Rendering of the proposed Multnomah County Courthouse done in fetching blue and yellow hues.
  • Rendering of the proposed Multnomah County Courthouse done in fetching blue and yellow hues.

Welp, there goes the neighborhood.

It doesn't look like good news for Portlanders who can afford $17 chilaquiles: Veritable Quandary—the downtown restaurant that bills its patio a "dining oasis"—is probably getting bunch of criminals as neighbors.

The Multnomah County Commission on Thursday listened as the project team looking at two sites for the new county courthouse—the preferred site on vacant county-owned land at SW 1st and Madison and the alternate site next to the KOIN Tower at SW 2nd and Clay—explained the due diligence process of evaluating the sites.

The short of it is there's no deal breakers for either site, and most of the push back on the preferred site came from people associated with the VQ, according to team testimony.

In December, VQ owners, employees, and people who think the $27 Rain Shadow Farm Chicken is just TO DIE FOR came out in hordes, some even getting teary-eyed, to plead with commissioners not to sully their beautiful patio view with an eyesore of a new courthouse.

Owner Dennis King, who founded the restaurant 45 years ago, and his daughter, Lindsay King, both warned the commission that their restaurant likely wouldn't survive construction. I mean, who wants to sample a $25 wine flight with sweaty construction workers everywhere? EEEeeew!

Never fear, VQ! The Multnomah County Bar Association will save you!

At Thursday's public hearing—at which no Sad Sallys from VQ chose to testify—Guy Walden, Executive Director of the Multnomah County Bar Association, pledged he and his fellow attorneys will save the VQ ... well, they'll give it a shot, anyway.

"To the extent that the MBA can assist VQ during construction, we will," Walden said.

What a guy, Guy! So, see? White people all over Portland step up to help other white people in times of need. Where would attorneys go for business lunches and after work drinks without VQ?

On the other hand, Portland, as the most gentrified city in the country, has stood by for 40 years while our black and brown populations have seen their business owners and residents pushed out of neighborhoods in the name of progress. Huh.

The commissioners are scheduled to make a final vote on the location of the new $150 million courthouse at their April 16 meeting.