Feature Stories

Enjoy the 2013 Southeast Examiner Gift Guide    In this Gift Guide we are promoting conscious consumerism for this holiday and everyday. By shopping at local venues you can be

By Cat Wurdack   In 1983, when Peter de Garmo’s appreciation of a good bottle of wine inspired him to help start a euro-style market on Hawthorne Blvd., commercial rents

By Nancy Tannler   Back in 2004 Tom Burkleaux and Mathew Van Winkle, friends from Reed College days, assessed the recession beginning to happen around the nation and it got

By Don MacGillivray   Christmas carols have a long history in western culture. With their foundations in the music and songs of the pre-Christian winter solstice celebrations, it took many

Three Weekends starting Friday November 29 – December 1;  December 6-8 and 13-15. Train schedule: Fridays, 2,3,4,6,7,8 pm. Sat. & Sunday, 10, 11 am, 12, 2,3,4,6,7,8, pm. Oaks Park Station,

By John McLaren   Longtime Mt. Tabor residents Donn and Karin Maier are faring well as they begin a new life in the remote West African nation of Benin. They

By J. Michael Kearsey   If you love the written word, one of Portland’s last and finest independent bookstores can be found in our midst at SE 14th and Division

One of the Portland’s “painted ladies” is undergoing a restoration on SE 16th, a block north of Morrison St. It was the home of William D. Fenton he finished building

Mary Ann Schwab has been awarded the Spirit of Portland Award this year recommended by Commissioner Fritz for the Right 2 Dream Too award. A very active and vital Portland

Portland Bureau of Transportation today announced that New Seasons Market at 4034 SE Hawthorne Blvd. is the site of the 100th bicycle parking corral in the city.  The installation is

By Jake Redmill   Transaction fees, waiting time and overdrafts are just a few of the inconveniences our modern centralized banking system presents to us today. Inflation continues, and to

By Don MacGillivray   Lone Fir Cemetery has created a new remembrance garden in the central part of the cemetery under three grand old chestnut trees. The end of life

By John McLaren   The nondescript building at SE Taylor St. and 11th Ave. could be an anonymous warehouse, but for 20 years it has housed Creative Woodworking NW, Inc.,

By Kristin Schuman     If you’ve heard howling around Mt. Tabor in the evenings lately, you may not be imagining things and you’re not overhearing a free screening of

By Don MacGillivray   True success through public advocacy in state and local state legislation is often difficult. Fortunately reversing the changes made by the 2011 state legislature to the

Portland Nursery’s two-weekend event has over sixty varieties of apples and pears to taste and fun activities for the whole family. It’s free at Portland Nursery’s 50th SE Stark location

By Nancy Tannler   As a full time college professor at Portland Community College for the past twenty years, Jan Underwood experienced first-hand the personal and political life of her

By   Don MacGillivray   People often ask about the name of Buckman’s Colonel Summers Park and some suggest that there might be a better one. In fact, Colonel Owen Summers was

  By Eve Dodds The people of Oregon are about to get healthier. A national study by the Department of Health and Human Services has shown that Oregon’s health reform has

By Cat Wurdack   In 1859, at the same time a modest, stick-frame house was being built on a hill in Portland,  Charles Dickens published A Tale of Two Cities

The public is invited to celebrate the 7th Annual Old House Dahlia on Sept. 7, 8 and Sept. 14, 15 from 10 am – 5 pm, 8005 SE Mill St.

By Jake Redmill   Perhaps one of the most reflective experiences is that of journal-writing. People familiar with the pastime know there are many options as to where to buy

By John McLaren   Donn and Karin Maier are leaving their comfortable home in Mt. Tabor for a three-year assignment directing and teaching at a small and growing international school

By Elizabeth VanBoskirk and Linda Rowan   As anyone who has visited or lived in the Pacific Northwest knows, there is a plate-crunching collision going on beneath our feet that

With the abundance of rain in Oregon, it’s easy to think we have an endless supply of water. While the Portland metro area receives about 37 inches of rainfall annually,

Hooray for summer! Join us on Sunday August 18, from 11 am to 7 pm as we celebrate Hawthorne District!   NEW UPDATE: The following is a list partial list of

By Cat Wurdack   It’s derby time in Portland – and racers are readying their boxcars. Every year, soapbox riders speed down Mt. Tabor at an average of 30 mph

By  Don MacGillivray In the nineteenth century, Portland was home to one of the premier makers of art glass windows in the country. Povey Brothers Glass Company was known as

By Mary Louise Ott On a Sunday afternoon in April, a whir of drills and the smell of paint mixes with laughter in a South Tabor garage. Six neighbors work

Glencoe Elementary School is situated in the heart of southeast Portland, the perfect location for baseball fans to gather and watch the all American sport. Thanks to the efforts of

By Kristin Schuchman When sending their kids to preschool, most parents are content to find a place that keeps kids safe and reasonably engaged — not letting their kids just

by John Early   In the course of the current re-model of the old Natures (later Wild Oats) Market, the landmark mural, From Seed to Celebration, on the east wall

Tucked beside a tool supplier and an A/V rental business on Southeast 10th and Clay is an unassuming storefront, with a clever logo, that opens into a dazzling white space.

By Stephen Paulsen In a bright red building on the corner of SE 8th and Hawthorne, a group of friends and co-workers have put their careers on the line in

By Karen Hery “You have to see this school and this neighborhood.  You and the girls are going to love it!” The voice on the phone was coming from the

By Callie Jones This June and July, the Richmond Neighborhood Association hosts a series of four emergency preparedness workshops for the Richmond community thanks to a Small Neighborhood Grant from

  The grocery business has always been an important part of Mike Kelly’s existence. It began with his parents who made a living in the grocery industry. They did everything

Editor’s Note: This is the final installment of our What’s Going On series; a peek into a variety of businesses in the Central Eastside. We hope you’ve enjoyed finding out

Day laborers want to own hiring site   VOZ, a non-profit that works and advocates for day-laborers, especially Latinos, is seeking to gain ownership of their hiring center on NE

By Nick Blackbourn Smack dab between SE Division and Powell and just west of I-205 sits the Kelly Butte Natural Area, a 22-acre piece of land acquired by the city

All proceeds will benefit Friends of Portland Community Gardens, who is hosting the event with the Portland Parks Foundation.  With 47 community gardens in every part of the city, this event

By Gena Delaney At a recent community presentation in SE, Portland dentist Dr. Jay Levy gave the crowd some advice many did not expect:  water fluoridation presents real health risks,

The Habitat for Humanity ReStore has relocated from the inner Eastside to the Gateway District, 10445 SE Cherry Blossom Dr. What began as an occasional ‘garage sale’ to clear out

By Mike Klepfer GuildWorks is like many of its neighbors – set into former industrial space near the river, and difficult to tell exactly what the place holds. During business

J. Michael Kearsey On a curvy spot of SE Holgate, between Grout Elementary and Memory Lane Motors, another school is set back on the south side of the street; a

By Don MacGillivray Imagine evergreen forests and meadow where wild game roam, streams teeming with fish, a mild climate, snow capped mountains and the Pacific Ocean. To Native Americans, the

By Mike Klepfer In the central East side industrial area, squat gray buildings crowd together, concentrating as roads move west towards the river. These are holdovers from the city’s industrial

By Stephen Paulsen Last Thursday, a small but resolute crowd gathered at the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church to hear a presentation by Scott Fernandez. Fernandez,  a member of both the

By Lee Perlman Dee Walsh’s heart may still be in Portland (“I miss it totally”), but she has mentally transitioned to the east coast and beyond. Last year Walsh resigned

By J. Michael Kersey The Clinton Street Theater has stood on the corner of SE 26th and Clinton for a hundred years. A photograph of the building appeared in The

A new non-profit is helping enrich communities in developing countries.  Founded by SE resident Clark Negen in 2011, Sharecycle focuses on shipping donated used and recycled goods to communities and

A planning group of Eastside residents have enthusiastically taken on the task of developing the first aging-in-place “Village” in the Portland metro area. Modeled after Beacon Hill Village in Boston, this

Ten years ago, five families sued the state for making them wait a decade to facilitate Medicaid help for their disabled children. The incident motivated the State of Oregon to