Bruce Whitman the Multnomah Athletic Club bomber should be alive. He isn’t and completely innocent people have been harassed by him for years, millions of dollars of damage have been done to a major Portland institution, and a tragedy of epic proportions was averted by blind luck for the same reason that I wrote about here months ago (“When Systems Fail the Seriously Mentally Ill--and Everyone Else” and “Oregon’s Mental Health System Fails All off Us”).

That reason is that Oregon’s mental health system and the judges who enforce it set too high a standard for long term forced custody and treatment of the dangerously mentally, there are too few actual custodial beds and the time lines for detaining the dangerous mentally ill are far too short. That’s why Bruce Whitman is dead and (as outlined in my earlier articles) Jonathan Bennett is dead and Jonathan Grall is in custody probably for the rest of his life, and all their families are devastated.

This time, however, I got and up close and personal look at the damage caused by the policy choices are political and judicial leaders have made because, as a long-time member of the Multnomah Athletic Club and a former prosecutor with continuing ties to local law enforcement, I tried to do my bit (although others did more) to get Whitman the treatment and custodial setting he so badly needed. Shockingly, however, both in 2022 and since, the effort ran up against a stone wall erected by so-called mental health advocacy groups and politicians, such as our current governor, in thrall to them.

Let me outline the details of the total failure of their policies so that, perhaps, the death grip that they have on this area of public policy can be at least loosened as our current District Attorney Nathan Vasquez has so rightly called for (link to Vasquez statement of May 4).

In June of 2022, I received an email from the MAC outlining the dangerous behavior of its former employee (see below). Although police had been notified, I knew that then District Attorney Mike Schmidt, who endorses the type of failed policies that have undermined our mental health system, would never take the initiative to try and do something.

Fortunately, there remained solid prosecutors within the office who took a different attitude. My minor contribution was to put members of the MAC administration in touch with one of them.

But then the system responded by holding Whitman in a secure mental health facility for all of two weeks. When released, Whitman, after a respite of several weeks, engaged in the following behavior:

1. Started following harassing and confronting MAC members again;

2. Pulled a knife on his brother and threatened to kill him;

3. I personally witnessed him drive down Salmon street between the MAC and its garage holding a bullhorn and shouting obscenities about MAC through it;

4. Shot himself in the head;

5. Threatened his neighbors.

I could go on. Yet, the meager response of government was to take away some of his guns and briefly detain him again

This is not the way it works in other states. However, in Oregon, organizations like Disability Rights Oregon--which is ironically having a fund raiser today--have a firm hold on public policy and politicians like Gov. Tina Kotek. House Bill 2025 which was signed into law last year by the governor gives the impression of change while withholding real change. What is needed for actual change is that more secure custody beds for the dangerous mentally ill need to be built and the time limits on using them need to be significantly reduced.

The excuses are already pouring in the anti-coercion crowd. Yes, it’s true that most mentally people are not dangerous. Yes, it’s true that when they are they are more likely to be dangerous to themselves than others. Yes, it’s true that we over incarcerated the mentally ill in the past.

However, these are not justifications for what we are doing now. Otherwise, expect more Bruce Whitmans.

Frink is aware of but has no inside information on the investigations of complaints filed by Whitman against the MAC in 2015 and 2019 with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, both of which were dismissed.

June 2022 email to MAC members

Dear MAC Member,

Following recent messages regarding former MAC employee Bruce Whitman approaching members at their homes, in public, and near the club, we have received questions and feedback. We share the concern felt throughout this community, and we cannot stress enough that we are committed to doing everything possible to ensure the safety of our members and staff.

Many of you have asked how Whitman is able to find member households. We have no reason to believe he had access to member addresses during his employment with the club, nor do we have reason to believe he currently has access to member rosters or personal information. It is possible that Whitman may be looking for MAC logo parking stickers on cars throughout the area, but until a thorough investigation is conducted by the Portland Police Bureau, we cannot be sure.

We will continue working with the police, other city officials, and the PPB Mental Behavior Specialist assigned to this case to determine any action we can take to keep the community safe. Remember to use extreme caution if you encounter Whitman, and please contact the police immediately if you ever feel unsafe.

By Thomas Dodson

What? Fentanyl is not legal in Portland. But in looking into the definition of de facto in my post last week on the horrible policy of needle distribution paid for by Multnomah County residents, I came to the same conclusion that others have had, and probably many readers have accepted without saying so.

By giving the tools of intravenous use of narcotics to individuals addicted, we are communicating that it is okay for them to engage in illegal actions. And it is obvious that nobody is following them around to arrest them when they finally, if not already, are in possession of illegal substances.

Isn’t it evident that bolstering illegal behavior would have consequences? How far does the city go to insist on law and order and how does it do so? Given the public mess created by discarded needles, the negative effect that open use of intravenous drug use in the city has upon business, tourism and the psyche of people who witness it, the death by overdose caused by the very needles we distribute so that people can use illegal drugs that have uncertain potency and contaminants, and the social and occupational impairments associated with narcotic addiction, I hope that we join other states that have rejected the public health policies that have contributed to the above.

And what about those states?

Texas, which has some of the finest medical institutions in the country and has chosen to make it illegal to pass out needles has an overdose death rate of 20 per 100,000 residents, compared to Oregon, where 36 per 100,000 residents die of overdose.

Idaho is the same. No needle distribution and death from overdoses, like Texas, 20 per 100,000. Iowa death by overdose per 100,000 residents 14.9. Nebraska 11.8. South Dakota 11.3. Mississippi 8.6.

The point here is that all of these states have overdose death rates less than or much less than half of Oregon’s, and none of them have needle distribution. If Oregon’s public health campaign to market needles to individuals with intravenous drug addiction is decreasing overdose deaths as they proclaim, why are our rates so markedly higher than states that don’t have needle distribution programs?

Community interests have a role in deciding public health policies. If infectious diseases were the only health factor involved in pushing needle distribution upon citizens, it would be one thing. But it is not, and even if it were, the evidence for the effectiveness of needle distribution in reducing HIV and Hepatitis C, is evidence not confirmed by a single double blind controlled study. The claims of needle distribution as decreasing overdose deaths are contradicted by others who have studied it. And states that have no needle distribution have lower overdose rates than Oregon by far.

What are those community interests?

How about public safety, civility and beauty. I have yet to find one person who would like to live across the street from a needle distribution site. They become a site to network among other addicted people to find the best drugs and save them a lot of time. I am sure they become sites of drug distribution themselves, and who is going to arrest them?

One can understand decisions that were enacted in the past to alleviate illness, but it is wrong to continue policies that are detrimental. We have made significant advances in treating HIV and hepatitis, efforts that have saved many lives with advanced medications. I hope the public health community takes the off ramp and discontinues needle distribution to a program that is causing more harm than good to our communities.

Wendell Maxey’s just released book, “Called for Traveling,” covers 20 years of writing about basketball around the globe. A former Northwest Portland resident who contributed stories to the NW Examiner from 2007-10, his hoop dreams have taken him to bigger places—and some smaller ones.

Maxey has interviewed NBA greats such as Shaquille O’Neal and Isiah Thomas, American players finding new life in European ball and a cop who referees in a youth league in Plainfield, Ind.

But he hasn’t forgotten Portland. In fact, several stories he wrote for the NW Examiner made the 351-page book. His story about the Portland Indians, a pro team that played in the Portland Armory in the 1940s, ran first in the Examiner.

His Portland ties proved so inseparable that he included his non-basketball stories on the night Jack Dempsey fought four opponents here and on pitcher Luis Tiant, who finished his 19-year major league career in Portland.

Other Portland stories include “Landon Turner Remembers Life Before his Wheelchair,” Terrell Brandon at Home in his Barbershop” and one on Satchell Paige pitching for the Portland Beavers in 1961 at age 55.

“Called for Traveling: 20 Years of Sports Writing from the NBA, to Europe and Back Again,” by Wendell Maxey

The Times Publishers

351 pages

Available through Amazon, $22.99 hard cover, $15.99 paperback

Salt & Straw may not offer 31 flavors, but what other ice cream brand hosts weddings officiated by the company’s co-founder? On May 2, Tyler Malek officiated the marriage of loyal customers Alex and Michelle.

The Northwest 23rd and Kearney shop had been a favorite place in Michelle’s childhood. When she returned to Portland and found a home a few blocks away, she also also connected with Alex. Their courtship rituals included monthly flavor releases, celebratory scoops and even their dog Nolan’s favorite pup cups. When Alex proposed, he made sure the evening ended the same way many of their milestones had—with ice cream.

“It would be the wildest dream to be able to get married here,” they said.

Malek, who is also the company’s head Ice cream maker, met with Alex and Michelle ahead of the big day to learn their story and help craft their celebration.

“From the very beginning, Salt & Straw has been about creating moments of connection and joy,” said Malek, who called the wedding “incredibly special for our entire team.”

About 50 people attended a city budget listening session held at Chapman Elementary School last night, but I didn’t recognize any of them.

I certainly recognized the three District 4 city councilors, all of whom shared their surprise at the poor turnout.

The crowd was dominated by city employees speaking in defense of their jobs and the programs they work for. Many wore union T-shirts. Almost every speaker criticized proposed spending cuts.

Many defended the Portland Fire & Rescue Community Health Assess and Treat (CHAT) program. On the other hand, cutting homeless camp sweeps was highly popular, drawing robust applause every time. The audience may have shown even more antipathy for remodeling the Moda Center, an estimated $400 million tab considered pivotal to keep the Trail Blazers in town.

After the abbreviated meeting, I talked to neighbors outside the building who said they would have attended had they known about it ahead of time.

If people forced to live in fear no longer enjoy basic peace and freedom, why are the violators of those social requisites treated as if only their rights matter?

That is the question Portland should be asking after the bombing of the Multnomah Athletic Club.

Early Saturday morning, Bruce Whitman, a disgruntled former employee with a years-long fixation on the club, drove a rental vehicle packed with propane tanks and improvised explosive devices through the front entrance. Police say the vehicle contained roughly 20 propane tanks, explosive powder and multiple pipe bombs. He drove around inside the first floor before fire and explosions engulfed the lobby. Some devices detonated. Many did not.

“It is simply luck,” Portland Police Sgt. Jim DeFrain said, “that we didn’t have a much larger blast.”

Luck.

This was not some unforeseeable act of random violence. It was the predictable result of years of escalating threats, obvious mental deterioration and a legal system too paralyzed to act until after catastrophe.

According to court records, police reporting and Whitman’s own family, he had spent years fixated on the Multnomah Athletic Club after it fired him. He repeatedly threatened club members and alarmed neighbors. Portland police’s Behavioral Health Unit had been trying to work with him for five years. Officers twice pursued firearm removal orders. In 2022, police initiated a peace officer hold, Oregon’s early involuntary commitment process, but it did not result in durable civil commitment. In February 2026, amid another major crisis, he was hospitalized again and later released.

His mother said he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. His cousin put it even more bluntly:

“He should be locked up right now and getting care. But the system failed him and luckily didn’t fail somebody else with their life because of his actions.”

Instead, he was free to rent a vehicle, fill it with explosives and drive it into one of Portland’s most prominent institutions.

That is systemic failure.

Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez said what many public officials have been reluctant to admit:

“This incident is a sobering reminder that mental health crises don’t just happen in a vacuum. They have a public safety footprint.”

Vasquez is describing a system that identifies danger, intervenes briefly and releases people back into the same environment with little more than a referral slip. Oregon needs more than just the authority to seize guns. He supports expanding pathways for long-term outpatient treatment and stronger monitoring of high-risk individuals who have demonstrated violent fixation.

This debate is usually framed as compassion versus punishment, liberty versus control, as if protecting public safety were inherently cruel. That framing is wrong, and it forecloses the conversation before it starts. .

A civilized society has obligations in multiple directions at once: to protect the vulnerable, to preserve liberty, to respect human dignity and to uphold basic fairness between people. When we protect only the autonomy of the person in crisis while ignoring the terror imposed on everyone around him, we are not defending justice. We are abandoning it.

Who matters too?

• MAC members whose cars were flagged down, or their homes visited, with threats to kill.

• Concerned neighbors who watched a man’s downward mental spiral and urge that he receive mental health treatment.

• The family begging for help before their son becomes violent.

We cannot keep treating their suffering as the acceptable price of protecting someone’s theoretical autonomy while he descends into psychosis.

Public trust depends on a simple principle: The innocent should not be asked to bear endless risk so institutions can congratulate themselves for avoiding hard decisions.

Nobody is calling for a return to the shameful era when institutionalization entailed abuse for convenience or control. Civil liberties matter. The bar for forced treatment should be high. But high cannot mean waiting until someone builds a car bomb.

A right to refuse treatment cannot be absolute when a person is plainly incapable of rational judgment and presents a mounting danger to others. A legal framework that protects the autonomy of the bomber more effectively than the safety of the people he terrorizes is not morally serious.

Even Portland police acknowledged the contradiction. Sgt. Josh Silverman put it plainly: Mental illness often means people do not believe they need help, making a purely voluntary model deeply flawed. He also said the Behavioral Health Unit used every available tool under Oregon law and still could not prevent this outcome.

That should terrify every family trying to get help for a loved one in crisis.

If a man can spend years threatening people, lose access to firearms, alarm police, terrify his family, undergo repeated intervention and still end up driving a bomb into the MAC before the state can meaningfully intervene, then the law is not protecting liberty. It is protecting failure.

This should be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Not because it happened at the MAC. But because the warning signs were impossible to miss, and the outcome was dramatic enough that the usual excuses no longer work.

Freedom must be balanced with safety. And compassion must include the people living in fear, not just the person causing it. If Oregon cannot reform its broken civil commitment laws after this, one has to ask:

What exactly will it take?

Blundstone boots is in the early stages of opening its first Oregon location. The store will be on Northwest 23rd between Glisan and Hoyt streets in the former Verizon space.

Founded in the early 1800s, the company is based in Hobart, Tasmania. According to their website, they’ve outfitted the Australian Army in World War II and are favored by Nepalese sherpas.

The Portland store will have boots for men, women and children. Blundstone boots and clogs are weatherproof and are popular with chefs, musicians and “people who place more importance on feet than vehicles.” They feature pull-up tabs front and back, and rugged styling.

A neighbor from South Africa handed a pair down to my daughter once: ox-blood ankle boots with a thick sole. She has traveled around in them for years since, the only sign of wear are scuffs on the toe box. I’m just a little ashamed to say I thought of trying to steal and/or borrow them but they were a little too small.

Photos and story by William Morton

Scattered throughout the city are historically, culturally or horticulturally notable trees known as Heritage Trees.

There are just over 300 living Heritage Trees. Marked with a plaque denoting their name, planting date and Heritage Tree number, these trees can’t be interfered with without approval from both the Urban Forestry Commission and the Portland City Council.

“Heritage Trees are living landmarks,” states a city website. “They watch history unfold, they honor notable people and groups, and their age, size, and beauty inspire delight and wonder.”

The Heritage Tree launched in 1993, largely due to the advocacy of Arlington Heights resident Phyllis Reynolds. At the time, Reynolds was head of the Conservation Committee at the Portland Gardening Club and was contacted about protecting a threatened Corbett Oak.

Not certain how to best preserve such trees, Reynolds contacted city arborist Robbie Robinson, who gave her a list of important trees he had seen around the city. Reynolds ventured to the locations and, to her dismay, found that many of them had already been cut down.

“Maybe if they were in a book, they would be saved,” she surmised at the time.

So Reynolds set out to survey notable urban trees, and in 1993, the first edition of “Trees of Greater Portland” was published. Containing 132 specimens, the book achieved its purpose and led to implementation of the Heritage Tree program.

Twenty years after the book’s release, Reynolds revisited some of the most significant trees and issued a second edition. The introduction her Paean to Urban Trees:

“The average life of a downtown tree is 13 years, and the average life of an urban tree outside of downtown is somewhere between 20 and 35 years. … We have been kind to our trees—many in this book are over 100 years old, far exceeding their expected lifespan.”

During the early days of the program, many committee members believed that Heritage Trees should be nominated solely by the community, suggesting that community members would then more likely work to care for them.

Anyone can nominate a Heritage Tree; the annual deadline is May 1. Nomination statements should include trunk circumference, tree condition and location. (Digital Heritage Tree Nomination Form.

There are 11 Heritage Trees in Northwest Portland, and May is considered the best month viewing.

From the Portland Police Bureau:

On Saturday, May 2, 2026, at approximately 2:49 a.m., employees at the Multnomah Athletic Club reported seeing a vehicle driving slowly around the building before entering the premise. The vehicle continued driving further inside and was soon observed engulfed in flames and employees called 911. First responders to include Portland Fire & Rescue and the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) arrived and located a deceased individual inside the vehicle. Out of an abundance of caution, and due to this happening hours after May Day and the location’s proximity to Providence Park, additional public safety resources to include local and federal agencies were activated to ensure there was no ongoing threat to the community.

Once a thorough sweep of the neighborhood was complete and the area secure, the Metropolitan Explosive Disposal Unit, comprised of multiple partner agencies, turned their focus to the vehicle and interior of the building. During that search, investigators located multiple incendiary devices and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Some of the devices had partially detonated, causing significant damage, while others were found in varying states of activation. Propane tanks were among the materials identified. Specialized robots were used to safely assess, recover, and detonate remaining hazardous devices. Based on the preliminary investigation, detectives believe the driver intentionally entered the building with the intent to deploy explosive devices.

In 2022, Heather Howitt was alone at home with the small dog she shared with her ex-husband. It was during COVID, so she was working in her home office when her front doorbell rang.

Howitt is co-founder of Oregon Chai and today is CEO of Thaiwala, a Thai tea beverage.

The man at the door appeared to be an Amazon delivery person. He wore a blue hat and vest.

He was very friendly at first, Howitt recalled; a nice-looking guy. Then he asked her, ‘Oh, hey, are you a member of the MAC?’ When she said she was he became agitated and aggressive.

The dog in her arms became upset as Whitman, the man who drove a rented car loaded with bombs into the Multnomah Athletic Club lobby early Saturday morning, continued to rail at her. She thought that he was going to kill her.

“He was really screaming. I tried to deescalate the situation, to be very chill, and close the door, but it went on for a good five minutes.” Her attempts to calm Whitman were unsuccessful. “You are on the board,” he accused her. “You got me fired.”

“He’s really enraged, and this just goes on for five minutes that seemed like forever.”

Eventually a group of about six male neighbors walked along the sidewalk below.

“Hey, you doing OK up there?” they called up.

Howitt said their appearance is why Whitman eventually returned to his parked car below, a new convertible Mustang. Her neighbors later shared doorbell footage of Whitman arriving on the street and putting on the Amazon disguise.

Howitt states that Whitman returned multiple times after the first incident, parking below her house for weeks.

“Everyone I talked to was directing to me the MAC, as if the MAC was handling the investigation. I didn’t really understand why,” Howitt said. “I did talk to the police once but they said, “Well, you’re not hurt. You’re fine, right?’

The MAC, Howitt said, “told me he was harmless. I asked, ‘does he have guns, tell me he doesn’t have guns.’”

No, he doesn’t have guns, they told her.

She assumes Whitman drove around her neighborhood and saw MAC stickers on her car, parked on Northwest Thurman Street.

She now keeps bear spray by her front door and has a new full-time dog. Her roommate is still queasy about being in the home alone.

By Steven Moscowitz

Shattered norms. Broken institutions. Disparity in wealth. Cultural divides. Hyper partisanship. Social divisions. Political violence. Sides chosen and not crossed.

In the middle of social upheaval, one can experience a sense of increasing polarization that seems to sharpen differences into absolute dichotomies. Right and wrong. Good and evil. Self-reflection and transformation of self become casualties. Self-defense and defeat of the other become greater priorities.

Someday someone will write a great novel that will become a classic about the times through which we are living. Until then, we might turn to Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, “A Tale of Two Cities.”

The unnamed narrator opens with the iconic lines: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair …”

Stopping there, one might sense that Dickens is describing a society divided between forces of liberation aligned against those of oppression. But the narrator continues:

“…we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going to Heaven, we were all going to Hell.” The use of the first-person plural hints that all those qualities quoted in the earlier paragraph flow in and among the people of the story. The lines appear more fluid. The characters move not only in march-step or rigid formation. They also move in a flow that describes the complexity of human behavior at the heart of Dickens’ novel.

Dickens describes in his novel a dance that captures such human complexity. Hundreds of people dance to the revolutionary song “La Carmagnole.” They sing of the queen’s treachery, of the king’s buffoonery. Quickly partisan fervor descends into frenzied ecstasy. Blood lust is unleashed.

Dickens writes: “No fight could have been half so terrible as this dance … a healthy pastime changed into a means of angering the blood, bewildering the senses, and steeling the heart. Such grace as was visible in it, made it the uglier, showing how warped and perverted all things good by nature were become.”

One of the tragic dynamics of the French Revolution was that some of its most fervent advocates turned into versions of those they toppled. Engaged in a fight against an absolute monarchy, many revolutionaries adopted tyrannical methods: arbitrary arrests, censorship and widespread executions. During the Reign of Terror, the revolution executed or killed over 40,000 citizens.

It seems that the tyranny that had ruled over them became a source of moral infection within tyranny’s opposition. The culture of power, oppression and intolerance reappeared in mutated form even as the Bastille fell and the guillotine was erected.

In the middle of another era of social upheaval and violence, the poet Wallace Stevens gave a speech in 1942 at Princeton in which he addressed the chaos of the previous decade and the current violent world upheaval that was World War II.

Stevens said, “We are confronting a set of events, not only beyond our power to tranquilize them in the mind … but events that stir the emotions to violence.” Such events are so disruptive of normal patterns of human perception, assessment and response that they narrow what we imagine is possible.

To counteract such human contraction, Stevens summons forth the power of imagination to give voice to a new reality, one based not on abstract ideals or the lure toward violent division. We can, he writes, construct from within ourselves a world of tolerance, compassion and peace.

Stevens titled his speech “Necessary Angel,” after a line from his poem, “Angel Surrounded by Paysans.” The poem was inspired by his contemplation of a painting by French artist Pierre TalCoat. It is a still-life painting, consisting of a Venetian glass bowl, terrines, bottles and glasses. As he gazed upon it, he saw an angel around whom gathered peasants. His poem takes the dramatic form of a biblical episode: a peasant opening the door to welcome a visitor, an angel.

The angel announces that he is not one of heaven’s angels. He bears no otherworldly appearance, has no more knowledge than any of the peasants, has no enduring presence. “I am the angel of reality/Seen for the moment standing in the door … I am one of you and being one of you/Is being and knowing what I am and know/Yet I am the necessary angel of earth/Since, in my sight, you see the earth again.”

Stevens’ “angel of reality” bears the message that the answers to our fears and confusions rest here, with us, with our fleeting presence and our necessarily fluid perceptions of reality. Our power rests not in holding onto things but in embracing impermanence. Meaning is found not in the transcendent but in the mundane.

For hundreds of years, the world of art was shaped by the pursuit of idealized notions of truth and beauty. The Northern European Renaissance of the 15th century, with artists such as Van Eyck, Bruegel and Bosch, challenged that approach. They brought art down to earth. They painted scenes of harvesters, peasants, tradespeople and merchants. Beauty became a matter of everyday life. The moment, not just the transcendent, had value.

The revolution launched by those painters reached a compelling climax with the Impressionists. With their focus on the transiency of time, the fleeting presence of light, the value of everyday life and the role of artistic subjectivity, they changed not only what and how artists painted but also how art was exhibited and sold.

In “Haymaking in Éragny,” by Camille Pissarro, the foreground is a woman raking in the harvest, while others share in the work in the background. Framing the grain field is a small orchard. Two trees in the foreground curve slightly, giving a sense of movement. In the sky are shifting wisps of clouds, whose almost intangibility is countered by thick layers of paint that rise off the canvass.

“Haymaking in Éragny” is a landscape … but it is a humanized landscape. Pissarro painted very few landscapes without a human figure. The human as a part of natural life was a defining aspect of Pissarro’s work. His canvases give presence to and honor domestic help, rural workers and those selling their wares in village markets.

A member of a diasporic Sephardic Jewish family and born on the island of St. Thomas, far from the center of artistic life, Pissarro had compassion for and elevated the non-privileged, the everyday. With his paintbrush he blessed them as conveyors of beauty. He wrote, “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.”

The Torah portion titled Tetzaveh (“you shall instruct”) describes the priestly vestments to be worn by Aaron and his sons. They are to be designed as garments of glory (kavod) and beauty (tiferet). The Hebrew word kavod is used everywhere else in Torah only to describe God. Here it is applied to a human being. Some kind of transfer is occurring.

That transfer from heaven to earth occurs during the long journey of the Israelites toward a dimension of sovereignty and responsibility, a placed called “home.” The trek through the wilderness reveals itself to be a poetic description of what is needed in order to reach home. It is not enough to be free from Egypt. One needs to free oneself of Egypt.

How to free ourselves from the grip of Egypt inside of ourselves is hinted at by a remarkable feature of portion Tetzaveh. It is the only post-Genesis portion in Torah in which Moses is not mentioned by name. To gain sacred personal sovereignty requires the diminishment of one’s ego. In return, one becomes bigger than one ever imagined.

The second quality of the priestly garments is that they display tiferet (beauty). That word is used only three times in Torah. Twice in portion Tetzaveh and once in Deuteronomy, where Moses announces to the people: “God made you for praise, for a name, and for tiferet.”

However troubling, destructively cynical and brutal any time might be, we can rise to the occasion as “necessary angels of the earth.” We are endowed with beauty. And we recognize that the home that we seek is one of our own making. A home ready to welcome visitors to share with us our yearning to “see the earth again.”

Steven Moskowitz, who has lived in Northwest Portland for 20 years, was former Mayor Bud Clark’s public safety advisor and since 2004 has been a rabbi.

Cries from neighborhood activists about a sudden and unilateral move by City Hall to remove their historic role in city policy making reached District 4 City Councilor Eric Zimmerman, who responded forcefully at a council Budget Committee work session April 29.

“I want to highlight that as something I’ve now been hearing from neighborhood coalitions and neighborhood associations,” he said in a two-minute statement. “Not once has that director come and said, ‘This is what we plan to do,’ so I find that abrupt, and it reeks of the old war in this bureau that was a war against neighborhood associations.

“I’m damn close to just proposing an amendment to pull this entire program offer out put it somewhere else. Something tells me that the Office of Civic Life has an ax to grind here, and if we’re going to protect the neighborhoods we’re going to have to take drastic action.”

Zimmerman then described his idea of moving the neighborhood program to another bureau, perhaps one connected to the four City Council district offices. Emails from a Civic Life manager since February include a proposal to hire neighborhood coalition staff through a contract bidding process instead of the current system, which allows each coalition to establish their hiring practices.

“Why has this been such a surprise that frankly has members of our community’s hair on fire,” he asked, “and we’ve had no briefings on it.

Zimmerman is considering “a fairly drastic amendment to protect the neighborhood coalitions and neighborhood associations.”

Zarnitz memo

The councilor has seen a memo from District 4 Coalition President Todd Zarnitz in March:

As you are aware, the Office of Community & Civic Life is currently conducting an internal rewrite of the ONI Standards—the governing rulebook for Portland’s neighborhood system. They are executing this rewrite under a purely administrative process, bypassing City Council approval.

We have now uncovered how Civic Life obtained this unilateral authority. The previous City Council accidentally surrendered its legislative oversight of the neighborhood system by voting for a massive, 373-page omnibus charter transition package (Ordinance 191973). Buried deep within this document was a quiet code swap that downgraded our foundational rules.

This report outlines the findings and a possible strategy to present this evidence to the new City Council to restore their oversight.

1. Background: The Importance of Legislative Oversight

To understand the gravity of this code change, we must look back at the 2019 “Committee 3.96” fight. When former Commissioner Chloe Eudaly attempted a sweeping overhaul to dismantle our geographic neighborhood system, she ultimately failed.

She failed because of a strict system of checks and balances. At the time, Portland City Code 3.96.020(F) explicitly defined the ONI Standards as “Regulations adopted by City Council.” Because the executive branch had to face the legislative branch to enact changes, the community was able to lobby the Council, who ultimately refused to support the overhaul. The requirement for a City Council vote was our strongest legal shield.

II. The Investigation: The Missing Code Change When Civic Life recently claimed they had the authority to rewrite the Standards administratively, we checked the live Portland City Code. The definition in 3.96.020(F) had been altered to read: “Administrative rules” from the previous “Regulations adopted by City Council.” A footnote on the City Auditor’s website claimed the latest changes were made in April 2023 via Ordinance 191208. However, a review of that specific ordinance revealed that code changes to Section 3.96.020 were absent from the document.

III. The Discovery: Ordinance 191973

Realizing the City Auditor’s website contained an error, we dug deeper into the city’s legislative archives. We finally located the “smoking gun.” The downgrade of the neighborhood system was buried in Ordinance 191973, an enormous, 373-page omnibus package titled: “Amend Code to align with the amended City Charter in Portland Measure 26-228.” On Page 149 of the “additional documents” document in the supplemental materials folder, the text of Code 3.96.020(F) was quietly redlined. Under the guise of a massive “housekeeping” package designed to align the city bureaucracy for the new City Administrator form of government, the drafters struck through “Regulations adopted by City Council” and replaced it with “Administrative rules.”

IV. Implications

There was no public debate about the neighborhood system when Ordinance 191973 was passed. It is highly likely the previous City Council had absolutely no idea what they were actually signing. They thought they were voting on a structural alignment package, but in the process, they voted away their legislative oversight over Portland’s grassroots democracy.

Because of this stealth downgrade, the current City Administrator now holds unilateral power to adopt, revise, or completely overwrite the rules governing the neighborhood system with only a 30-day public comment period, and zero obligation to incorporate that feedback. No council vote. No legislative veto. No public appeal.

V. Next Steps

This discovery provides us with incredible political leverage. It shifts our argument from “we disagree with a code change” to exposing a bureaucratic sleight of hand pulled on the previous City Council.

A possible path forward might be to approach the current City Council members with the 373-page document, point to Page 149, and show them exactly how their predecessors were tricked into giving away their legislative power. We could then formally request that they pass a targeted, single-issue ordinance to amend Code 3.96.020(F), restore the ONI Standards as “Regulations adopted by City Council” and claw back the oversight they should rightfully own.

The memo will be discussed at the District 4 Coalition board meeting May 4.

Mon, May 4, 2026 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

LOCATION:
District 4 Coalition Office, 434 NW 6th Ave #202, Portland, OR 97209

AGENDA:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRm52ipChBSCCVQp-zxTJ8VYsTxbUWPJ4O7BVozKnwcEw_6FoszGVcOQGol6hS-34792076pKp-ouYu/pub

ONLINE MEETING LINK:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82681340706?pwd=COPw6JH9watJVHEo6fMueY6RAtetqK.1

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meetings/82681340706/invitations?signature=jXCMW9uafV93S-TagJC1UIEuQcvVsQ0io0WyKIQxezM

MATERIALS:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12ikKo_pbu5CKpZiKd2RPSR56BXZDl65Z

WEBSITE:
https://districtfourcoalition.org/

By Ken Thrasher

I have watched Multnomah County’s many failed attempts to reduce unsheltered homelessness, while spending over $2 billion over the past five years. What do we have to show for it?

* A deflection system that has spent over $15 million with little or no outcomes.

* A planned sobering center first proposed two years ago and still is 1-2 years away from completion.

* A tripling of unsheltered homeless to nearly 9,000 in the county, which may be a low estimate.

* 600 empty county jail beds while many individuals being arrested are released back onto the streets.

Two years ago, the county prioritized increasing shelter beds in its Homelessness Response Action Plan, promising to deliver 1,000 new beds by the end of 2025. Now it’s looking to close 600-plus beds for “budget reasons,” leaving hundreds of people without treatment, without housing and with no where to go.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Portland promised and delivered 1,500 overnight shelter beds during his first year in office. However, this strategy ended up leaving many individuals transient on our streets during the day, many the beds were not occupied, there were no wraparound services or housing transitions, and there were few effective connections to day centers. Now, with the city’s budget shortfall, the mayor has announced a planned closure of the Northrup Shelter in Northwest Portland, and the City Council may well defund the 1,500 beds.

So we could end up losing 2,100 shelter beds overall in the new budget cycle. This would raise unsheltered homeless numbers to 11,100, significantly straining other county and city resources, and surely result in more unsafe streets and street deaths. Based on the University of Chicago’s conservative estimate, it costs $36,000 to keep a person unsheltered. That would pencil out at $400 million annually in Multnomah County, just to maintain its then current unsheltered population.

And this doesn’t account for the potential collapse of the Portland Housing Authority’s (aka Home Forward) affordable housing system, with 7,000 rooms and a 11-14% vacancy rate. Far from being an effective resource in a functioning homelessness-to-housing continuum, Home Forward shows signs of gross financial and operational mismanagement, including inexplicably high vacancy rates during a housing crisis, egregious violations of health and safety codes, and cash flow that puts its debt near default status. With the CEO leaving, it’s time for a true performance review and plan, including putting an accountable board in place.

Multnomah County is on the edge of the cliff, with impending significant funding shortfalls, in addition to state and city budget shortfalls. Is this the moment at which Multnomah County falls off the cliff, or does it meet the moment and embrace systemic change?

Let’s hope the county does not hurtle over the edge. Many individuals and groups have advocated for a strategy and implementation plan to fix this mess, such as having a central intake plan as part of systemic change. With the election of a new county chair in November, we have an opportunity to change course. We need candidates who will stop being non-committal and lay their cards on the table.

We need a results-driven plan with accountability, measurable outcomes, and public reporting. The University of Chicago says implementing such a plan could save one-half of the cost of keeping people unsheltered, or in our case, $200 million per year.

Here is a proposed approach:

1. Start by understanding both the county’s sources and uses of funds related to homeless and housing services. This will require a third-party performance review and forensic evaluation, which can and should be demanded by the Governor.

2. Replace the Homelessness Response Action Plan with a real plan created by an independent board of experts. The plan must include:

i) Centralized intake with a true by-name list that accounts for all individuals living unsheltered.

ii) Individual recovery plans that track success.

iii) Services that meet people’s needs—including addiction and mental health treatment—so people are able to move from homelessness to stability.

iv) Enforcement of no-camping bans and drug-use laws.

v) A process to get out-of-county people back to their homes and support systems, building on the mayor’s successful program and outreach similar to San Francisco’s

An affordable housing plan must:

i) Ensure that people with substance abuse issues, behavioral health or physical health needs are provided appropriate wraparound services to meet their needs, including in particular optimizing new HUD requirements and funding streams.

ii) Establish an independent governance and accountability board to oversee operations, finances, collections, security, maintenance and property management services, including setting standards of performance and accountability through regular reporting.

3. Ensure independent oversight and accountability of the system.

i) Reduce the number of providers to create scalability based on capabilities and outcomes delivered.

ii) Use a third-party accountability expert to publish performance data, along with standardized costs of daily services, outcomes achieved versus planned, transitions to stable housing versus recidivism to the streets and other factors to determine which providers are retained or replaced.

We don’t have time to waste. Spending money like we have been doing on the same things again is a recipe for disaster. The federal government also just announced a new fraud czar. After what we recently saw in Minnesota, they are coming after blue states to find alleged fraud, and then will cut off all social benefits to the state, which would be a disaster for our most needy children and families. And Multnomah County just hired a person to head its homeless services who spent the last 10 years in leadership of the Homeless Services Authority in Los Angeles, a city under a court-ordered performance review that showed profound operational mismanagement, with the inability to track billions of dollars.

I spoke to the governor on April 24—and despite eight months of our trying to get her office to show leadership on having a performance review done on Multnomah County—she didn’t feel it could be done at this time and merely discussed contractor reform. Not the leadership I was hoping for.

At the combined city/county budget discussions on April 28, the focus was on how to reduce homelessness to 21,000 by June 30, 2027, versus the projected 22,500. The current level of 19,000 is growing by 360 per month. There was no discussion on how to stop homelessness with a new plan or enforcing no-camping and drug laws. The lack of leadership was stunning.

The election for Multnomah County chair may be our last chance to stop the insanity.

Last month, their creativity flowered in song written and performed by Thayer. Its theme, “there’s a million things to do in Couch Park,” draws from a comment by fellow park friend Max Steele.

Steele wants to project tolerance for diverse activities in park, limited to only a few prohibitions, such as drug dealing, vandalism, crime and threatening the safety of others.

“Max always says something like, ‘There are a million things you can do in Couch Park, and only about four things you can’t do.’” said Kara Colley, president of Friends of Couch Park.

Couch Park Song

By Sonya Thayer

There are a million things to do in Couch Park

A million things to do for free

There’s a million things to do in Couch Park

Cause the park is free for the community

Meeting friends, meeting neighbors

Drinking coffee, drinking tea

Playing cornhole, playing jangle

Learning birds and sketching leaves

Dog play dates and birthday parties

Crafting projects in the rain

Ice cream socials, people watching

Seeing tulips in the spring

Climbing, jumping, swinging, running

Playing on the xylophone

My daughter took her first steps here

Now see how she has grown

Egg drops, riding bikes

Winter solstice bonfires

Singing carols as a choir

Of Couch Park I’ll never tire of

Including learning about the history

just look around and you will see

Even celebrate a new year for trees.

City Councilor Eric Zimmerman sees himself as someone who gets things done. NW Examiner readers saw that trait in an October, 2025, cover story highlighting his work in taming the trash along Interstate 405. He took funds from his office budget for cleanup crews, and he parlayed a state grant into permanent metal fencing along the trench.

“We are asking government to get real when it comes to the idea of just leaving people outside who don’t have the will or wherewithal to make choices for themselves,” Zimmerman said.

Getting things done was also behind his vow to “die on the dais” before allowing cuts in Portland Environmental Management Office funds providing fast multi-bureau intervention on livability hot spots.

After two years as a District 4 councilor, Zimmerman is campaigning for a full four-year term, as are his colleagues, Olivia Clark and Mitch Green. So far, he has been the clearest, most consistent voice against the progressive caucus that currently holds six of the 12 council seats.

Zimmerman has had more government experience than any of the 12. He was chief of staff for two Multnomah County commissioners and was the senior adviser to former Mayor Ted Wheeler. He was also a deputy city manager in Medford and Tigard.

For 17 years, he has served in the Oregon National Guard as an openly gay man, and he was an Army platoon leader in the Iraq War.

In an exclusive interview, we asked Zimmerman about his year-plus in office and the central issues he sees ahead. His answers were edited for brevity and clarity.

The interview was conducted four days before the closure of the Northrup Street Shelter was announced.

Was siting the shelter on Northrup Street a mistake?

The closer a shelter is to residential [the more] you have to bring a hell of a lot of neighborhood services, and you have to have very strict enforcement. … That’s what I encouraged the mayor to do. I think they’ve missed the mark at Northrup: the enforcement side—exactly what some of us councilors predicted would happen at 6 and 8 o’clock in the morning is happening.

Do you think it should be closed?

At this point, I do. … The impact that shelter is having on the Pearl District right now has been extreme. … It trickles throughout the whole wider district, which is what we all said was going to happen when we were at the Armory [town hall last summer]. And that’s come true.

What do you think of changes proposed in the city’s neighborhood program?

I haven’t had a breakdown from the Office of Community and Civic Life about what they’re trying to do. Civic Life has never, as far as I can remember, met with our office.

My initial impression is that it kind of reeks of the old version, the [former City Commissioner] Chloe Eudaly version of trying to get rid of neighborhood associations. I’m pretty sensitive to that, because I don’t want anything to do with it.

If there’s a rewrite that’s about hamstringing them or a rewrite that is defunding them, I don’t think that’ll get much support from many of us, but certainly not from my office.

Why did you recently vote against the Portland Bureau of Transportation funding package?

I worked to get it better, but ultimately I voted no, and it comes down to a couple of key areas for me. … We got no idea for how many blocks per year can be repaved or potholes fixed. I think that’s kind of a key. The other part is, I’m pretty sensitive to the affordability question right now for Portlanders. Adding another $12 a month to your water bill is steep.

Why do you favor remodeling the Keller Auditorium?

I do know that the Keller has a future in Portland. … Don’t bring me some plan to knock down a staple of Portland.

At the City Club forum in February, you said other districts are more deserving of a pool or community center. Have you thought more about that?

I think it’s a fair criticism, but what I’ve tried to lay out how I want to work with the other districts. … I think the district model is the best part of the charter change, and making it continue to be the best part means that we don’t become too territorial or too turf [focused]. There’s a balance, and that’s what I’m trying to strike.

You should have at least a little bit of a lens … for some of the equity citywide.

I want more cleanup dollars for damn sure in District 4, because I think we have a bigger problem cleanup-wise than other districts have. I think that it’s OK to say our police are more concentrated in District 4 because our people are more concentrated.

How do we get a park in Slabtown is on our list.

What changes would improve the city charter?

I think the mayor should sit on council and be the ninth member … and move it to two elected representatives per four districts. The idea of having an even number on council is foolish.

What grade would you give City Council on its first year?

A high D, low C. … It’s doubling the timeline to do things. … Some of the mistakes are [the fault of] council, and some of it is charter induced.

What do you think about Frog Ferry?

I love it. I don’t know what the financing pots [exist], but from a vision and a what’s-the-next-cool-thing-Portland can do, I think it’s great.

Do you support the city being a funding conduit for federal grants for the ferry?

I asked the mayor last year to do an initial funding, and that didn’t come to fruition in his first budget, and I don’t have the votes yet to get to any more than that. … It’s a big lift, but I think Portland needs to have things to love, and I think there’s a future there.

How do you want voters to see you?

“As someone who gets things done. I think that’s what I’m known around City Hall for, and I think it’s what I’m known in the neighborhoods for.”

May is ‘50s month. Brando. Fonda. Lana Turner. Eva Saint Marie, to name a few of the great actors you will see. Even Leonard Nimoy in a bit part. And some of the best directors in the history of film: Kazan. Minnelli. Fellini. Lumet.

This is our monthly look at coming attractions for Cinema 21’s Saturday Morning Classics. 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 21^st Ave.

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

This May, Lavine takes us back to the 1950s. More and more films at that time were coming out in color—to compete with that new box in the living room, called television —but color films didn’t outnumber black and whites until midway through the decade. Lavine chose all black and white films for us this May. And these five films reflect popular trends and growing concerns of that era: the meaning of justice, McCarthyism, the labor movement, the mob and the Cold War fear of the bomb and nuclear annihilation. (You think times are tough now?)

Lavine says “On The Waterfront” was one of the most influential films of the 1950s. Director Elia Kazan had a revolutionary way of working with actors. He wanted raw, emotional realism. Marlon Brando gave him that. There is no one like Brando when he bemoans his fate in just six words: “I could have been a contender.” It is a line of loss and regret and is considered one of the most famous lines in American cinema.

And as magnificent as Brando and Eva Marie Saint and the other actors are in “On The Waterfront,” Lavine says the film also showed that Hollywood could tackle serious social issues. After all, a dockworker (Brando) becomes a single voice against union corruption.

Director Elia Kazan himself was a singular voice when in 1952 he named names: calling out fellow Communists in Hollywood before the House Un-American Activities Committee. (Kazan himself had been a member of the Communist party in the 1930s. But by the 1950s, Kazan claimed the party was no longer truthful and needed to be exposed.) Many in Hollywood never forgave Kazan. Others said you couldn’t ignore his greatness. Also great, the score by Leonard Bernstein that according to Lavine, makes all the film’s “images resonate even louder.”

Mel-Oh-Drama! And if the movie title—“The Bad and the Beautiful”—sounds awfully close to the title of a current popular TV soap opera, well the two are not related. (Though both are populated by the beautiful and the handsome.) The film stars Lana Turner and Kirk Douglas. Lavine says it is “one of the great Hollywood-on-Hollywood melodramas.” Kirk Douglas plays a tyrannical film producer who betrayed those he worked with but now needs them to make a new film. Which tells you this is going to be a film about ruthless ambition, deception, treachery and bitterness.

Director Vincente Minnelli tells the story in a series of flashbacks. Reviewers praised Minnelli for showing both the glamorous side of movie-making and the ugly side.

Lavine praises Minnelli not just for this film, but as a director who could make a great film of almost any genre: musicals, comedy and drama.

Favorite line from the film: “There are no great men, buster! There’s only men!”

”Nights of Cabiria” is Lavine’s favorite Fellini film, and that’s saying a lot, considering the competition: La Strada,” “Amarcord” and “8 1/2,” to name just a few. Lavine calls “Nights of Cabiria” Fellini’s most “human film, one bursting with energy and hope in every single beautiful frame.”

“Nights of Cabiria” stars Fellini’s wife, Giulietta Masina in the title role. Masina plays a “free-spirited street walker ... who lives an unapologetic life, free from societal concerns as she navigates a difficult and complicated life in mid-century Rome.”

It is both comedy and tragedy. Cabiria wants a better life for herself, and Fellini follows her through a series of misfortunes—but she always picks herself back up.

Masina’s performance has been called one of the best female performances in movie history.

It was amazing this film even got made in the 1950s. At first, Fellini couldn’t find anyone to finance a film with a sex worker as heroine. Finally, producer Dino de Laurentis agreed to put up the money.

The score is by Fellini’s composer-of-choice Nino Rota, so you know it must be great!

“Them” is the film Lavine calls a must-see for every film lover in Portland. It is also the film that first sparked Lavine’s own interest in cinema when he saw it as a young boy. He had seen films before: “Bambi,” which he called “traumatic,” and Danny Kaye’s “Hans Christian Andersen,” which the young Lavine found “boring.”

But “Them” was another story. Other children may have hidden their eyes, but Lavine says he “was filled with an exhilarating thrill” watching the scary movie monsters.

And Lavine has never stopped watching “Them.” When I asked him how many times, he’d seen the film, he guessed more than 100. He calls it a science fiction-horror classic, an unusual thriller, not your usual ‘50s film: “It’s a sharply directed, brilliantly written cautionary tale aimed at the concerns facing those living in the New Nuclear Age.” The plot centers around a nest of giant irradiated ants that could take over the earth, meaning mankind would no longer be the dominant species. Sad.

The cast includes James Whitmore and James Arness. Leonard Nimoy has an uncredited role.

“12 Angry Men” is intense and it all takes place in a jury room where 12 men (yes, 12 white men) are deciding the fate of an 18-year-old accused of murder. If he’s found guilty, he goes to the electric chair.

It is, according to Lavine, a “terrific and ambitiously experimental piece of filmmaking.” It takes place on a single set. The opening shot runs for seven uncut minutes!

The cinematographer plays with unusual camera angles and a variety of super wide and super tight shots. The film starts above eye-level and is shot with a wide-angle lens. But the camera lowers and the shots grow gradually tighter during the movie, so that by the end, you see these 12 angry men up close. You also feel the tension among the jurors in what now appears to be a claustrophobic room.

Lavine says the actors are all brilliant including Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, Jack Klugman and Jack Warden.

“12 Angry Men” is a plea for tolerance and understanding, and Lavine says it is also a civics lesson—most Americans likely had no idea what went on in a jury room. Maybe they still don’t?

We are now posting the latest edition of the newspaper on our home page. See the paper as print edition readers have been doing for 40 years. Also, you can click on any ad and go directly to the business’s website.

View May newspaper

A full house of Pearl neighbors turned out for an event to hear what’s coming to the district this summer, and how they can help.

A Sunday culinary farmers market on Northwest 13th Avenue beginning June 7 is the headline event, but a full summer of events is planned, including bikes races and art exhibits.

Former Umpqua Bank CEO Ray Davis (below), one of the organizers of the event, said the neighbors have suffered enough and can bring back the pre-2020 Pearl and then some.

Monday night is Service Industry Night during which HunnyBeez collabs with a rotating cast of Portland bars and restaurants, such as the Hoxton Hotel’s Pamana Restaurant.

“Service industry nights are something Portland always used to do but they’re coming back,” said co-owner Andrew Blossom.

Everyone is welcome but restaurant and bar workers are given an extra discount on their day off. Evenings are busiest, and HunnyBeez stays open until 10 p.m. weekdays and midnight on weekends. On Wednesdays, kids eat free. Karaoke happens from 8 p.m. to closing Thursday-Saturday, and brunch is served Saturdays and Sundays. For a treat, try the layered halo-halo (shaved ice, jellies, and ube ice cream on top).

Briefly..

When you just need a sandwich, Baker’s Mark hits the spot. The shop recently expanded into the former Ben & Jerry’s space on the corner of Northwest 10th and Everett, 301 NW 10th Ave. The menu offers cold subs, hot subs and vegetarian options. All sandwich ingredients are made here, and Portland’s MoonBrine’s fermented pickles show up, too. Dough for all the breads, such as the excellent Dutch Crunch, is scratch-made and baked fresh daily.

Kaylin Allen relocated her designer vintage shop Along the Way from the Pearl to 2326 NW Irving. The grand opening is planned for May 1 and coincides with First Friday.

“I’m very excited about bringing First Fridays to 23rd,” said Jared Phippen of Will Leather Goods. “We’re very focused on bringing back the community to the street with lots of fun events. We have almost 30 businesses that are participating. There will be local artists, local wineries, lots of activations, food vendors and special discounts.”

Gary Bodker Designs, a glass blowing studio and retail space recently opened at 2236 NW 21st Ave.

The Subway sandwich shop on West Burnside near 21st Avenue has closed; a UPS store will open there.

House Jam! On May 9, William Temple House is throwing a mental health awareness concert 2-8 p.m. with Ned & Wendy the Band and five other acts. The event is set in the garden of the historic Mackenzie house, 2023 NW Hoyt St., and includes a thrift store pop-up, food and drink and raffle prizes. All proceeds fund William Temple’s low-cost counseling and social services. Purchase tickets here.

More than 50 years ago, progressive Portlanders brought forth a vision to encourage residents to remain in the city, which had been bleeding population to the suburbs. A dynamic administration promoted a livability agenda that involved giving people across the city a voice in government decisions affecting them, particularly within their neighborhoods.

Plans for freeways cutting through neighborhoods were halted, and a comprehensive plan was adopted to enact a long-range land-use vision. Enacted in 1980, that plan was built on input from citizens in each part of the city.

And how did policymakers know that those claiming to speak for a certain part of the city actually reflected the will of that population? Neighborhood associations.

Only through established, democratically run organizations within defined boundaries could local government know who spoke for a particular area. Some such organizations emerged organically, such as the Northwest District Association, founded in 1969 around a fight to stop the Interstate 505 freeway. But a quilt of neighborhood associations covering the city did not emerge until the establishment of the Office of Neighborhood Associations in 1974.

The City Council funded the office, which in turn provided grants to local neighborhood coalition offices. Funding citizen activity that could challenge government actions was foreseen as a dicey proposition. But this could not be just another city department managed from City Hall. To fulfill its role as a conduit for an independent voice of the people, local government would support but not dictate the goals of neighborhood associations.

The subtleties of this dance of democracy were recognized in the program’s enabling legislation, which endures as City Code 3.96, adopted by the City Council in 2005. To revise the code or rules for performance, the city’s “Office of Community & Civic Life will seek representation from neighborhood associations, district coalitions, business district associations, diverse community interests, city agencies that engage in considerable public involvement activities, and other interested people as necessary.”

That duty was swept away under city charter reform in 2023, which turned the council-adopted code into a rule that could be revised administratively. Three years later, neighborhood activists are just learning they can no longer count on a deliberative process in which they play a central role.

In March, OCCL Engagement Officer Amanda Garcia-Snell notified coalitions of unspecified changes to be adopted by the city administrator on July 1. There would be no grass-roots involvement in defining this process. Neighborhood associations, just as any individual, could testify, but the city administrator would make the final decision.

And what rules or standards would be revised? She didn’t say. Just that changes were afoot and neighborhoods could not head them off at City Council or the court of public opinion.

“The goal of this project is to modernize and clarify the language … to align with the city’s current governance structure and core values,” Garcia-Snell wrote, listing those values as “anti-racism, equity, transparency, communication, collaboration and fiscal responsibility.”

This is the exact opposite of what Portland’s neighborhood program set out to do: to transmit the values and goals of the people to their government. Now the city is defining those values and rewriting laws to bring the people into compliance.

We often fault politicians for checking the wind of popular opinion before making a decision. That is what they should be doing—not to follow shifting views in every instance but to understand the will of the people they represent. Telling the people what they should believe and then using the power of government to turn that belief into policy could not be further from the American way.

In “Animal Farm,” George Orwell suggests that political power corrupts those who hold it, whatever ideology they use to justify their actions.

That is why government officials must hear the unfiltered messages of those living under them. If they use their offices to manufacture the appearance of support, if they have a hand in selecting or steering citizen bodies critiquing their performance, this is not accountability. They are enlisting members into their cheering sections, ultimately in service to their reelection campaigns. It’s akin to tampering with the jury.

Portland’s once vaunted neighborhood system may endure in some form. The danger is that it will become a public relations arm of City Hall, indistinguishable from any other city agency controlled from above.