On any other Valentine’s Day, Bruce Charles would be taking his partner, Patricia Bognar, out for dinner and a movie. But this Valentine’s, the couple will be busy moving to a new apartment—just 15 days after being simultaneously fired and evicted by Norris & Stevens, the new management company for the apartment building where they […]
Jennifer Furniss
Posted inNews
Pushed Aside?
Former Taqueria Owner Cries Foul
“Lotfi is a liar! Get your own dream, Lotfi!” Alberta Canales shouts as she pickets in front of Boulevard Tacos on N Rosa Parks Way. The new taco shop is in the space that previously housed El Burrito Loco—Canales’ business for 16 years—until building owner Siamak Lotfi opted not to renew her lease last July. […]
Posted inNews
Get A Room!
When Hipster Immigrants Invade Portland, it Makes it Kinda Hard for Oregonians to
Find a Room. Okay?
I stood in a drafty living room covered in beer cans, overflowing ashtrays, and suspicious stains. The most striking aspect was one wall: a slurred mess of paint and drawings created by a mind obviously working from a different dimension—a cracked-out dimension. But at the moment, this was my best bet; a party house wedged […]
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Jacked Up
Hawthorne Stores Face Rising Rents
Hawthorne Boulevard might be losing some of the gems that make it one of the most recognizable streets in town: Several stores on the boulevard are facing rent increases of over 50 percent, a leap to what some call “Pearl District prices.” The quirky street has long defined the aesthetic of the Eastside—funky locally owned […]
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Capital Un-Improvements
Even More Capital Property Tenants Complain
Like many Portlanders, Todd Mellors is preparing for Christmas guests, but he’s thinking less about the eggnog and more about the puddle of water that forms in his living room whenever it rains, and the black tarp covering his front window. “It’s like, ‘Hi, welcome to my shanty,’” he says. He’s been dealing with this […]
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Cold Comfort
Tenants Bundle Up at Hawthorne Apartment Building
“Cold” is something Valerie Egan has trouble getting used to—according to her, last year the furnace in her apartment building broke down over the Christmas holiday and wasn’t fixed for five days. The furnace is working this winter—but the landlord, Capital Property Management, has only been turning it on twice a day. Egan’s apartment hovers […]
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A Bitter Pill
Birth Control Prices Skyrocket
This school year, college students aren’t just scrimping to afford textbooks and bus tickets—they’re also digging deep to pay for birth control that has more than quadrupled in price since last year. At Reed College, birth control has gone from $8 to $36 a month. At Lewis and Clark College, the health center now only […]
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Still Protesting
Portlanders Bus to Seattle for Anti-War Demo
“During the Vietnam War, Nixon always claimed that the people on the streets didn’t matter,” says Kelly Campbell, Portland peace director with the American Friends Service Committee. Last weekend, Campbell organized the PDX Peace Coalition’s bus caravan to Seattle, to join one of 11 coordinated regional protests around the country—and try to prove naysayers wrong. […]
Posted inDestination Fun
Ghostbusters
Exploring Portland’s Ghostliest Haunts
It all started with Nina. As the story goes, Nina (pronounced Nigh-na) has been haunting Old Town Pizza for over 100 years. She’s known for wandering the basement and watching customers eat dinner. In life, she was a prostitute found murdered at the bottom of an elevator shaft. This macabre tale was related to me […]