.

Higher parking rates land hardest on the workers who keep those businesses running. Downtown employees earning $20 an hour can lose roughly 15% of their hourly wage to park for a single shift. For someone driving from outside the city because transit isn’t practical, that’s not a discretionary expense. It’s the cost of showing up for work. Those are the people this city has a duty to protect. Not squeeze.

Likewise, customers deciding where to shop, eat, attend an event or spend an evening compare the total cost of the outing. Parking has become part of that calculation.

Every additional charge makes suburban shopping centers and online alternatives just a little more attractive.

Council didn’t follow own rules

The parking increase raises another issue that deserves public scrutiny. Council policy requires legislation to include a discussion of its fiscal and budgetary impacts. Yet when the council approved these parking increases in May, one of the most basic questions was left unanswered:

How much additional revenue will Portland collect from higher parking rates?

The required “fiscal and budgetary impact” was not identified during council’s consideration of the ordinance, despite council policy requiring that information.

Even more striking, according to recent reporting by The Oregonian/OregonLive, weeks after the ordinance was adopted, PBOT was still unable to estimate how much additional revenue the higher parking rates would generate.

That is not a minor procedural lapse. It is a failure of basic governance.

Before government asks residents to pay more, it should be able to explain precisely why the increase is needed, how much it will generate and how that money will improve public services.

Without that information, neither taxpayers nor policymakers can evaluate whether the increase is justified, whether it meaningfully addresses PBOT’s financial needs or whether it undermines broader efforts to revive downtown.

Transparency should precede fee increases. Not be an afterthought.

Enough is enough

Portlanders understand that streets must be maintained, and transportation infrastructure costs money. But PBOT now expects to receive roughly $69 million a year from its new utility and street restoration fees alone. That is not a small amount. It reflects a significant sacrifice Portlanders have already made. Before asking Portlanders to pay even more through higher parking rates, the bureau should explain why those substantial new revenues aren’t enough and demonstrate that it has exhausted every opportunity to prioritize spending and improve efficiency.

It’s not one fee. It’s the accumulation, and the accumulation has become too much.

The council should stop this increase before it adds one more burden to households, commuters, employers, downtown businesses and Portlanders who are still trying to believe in the city’s future.

The cluster of masked hoodlums seen on video taunting Michelle Milla at her front gate the night of Sept. 13, 2024, did not happen along randomly. A masked stranger had earlier looked up at the security camera mounted on her house on Northwest 19th Avenue and said, “Hi Michelle.”

They knew who she was and where she lived. Perhaps more disturbingly, she knew what they had against her.

Before reaching her gate and safety, Milla and her friend Pete Colt were walking near her home when about 12-15 masked people boxed them in, front and back. They moved faster to no avail.

“They chased us block to block to Everett, calling out, ‘You gotta run … Where are the rest of your friends?’”

She and Colt finally found refuge in the King’s Hookah Lounge just a half block from her house. They called the Portland Police, which sent two officers to escort them.

Colt, a street savvy protector of this area for decades, told her he had never encountered anything like it before. Nor had she.

As police officers let her off at her gate, her tormenters had the final chilling words: “Goodnight, Michelle.” “Sleep well.”

After their intimidating performance, the band regrouped nearby, where another camera caught their debriefing. The now-unmasked young marauders were greeted by a middle-aged man, who gave high-fives and hugs.

That gray-haired man supporting and perhaps orchestrating the action was Michael Gilbert, who, according to a since-deleted LinkedIn page, is a senior lead scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton, a major provider of cybersecurity services to the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission. The page also described Gilbert as a “public health technologist.”

What business did Gilbert have with street hooligans? The cheerleader may also be their financier. The Friday night drug paraphernalia handouts at Northwest 19th and Couch streets were started in 2015 by Portland People’s Outreach Project, an unregistered entity whose website touts the radical philosophy that everyone has the right to choose what they put into their bodies without social judgment or sanction. The project was launched by nurses bringing supplies on their bicycles, but things ramped up in 2023 when the group got a van, a clean new stretch model registered to Michael Gilbert.

PPOP’s 19th and Couch location put it on a collision course with Milla, who moved there with her husband in 2023 and began documenting the patterns eating away at their safety and “quiet enjoyment” of their home. She and neighbors formed Stadiumhood Neighbors the next year. They took photos and videos, held counter demonstrations in which they stood together in vigils by the tables where supplies and snacks were handed out. Eventually the news media took interest, especially KPTV, which broadcast its own investigations and even-more revealing videos.

Stadiumhood invited elected officials to walk with them through their neighborhood and see for themselves. That led to proposed state legislation to regulate mobile “harm reduction” supplies near schools. Multnomah County just adopted its own ordinance as a stopgap measure awaiting possible state action in 2027.

None of this could be pleasing to Gilbert, who is not a recent convert to the libertarian approach to illicit drug use. He was involved with a harm reduction campus organization as a student at Harvard University, according to his LinkedIn page.

While PPOP describes itself as “a volunteer peer-run organization,” Gilbert, who lives in a large single-family home in Pleasant Valley in outer southeast Portland, stands apart from the people availing themselves of survival supplies.

In May, Gilbert testified at two Multnomah County hearings on a Safe School Zones ordinance that passed unanimously last month.

“My name is Michael Gilbert,” he told the commission. “I’m an epidemiologist and sometimes advisor and volunteer with Portland People’s Outreach Project, among other local public health outreach programs.

“Portland People’s Outreach Project offered a Friday night mobile syringe services site at Northwest 19th and Couch starting in 2015 … based on the prior and consistent presence of people who used drugs and the longstanding unmet need for harm reduction resources outside of brick-and-mortar business-hour services.”

At his second appearance a week later, he was pressed to refute complaints of used needles, garbage and impacts on neighbors around PPOP sites, of which there are now seven in the city.

“I think the association between the operation of that program and the presence of drug litter is spurious,” he testified, “and if the presence of drug litter persists, despite our absence for more than a year [from 19th and Couch streets], this further strains the assertion.”

County Commissioner Julie Brim-Edwards asked why banning needle handouts within 1,000 feet of schools would be unreasonable.

“I think it’s an arbitrary distance, based on a tenuous, if not completely spurious assertion that the presence of a mobile syringe program increases the presence of drug litter or the prevalence of public drug use,” Gilbert replied.

That assertion set off even County Commissioner Meghan Moyer, a staunch supporter of harm reduction in general.

“I think it is profoundly naive to try to say that by having a needle distribution site we in no way contribute to people openly using drugs in the vicinity,” Moyer said. “Of course they do.

“My child went to MLC [Metropolitan Learning Center],” she continued. “I don’t think anybody who was around Couch Park over the last decade didn’t know what an absolutely serious situation that was.”

Gilbert was left to blame something else for the drug litter.

“I would like there to be fewer discarded syringes in the neighborhood. I would also like the prevalence of HIV and hep C to be lower, so that any needle sticks that do occur from the needles that persist in the neighborhood are less likely to harm any child who should encounter them. So, if you want to reduce the risk of harm related to drug litter, we should reduce the prevalence of hep C and HIV,” he said.

Talia Giardini also testified at that meeting. Giardini is a nurse and a recovering substance abuser.

“PPOP does paraphernalia distribution,” and does not provide health care, she said. “PPOP isn’t known for following rules or respecting community. They are known for intimidating the public, including myself and people in this room. Last week, I was harassed by PPOP right outside this boardroom for using my free speech.”

Giardini was referring to an incident recorded on a Multnomah County security camera. After leaving the May 21 board meeting, she said Gilbert stepped in front of her and called her a liar. She responded in kind, and soon the head of building security hurried to intervene.

“He [Gilbert] was in her face,” said a Stadiumhood member. “He was very aggressive.”

We left messages with Gilbert to explain his side of things, including the suspicion that he orchestrated harassment of Milla, but got no reply. We are particularly interested in how he connects his role as an epidemiologist to supplying paraphernalia to sufferers of the drug epidemic. Could PPOP be his laboratory for testing his theories?

Gilbert did not return our phone messages.

As for the harm imparted on communities by the untethered practice of harm reduction, Milla bears the scars. She told the Examiner that she had largely shut down her reaction to the 2024 incident when she was chased by a PPOP throng in her neighborhood.

“I’ve sort of not tried to process that, but I felt it all coming back when I saw Mike Gilbert. I really had to work up the courage to testify knowing he would be in the room,” she said.

After going through the proper steps, seeking to meet with PPOP representatives and find compromise through proper channels, she ran into “violent intent. … It feels terrible. It still feels terrible.”

“It’s not something a resident should be knocked up against.”

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View July newspaper

Sooner than most cities, Portland grasped the transportation paradox known as induced demand, sometimes stated as, “You can’t build your way out of traffic congestion.”

Road-building zealot Robert Moses defied all limits in erecting bridges and running parkways through New York City in the mid-20th century, yet every massive project just bred more traffic and congestion. For decades, the press and public accepted his diagnosis that the solution lay in constructing the next grand bridge or throughway.

Moses was a true believer in this approach, which uncoincidentally expanded his political power and financial hold over the city. He controlled public authorities that collected tolls from every driver, and those authorities could not be retired as long as he issued more bonds for additional infrastructure.

By the 1960s, transportation scholars caught up with the game and demonstrated why new roadways compounded the problem they were intended to relieve: They caused more people to drive. New Yorkers filled the new lanes like water running downhill.

It didn’t help that Moses pooh-poohed every alternative to automobiles. He let the subways and mass transit decline and become so unreliable and uncomfortable that most commuters were forced to drive.

Moses visited Portland in 1943 and imparted this vision on the Rose City—an auto-centric plan that included Interstate 405, the Harbor Drive Expressway and the Mount Hood Freeway. We built the first, installed and later removed the second, and rejected the third. More importantly, we developed comprehensive plans that emphasized alternative transportation and preserving livability. Avoiding auto trips became our north star.

We can argue about whether we’ve struck the right balance, but our plans now account for the reality of induced demand.

How long will it take us to recognize that induced demand also pertains to the “freeway” of social services for addicts, mental illness sufferers and others unable to live independently in our city? Provide the path of least resistance to those incapable of acting in their best long-term interests, and they will flow toward it.

Like Robert Moses, advocates of expanding social services to all in need will see evidence that increasing the supply is the only answer. Also like Robert Moses, this path paves their personal security and that of the institutions they represent, not to mention their political hold over their party. Their pitch for public donations and government dollars is buttressed by data on the ever-expanding consumption of their services. Meals served, tents distributed and supplies handed out have been the metric to measure accomplishment.

Eventually, Moses lost political standing as the horrific growth of New York City auto trips overwhelmed the assurances he had been making since the 1930s. In 2018, the same city became the first in America to limit private auto access to its downtown.

When will Portland realize that the spiraling demand for addiction, mental health and homeless services has something to do with how we supply it?

We may be inducing that demand by no-questions-asked provision of the things this population seeks. What became of a social contract to provide immediate services to those in need, in return for their enrollment in a program of recovery and independence? Without such a figurative contract, an overwhelming share of recipients take what they can get at the moment and opt out of further engagement.

How will we know if we have been inducing demand and compounding the problem we seek to solve? Studies asking where aid recipients came from abound; most of them superficial and few persuasive because they have reflected the assumptions of the parties commissioning them.

The test is on the streets. Is our city becoming cleaner and safer?

The impending closure of the Northrup Street Shelter and the River District Navigation Center will eliminate about 300 shelter beds in the Pearl District later this year. If we do not see a corresponding increase in the number of people living outdoors, that suggests our past practices have induced demand. If the number actually goes down, I would take that as more than a suggestion.

Hugh V. Lacey III

Hugh V. Lacey III died in his Northwest District home on May 3 at age 72. He was born on Sept. 15, 1953, and grew up in Portland Heights, where he attended St. Thomas More Catholic School. He graduated from Jesuit High School. He had a 35-year career selling commodities for several firms. He is survived by his brother, Dan; and sister, Ann Lacey. A celebration of life will be held on Friday, July 24, 1-5 p.m., at the Old Market Pub in the Garden Home neighborhood.

George M. Crandall

George Miller Crandall, a prominent architect and Northwest District resident for many decades, died on June 9 at age 88. He was born in Sudbury, Ontario, on July 16, 1937, and moved to Tucson, Arizona, to major in civil engineering at the University of Arizona from 1956 to 1960. He returned to earn an architecture degree from the university in 1967. He married Laura Ann Chestnut in 1960. They moved in 1968 to Portland, where he was the lead architect for Skidmore, Owings and Merrill when it designed the 42-story U.S. Bancorp Tower known as “Big Pink.” In 1998, Crandall and Don Arambula co-founded Crandall Arambula. He chaired the urban design company of the American Institute of Architects’ Portland chapter. He published a book, “Fixing Your City: Creating Thriving Neighborhoods & Adapting to a Changing World,” in 2018. Ann Crandall died in 2007. He married Marilyn Sewell in 2009. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn; and daughters Robin Crandall and Laurie Crandall.

Joan Strand

Joan Strand, a longtime Portland Heights resident who cofounded the Women of Good Samaritan, died June 6 at age 95. Joan Blakely was born on May 13, 1931, and attended Alameda Grade School and Grant High School, graduating in 1949. She volunteered with Green Gables Guest House at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center and for Hopewell House. She married Don D. Strand, who preceded her in death. She is survived by her sons, Doug and Don; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held on Friday, July 24, 2 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Robert W. Packwood

Robert W. Packwood, a U.S. senator for 27 years who lived in the Campbell Court Apartments in recent years, died June 6 at age 93. He was born on Sept. 11, 1932, in Portland. He graduated from Willamette University in 1954 with a degree in political science. After attending law school in New York, he returned to Oregon to become the youngest member of the Senate in 1968 at age 36. During his 27-year tenure, he was an advocate for abortion rights and environmental protection. He resigned in 1993 over allegations of sexual misconduct before an anticipated Senate expulsion vote. He formed a lobbying and consulting firm in Washington, D.C. He married Georgie Oberteuffer Crockatt in 1964; they divorced in 1991. He married Elaine Franklin in 1998. He is survived by his son, William; daughter Shyla Middleton; stepsons Simon and Jonathan Franklin; and three grandchildren.

Frank F. Lolich Jr.

Frank Ferdinand Lolich Jr., who grew up in Northwest Portland, died June 7 at age 80. He was born on July 29, 1945, in Atlantic City, N.J., but moved as an infant to Portland. He starred as a baseball pitcher at Central Catholic High School and Brigham Young University. He was drafted by the New York Mets in 1966 and pitched five seasons in their minor league system. After earning a degree at Portland State University, he worked for 30 years for the Campbell Soup Co. In 1975, he married Linda Olsen, and they operated Lolich Farms, specializing in U-pick blueberries. After their divorce, he married Cheryl LaMont in 2000. He is survived by his wife, Cheryl; daughters, Erin and Dina; stepchildren, Erin and Brian; siblings, Ron, Barbara and Patti; and one grandchild.

Roger Decker

Roger Phillip Decker, who spent most of his career at the Braley & Graham GM auto dealership on West Burnside Street, died April 19 at age 84. He was born on July 18, 1941, in Portland and attended Alameda Grade School and Grant High School. He married Karen Davis in 1967; she died in 1999. He married Lynda Wonacott in 2001. He was a member of the Multnomah Athletic Club. He is survived by his wife, Lynda; daughters, Kim Reed and Elizabeth McBride; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Marjorie Kafoury

Marjorie “Mimi” Kafoury, a Pearl District resident since 2004, died June 10 at age 82. Marjorie Murlin was born on April 7, 1943, in Rochester, N.Y., and graduated from Central Valley High School in Spokane, Wash. She attended Washington State University and Portland State University. She married Stephen Kafoury in 1976. She was elected to the first Metro Council in 1978, and was later director of government relations for the city of Portland for 19 years. She served on the boards of the City Club, Portland Playhouse, Portland Center Stage and Oregon Planned Parenthood. She is survived by her husband, Stephen; brother, William Murlin; stepdaughters, Deborah Kafoury and Katharine Kafoury; and three step-grandchildren.

Death notices

William H. Sack, 91, lived 43 years on Northwest Vaughn Street.

Margaret Beattie, 74, graduate of Ainsworth Grade School and Lincoln High School.

Elizabeth Hyslop, 88, Goose Hollow resident.

David E Steiner, 89, grew up in Goose Hollow.

John R. Emrick, 83, former owner of Norm Thompson Outfitters.

Jeanne Barthelmess, 95, docent at Pittock Mansion.

Hopeful green starts are emerging in a neatly planted farm next to the gates to Chinatown. “Have a blessed day,” someone calls out to me as if to confirm not all is lost on Northwest Fourth and Burnside.

The youth mentoring group, P:ear, is the guiding force behind the new garden project.

P:ear stands for Project: Education, Arts, Recreation. It helps youth living on the street transition into housing. Programs include teaching classes in bike repair, running a bike shop on Southeast 122nd and Stark and a barista training school inside its Old Town center and art gallery.

In the spring, P:ear added flower works to its programming, initially utilizing a greenhouse and plot of land in Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood as a teaching site. The NW Examiner previously covered the project, here, and the new Q-Side Skate Park.

Marianne Copene is director of the flower works program. She works alongside the youth at P:ear’s new farm, hosting drop-in hours on topics such as irrigation and plant propagation. She and her flower works cohort primed the boards for the raised beds, hauled the soil in and planted the beds.

“The Home Builders Foundation were key in getting supplies, and provided a huge amount of support and guidance,” she said, adding that Taylor Smith Carpenters assembled the beds, and Building to Scale, a nonprofit trade school, built the shed. “Community support has been instrumental in getting this up and running.”

Copene expects the Burnside flowers to bloom in late July, when they’ll be cut and sold to community restaurants and shops. The flowers — foxglove, dahlias marigolds and delphiniums — will also supply flower pop-ups hosted at the P:ear coffee shop, where baristas are already crafting flower petal infusions and flower petal ice cubes for elevated coffee drinks.

“The process highlights the medium as an art form,” said Copene, “and asks who gets access to this beauty?”

The blooms will also be used in the form of dye plants and dried wreaths, integrating the flowers around the P:ear community.

Placing a working farm amid the cars and chaos of Burnside is no small endeavor, Copene says. It places agriculture at the core of the urban center, while provoking larger questions around houselessness, beauty and repair. Care of plants promotes healing in the caretakers, whether on a farm or at the heart of the city.

1947 was a pivotal year for America, for the world and for film noir. It was the first year of the Cold War, the Red Scare and communist blacklisting. The triumphalism of the Allies’ WWII victory was waning and giving way to a sense of disillusionment and earth-shattering fear.

It was the Atomic Age, and Americans understood they now held the awesome and terrifying power to destroy the entire world, while also facing the possibility they could themselves be wiped out by a nuclear holocaust. The Soviets were developing their own bomb. Most of us have grown up with “the bomb” but imagine what the dawn of the Atomic Age must have been like — and you can begin to understand the fatalism of the era, which found its way into the cinema of the time.

Film critics consider 1947 the peak year for classic American film noir. (Film noir is French for black film or dark film.) And these films, with their dark shadows and hard-boiled characters, fill us with a damning sense of dread. But they light up the eyes and tingle the spine of Cinema 21 Saturday morning classics film programmer Elliot Lavine – a nationally recognized expert on film noir. As I write this, Lavine is in my head right now saying, “oh goody, goody, goody.” (See my NW Examiner profile of Lavine: This man gets the pictures. )

Lavine says 1947 was a year of peak “dislocation and disillusionment … so film noir was the perfect cinematic repository for these layers of repressed emotions and this psychological emptiness.” Sounds like July is going to be one merry month! Lavine’s picks are never boring. Think of July at Cinema 21 as your graduate course in film noir.

This is our monthly look at coming attractions for Cinema 21’s Saturday Morning Classics. Renowned film programmer Elliot Lavine selects a theme every month, and we let you know what’s coming to the big screen at our iconic neighborhood theater at 616 NW 21st Ave.

To purchase advance tickets for the Saturday morning series, visit Cinema 21. All showings in the series are at 11 a.m.

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947) at Cinema 21 on July 4. Director: Edmund Goulding

Lavine says “Nightmare Alley” is the “most perversely cynical film in the entire film noir canon.” (And could there possibly be a more offbeat way to start your own July 4 celebration of America’s semiquincentennial?)

“Nightmare Alley” has about all the noir one can take: a carny sideshow, seedy characters and carny queens, fake mind readers, a grotesque geek – who eats live chickens. You get the idea. I like the way Lavine puts it, describing the film as “the carnival sideshow classic so steeped in the acrid stench of demented fatalism that it practically oozes off the screen.” Say no more.

Actor Tyrone Power, already admired for playing swashbuckling romantic leads, plays against type here. In “Nightmare Alley,” he is the shady carnival barker driven by greed. His rise and fall as a fake mentalist has been called a road to ruin melodrama. Power’s character falls into his own trap. Lavine calls this the definition of film noir.

In one way, “Nightmare Alley” is unique for noir. No gangsters. No gun fights. This is not a shoot-em-up. The crimes in “Nightmare Alley” are committed by hustlers, hucksters and charlatans — by both grubby carnies and respectable professionals.

Joan Blondell plays a fading carnival queen.

One other note: The film’s producers built a working carnival set on 10 acres of the 20^th century back lot in Los Angeles and hired more than 100 sideshow attractions and carnies to make the film noir seem real. Just to ensure that proper feel of leaching ooze.

(Do not confuse this 1947 film with the 2021 remake directed by Guillermo Del Toro starring Bradley Cooper.)

BODY AND SOUL (1947) at Cinema 21 on July 11. Director: Robert Rossen

Moving now from the carny circuit to the boxing ring. And film noir again finds its story with this cynical critique of the twin evils of corruption and greed. It’s the little guy as a victim of ruthless capitalism. The boxer slugs his way up the ladder of success but comes under the sway of an unethical promotor and a nefarious world. What is the prizefighter fighting for?

Actor John Garfield is the “champ” who lands blows with his fists and wrestles with his soul. This is film noir as social commentary. Lavine calls “Body and Soul” one of the most “emotionally shattering noir films.”

And it’s boxing melodrama with off-screen drama too. John Garfield was already a Hollywood star when he made this film. In the late ‘40s, the U.S. government was investigating him for his alleged past involvement in pro-communist groups. Later, investigators would demand he name names. He did not. As a result, he and director Rossen and several other actors in this film were eventually blacklisted.

Besides being great film noir, “Body and Soul” is considered one of the best-ever boxing films. The cinematography is by James Wong Howe, shooting the fight sequences in the ring with a hand-held camera — while on roller skates.

The film also stars Lilli Palmer, Anne Revere, Hazel Brooks and William Conrad.

RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947) at Cinema 21 on July 18. Director: Robert Montgomery

This is the noir film of dark alleys, knockouts and knife fights, thugs and mobsters, shakedowns, blackmail and revenge plots, hidden keys in bus depots and evening meet-ups at the Tip Top Café. It’s a pitch-perfect noir thriller: a story of disillusionment and danger and men who talk and play tough.

Film noir often takes place in big gritty cities, where it’s easier for slippery characters to come and go from hidden corners. But “Ride the Pink Horse” is not an urban film. It’s set in a rural New Mexico border town.

Robert Montgomery directs and stars as the World War II veteran bent on revenge after his war buddy is killed. As Gagin, he’s a mystery. Gagin is his only name and locals refer to him as “the man with no place.”

Gagin tracks down and attempts to blackmail a local mobster, but he also has to outwit an FBI agent who is also on the mob boss’s trail.

Wanda Hendrix plays one of the beautiful — though not fatally beautiful — women in the cafes and on the carousels in “Ride the Pink Horse.” (The pink horse is a ride on a carousel.)

And a first for an American film: actor Thomas Gomez who played Poncho, a local man who befriends Montgomery’s character, was the first Hispanic actor ever nominated for an Academy Award.

OUT OF THE PAST at Cinema 21 on July 25. Director: Jacques Tourneau

You can decide for yourself whether Robert Mongomery or Robert Mitchum is the greater film noir leading man.

Mitchum in “Out of the Past” is another man with a suspect past. We’re not always sure what he is about. In fact, there are a number of subplots that throw us all over the place. Deceit crops up in almost every scene — and when there isn’t, you’re still questioning what you just witnessed.

Much of the thanks for the intrigue goes to the movie’s femme fatale, played by Jane Greer. She is deadly charming. She is double-crossing. She is the girlfriend of a mob kingpin played by none other than Kirk Douglas, who is all mean and smooth in his crisp fancy suits, leaving his yes-men to do his dirty work.

Oh, and losers are all “chumps.”

The publicity for “Out of the Past” called the film a story about love, money, murder and betrayal. Everyone’s pretending to be something or somebody. And as Lavine says, like great noir, this film clicks with note-perfect acting and an airtight screenplay. Director Jacques Tourneau, he says, creates “magical film noir realism.”

Guilty pleasure from this film: Watching Mitchum light up a cigarette. Guilty also because Mitchum died from lung cancer and emphysema five decades later. Another treat: there’s a famous scene where Mitchum and Douglas smoke at each other. You just have to see it.

By Michele Peters

I have been looking into the Moda Center dilemma over the past many days, and reading this article, “Portland mayor lambasts critics of Moda Center deal as county questions investment,” the numbers stopped me. The upfront pledge is $120 million, but when you add the $280 million in operating expenses over 20 years, the total public subsidy from the city alone approaches $900 million. That figure deserves far more attention than it is getting.

Tom Dundon, who led a group that paid $4.25 billion for the franchise, has contributed exactly nothing toward renovation, and says he won’t. A $4.25 billion purchase and the new owner cannot find a dollar for the building that houses the asset? That is not a negotiation. To me, it is akin to something like extortion.

The Multnomah County commissioners are asking exactly the right question, which is what is the return on investment for this community, and they are getting no answer. The county faces a $78 million general fund deficit while being asked for $100 million. The Blazers didn’t even bother to show up to the meeting.

Wilson’s letter is also telling. Attacking a private citizen running a taxpayer advocacy website and scolding councilors for using social media rather than sitting down quietly to “figure out the math” reads as pressure to suppress public debate, not facilitate it. That is not a good sign about the transparency of the process.

So, what should we do?

Call the bluff.

Dundon paid $4.25 billion for a franchise. That price reflects the value of the Portland market, the fan base, and the arena. If Portland is worth that much to him as a purchase, it is worth something to him as a home. A buyer at that price does not walk away from the asset over a renovation negotiation unless he has somewhere better to go, and right now he does not.

The city should make clear it will fund essential structural repairs on its own building—cracked concrete, corroded steel, plumbing and fire safety—because those are ownership obligations regardless of the tenant. But renovation beyond basic maintenance should require private investment as a condition, a meaningful ownership stake in revenue streams, naming rights, luxury suites, something that makes this a genuine partnership rather than a subsidy.

If Dundon walks, he walks. But the far more likely outcome is that a billionaire who just made a $4.25 billion bet on Portland basketball finds a way to contribute when the alternative is losing the deal entirely.

The commissioners asking hard questions are doing their jobs. The council members pushing back are doing their jobs. Wilson’s instinct to close the deal quickly and quietly is the problem. Take the negotiations away from his administration. He has already shown his cards.

Portland has competent counsel. Let them negotiate without the mayor telegraphing concessions from the podium.

Michele Peters is a Northwest District resident.

The world’s first park named for a drag queen, Darcelle XV Plaza, opened Thursday evening under a canopy of show tunes and sequins. As it does on a proper June evening in Portland, it rained. But the sequins flashed brighter, and the makeup didn’t run.

Portland Chamber President Andrew Hoan introduced a “verklempt” Portland city councilman, Dan Ryan, who recalled when nearby streets were called Vasoline Alley, and dance clubs stayed open until 4 a.m. Ryan championed Darcelle XV Plaza from its early days.

Poison Waters ran the show, recalling the life of Walter Cole, aka Darcelle. With a well timed lift of an eyebrow: “We’ll have movies, a dog run, Shakespeare in the Park—he knew a thing or two about cross dressing.”

“This isn’t just for LGBTQ plus, this park is for everyone. There was never a table big enough for Darcelle to welcome everyone.”

Multnomah County commissioners unanimously adopted an ordinance on June 25 banning distribution of syringes within 1,000 feet of schools.

The measure is a stopgap in anticipation of state legislative action 2027, which District 17 Sen. Lisa Reynolds has promised to introduce.

The county measure, to go into effect Aug. 24, involves no criminal prosecution or fines. Violators could be subject an injunction brought by the county.

The measure pitted the harm-reduction approach to street addiction against neighborhood livability, in particular two Northwest Portland groups and the Portland People’s Outreach Project, which distributed drug paraphernalia at Northwest 19th and Couch streets.

At an earlier session, District 1 County Commissioner Meghan Moyer, though an advocate of harm reduction healthcare in most circumstances, said, “I think it is profoundly naive to try to say that, by having a needle distribution site, we in no way contribute to people openly using drugs in the vicinity.”

“My child went to MLC,” she continued. “I don’t think anybody who was around Couch Park over the last decade didn’t know what an absolutely serious situation that was.”

“Everything and more” is what a person discovers at Shirtzenpants, 800 SW Washington St., a new thrift store across from Darcelle XV Plaza. Walk between the legs of a big denim archway to explore the racks. Most items are priced at about $17, with sections arranged by categories like “lumberjack” or “fancy.”

This is SP’s third location (the others are in St. John’s and Beaverton). The cash wrap counter is made of two old pianos side by side and facing buyers, who tinkle away while checking out. Earn a discount by writing a poem and submitting it to Poem promo. Open every day 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

2nd Street USA, 820 SW Washington St., is a resale shop located next door. They have another location on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. The nationwide company started in Japan and opened its first U.S. store in Los Angeles. It bills itself as offering a creatively curated selection of luxury, street wear and vintage.

Crystal DeLulu, 1455 NW 11th Ave., just opened. Find spells and magic there 9 a.m.-1 p.m. seven days a week.

VOLUMES design library, 426 SW Harvey Milk St., second floor, is open in downtown Portland. It’s not a lending library, but people can hang out and work here, or just explore the vast collection of books, magazines and ephemera. $5 suggested donation. Tuesday-Friday, 1-5 p.m.

Pearl neighbors—about 500 strong—did it again, filling the Armory to learn how they can help keep their neighborhood safe.

The near-capacity crowd heard from Portland Police Chief Bob Day and Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, who delivered clear messages about what is needed.

Day was particularly candid. “Crime numbers in the Pearl suck,” he said. “You guys are getting hammered.”

His advice is to substantially increase police staffing, currently at 809 sworn officers and substantially down from a peak 25 years ago. He generalized about the historic high, but research by the Manhattan Institute puts that number at 1,054 in 2001.

Vasquez bemoaned the county’s additional revenues of $60,000 for homeless services while his office is taking a cut. He said Multnomah County has sufficient revenues; it just needs to change its spending priorities.

He has endorsed Julia Brim-Edwards in the race for county chair and said candidate Sharon Meieran would also be excellent. The other candidate for chair, Shannon Singleton, would “take us in the wrong direction.”

In City Council District 4, he supports incumbents Olivia Clark and Eric Zimmerman and candidate Eli Arnold, a Portland Police officer. He does not support incumbent Green, whose vote against an alternative budget led to cuts in police and fire spending.

The forum was sponsored by the Pearl District Neighborhood Association as part of its summer-long series of activities to Re-Ignite the Pearl. PDNA President Bruce Studer said the campaign is succeeding, particularly the Pearl Culinary Farmers Market, which is doubling in size after its first three weeks.

Outside the Armory, petitioners gathered signatures on an initiative that would transfer 25% of funds collected by the Portland Clean Energy Fund to police hiring and training.

Zane Sparling—a beacon for journalistic integrity in Portland—often said, “If you aren’t pissing off both the cops and the protesters, then you’re not doing your job.”

With the death of Sparling, 33, heartfelt tributes (not angry letters to the editor) have come rolling in from both cops and protesters. This devastating loss of a Portland treasure from a rare form of cancer showed how true journalists don’t serve whoever happens to be the antagonists of the day; Sparling served everyone selflessly.

As reported by The Oregonian, where Sparling had worked since 2021, he was a daily presence at the Multnomah County Courthouse. His reporting often covered protests in the city center and crime scenes in Old Town and the Pearl. He had previously reported news for the Portland Tribune, where he was a co-worker with the author of this obituary.

Sparling’s journalism could be both incisive and sensitive, cheeky and serious, while bringing attention to aspects of civic life that often would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

His most recent investigative series on a spat between a judge and the district attorney was both revealing and even-handed. With the most recent election filing deadline looming, Sparling knew that his efforts were timely, and The Oregonian thankfully supported his various hunches.

Sparling and his partner Suzette Smith, Portland Mercury arts and culture editor, encouraged each other through challenging careers in journalism. They served as models for how two writers can thrive together, even in our present-day publishing environment.

Sparling is also survived by his parents, Scott Sparling and Harriet Miller; uncle Michael Miller; and aunts Elaine Tarlton and Carolyn Sparling. Memorial services are pending.

Memorial contributions in Sparling’s name can be made to the EHE Foundation, which seeks treatments and a cure for epithelioid hemangioendothelioma, and to the Oregon High School Journalism Institute, where Sparling volunteered to impart his enthusiasm for journalism onto the next generation.