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Opinion
Posted inOpinion

The Black Byline: A 10-Year-Old (Forgotten) Emergency

In 2015 a Renters’ State of Emergency was declared. Ten years later, Oregon has its highest eviction levels in history—why? 
Avatar photo Donovan Scribes (fka Donovan Smith)

REMEMBER: DIKES ARE SAFE AT PRESENT. YOU WILL BE WARNED IF NECESSARY. YOU WILL HAVE TIME TO LEAVE. DON’T GET EXCITED. —Housing Authority of Portland (present day Home Forward), May 30, 1948 notice to Vanport residents.  THE STORM The ground was eroding beneath Portlanders. Yet another rent increase. An eviction notice is on the door. […]

Posted inOpinion

An Amphibian Resistance

There’s a movement leaping into action through Portland’s inflatable frog protest mascots. Their real-life amphibian counterparts are resisters, too, but they need our help. 
Avatar photo Suze Wehr

Earlier this month, the image of a courageous inflatable frog standing alone before militarized law enforcement during a protest at Portland’s ICE facility filled the newsfeeds of folks in Oregon (and around the world). Bright green and wide-eyed, the peaceful demonstrator embraced the power of contrast, cartoonishly innocent in the face of weaponized government overreach. […]

Posted inThe Black Byline

THE BLACK BYLINE: The Drake v. Kendrick Verdict, and the Ghost of 2pac’s Hologram

Fighting for The Culture in a new era of hip-hop lawsuits and artificial intelligence.
Avatar photo Donovan Scribes (fka Donovan Smith)

[What follows is a new column from Donovan Scribes, a writer, producer, former VP of the Portland chapter of the NAACP, and the editor of the Mercury‘s print issue BlackOut: a 5 Year Retrospective of Portland’s Racial Justice Protests.—eds.] “No matter what these people say about me, my music doesn’t glorify any image. My music […]

Posted inThe Black Byline

THE BLACK BYLINE: I’ve Never Joined the Naked Bike Ride—But I Won’t Hate on It

White whimsy, federal troops, and what Portlanders should really be focused on.
Avatar photo Donovan Scribes (fka Donovan Smith)

[What follows is a new column from Donovan Scribes, a writer, producer, former VP of the Portland chapter of the NAACP, and the editor of the Mercury‘s print issue BlackOut: a 5 Year Retrospective of Portland’s Racial Justice Protests.—eds.] This week, against the backdrop of attempts by the President of the United States to flood […]

Posted inStreet View

Street View: Sundays Are For Open Streets

Inspired by similar events in Latin America, Portland hosted its first Sunday Parkways event in 2008. Nearly 20 years later, the city has yet to fully commit to the open streets concept. 
Avatar photo Taylor Griggs

In the early 1970s, bike activists in Bogotá, Colombia convinced their city leaders to close two major thoroughfares to car traffic, giving the space to people riding bikes and walking for one day. Thus began the tradition of Bogotá’s world-renowned Ciclovía (cycleway) events, which now occur every Sunday and on most holidays, transforming more than […]

Posted inStreet View

Street View: The Band-Aid Bill

Nobody really likes the Democrats’ transportation funding package. But Republicans are wrong when they say it’s not a compromise.
Avatar photo Taylor Griggs

The Oregon House of Representatives managed to squeak through the latest version of a long-awaited transportation funding package earlier this week. But nobody’s popping champagne yet—and they probably won’t be anytime soon. That’s partially because momentum on the transportation bill, which Governor Tina Kotek and Democratic leaders introduced ahead of the special legislative session, is once […]

Posted inOpinion

Normandale Survivors Asked Police For An Explanation. What Portland Got Was a Partial Apology and More Excuses.

Three years after the Normandale Park shooting, I have the uneasy feeling that my city has moved on, failing to absorb important lessons about its most expensive bureau. 
Avatar photo Pete Forsyth

[This opinion piece is being published to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the death of Deg, one of the victims of the 2022 Normandale Park shooting that left two people dead and another three injured. The mass shooting was carried out by a man who was angry about a peaceful protest happening in his […]

Posted inOpinion

We Have a Dictator

Don’t doubt it and don’t get used to it.
Avatar photo Charles Mudede

If you believe we are somehow still living in the same US that conducted elections in November 2024, you are living in a dream. That America is gone. The one we are in now is not run by someone acting like a dictator—or, as Rachel Maddow claimed, “too incompetent” to be a dictator—but is, without […]

Posted inStreet View

Street View: For Transportation in Portland, “Dreaming Big” Might Mean Starting Small

We can’t have it all.
Avatar photo Taylor Griggs

Earlier this week, to the dismay of local freeway fighters, Metro Council moved to allow the Oregon Department of Transportation to get started on the initial phases of its I-5 Rose Quarter project. Given the controversy surrounding the freeway project, the councilors apparently felt they had to justify their decision, responding in part to the […]

Posted inOpinion

“Dear Elon Musk: Here’s What I Accomplished Last Week”

Mercury Editor Wm. Steven Humphrey answers Elon Musk’s threatening weekend email to federal employees.
Avatar photo Wm. Steven Humphrey

[Editor’s Note: On Saturday evening, February 22, billionaire White House advisor Elon Musk sent an email (from OPM, the Office of Personnel Management) to 2.3 million US federal employees, telling them to send “approx. 5 bullets” describing what they accomplished at work last week, and to respond by midnight, Monday, February 24. Musk later said […]

Posted inOpinion

Why RFK Isn’t a Joke

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is defiantly ignorant—which is why he’s so dangerous.
Avatar photo Vivian McCall

Get your yucks out. Worm guy is funny. Worm guy is ridiculous. Ha ha ha ha ha therewasafuckingworminhisbrainorsohesays. Last week, the Senate actually confirmed Robert “The Worm” F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. A vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theorist is the most powerful health official in the United States, and therefore […]

Posted inSports Talk

The Portland Trail Blazers Aren’t Good at Basketball (Relative to the Standard of an NBA Team)

How Blazers fans can seek the future in the ruin. 
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

The question “Why is this basketball team bad?” can make for some very complicated answers. Mismatched or redundant personnel, poor coaching, crummy work environment, archaic tactical makeup, “Bad Vibes”… all these things require lengthy explanations, but are still real, terrible reasons why your team can be sinking into the ocean.  What a blessing for an […]

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