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Joe Streckert

Joe Streckert is the author of Storied & Scandalous Portland, Oregon: A History of Gambling, Vice, Wits, and Wagers. He writes about books, history, and comics.
Posted inCulture

Totally Real Portland Holiday 503 Day Returns

How a joke on a podcast turned into a real-life block party in Ankeny Alley.
Avatar photo by Joe Streckert

“This thing started as a joke,” says Claudia Meza, the host of weekly podcast City Cast Portland. That joke was 503 Day, a local holiday to celebrate all things Portland. “We were calling it ‘a totally real’ holiday,’” says Meza. According to her, listeners ran with it and submitted theme songs and videos about 503 […]

Posted inTheater & Performance

SpongeBob Versus the Apocalypse

At Portland Playhouse, singing sea creatures stare down Armageddon and play their own instruments.
Avatar photo by Joe Streckert

Portland Playhouse is going somewhere it’s never been: to a pineapple under the sea via The SpongeBob Musical. The Playhouse has put on plenty of musicals before, but according to the director Brian Weaver, “we’ve never done anything as shamelessly ridiculous as this.” Just because it’s ridiculous doesn’t mean that The SpongeBob Musical lacks meaning. […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Untold: Jail Blazers Dunks on Portland

The Netflix documentary offers redemption for Wallace, Wells, and Stoudamire, but not the Rose City.
Avatar photo by Joe Streckert

The late ’90s and early 2000s were a hard time to be a Trail Blazers fan. While the team was borderline incredible and might even have won a championship—had it not been for those pesky LA Lakers—it was also an era when the team and Portland didn’t seem to like each other very much. At […]

Posted inTransportation

Leaving the Station: TriMet Retires Its Oldest MAX Trains

Portlanders say “so long” to the MAX Type 1 train cars.
Avatar photo by Joe Streckert

It’s the end of the line for TriMet’s oldest MAX trains. On Saturday, April 18, transit fans came to Holladay Park to bid farewell to one of Portland’s oldest forms of public transportation. Attendees got a chance to see a Type 1 car one last time, take pictures, see inside the cab, and write farewell […]

Posted inCulture

Lloyd Center Mall Announces Official Closing Date in Portland

Closure of the mall arrives despite a vocal effort to “Save Lloyd.”
Avatar photo by Joe Streckert

Lloyd Center Mall will close its doors on August 8, 2026. A press release from Urban Renaissance Group, the mall’s owners, announced the official closure date and explained that tenants will have until August 31 to vacate the mall. Tenants learned the closure date this morning in a meeting held before the public announcement. Jumbo’s […]

Posted inSpring Arts 2026

The Save Lloyd Campaign Wants Some Say in What Happens to Lloyd Center Mall

This might be the last year for Lloyd Center.
Avatar photo Joe Streckert

This might be the last year for Lloyd Center. There’s a plan for what’s next, but a community that’s grown in the mall in recent years isn’t happy with it or the process of deciding Lloyd Center’s future. Urban Renaissance, the real estate development group that partly owns the mall, has a vision for what […]

Posted inSpring Arts 2026

Portland Center Stage and Portland Playhouse Team up To Serve Fat Ham

The Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a Black and queer spin on Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Avatar photo Joe Streckert

Hamlet can be a lot of things: A sad boy who can’t make up his mind. A philosopher plumbing the mysteries of the human condition. A guy with some really weird feelings about his mom. Simba from The Lion King. In Fat Ham, playwright James Ijames reimagined the prince of Denmark as Juicy, a queer […]

Posted inCulture

Should Portland Try to Save Lloyd Center Mall?

A growing community taking hold in the mall wants to have some say in its future.
Avatar photo Joe Streckert

This might be the last year for Lloyd Center. There’s a plan for what’s next, but a community that’s grown in the mall in recent years isn’t happy with it or the process of deciding Lloyd Center’s future. Urban Renaissance, the real estate development group that partly owns the mall, has a vision for what […]

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