Kurt Huffman, tenant of the old Hung Far Low building, says the recently-vanished iconic sign is coming back! The landlord removed the Hung Far Low sign in October when renovators discovered that the 40-foot icon was on the verge of collapse thanks to rotten anchors and a rusty frame. The last anyone saw of the […]
Neighborhoods
Posted inNeighborhoods
Going Up!
A couple quick hits from the hot development news this week: Portland Spaces reports that the Department of Education awarded the lovely historic Custom House downtown to the International School, a private language immersion school currently immersing 400 pre-k through 5th graders. The International School was the only group that submitted a full application to […]
Posted inNews
Hate Group Stickers Belmont
Saturday morning, the stretch of SE Belmont from Muddy Waters to Pine State Biscuits was littered with these neon green stickers: The stickers come from a West Virginia-based white supremacy organization that believes “our Founding Fathers had the vision that America would be — and stay — a White nation.” In the National Alliance’s online […]
Posted inPuppy
The Urban Farm Store; or, OMG BABY CHICKENS!!
When I was a kid, I made extra cash every year selling baby guinea pigs to the local feed store (to be purchased by nice families who would love them and care for them and change the sawdust in their cages every day and give them lots of carrots and broccoli florets and most certainly […]
Posted inCity Hall
This Week in City Planning: Not Your Typical Skullduggery
City Council’s unanimous adoption of the East Portland Action Plan last week was a total love fest. The Council held a special meeting Wednesday night out at Midland Library and 125 people showed up to listen to the details of the plan, which okays $500,000 for development projects out in historically-neglected East Portland. While neighbors […]
Posted inFood and Drink
SE Coffeeshop Goes “Anti-Profit.”
… like, intentionally. For the last five months, the staff of Muddy Waters coffeeshop on Belmont have been looking to buy the corner store and convert it into some sort of community-focused nonprofit. On Friday, the paperwork becomes official and the current owner turns the coffeeshop to its four baristas, making them co-owners in an […]
Posted inArtsy
Simpson’s Statue Site?
the plastic model that the statue will be based on. dude not included, hopefully Thursday night at the Hollywood Neighborhood Association meeting, Ellen Bergstone Beer, executive director of Film Action Oregon, dropped by to give the neighborhood an update on what was going on with the Hollywood Theater. She spent a bit of time going […]
Posted inPortland
Curtains for the Pagoda
patrick flanagan of key bank and garrett stephenson and terry krause of group mackenzie present their plans for the bank that will replace the pagodaLast week, we reported that the Pagoda Restaurant at 39th and Broadway was going to be torn down to make way for a Key Bank, and last night the Hollywood Neighborhood […]
Posted inCrime
Crack Pipes: Far Too Convenient.
In Lents, those pesky crack pipes just won’t go away! Two years ago, the notably affable neighborhood association member Jeffrey Rose took up a campaign to get local convenience stores to stop selling the tiny rose vases that neighborhood ne’er-do-wells typically used as crack and meth pipes. Under neighborhood pressure, the stores stopped selling the […]
Posted inNeighborhoods
Are Public Trails a Public Nuisance?
That was the sentiment of some SW Portland residents at a packed meeting last night discussing the “issues” (“There used to be such a thing as ‘problems,’ now we have ‘issues,’” noted city planner Paul Smith) over the trails that run all through Portland’s woodsy southwest. Eight years ago, City Council approved the SW Urban […]
Posted inNeighborhoods
Facility for Mentally Ill Scaled Back After Long Fight
For a year now, neighbors out in Milwaukie have been trying to stop the construction of Balfour House a secure residential treatment facility for mentally ill criminals – this week, for the first time, the company building the center tried to work out a compromise. Instead of a 15-bed treatment center, the place will house […]
Posted inPortland
Black Rose Collective Faces Steeper Rent in Gentrifying North Portland
via Flickr Eli–a man who doesn’t believe in last names, or taxes–sits in a broken down sofa chair. A mess of half-read political zines lay spread on a table in front of him. “People are always surprised,” he says. “They come in here and they’re like, ‘I didn’t know anarchists gave away free clothes and […]