Any local journalist who writes about urban development has likely felt the sting—when urbanist in-the-know Iain Mackenzie casually tweets out a scoop you were working on, and the internet (at least Portland’s little corner of it) goes bozangas.

First on the website Next Portland, then on Twitter, now on BlueSky, Mackenzie is your number one follow for breezy updates on an ever-changing saga of zoning plans, zoning plans, cute out-on-the-town queer content, insider shade, and zoning plans. 

For over a decade, Mackenzie has given Portland’s planning an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, queer perspective that the city has always deserved and rarely gotten. It’s not his job; he’s a senior associate at TVA Architects. We were curious about the reason for all this useful, highly-readable labor. 

MacKenzie was kind enough to talk with the Mercury about his tender youth as a remodeler of giant kitchens, his fondness for brutalism, the most romantic out of several reasons why he hasn’t updated his blog in awhile, and which part of the city he would nominate for Portland’s new gayborhood. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

MERCURY: So you are from Scotland. What did Portland do to lure you over here? 

IAIN MACKENZIE: I was drawn to a lot of things about Portland. It's not a stereotypical American city where it's endless sprawl into suburbia. You have lots of walkable city, walkable neighborhoods, a rather nice rail system and transit. 

I moved here in 2009. At first, I couldn't find any jobs in architecture at all because of the Great Recession. Then I started doing a lot of high-end residential remodels in the West Hills. 

What did somebody who wanted a high end residential rebuttal in the West Hills want back then?

Giant kitchens. 

Any particular type of giant kitchen? 

Some were very traditional, some were very contemporary, but they were all very big and very expensive—custom cabinetry, best materials. I was demolishing stuff that was so much nicer than anything I could ever imagine having myself. There's a lot of value in learning how to do something really well. But I'm more interested in cities and urban development. 

I've been in my current job for about 10 years, and most of what I do is multi-family apartment buildings. The things that I find interesting are things that contribute to the development of a city.

Oh, and I try and be clear—I am not licensed as an architect in Oregon. Although I work in an architectural practice, I don't stamp drawings.

That’s true of a lot of people who design buildings. What was your process of starting Next Portland?

I used to post a lot on internet message boards. I started Next Portland just to make it easier for people to find information. I haven't been very active in updating that site recently. If I come across things I find interesting, I post those to—I used to be more active on Twitter. Now Bluesky. I just post things that I find interesting. I’m not trying to get engagement. 

You don't have dreams of  becoming a media empire?

No. Quite the opposite. I want to restart Next Portland, but put it under a nonprofit, and make it more of a collaborative effort.

Did you get kind of burnt out on Next Portland?

I was spending a lot of time just trying to do site maintenance. 

Oh, that'll kill you.

And also, the pandemic. And then I started seeing somebody—being in a new relationship takes up a lot of time. And then being engaged. And then getting married. 

Oh, congratulations!

It’s hard to devote as much time to a project as when I was single and had nothing going on. 

I always tell friends who've recently had a breakup that now is the time to do whatever crazy project they've always wanted to do because they will never have the time again. 

Anyway. You often break stories before anyone else. What is the secret to your success?

Mostly I just spend a couple minutes checking Portland Maps every day. Every time somebody goes in for a building permit or a land use review to get something approved, that gets logged. I just scan those and then if there's something interesting, I'll post about it.

When did you start to realize that more people were reading what you posted? Was it a slow build? Were there bumps that got you lots of followers?

When I started it, it was early 2015. Construction activity was really high in Portland at the time, and it just kind of took off. All of a sudden I realized “Oh, a lot of people are reading this.”

Oh right. Interest rates were nothing, so everything was a construction site.

There were 5,000-7,000 units of housing being built a year in Portland. When interest rates started rising at the end of 2022, nothing could get financing, and so everything has kind of stalled for the last two years.

Do you feel like queer culture in Portland gentrified during this strange real estate bubble that we  all lived through?

Scandals is kind of the last remnant of what used to be Portland's little gay district. One thing that is a bit of a shame is that we have all these venues and spaces, but they're kind of scattered around the city. It would be nice just to have a street or something that is like the Castro or Davie Village in Vancouver.

Embers was the longest continuously operating gay bar in Portland. When it closed, I started doing some research—coming across an advertisement for in the 1960s, from before it was a queer space at all, and then in the 1970s stories about people being beat up, and then stories related to the AIDS crisis—just a lot of really dark times. It was sad when it closed, even though it was in need of some investment. I’m glad that now there’s a sign in Badlands about its history. 

Okay: extremely important question. You are given complete largesse to design an urban planning / architecture Pride float. What does it look like? 

I love brutalist architecture. And there's this brutalist architect called Paul Rudolph, who himself was gay. If I was going to design a float it would be a giant, giant scale model of one of his buildings.

What's the appeal of brutalism? 

I love the textures of raw concrete. The patterns you can make with raw concrete are just incredibly beautiful.

Is there any raw concrete that you would recommend in the Portland area?

The Keller Fountain is probably some of the best concrete work you can go and see in Portland.

Is there a part of Portland that you would nominate for a queer district?

I think it should be Northwest Broadway, because you have, you have, like, you've almost got something now. You've got what was Embers and is now Badlands. You've got Stag. There's Taboo Video. There's Silverado just around the corner. 

And it's got the name “Broadway.”

Absolutely. Broadway is definitely a non-heterosexual name.