Opinion

The Portland Street Response pilot team, on their first day of work. City of Portland Hall Monitor is a regular column on issues related to Portland City Hall and its influence on the community it serves. ___ Tremaine Clayton wasn’t going to let a historic snowstorm delay the start of the Portland Street Response. The […]

Surely this will save us. courtesy of Gucci It’s been a rough few days, but things are finally starting to look up. Last Friday, my 20-year-old heater stopped working, under duress from a historic snowstorm that ripped through Portland. On Monday morning, I woke up shivering, confused as to why my electric space heater had […]

Ye Olden Days of Portland Tourism: A line well over one hundred strong snakes out of downtown’s Voodoo Doughnuts, circa 2012. WSH A tale of two years: In 2019, I received multiple texts from out-of-town relatives and friends begging to visit me in Portland. But then 2020 rolled around, and these are the type of […]

Pictured above: “Seth” saying something stupid. Rowan Jordan / Getty Images Hey pals ‘n’ buddies! Y’know, I’ve been hearing a LOT of very angry chitty-chat from far-right butter dicks about how (WAHHH!) their idiot opinions are being silenced and (BOO-HOO-HOO) their First Amendment rights have been squashed. One question: If that’s true, THEN WHY AM […]

Joey Gibson during one of Patriot Prayer’s many violent visits to Portland. KAREN DUCEY / GETTY IMAGES As we reflect on this week’s events in D.C. and ask, “How did we get here?” we must be clear that very few people will wake up one day thinking they can successfully storm the U.S. Capitol. To […]

MichellePatrickPhotographyLLC / Getty images [This year’s news cycle was a vicious one, and left little time for reflection. As 2020 nears its end, we’re taking the opportunity to look back on the most important Mercury stories written during the past year. This article was originally published on March 13, 2020. We hope you’ll consider making […]

Mac Smiff Cameron Browne [In an effort to reflect on a very tumultuous year, the Mercury asked several Portlanders to look back on their 2020 and share how their lives have changed and what they’ve taken away from their experiences. Mac Smiff is a political activist, and the editor of We Out Here Magazine. Here […]

Tired: Sourdough. Wired: Homemade ice cream. Photos by Blair Stenvick When the esteemed Wm. Steven Humphrey, editor-in-chief of the Portland Mercury, first asked me if I wanted to write an opinion piece looking back on my 2020 experiences, I balked. This year was traumatic yet dull in so many general and specific ways that I […]

Getty Images / Ponomariova_Maria [In an effort to reflect on a very tumultuous year, the Mercury asked several Portlanders to look back on their 2020 and share how their lives have changed and what they’ve taken away from their experiences. Dr. Marisa Zapata the director of the Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative at Portland State […]

Opportunities for change in 2021 include an overhaul of the City of Portland Charter. COSMONAUT / GETTY IMAGES 2020 set the stage for challenging some of the most profound structures and assumptions that this state and country have been built upon—through genocide, land theft, slavery, and colonialism. The murder of George Floyd and uprisings for […]

“We are united.” Wm. Steven Humphrey [This year’s news cycle was a vicious one, and left little time for reflection. As 2020 nears its end, we’re taking the opportunity to look back on the most important Mercury stories written during the past year. This article was originally published on June 1, 2020. We hope you’ll […]