This story has been updated to include comments from Deputy City Administrator Donnie Olivera's office. 

The former director of the Portland Housing Bureau says she was ousted for trying to advance City Council’s social housing policy and was unfairly blamed for revenue that went unspent prior to her appointment to the bureau’s top position.

Helmi Hisserich, who led the Portland Housing Bureau (PHB) until she was put on leave and forced to resign in November, sent a memo to Portland city councilors on December 4, outlining her perspective on what happened in the months leading up to her termination. 

Wilson did not give Hisserich a reason for her termination at the time. But her memo suggests she was denied opportunities for advancement, and pushed out of her position for uplifting the same social housing strategies she was hired to implement.

“I came to Portland because it is a major city with progressive values that has been a leader on many of the country’s most important pro housing policies,” Hisserich wrote.

The memo raises further questions about the relationship between the city’s administrative branch, led by the mayor, and the City Council, which sets the legislative agenda. On countless occasions in the first year under the new form of government, councilors have raised concerns that the administration is not transparent about its work and may at times slow the flow of information for political purposes.

Now that you’ve gotten your 2025 recap from your music streamer of choice, it’s time to look ahead to some upcoming concerts. Goth rockers Evanescence bring you to life at the Cascades Amphitheater next summer. Avant-pop artist FKA twigs supports her companion albums Eusexua and Eusexua Afterglow on her Body High Tour. Plus, indie folk singer-songwriter Chance Peña will embark on a North American headlining tour for his sophomore album. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5

MUSIC

The Academy Is... Almost Here. 20th Anniversary Tour
Roseland Theater (May 1, 2026)

Ben Quad
Hawthorne Theatre (Mar 27, 2026)

Blunts & Blondes
Nova PDX (Jan 15, 2026)

For many people, the autumn/winter zone between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be one of the bleakest slogs of the year. Can you think of a better way to kick that off than the most doom-laden concert that mortal money can buy? We can't, which was why a black Friday barrage, courtesy of Denver-based doombringers Primitive Man, was a no-brainer. This seems true for many Portlanders, who descended on Star Theater in their toughest black metal shirts, Carhartt work coats, and battle jackets—without a lick of color in sight—an expected aesthetic. An attitude really selling the mood of the night: One where nobody feels anything but dark catharsis… in the best possible way. 

Opening the night was the triple-threat of Portland/Centralia doom duo Defiant Body, Seattle-based quartet Guiltless, and Chinese-American avant-garde keyboardist Otay:onii, each of whom contributed greatly to the atmosphere of the evening. The one-two punch of Defiant Body and Guiltless set the vibes to dark-bleak during a night that would stick almost entirely to a harsh, monochromatic sound that ended up being an endurance test for some. Nobody moshed, nobody thrashed around. It was all scowls, heads bobbing in time with the lumbering drumwork of Billy Graves (Guiltless) and M.J. Gruenewald (Defiant Body), mesmerized by the guttural vocals. Neither act did anything to reinvent the sludge/doom metal wheel, but the aesthetics of both were spot-on, right down to the member of Guiltless wearing a “LOVE SATAN—HATE FASCISM” shirt. 

Who's ready to have some fun? Well, the Mercury is here to help with FREE TICKETS to see some of Portland's best concerts and events—our way of saying thanks to our great readers and spread the word about some fantastic upcoming performances! (Psst... if you want to say thanks to the Mercury, please consider making a small monthly contribution to keep us alive and kickin'!) And oh boy, do we have some fun events coming at ya this week! CHECK IT OUT!

• Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Dead Prez on December 9 at The Get Down!

Legendary hip-hop duo Dead Prez makes their long awaited return to Portland on Tuesday, December 9th at The Get Down! You can expect to hear classics such as "Hip-Hop" and "Police State" during this 25th anniversary celebration of their debut album, Let's Get Free. Get your tickets now or enter to win a free pair!

The Get Down, 680 SE 6th, Tues December 9, 8 pm, $41.59

• Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Zepparella on Thursday, December 11 at Aladdin Theater!

An all-female Led Zeppelin tribute out of San Francisco, Zepparella explores their own improvised magic within the framework of Zeppelin’s mighty songs. Listen LIVE when they take the Aladdin stage! Get your tickets now or enter to win a free pair!

Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, Thurs December 11, 7 pm, $32.18, All Ages

HEY THERE, SMARTY BUTT! It's time once again to put your brainy-brain to the test with this week's edition of POP QUIZ PDX—our weekly, local, sassy-ass trivia quiz. And this week we'll be testing your knowledge on recent, local big events, including TV stars in the news (and in jail), famous assholes in Oregon history, and which celebrity should we get to replace Santa this year? 🤩

But first! How did you do on our last quiz? Yes, indeedy-dang... you are, as usual, smart as a whip. And while I don't disagree with your majority answer for Thanksgiving's best side dish—I do find it interesting that "Sexy Cousin Donna" and "Sexy Cousin Davey" got the exact same number of votes! (Be sure to invite them back again next year! 🤤)

Anywaaaaaay... READY TO START? Take this week's quiz below, take our previous pop quizzes here, and come back next week for a brand spankin' new quiz! (Having a tough time answering this quiz? It's probably because you aren't getting Mercury newsletters! HINT! HINT!) Now crank up that cerebellum, because it's time to get BRAINY!

Create your own user feedback survey

If you appreciate the Mercury's interesting and useful news & culture reporting, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. Your donation is tax-deductible. You can also subscribe and have our papers delivered!

Good Morning, Portland: The forecast is RAIN FOREVER AND BORING. From now until Tuesday it's going to rain in as uninteresting a way as possible. Next week we might see an atmospheric river form, but for now we are in the doing rain forever and boring.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Portland City  Council passed a 🎸a new land use fee 🎸 Wednesday that will seek to charge landlords who lease or permit buildings / property to be used as detention facilities with 💅damages💅 if those ✨detention facilities✨ end up costing the city a ton amount of money. NOW, that's some vague language for a SPECIFIC situation—this relates to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in South Portland. If you are a legislative wonk you may have some feelings about that. For everyone else I added emojis around the important words. Even better, Mercury reporter Jeremiah Hayden breaks it down! 

• On Tuesday, Portland Public School Board voted to approve paying an out-of-state firm—the Texas-based Procedeo—to "oversee the modernization of three high schools and the planned Center for Black Student Excellence over the next five years," the Oregonian's Julia Silverman reports. Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong pitched the move to the board by arguing that consolidating the project would get the work done on time and on budget, as opposed to what's been happening with it up until now. This is something folks are het up about due to a variety of issues: PPS literally HAS an Office of School Modernization so why should the school district spend more on an out-of-state firm? Does the area really need as many high schools as it has—at the size they are? Silverman's piece unpacks Tuesday' pre-vote discussion and links to her previous reporting. She's been covering this one closely.

Amid increased police overtime costs and complaints about environmental contaminants related to a local immigration processing center, Portland City Council passed a new land use fee December 3, targeting the unique impacts posed by the presence of detention facilities in Portland.

The ordinance was spurred by months of federal agents firing munitions, including tear gas, to quell protests at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in South Portland, forcing a neighboring school to relocate and causing health concerns for people living in an affordable apartment complex across the street.

The ordinance has two components. First, it will require landlords who rent buildings used as detention centers to compensate residents and the city for actual costs incurred as a direct consequence of its tenants’ actions. Those costs could include things like police overtime, traffic management, fire and emergency medical responses, and environmental remediation. The collected money will reimburse impacted community members, and the city’s general fund.

Secondly, it adds a nuisance fee that will apply immediately—including for federal agents’ ongoing use of munitions at the ICE facility—meaning any instance of a nuisance caused by activities at a detention center would be levied against the building’s landlord. 

It’s clear at this point that the work of Afrofuturist jazz visionary Sun Ra is beloved by Portlanders. From his band, the Arkestra’s frequent trips to the Rose City playing packed shows (sans Ra himself, who left the planet in 1993), to the epic retrospective exhibition of his art, design, and intergalactic costumery held at the Portland Art Museum in 2019—the spirit of Sun Ra is more than welcome in our freaky little art town. 

It’s no wonder then that an attentive crowd of Ra adherents and cosmic music lovers would show up to the Hollywood Theatre on a chilly Tuesday night to see Christine Turner’s excellent new documentary, Sun Ra: Do the Impossible.

In the first minutes of the film we find Sun Ra at the piano, delicately hammering out a deeply sincere rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” His dreamy, abstracted interpretation slowly fills with angular and dissonant chord clusters, stretching the well-worn song into new, unheard dimensions. It’s a poignant if curious entry point for a film about one of the most fabled, prolific, and inspired jazz composers of the 20th century. But the song, as Scholar Louis Chude-Sokei points out, was one of Ra’s favorites, encapsulating his life-long striving to enact “another world” of transcendent possibilities here on Earth.

If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s news reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendar, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

Good morning, Portland! This month, be thankful for holiday lights because it’s clouds and rain for the foreseeable future. Today’s high is a measly 46 degrees with an overnight low of 38. Bundle up! 🥶

IN LOCAL NEWS: 

• Mayor Keith Wilson’s pick for Portland’s next city administrator was announced Tuesday. Wilson tapped Raymond Lee to assume the city’s top administrative position. Lee hails from Greeley, Colorado where he served as city manager up until last month. In somewhat unusual fashion, Lee tendered his resignation from his Colorado job while Portland’s leaders were still interviewing finalists for the position, weeks before Wilson picked Lee. Wilson said Lee fits the bill for the “innovative city administrator with a track record of success” that the city needs. Jeremiah Hayden has the rundown.

Mayor Keith Wilson has made his choice for the city’s first long-term top bureaucrat after a year-long nationwide search. Wilson nominated Raymond Lee, who has served as the city manager for Greeley, Colorado since 2021. ✍️ @jeremiahhayden.bsky.social

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— Portland Mercury (

@portlandmercury.com

)

December 2, 2025 at 2:43 PM

Mayor Keith Wilson has made his choice for the city’s first long-term city administrator after a year-long nationwide search.

Wilson nominated Raymond Lee, who has served as the city manager for Greeley, Colorado since 2021. The news comes two weeks after three finalists arrived in Portland, interviewing with city councilors and other city officials.

“As the mayor of a city on the rise, I knew Portland would need an innovative city administrator with a track record of success to unlock a new chapter of safety, innovation, and shared prosperity," Wilson stated in the announcement. "We've found that and more with Raymond Lee. I'm proud to put Lee before my City Council colleagues for their vote, and I'm grateful for their support and enthusiasm as we finalize the confirmation process."

After seeing John Waters evangelize a crowd of queers and film weirdos last night at his annual A John Waters Christmas (gay) bash, it feels like the holiday season is in full effect. If you're looking for more holiday raunch, might I suggest Matt Rogers' Christmas in December. Or if you're looking for a more secular shindig, what about the winter edition of Homie Fest? Either way, let something—anything—move you to joy this season. 

If you're looking for listening recommendations while you're traveling over the river and through the woods, or while avoiding travel, check out the Mercury's Top 10 Albums of 2025 from local (and one Eugene) bands. Femme country, cosmic Black music, and Michael Hurley—it's all in there for you to enjoy. 

Tuesday, December 2

Jens Lekman / Jordan Patterson

For fans of Destroyer, Rufus Wainwright, David Byrne 

While working at Heart Coffee Roasters between 2012 and 2015, I was told that I wasn’t allowed to play Jens Lekman’s album Night Falls Over Kortedala because unchecked I would play it on repeat for hours and hours every single day. Shouts to Heart owner Reba Yli-Luoma, it was the correct call. That said, Lekman is a song-writer of exceptional talent. Though born and based in remote Sweden, his pop compositions build deeply relatable romantic frameworks with simple story-telling and complex string and synth arrangements. LA’s Jordan Patterson opens, touring behind her lush new album The Hermit. (Aladdin Theater, 8 pm, more info here, all ages)

1. Is Donald Trump a gay man? I can’t think of anything that screams “closeted gay” louder than building a golden ballroom.

Donald Trump has been married to three different women (two of whom were immigrants), he’s been credibly accused of sexual harassment and assault by dozens of women, and he was found liable — by a jury of his peers — for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll. I don’t care if his golden ballroom has a line of gilded slings, Goldschläger in the lube dispensers, and waiters running around in gold lamé Rocky shorts, that man is not one of mine.

2. You’ve talked about how urine is sterile but also switched to calling it “mostly” sterile. Is it safe to use in a neti pot?

Sterile is binary — something either is or isn’t sterile (sterile is not a spectrum!) — so it wouldn’t be accurate to describe urine as “mostly sterile.” My bad. That said, urine does have fewer bacteria than a lot of other things we ingest, from Costco hot dogs to the spit/junk/butts of hot strangers. But seeing as it isn’t safe to use tap water in a neti pot — at least not in Florida — it’s probably not a great idea to use urine in one.

If you appreciate the Mercury's interesting and useful news & culture reporting, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. Your donation is tax-deductible. You can also subscribe and have our papers delivered!

Good morning, Portland! Weather report: Light rain. The Mercury's Holiday Drink Week report: Happening. Use the latter as a way to boost your spirits about the former. Find the map of $10 holiday drinks here. On my radar: The spiked spiced eggnog at Clarklewis, Grand Central Bowl's Malibu-peppermint-chocolate extravaganza, and the really special looking whiskey sour at Taylor Street Tavern. Cheers! 

Time for the news. 

Supernatural storytelling first became a holiday tradition in Victorian England, likely fueled by a combination of factors—the popularity of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol; long midwinter nights; looming industrialization making the world feel just a little bit scarier. And while written and oral storytelling obviously still exist, going to see a film in theaters—especially of the repertory or cult classic variety—feels like a modern way of swapping tales around a fireplace.

This month, as the nights get longer and colder, you’ll have many opportunities to see your favorites, plus films you might've missed the first time. Some screenings will conjure Christmas creepiness (Silent Night, Deadly Night), while others lean more warm and snuggly (Little Women). There's plenty of interesting terrain in between, too—Filipino Third Cinema, sapphic romance. Even Ryuichi Sakamoto shows up. 

If you're able, try walking to a movie theater this month. Layer up. Take the long way through a residential neighborhood. It'll be dark and quiet by the time you leave the theater; holiday lights will twinkle. It's a nice opportunity to reflect on what you've just seen.