Feature Stories

By Jack Rubinger The recent news that China is banning imports of plastic from the United State for environmental reasons is frustrating to some and angering others. Still, there is

While you may see Port wines for sale at your local grocery store from Portugal, California, the Pacific Northwest and even New York City, all ‘True’ Port comes from northwest

By Michelle Frost Hiding in plain sight, Pottery Fun is nestled between antiques, beer, yoga, and movies at 7821 SE Stark St., across from Flying Pie Pizza. “People come in

By Deirdre Shepherd Got plans for the Saturday following Thanksgiving? What if you could start your holiday shopping, support the small, local businesses that make this city unique, and have

By Representative Rob Nosse One of my roles in the Oregon legislature is serving as vice-chair of the House Health Care Committee. That means a lot of my work in

Beaujolais is a wine producing region in the southern end of France’s Burgundy region just northwest of the city of Lyon and exclusively employing the Gamay Noir grape variety for

By Don MacGillivray In recent years, the concept of loneliness and social isolation has become an important issue that affects us all. It has always been with us, but its

By Jack Rubinger Elizabeth Campbell from Kids at Heart Toys is celebrating her store’s 30th year on Hawthorne Blvd. “Thirty years on Hawthorne sure went fast,” she said. “My son

By Michelle Frost Hiding in plain sight at the corner of SE 28th and Ash streets is Sidestreet Gallery. Part gallery, part eclectic gifts, the gallery was established 13 years

By Judy Wayne In 1977, when Andrea Drinard opened her now iconic secondhand bookstore Paper Moon, she started with a paltry 200 books. “I really wasn’t sure what I was

By Jack Rubinger It’s a cliché to say Don Hudson is a born salesman; he’s more of a consultant. As a matter of fact, he almost immediately offered me valuable

By Michelle Frost Girl Scouts of America is the preeminent leadership development organization for girls, with programs from coast to coast and across the globe. Nearly 2 million girls and

By Midge Pierce For a brief cosmic moment last month, moonshadow banished discord from the Land. Through first bite to rainbow-like sunbeams, daytime turned into the unifying magic of total

If you are so politically correct, why are you so prejudiced against Rosé? Just because a bunch of guys in California got rich selling “Blush Wines” that taste like semi-sweet watermelon

By Sam Adelman O.D. Many of us have electronic devices living in our closets, basements, and garages that we no longer use. Some are broken, others are just outdated. We

By Jan Caplener In 1845, a young entrepreneur named James B. Stephens purchased a 640 acre site on the east side of what would eventually become Portland. This tract of

By Nancy Tannler Roosevelt’s Terrarium’s at 44th and SE Hawthorne Blvd. has expanded. Owner Gregg Harris added a workshop to the greenery-filled shop where he and his sons, Josh and

By Midge Pierce Mt. Tabor’s living room needs your help. As it marks its 125th birthday, the storied Presbyterian Church midway up Belmont Street that is a coffee house, learning

By Don MacGillivray Better Housing by Design is an ongoing project of the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to improve medium density residential zones of R3, R2, R1, and

By Midge Pierce Accidents mount as the City learns the hard way – through deaths and neighborhood ire – that you can’t address both safety and traffic flow in ways

By Jack Rubinger Those of us who ride bicycles in and around SE Portland, are not alone. There are approximately 29 retail bike stores in the area. This writer was

By Nancy Tannler Earth’s growing population hasn’t been in the forefront of the news about sustainability and quality as much as it was in the 60s and 70s. Zero population

By Jack Rubinger Abbasi Fine Rugs, the only Persian rug shop on the east side of Portland, is located at SE 32nd and Belmont St. but its roots stretch back

By Charlotte Finn Unlike so many newcomers who set their sights on living in our hip city, Yasmine’s family arrived by a more arduous, traumatic, and lengthy process. They are

By Karen Hery There is a quiet revolution going on in SE Portland, championed by a wide range of volunteers, paying it forward in anticipation of their own senior years.

  July 15 • 11 am – 6 pm Tom McCall Waterfront Park Parade • River Float • Beach Party • All Ages!   Reggae Legend Clinton Fearon & Boogie

By Jack Rubinger By Jack Rubinger   Jan Caplener and SE Portland go back a long ways. He’s seen the good and the bad. But no matter how you look

By Michelle Frost In a bike-friendly city like Portland with 17,000 bicycle commuters, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation PBOT website, there is no shortage of places to find

By Don MacGillivray Over the last three year Vision Zero has grown to become one of the most popular new polices within Portland local government and it is becoming known

By Jack Rubinger Geologist/Author David Montgomery discusses “Growing A Revolution” At Powell’s Books Geologist/author David R. Montgomery believes that the plow is the major culprit in the degradation of the

By Representative Rob Nosse Those of you that read this column regularly or have run into me at a neighborhood association or a PTA meeting know that the main concern

By Will Levenson Camaraderie. Summertime. Propulsion. Activism. Jumping in the water, the river feeling amazing… what an incredible way to start the day. Why wait until after lunch to plunge into

By Jack Rubinger   Early in his life, Stanley Cheng revolutionized pots and pans and other types of non-stick cookware, but he’s been passionate about food and wine his whole

By Don MacGillivray Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery is one of the little known treasures of Portland’s past. By simply walking through the headstones and monuments one can reflect on the

By Midge Pierce Welcome to springtime in Portopia where potholes are supersized, syringes line sidewalks, broken promises litter the stalled-out eastside community center park, and the City is apparently too busy rubber

By Midge Pierce Design is as important inside as out. It’s no surprise that furniture stores are among the beneficiaries of Portland’s building surge. While furniture trends come and go,

Andrew Correa, a member of Boy Scouts Troop 56, extended a split rail fence at the top of Mt. Tabor for his Eagle Scout project. With financial support from the

By Midge Pierce Despite a city official’s claim that more than 100 people move to Portland daily, Mayor Ted Wheeler promised attendees at last month’s Let’s Talk Climate  session that

By Don MacGillivray The Rebuilding Center takes in and offers used, salvaged, and reclaimed building and remodeling materials from the community so the materials can be reused in a variety

By Margaret Malarkey In the middle of winter, when Caitlin Davis is heading home from work or the grocery store, she pulls out her smartphone, opens the Nest app and

By Jack Rubinger Jocelyn Brady lives in SE Portland. She works from home running a small business called Scribe which is a voice and language consultancy. She likes to say

By Michelle Frost The League of Women Voters of Portland provided a format for discussion of Gun Safety with a panel of experts on Tuesday, March 14 in the Multnomah

By Midge Pierce March was birthday month in my family. I share mine with the best present ever, my favorite only grandson. Given that I have years to spare and

Op Ed by Scott Fernandez  M.Sc. Biology  chemistry/ microbiology/radioisotopes There is “no safe level of radon” (USEPA). Our drinking water is now 100% from the Columbia South Shore Well Field

By Jean Baker Mirador Kitchen and Home has closed after nearly 18 years at SE 20th and Division St. In 2016, a perfect storm of problems converged on the owners.

By Don MacGillivray This freezing winter made the homeless situation a first order priority. The deaths of four people due to exposure on the streets was enough to attract great

By Midge Pierce “Art is a part of life as necessary to my well-being as the food I eat and the air I breathe.” These were the words of Ralph

Submitted by: NorthStar Clubhouse We all know someone with a mental illness. We all have heard myths regarding mental illness. One of the most harmful myths is the belief that

HAND residents are very concerned that Portland Parks Bureau is threatening to eliminate nearly $100,000 in maintenance for the Ladd’s Addition Rose Gardens. The loss of these funds would mean:

Guest Column By Midge Pierce On the third Saturday in January, I stood proudly with Dumbledore’s drenched army; my clan well-assembled despite my initial misgivings. The one-year-old in her Snugli

By Michelle Frost Leach Botanical Garden, at 6704 SE 122nd Ave. in east Portland, is a verdant paradise maintained by Leach Garden Friends. They oversee the Garden’s collections of plants

By Jean Baker Division is changing again (or still, depending on how you look at it) New rules for inclusionary zoning will take affect later this year and developers are

By Midge Pierce This New Year, as you prioritize resolutions, consider the Portland Food Project’s power of one green bag. Filling up the Food Project’s bright green bag with the

By Michelle Frost Calvin Tibbets: Oregon’s First Pioneer is a thoroughly-investigated account of Oregon’s early trailblazers, researched and written by author Jerry Sutherland, SE Portland resident. From Sutherland’s blog: “When

By Midge Pierce The “white hot development market” was a topic at a tree advocacy workshop sponsored by Save the Giants, Friends of Trees and East Multnomah Soil and Water

By Midge Pierce Billed as the Grand Reveal, a five-year, record-breaking inventory of more than 218,610 street trees illustrates the magnificence of Portland’s green rooftop as well as the great risks

By Stephanie Kaza Last year the Oregon legislature took up, but did not pass, a comprehensive bill to cut carbon emissions and support a clean energy future for the state. 

Photo above: Dañel Malan, Teatro Milagro Artistic Director and Jose Eduardo Gonzalez, Executive Director By Michelle Frost The only Hispanic theater production company in the Pacific Northwest lives right here in

Photo above: Rick Slagter By Jack Rubinger Rick Slagter is happy to be home again. The 63-year-old furniture store owner and his wife Tammy returned to their Montavilla neighborhood to re-open

By Don MacGillivray Neighborhood Associations in Portland have always been a center of controversy. Some believe if you don’t have any adversaries, little can be accomplished. This is especially true

Part two: Reaching for Community by Karen Hery In the beginning, it was a reach just to get across the river. The 384 urban acres from 28th to 49th between Hawthorne and Stark,

by Jack Rubinger Taborspace, located at 5441 SE Belmont, the site of the Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church had about 100 active congregants seven years ago and was filled with cobwebs

By Robert McCullough A question that comes up frequently in neighborhood discussions concerns the rapid run up of prices in Portland.  Why are prices so high?  Why are they changing?

Two new shops recently opened at 1100 SE Division. Both are totally different and unique to the Division streetscape. Book With Pictures (see below for second store Voyager)   The good

By Don MacGillivray In spite of climate change and global warming, Portland is on the way toward enacting measures to reduce carbon emissions. The City has just introduced a new

By Don MacGillivray   Next summer there should be an interesting new water feature in Col. Summers Park  to  replace the existing circular wading pool. The new water feature, known as

By Michelle Frost Montavilla Farmers Market is hosting the Empty Bowls soup and beer pairing fundraiser event on September 13, 5:30-8:30 pm, at Montavilla Brew Works, 7805 SE Stark St.

By Karen Blauer Cycling legend Gino Bartali was a multiple winner of the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia cycling races, and an athlete recognized as a Righteous Among the

By Don MacGillivray A handsome building where Fishel’s Furniture has become an icon at E. Burnside and SE Martin Luther King Blvd. (MLK) will soon be demolished in favor of

The Salvation Army is familiar to everyone. We’ve all seen the bell ringers at Christmas and probably been to one of their thrift shops, but this is only a part

By Stephanie Kaza Flooding in Louisiana, California wildfires, permafrost melt in Alaska – the list of events made more extreme by climate change is growing rapidly. There is no shortage

By Karen Hery Belmont Street Fair is in its 21st year attracting over 10,000 people to the streets of Belmont between SE 33rd and Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. The fair got its start in

Sunday August 28 11am – 7pm EVENTS (as of press time) SE 34nd Acoustic Stage 11:00-11:50 Jon Koonce 12:00-12:50 Reverb Bros 1:00-1:50 Terry Robb 2:00-2:50 Lowell John Mitchell 3:00-3:50 TBA

A hundred Biketown racks have been placed around Portland’s inner city with 1,000 bikes in use. In four days 1,960 single ride passes and 441 day passes were sold. To

By Michelle Frost Avalon Sanctuary is a very small ‘pocket park’ nestled between The Hope Center/Cascadia and St. Philip Neri Convent along SE Division. Nearly hidden in the throughway that