Hello, fans and haters of the Portland Mercury. My name is Jeremiah Hayden. If all goes well, this will be the last time I am the news and you can instead count on me to bring you some uncompromising journalism as the latest addition to the Mercury’s news team. You may be familiar with my work at Street Roots, where I worked as a staff reporter for the past few years. I’ll say, despite the risk of turning this into a cover letter, I learned a lot about reporting on housing and homelessness there, and I’m excited to build on that with a fresh voice at the Mercury.

If you haven’t noticed, it’s a bit dire out there in 2025, and people impacted by a shredded social safety net deserve to have their stories represented in a way that shows their full range of humanity, serves the public interest, and holds power to account.

I’ll also continue covering other topics the newsroom decides are crucial for Portlanders to know about, including fossil fuel shenanigans like Zenith Energy and its expansion along the Willamette River, brutal immigration enforcement and subsequent protests against the Trump administration’s efforts to rip Portland families apart, and how City Hall is responding to all of this. I’ll also cover other lighthearted topics!

In my free time I like to hang with my spouse (Kelli) and my good pal Ludwig (pictured, twice), read a good book (too many to list) or magazine (The New Yorker, The Believer, The Nation), watch or listen to baseball or basketball games (Mariners, Blazers, always breaking my heart), and walk around my living room trying to figure out what the plants need (either more or less water but who could know which).

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you out there. You can find me on Bluesky here or email me at jhayden@portlandmercury.com