The Portland Police Association (PPA) and former Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty say they’re happy to be moving on after the PPA and two police officers settled a lawsuit with Hardesty for $680,000 earlier this week.

Hardesty filed suit against the city, the police union that represents rank and file officers, as well as Officers Brian Hunzeker and Kerri Ottoman back in 2021, when police and emergency dispatchers leaked false information about her to the media an in attempt to disparage her.

Hardesty’s settlement with police comes roughly two weeks after a judge sided with Hardesty on several legal claims in a summary judgment ruling, and about a month after the city of Portland issued a public apology to Hardesty and agreed to pay $5,000 to settle its portion of the lawsuit over the leak of false information.

The lawsuit, which initially sought $5 million in damages, stems from an incident in March 2021, when dispatchers with the Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC) received a call about a hit-and-run crash with minor damage. The white woman whose car was hit misidentified the other driver as Hardesty, who served on the Portland City Council at the time. The damage was minimal, described in legal documents as “a one-centimeter circle” likely caused by a license plate screw from the other vehicle.

Fall officially starts tomorrow, and we'll be ushering in the season with cheap and cheerful events from Fresh Hop Pop-Up Beer Fest to KBOO Community Radio's 55th Birthday and from Celebrating 75 Years of Forest Park to Free Entrance Days in the National Parks. For more ideas, check out our guide to the top events of the week.

FRIDAY

PARTIES & NIGHTLIFE

Club Nowhere x Opal Underground Presents: Jeffrey Sfire, Sappho, and DJ Orso
Named symbolically after the multi-faceted gemstone, Opal is a tribute to Portland's queer underground nightlife. This weekend, they’re teaming up with the newly debuted Club Nowhere for an evening of dance-forward house music and queer clubbing, soundtracked by world-renowned selector Jeffrey Sfire. Perhaps best known for his collaborative Italo-disco project Sfire with longtime friend SOPHIE, he will keep you dancing with a high-energy blend of '80s Italo, Hi-NRG, and Chicago house bangers. Be sure to arrive in time for opening sets from local DJs Sappho and Orso. AUDREY VANN
(Holocene, Buckman, $15)

What, dear reader, was the greatest week of your life?

Think back on that moment. Treasure its beautiful memory. Then THROW IT IN THE TRASH, because the Portland Mercury’s Wing Week is about to make every other week you’ve ever experienced look like GARBAGE.

That’s right: From Monday, October 2 to Sunday, October 8, the Portland Mercury’s Wing Week returns—with creative, one-of-a-kind chicken wings available at 62 Portland locations! Even better? Each order of wings will only cost you a mere $8! Yes, it will be amazing—because the Mercury and our Wing Week partners at Jim Beam (thanks, Jim!) wouldn’t have it any other way!

Read on for a complete list of this year’s wings—and once you stop drooling, keep a few things in mind:

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. 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! 

Happy Friday! It's going to be sunny and warm today, but say goodbye to all that— starting tomorrow, it'll OFFICIALLY BE FALL, and we'll get rain all next week to show for it. YAY!

Now, time for the news.

Andrew Neerman had just moved his Beacon Sound record store and label HQ from one space to another when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and significantly complicated running a retail operation.

Almost immediately, Neerman shuttered the shop, even before the state of Oregon mandated the closure of many retail businesses. When he talks about it now, it’s clear that, while the timing may not have been ideal, the whole situation came as something of a relief.

“I was burning out on retail already, and I was actually planning on selling the retail portion of Beacon Sound… and moving toward being a community space and show space,” Neerman said. “Luckily, I had not. So I just shut down and went full label.” This allowed the respected experimental music label to enter a highly productive period—putting out over 30 releases in the three years that followed.

Across town, a similar shutdown scenario played out at Musique Plastique, except owner Tony Remple wasn’t tired of retail. He moved his business online for a time, but then, in mid-2022, reopened a physical space in the Lloyd Center, as part of the mall’s well-publicized rebirth.

Throughout the pandemic, Remple said, the two checked in with each other in an effort to figure out a future course of action.

SNL mainstay Colin Jost will drop by Salem to give us his weekend update. Metal’s favorite soprano Chelsea Wolfe has also announced a local date next spring. Plus, the fight for Olivia Rodrigo tickets starts this week—hold on to your guts. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.

ON SALE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22

MUSIC

An Evening with Patterson Hood (of Drive-By Truckers)
Show Bar (Dec 19-21)

Briston Maroney: Ultrapure Tour
Crystal Ballroom (Mar 21, 2024)

Chelsea Wolfe
Roseland Theater (Mar 27, 2024)

Whether or not you consider yourself an “art person,” Converge 45 is worth visiting—the biennial brings together local and further-flung artists whose work will likely be new to you, offering a window into the contemporary art world from venues all over town. (Seriously, you’ll find them in each of the city’s quadrants—there’s no reason to miss out.) I popped by PNCA, Stelo Arts, Reed College’s Cooley Gallery, and the Lloyd Center to dive into the biennial’s plentiful offerings. Here's what I recommend checking out for yourself.

Amanda Ross-Ho: ICE TIME
I was lucky enough to catch Los Angeles-based artist and one-time competitive figure skater Amanda Ross-Ho's performance at the Lloyd Center ice rink on Converge 45's opening weekend in August. The performance, which felt inextricably linked to the legacy of a certain infamous Olympian who learned to skate at Lloyd, saw Ross-Ho skate in a meditative figure eight formation. Her solo exhibition ICE TIME expands on this meditation with a further developed sense of repetition and muscle memory.
(ILY2, Pearl District, free, through Oct 28)

CALLING ALL BRAINY PANTS! 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, you'll be answering questions about runaway fire department equipment, assholes who bother the Chapman Elementary swifts, and OH! What are we gonna do about all these local conservative billionaires who won't mind their own got-damned business? Trust me... I HAVE IDEAS. 👹

But before we continue... HOW DID YOU DO ON THE PREVIOUS QUIZ? Very, very excellent! And wow... while I figured a lot of you would ask for a roller coaster or something to make downtown Portland a fun place to visit again, I think the majority of you really got to the root of the problem! BRAVO AND BRAVA! 👏

OKAY, TIME FOR A NEW QUIZ! 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!

Your contribution to the Mercury supports our editorial team. We try to ask unobtrusively, but there have been a couple surveys where an overwhelming number of readers said we should remind them more. The Mercury believes in Portland and smart, local journalism—we also like fun, sex, and staying curious about one another. Without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

Good Morning, Portland! Yesterday, when news editor Courtney Vaughn was working hard to break down any complexities found in the announcement that Chuck Lovell will step down as Portland's police chief, I was working hard trying to Bob Loblaw's Law Blog the incoming interim chief. What do you think about Bob Day's Big Bob Day Job Day? NOW, FOR THE NEWS!

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• October 11 will be a Back on the Job Day for Bob Day, a retired Portland police officer who will serve as Portland interim police chief until June 2025. The city's current police chief, Chuck Lovell, announced he will step down from the position in three weeks. Lovell clarified that he isn’t retiring, and will remain with PPB for the time being, serving in a community engagement role. News Editor Courtney Vaughn has more.

• And now for a Portland police chief listicle. I sound like I'm making fun, but this is pretty useful, and I wish we'd thought of it. Three years isn't at all that bad, duration-wise.

• Seven of nineteen Portland-area libraries are currently closed for renovation—Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs breaks down why that is, and what Portlanders stand to gain:

You aren't imagining it. Seven out of 19 Multnomah County libraries are currently closed. Mercury reporter@taylorjgriggs explains what's happening, and why it's all happening at once.https://t.co/HKpJh4FkHA

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) September 21, 2023

• In today's Gov. Kotek blast: The governor announced yesterday that she's calling take backs on a portion of the Emergency Homelessness Response funds she sent to Multnomah County, redistributing it to six other counties: Clackamas, Marion, Polk, Deschutes, Jefferson, and Crook counties. A spokesperson for Kotek noted that Oregon's most populous county has way more resources to address the homeless crisis, than other Oregon counties, especially since the supportive housing services tax has popped off so hard that Multnomah County is having a hard time spending it. Kotek has expressed concerns with how Multnomah County and Portland officials are spending state dollars on homelessness, basically asking that the plans be less vague.

It can be easy to take public libraries for granted. The free (tax-funded) service allows anyone with a library card to skim through books, access resources like computers and public archives, or just chill out in a climate-controlled space. 

“It’s a real anti-capitalist move to utilize the library,” said Katie O’Dell, a Multnomah County Library director who has been managing the capital project. “Libraries are as punk and as radical as anything else.” 

But right now many Multnomah County libraries are closed for construction. Currently, seven out of 19 public libraries are out of commission, and undergoing extensive renovations. So library-goers across the Portland area have had to relocate. 

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell will step down from his position in three weeks, with an interim police chief stepping into the role until June 2025. Bob Day, who retired from Portland Police Bureau in 2019 after serving as deputy chief of police, will step into the role of chief until June 2025.

The announcement was made Wednesday, September 20 at a press briefing with Mayor Ted Wheeler, Lovell, and Day. Wheeler said the move is part of a broader effort to set the city up for transition, come January 2025. 

“As I noted last week, we stand on the precipice of a complete overhaul of our city’s government, and I take very seriously my responsibility to deliver a functional city to the new mayor and the new City Council,” Wheeler said. He said the best path forward is to appoint an interim chief now, while giving the next mayor the option to recruit and appoint a long-term police chief, come 2025.

Lovell, who joined PPB in 2002, confirmed he isn’t retiring, and will remain with PPB for the time being, serving in a community engagement role, starting October 11.

This week, as we recover from traveling to Seattle for an experiential Beyoncé concert, we're listening to the new version of SZA’s “Snooze” (featuring Justin Bieber) on repeat, and diving into local artist happening here in Portland. No more leaving town for a bit—just staying home to catch up on Dani Danger’s debut music video release for her sultry and vocally impressive single “Addicted to Love,” and the upcoming album from Bijoux Cone. Plus! There’s still time to check out the final shows at the Doug Fir as we know it.   

MUST SEE: 

Upcoming local event(s) featuring local artist(s).        

Final Doug Fir Lounge Shows at Jupiter Hotel

As we approach September's close, we’d like to take this moment to reiterate the fact that the Doug Fir will be leaving from its beloved location at the Jupiter Hotel. Earlier this year, the venue announced that it would be moving into the space formerly occupied by late night Cajun restaurant Le Bistro Montage—AKA the place every Portlander went on prom night. While we’re still grieving Montage, and we’re definitely still processing the fact that Doug Fir will never be the same after the impending move, somehow the merging of these two Portland institutions feels a bit like destiny? There are a few chances left to see a show inside the endearingly cramped confines of the log-cabin themed venue, where a cute woodsy aesthetic abounds, but personal space is a fool’s errand. Doug Fir representatives say they hope to open the new location in early 2024. “The new Doug Fir will feature 300+ capacity, best-in-class sound and lights, enhanced customer and band parking and load in, expanded dressing rooms, an intimate private bar, and patio,” a message on the venue's social media reads, encouragingly. Maybe change isn’t so bad after all. For those who require one last rendezvous inside, there appear to still be tickets for Japanese pop four-piece Chai on September 25, an album release show for art-pop / goth / synth act Bijoux Cone on September 27—which we're writing about in this column—and a pair of Ural Thomas and the Pain headliner events on the location’s final night of September 30.

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. 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! Here's your gentle reminder to pick up your hot-shit copy of the Mercury's FALL ARTS GUIDE, which is jam-packed with super interesting and fun things to do this fall, and can be found in 500+ locations all around this grand city that Republicans and their rich local supporters love to shit upon. Yes, it's early in the morning, and I'm already going hard. Wait 'til you see me at noon! In the the meantime, here's some NEWS.

them: PORTLAND, A CITY OF FIRE AND RUBBLE

me: the French bakery's vending machine ran out of crème brûlée again

— 🏳️‍🌈 Andrew D. Jankowski 🏳️‍🌈 (@AndrewJank) September 20, 2023

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• New legislation will require OHSU's Primate Research Center to be a LOT more transparent about what they're doing with all that federal funding, after years of mishaps and animal deaths due to staff negligence. The center has also earned the title of "one of the worst, if not the worst, primate center in the U.S. in terms of violations of the Animal Welfare Act." Our Abe Asher has the details, but here's the quote from this story that made my jaw drop:

...advocates have raised concerns about the day-to-day research being conducted at the center—including a reported study in which researchers gave voles an excessive amount of alcohol to see if they would cheat on their mates. 

• Today in HA-HA-HA: Portland City Council members are reportedly losing their got-damned minds over Mayor Wheeler's plan to take away all of the members' bureau assignments in roughly six weeks in order to "test run" a city administrator running the bureaus, in advance of what will happen following the next city council election. I personally think this is a great idea, since every last one of them is absolutely terrible at their jobs—especially Mapps and Gonzalez. On the other hand, without the bureaus to keep them busy, maybe they'll just sit around thinking of new, creative ways to harass homeless folk and make their rich friends more money? ACK! I'm torn!! 

The end of 2019 saw Artists Repertory Theatre poised for some huge changes. After a generous gift of $7.1 million from an anonymous donor and the sale of the north half of its Goose Hollow property, the company embarked upon a much-needed remodel—a massive, multi-year project that involved a partial demolition of its building, and stripping and retrofitting the remaining structure with seismic upgrades.

Artists Rep envisioned a season on tour, dubbed ART on Tour, wherein it moved a season of performances through venues around Portland, while the construction left the theater without a home. And then 2020 happened. 

Like the rest of the theater community across the country, the company found itself unable to produce live shows, so Artists Rep experimented with digital content, and when lockdown lifted, it continued to produce works in other venues.