Willamette Week, January 19, 2022 - Volume 48, Issue 11 - "Houseless on Wheels"

“WE WERE NINE AND A HALF MONTHS PREGNANT FOR THREE YEARS.” P. 27 WWEEK.COM

VOL 48/11 01.19.2022

NEWS: In the COVID Test Shed. P. 8 DRINK: Embrace the Shake. P. 22 WEED: Five Strains You’ll Pine For. P. 25 WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

Hundreds of Portlanders are living in their cars.

Here’s how they do it.

BY THACHER SCHMID • PAGE 11

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THOMAS TEAL

FINDINGS

SHAKE GYLLENHAAL, PAGE 22

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 48, ISSUE 11 The Oregon Employment Department’s hold music is called “Romantic Jazz.” 4

The conservation buffer around Forest Park just grew by 60 acres.

20

Home Forward has used 1% of its federal housing vouchers. 6

Rally Pizza is going vegan for the month of January. 21

Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam says Donald Trump might have won. 7

Holy Ghost has a machine to makes gin fizzes that’s named

Workers at Johnson Creek Market stand by the COVID tests given in their parking lot. 8 A police training presentation mocked a “dirty hippy.” 9 Jubitz Truck Stop raised the price of a shower from $15 to $25 in June. 12

“Shake Gyllenhaal.” 22

Alpha-pinene is the terpene that gives Christmas trees their piney scent. 25 Working for The New Yorker inspired a horrifying play. 26 Centralia, Wash., is a dead ringer for rural Kentucky. 27

Inhabited RVs caught fire at least 29 times last year. 14

ON THE COVER:

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

A growing number of Portlanders are living out of their vehicles, photo by Sam Gehrke.

A COVID testing company with three sites in the Portland area is under investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice.

MASTHEAD EDITOR & PUBLISHER

Mark Zusman

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DIALOGUE

• •••• ••••

A T R E A LRBO S ER E T •••• A E H T

Last week’s edition of WW examined the unusual leverage Oregon workers have over employers: For every seven people looking for work, there are 10 jobs available. The resulting desperation has led some industries to offer extraordinary signing bonuses, ranging from $500 for line cooks to $30,000 for a commercial truck driver. Here’s what our readers had to say:

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CARSIE BLANTON +

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SCOTT GREGG, VIA FACEBOOK: “As a person who does

MARYSUE HEALY, VIA WWEEK.COM: “You can

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

nurses, teachers, police officers and bus drivers. Meanwhile, companies are making billions of dollars with food delivery, crypto currency, sports gambling, and of course legal weed.

The economy is broken, and the government is too polarized to fix it.”

PATTY WENTZ, VIA TWITTER:

“Employers are missing the most obvious incentive: on-site child care.”

KATHY FROST, VIA FACEBOOK: “Interesting that there

hire people: Yes, there is a labor shortage. Yes, wages are increasing because of that. Yes, now is a good time to look to

make as much and often make more working under the table.

Dog walkers, house cleaners, caretakers [and] babysitters can

Dr. Know

FEB 23

+

FEB 28 MAR 1

is all this whining about a lack of labor and apparently no willingness to make sure families have safe, secure child care and women can come back to work that is meaningful.”

change jobs. And a lot of people are shifting jobs, for sure.

“At the same time, we have a huge problem. Housing costs are sky high. A ‘livable’ wage in Portland is about $22 an hour.

If you are making less than that, the chances are, you are very financially vulnerable and just a paycheck or two from being homeless. And you are probably not a homeowner, unless you bought your home 15 years ago. Not being a homeowner, a renter is double-screwed since rents go up each year regardless of your pay.

“So we can have a hot economy, fine and dandy, but that does not mean people are living the life of ease. Far from it. For the people that started out this pandemic on the lowest rung of the ladder, they are still going to have a very hard time of it.”

SCRAPPYMUTT, VIA WWEEK. COM: “We’re struggling to find

make $22 in PDX an hour with no taxes and a hell of a lot more freedom. I know a lot of people who do this.”

LOOK AT BETSY JOHNSON’S VOTING RECORD ON GUNS

Your recent interview with Betsy Johnson really missed the mark on her position on gun safety.

Senate Bill 554 passed the Oregon Legislature last March—the only gun-related bill to pass the Legislature in several years. SB 554 authorizes local governments and school districts to prohibit guns on capital and state property. And guess who was the only Democrat to vote against it—Betsy Johnson.

In 2015, 2017, and 2018, Betsy Johnson also voted against gun-related bills—one bill requiring background checks for firearm transfers and another bill prohibiting stalkers from possessing firearms.

For someone professing a great concern for “public safety,” her record on guns should be of interest.

Kevin Smiley Southwest Portland LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210 Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx

What’s up with the hold music at the unemployment office? I still have PTSD from being on hold with them for hours every day at the beginning of COVID. Who wrote this music, and how much did they get paid? If it’s per play, they must be millionaires by now. —Holdin’ Caulfield Willamette Week is first and foremost a newspaper, so it’s always nice when readers can relate their questions to the news of the day.

Ideally, it would be a more recent day—“LONG HOLD TIMES AT OREGON UNEMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT” is not exactly ripped-from-tomorrow’s-headlines fresh—but I appreciate the effort. (Next week: “Wait, did something happen to Kobe?”)

In any case, survivors of the Great UI Benefits Stampede of 2020 will recognize the tune you’re describing, a roughly minutelong clip of soprano saxophone-fueled jazz (in, it must be said, the exact style of Kenny G) that repeated on an endless loop for however many hours—or days—you were on hold.

The song is called, somewhat unimaginatively, “Romantic Jazz,” and it was written and produced by Jack Waldenmaier of Dallas, Texas, likely sometime in the 1990s. For the right to

play this tune once a minute for all eternity, the Oregon Employment Department (or one of its telecom providers) paid Waldenmaier the princely sum of, at most, $47.

Why so cheap? Well, Waldenmaier was (he died last year) the chief composer for The Music Bakery, a service he founded in 1990 to provide inexpensive, royalty-free music for commercial use. Permanent (non-exclusive) rights to a complete Music Bakery composition are $47. A 60-second clip (which I suspect the Employment Department is using) is $39.

These attractive prices are the same whether you’re using the music for a school project or a Super Bowl commercial, making Music Bakery placements too numerous to keep track of. Son and heir Jacob Waldenmaier didn’t even know the Oregon UI shuffle was a Music Bakery joint until I told him, and he certainly couldn’t tell me who might have chosen it—or, more importantly, why.

Was the calming melody chosen to soothe angry callers? Who would think anything on a one-minute loop—much less almost-Kenny G— could be calming? Do they also think it’s calming to shout “calm down!” every 10 seconds? Would it have killed them to spend the extra $8 to at least make the loop four minutes long? We may never know.

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.

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IT’S A SMALL WORLD KRISTOF FILES APPEAL, CONTINUES FUNDRAISING: Democratic candidate for governor Nicholas Kristof filed his brief with the Oregon Supreme Court on Jan. 14, arguing why he should be included on the May primary ballot. Kristof’s attorneys say Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, a fellow Democrat, “erred” by excluding him from the ballot based primarily on his having voted in New York in 2020 and conducted various other aspects of his life there. Instead, Kristof argues, the determinative factor should be where he believes he resided: a “resident” is “someone who intends to be at home in Oregon and acts pursuant to that intent,” his brief says. Meanwhile, donations keep rolling in: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman gave Kristof $50,000 on Jan. 13—a week after Fagan disqualified the onetime New York Times columnist—and former Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger gave him $15,000 on Jan. 3.

LABOR COMMISSIONER RACE SHAPES UP: Two candidates to succeed Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle stepped forward this week. (Hoyle is running for Congress.) The first to announce: trial lawyer Christina Stephenson, who ran unsuccessfully for a House seat in Washington County in 2020 but attracted strong support from organized labor and trial lawyers. The second candidate is Yamhill County Commissioner Casey Kulla, who was the first elected official to enter the Democratic primary for governor last year but has decided instead to set his sights on the nonpartisan position, which regulates workplaces and promotes apprenticeships and job training. Kulla says the labor commissioner’s responsibilities for protecting workers and promoting a more just, sustainable economy dovetail with the concerns that drew him into the governor’s race. “I’m very excited about it,” Kulla says.

CITY COUNCIL TO HEAR PUBLIC TESTIMONY IN PROTESTER SETTLEMENT CASE: The Portland City Council will hear public testimony Jan. 19 before it votes to approve a $22,500 payout to a Tigard woman who filed a battery lawsuit against the city. Lydia Fuller alleges a Portland police officer shot her in the chest with a projectile from about half a block away as she fled a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020. As WW first reported, the city agreed to the settlement with Fuller in October. The case garnered public scrutiny because the City Attorney’s Office sought to dismiss it on the grounds that Fuller could not prove that the officer who fired the munition was with Portland Police Bureau and not the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office or Oregon State Police, agencies that assisted PPB during that protest. In response to WW’s story detailing the city’s deposition of Fuller, state Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Clackamas) called the city’s line of questioning “unethical and disgusting to me.”

RENTAL VACANCIES WILL CONTINUE TO DROP: An annual report by investor advisory agency Marcus & Millichap on multifamily housing says vacancies in Portland this year will continue to plummet, rent will rise moderately, and more people will shift to renting as prices of single-family home rise. “Housing shortages across the metro have resulted in single-family home prices surging to over six times the median household income, above the same ratio for the nation as a whole,” the Jan. 18 report reads. Construction of new multifamily buildings has slowed, meaning vacancy rates will once again fall. Developers are expected to increase available rental units by just 2% in 2022, according to the report—and vacancy is supposed to drop down to 2.8% by the end of the year. Rent is forecasted to rise just shy of 4%, a drop from last year. And the number of people moving to Portland from out of state remains steady, the forecast reports.

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Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

5

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

WHERE WE’RE AT

Here’s how Home Forward stacks up against other West Coast peers:

The One Percent The feds created emergency housing vouchers. Portland is failing to use them.

BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S

njaquiss@wweek .com

Portland-area public housing authority Home Forward continues to lag badly behind other West Coast cities when it comes to deploying the federal emergency housing vouchers Congress issued in May to pay rent for people who were homeless or on the verge becoming so.

At the time, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who fought to include the vouchers in a federal bailout package, said he hoped the vouchers would keep “vulnerable Oregonians safe and housed.”

Wyden’s wishes came true, but only in part: Clackamas County has secured leases with each of the 41 vouchers it received, a 100% success rate, while Washington County has secured leases for 56 of the 89 vouchers it received (63%).

But as WW first reported Dec. 16, Home Forward, the public housing authority for Multnomah County, has struggled to use the 476 emergency vouchers it received.

A database maintained by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, shows that as of Jan. 16, Home Forward had issued just 17 vouchers—the first step in getting a person or family housed—and secured just five leases. That is a far worse performance than other big Oregon counties—and far worse than many other West Coast cities experiencing widespread homelessness.

City/County

Vouchers

Issued to Tenant

Leases

Utilization

San Diego

480

267

185

30.21%

King County

762

511

68

8.92%

Sacramento

494

270

33

6.68%

Seattle

498

238

26

5.22%

LA County

1,964

1,015

85

4.33%

SF City/County

906

145

36

3.97%

Portland (Home Forward)

476

17

5

1.05%

LA City

3,365

641

24

0.71%

U.S.

69,810

20,760

8,110

11.62%

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Clackamas County has secured leases with each of the 41 vouchers it received, a 100% success rate, while Washington County has secured leases for 56 of the 89 vouchers it received (63%).

Home Forward officials declined interview requests, responding instead to written questions. Agency spokeswoman Monica Foucher says it is currently working with 130 applicants (that is not a metric HUD tracks, making comparison to other jurisdictions impossible).

Foucher adds that Home Forward and its partner agencies are trying to deploy the emergency vouchers while simultaneously administering other housing programs and doing so

without additional staff.

Foucher says the task is “more complex here than in other communities where the array of service providers may be much smaller,” adding, “all of this is happening in the context of operating in a pandemic, where many of the people and organizations providing and administering emergency resources are the same people and organizations tasked with addressing the pandemic.”

Wyden introduced legislation in August that would fund staff and capacity expansions for housing authorities such as Home Forward.

But in the meantime, he wants to see the vouchers used.

“While Sen. Wyden is glad for any sign of progress toward getting every available emergency housing voucher in the hands of a vulnerable Oregonian who needs them now, he also knows the job is not done until that goal is fully accomplished,” Wyden spokesman Hank Stern says. “Achieving that objective as quickly as possible is the ultimate measure of success, and he’ll keep pushing local officials to distribute all the extra vouchers.”

CORRESPONDENCE

JAIL ON PROBATION An accreditor has placed the downtown Multnomah County Jail on probation.

A national nonprofit that accredits corrections facilities based on health care standards placed the Multnomah County Detention Center on probation following a site visit in the fall.

The National Commission on Correctional Health Care notified the county of its probation status in a Dec. 16 letter addressed to Sheriff Mike Reese. That letter has not been reported until now.

“Although the facility remains accredited, probation is a very serious matter,” vice president of accreditation Amy Panagopoulos wrote. “Failure to appropriately respond to the deficient areas in a timely manner could result in your facility’s loss of accreditation.”

In October, the NCCHC conducted an on-site visit of the jail, which is located inside the Multnomah County Justice Center in downtown Portland. According to the 67-page report that accompanies the letter to Reese, the NCCHC toured the clinic, inmate housing and the intake 6

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

areas; reviewed documentation like health records and medical staff licenses; and interviewed administrators, medical staff, and two inmates who were selected at random.

The on-site review determined that the jail was in full compliance with 25 of the 38 “essential standards” (66%) and in partial compliance with the remaining 13. It also determined that the jail was in full compliance with 14 of 19 “important standards” (74%) and in partial compliance with the other five. (NCCHC requires 100% compliance with “essential standards” and 85% compliance with “important standards.”)

Panagopoulos wrote that the group would conduct a focused survey by midApril to verify compliance.

A spokesman for Sheriff Reese deferred to the county for comment. “Since being notified of the evaluation in late December, we have been conducting regular meetings with the sheriff’s office and undertaking an extensive review put in place to adhere to these accreditation requirements,” says Kate Yeiser, a spokeswoman for the county.

Yeiser also notes that most of the issues highlighted by the NCCHC are related to the jail’s policy language rather than quality of care.

“There are no concerns about the clinical outcomes or health care provided overall at our detention centers,” she adds.

“Corrections health staff have provided consistent and effective care to adults in custody despite 22 months of a pandemic and more than 130 straight days of social unrest.”

Here are four standards the jail did not meet fully, according to the NCCHC report.

TESS RISKI .

Standard: “Inmate workers, if used, are trained in appropriate methods for handling and disposing of biohazardous materials and spills.”

Reason for partial compliance: “Inmate workers are trained by the officer in the area in which they work; however, there is no formal training program for the officer to follow nor is there documentation of the training of the inmate workers.”

Standard: “The responsible health authority and facility administrator approve the facility’s suicide prevention program.”

Reason for partial compliance: “There was no evidence that the RHA and the facility administrator have approved the suicide prevention program.”

Standard: “On each shift where health staff are present, inventories are maintained on items subject to abuse (e.g., needles, scissors, other sharp instruments) and

discrepancies are immediately reported to custody staff.”

Reason for partial compliance: “On each shift where health staff are present, inventories are maintained on items subject to abuse except in the dental clinic. The dental assistant performs a full count of all tools, sharps and needles three times a year. At the end of each dental clinic, the tools and sharps used are inventoried.

We conducted a count during the survey and found discrepancies.” (The report adds that, during the visit, the dentist established a new process for maintaining inventories.)

Standard: “All qualified health care professionals have credentials and provide services consistent with the licensure, certification, and registration requirements of the jurisdiction…the [health administrator] maintains verification of current credentials of all qualified health care professionals at a readily accessible location.”

Reason for partial compliance: “While several licenses were presented for review during the survey, we could not verify that all qualified health care professionals had a current license.” (The report notes that the health administrator has designated an offsite credentialing department to manage and verify licenses, and that this credentialing department notifies the administrator when a license nears expiration.)

TIMELINE

Cold Case Long after indicting him, authorities drop a sex abuse case against Terry Bean.

Last week, the Lane County District Attorney threw in the towel in its long-running sexual abuse case against Terry Bean, the Portland real estate investor, civil rights pioneer and prodigious Democratic fundraiser. Bean, 73, raised more than $500,000 to help elect President Barack Obama, rode with Obama on Air Force One, and co-founded the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay rights organization.

But he was also accused of sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy, as was his former boyfriend and co-defendant, Kiah Lawson.

The tortuous eight-year history of the case against Bean includes a fugitive witness, multiple civil lawsuits and bar complaints, and an extensive stretch behind bars for Lawson. N I G E L J AQ U I S S .

June 3, 2014: WW publishes a cover story detailing Bean and Lawson’s acrimonious breakup (“Terry Bean’s Problem”). Lawson alleged Bean illegally filmed him and other men having sex in Bean’s home; Bean alleged Lawson stole from him and tried to extort him.

November 2014: Bean and Lawson are indicted in Lane County on charges that they sexually abused a 15-year-old boy there in 2013, known in court documents by his initials, M.S.G. September 2015: The charges against Bean and Lawson are dismissed after M.S.G. flees the state on the eve of trial. Found after an extensive search, M.S.G. refuses to testify.

September 2018: M.S.G files a complaint with the Oregon State Bar, alleging that his attorney, Lori Deveny, stole most of a $220,000 payment Bean agreed to pay him in return for his agreement not to testify.

(Deveny would later be indicted on state and federal charges.)

January 2019: Bean and Lawson are reindicted in Lane County on the original charges after M.S.G changes his mind and agrees to cooperate with the prosecution.

September 2019: Lawson stands trial first.

He’s convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.

August 2020: The Oregon Court of Appeals reverses Lawson’s conviction because the jury verdict (11-1) was not unanimous. He remained in custody pending retrial.

Jan. 14, 2022: The charges against both Bean and Lawson are dismissed after M.S.G. again declines to cooperate with prosecutors. Lawson and his attorney didn’t return calls for comment. Bean’s attorney, Steven Sherlag, issued a brief statement after the dismissal, saying, “Terry Bean has continually maintained his innocence and is pleased the state has dismissed all criminal charges.”

TWO QUESTIONS

DONOR

Did Donald Trump Win in 2020?

Contribution of the Week HOW MUCH? $2 million

WHO GOT IT?

We asked the leading independent and Republican candidates for governor if Biden’s win was fraudulent.

Former President Donald Trump insists without evidence that the election he lost in 2020 was stolen from him. That belief is endemic in his Republican Party. So we asked the GOP’s leading candidates for Oregon governor where they stood on Trump’s conspiracy claims to excuse his defeat—and whether they would seek his endorsement. (We also asked a prominent, unaffiliated candidate who is courting Republican votes.) The answers radically differentiate the candidates. R AC H E L M O N A H A N .

We asked: “Did Joe Biden legitimately win the 2020 presidential election?”

YES Former state Sen. Betsy Johnson (unaffiliated) Yes. Joe Biden won the election.

Steven Cody Reynolds, a Democratic candidate for Congress in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District.

DECLINED TO ANSWER West Linn political consultant Bridget Barton She answered the second question, but not this one.

Salem oncologist Dr. Bud Pierce (R) Pierce is on vacation this week, his campaign said. (We plan to ask him both questions again next week.)

We asked: “Are you seeking Trump’s endorsement? Will you invite him to campaign with you in Oregon if he endorses you?”

YES Pulliam I’d love to add President Trump to our long list of endorsements, and I look forward to sharing a rally stage with him in Oregon in the near future.

State Rep. Christine Drazan (R-Canby) I’m disappointed the press is apparently still Barton obsessed with litigating the 2020 election. My Oregon voters have a once-in-a-decade chance to select a candidate who will finally lead Oregon. campaign is about serving Oregonians and reversing our decade of decline under Democratic Actually lead! The state faces multiple crises leadership. It’s about fixing after years of rapid downward our schools, keeping our “ President Trump may decline. I’m an outsider who’s communities safe, and putlaser-focused on problem solvvery well have won the ting an end to Gov. Brown’s past presidential election, ing, not polarized politics. Of top-down mandates. Biden course, I welcome all support, and the fact that we may won. I’m focused on the that of President Trump, peonever know with 100% here and now, not an elecple who voted for President certainty who was the tion from two years ago. I Trump, and people who did not true winner is a travesty.” vote for President Trump. But encourage the press to do the same. most importantly, I’m working for the endorsement and supUNCLEAR RESULTS port of my fellow Oregonians who for too long have been forced to settle for a Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam (R) President Trump may very well have won the failure. Oregon Republicans are uniting to move past presidential election, and the fact that we forward with a new governor. may never know with 100% certainty who was DECLINED TO SAY the true winner is a travesty. The truth is that, Drazan leading up to the election, there was a well-coordinated network of lawsuits, opportunistic I am focused on seeking the support of OregoCOVID concessions, rampant barriers imposed nians and will accept endorsements from those on election observers, and a nation unprepared who share my vision for keeping our schools for the wide adoption of vote by mail. Democrats open full time and in person, restoring commuin key areas were well prepared to take advannity safety, and making Oregon a more affordtage of these situations while social media cenable place to live and raise a family. sored mainstream media stories critical of Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s influence peddling.

NO Is it any wonder that only 20% of Americans Johnson (unaffiliated) are confident that our elections are conducted No, I am not seeking any national partisan enfairly? It’s the system that’s rigged—the election dorsements or campaign assistance. I don’t care was just the result. We have a lot to do to restore if you voted for Trump or Biden, and you don’t the voters’ confidence. need to leave your party to vote for me. You only have to want to have an independent governor make the two parties work together to get things done for the people of Oregon.

WHO GAVE IT?

Reynolds. He announced last week that he’d loaned his campaign the money. It showed up in December, according to his filings with the Federal Election Commission, but hasn’t been previously reported. (He also reported spending $42,000 so far, nearly all of it on billboards.)

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Oregon gained a sixth congressional seat as a result of the 2020 census. Although the opening has drawn a lot of interest, there is no clear front-runner. Other Democrats in the race include former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith; state Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Lake Oswego); Dr. Kathleen Harder, a Salem physician; and Matt West, an Intel engineer and first-time candidate who has loaned his campaign $437,000. Also considering the race: state Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon (D-Woodburn) and former Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem). If Reynolds’ loan is legit, it could be enough to make him a contender.

WHAT DOES REYNOLDS SAY?

Reynolds moved to Oregon at 18 and later graduated from West Point. He ran for federal office in Oregon four times between 2012 and 2018.

He says, after failing to make a dent in previous elections, he set out to accumulate enough wealth to self-fund his next campaign and did so through early and timely investments in cryptocurrencies. He’s changed his minor-party affiliation to Democrat and pledges to spend enough to reach every voter in his district. “Before, I naively thought I could do that with ideas and passion,” Reynolds says, “but the political system is no longer a marketplace of ideas.

It’s also about reach and money.”

N I G E L J AQ U I S S .

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

7

“ a f e t

NEWS

DESERTED ISLAND: A Center for Covid Control testing shed in the parking lot of a Southeast Portland convenience store.

Out of Control How a COVID-19 testing company evaded government scrutiny for more than three months.

BY S O P H I E P E E L

speel@wweek .com

On an early January morning, Jordan Zandi felt terrible. So he went to the only COVID-19 testing site he could find that didn’t require an appointment.

He stood in a line that doubled back on itself because it was so long. People inched toward a shed and a plastic folding table plunked in the parking lot of Johnson Creek Market, a convenience store deep in Southeast Portland.

The site didn’t inspire confidence. He gave the testing company his personal information and was told to swab his own nose in his car. Then he dropped his sample into a plastic bin.

“There’s a little plastic bin that you put that in. There were a bunch of other bags in there,” Zandi says. “There’s no disposable area for your swab. I ended up just taking it home and putting it in the trash.”

Zandi tested negative. But he was certain he had COVID. He had night sweats and severe body aches. He went back a week later and tested negative again.

The setup, Zandi says, was clearly makeshift, and its workers seemed to know little. But Zandi didn’t think much about it: “Everything was so ragtag around the pandemic anyway.”

Last week, WW reported the Oregon Department of Justice had launched an investigation into Center for Covid Control, the company that operated the testing site Zandi visited.

Justice officials launched the probe three months after they received two complaints about the Illinois-based company from Oregonians. The embattled company, which coordinates 300 sites across the country, is under investigation in nearly a dozen other states.

In some cases, according to news reports across the country, patients said they waited weeks for results. In other cases, they said they were emailed results before they took the test.

WW could find no pending legal actions against the company.

8

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

In addition, the Oregon Health Authority told WW last week it had received no test results from the company or its partner lab since it began operating as early as October—a violation of state and federal law.

If true, that means thousands of Portlanders took tests for COVID-19 whose results are now in question. And it means state officials never saw a significant number of COVID test results as the Omicron wave began.

Federal, state and local officials have said little about their investigations, even after the feds gave Center for Covid Control’s lab partner—which appears to be run by the company—more than $100 million.

Though the company decided to close its sites for a week citing staffing shortages, it’s not clear whether it will resume operations in Oregon.

gency of the pandemic, the federal government made an exception allowing companies to operate multiple temporary mobile sites for COVID-19 testing under a single certificate. Federal guidance doesn’t put a limit on the number of mobile sites that can operate under one certificate.

Databases tracking such certificates show only one for the company.

Experts in CLIA certification feel Center for Covid Control stretched the intent of the exemption. Dr. David Ku, an internal medicine doctor who directs multiple labs, says it should not apply to one company with 300 different sites, especially if not all are mobile. (One of the Portland sites is a storefront in the Hollywood neighborhood.)

“You cannot make an argument that these are temporary labs, because these places have storefronts,” says Ku. “It’s absolutely a violation.”

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services oversees CLIA certificates, but the federal agency’s office in Seattle declined to furnish WW with even basic facts about certification.

USA Today reported over the weekend that CMS inspected Doctors Clinical Laboratory late last year—the lab CCC claims to partner with to process its PCR tests but which, according to USA Today’s reporting, is effectively run by CCC— and found that the lab was out of compliance. It also visited several testing sites.

That investigation is ongoing.

SO WHO CHECKS IF THE RULES ARE BEING FOLLOWED? There is little oversight of testing sites such as those operated by Center for Covid Control.

Reporting testing results to local health authorities is required by state and federal law.

But it appears OHA was aware of the company: Spokesman Rudy Owens said last week that “We have received complaints about this company and referred them to the Oregon Department of Justice for investigation.” He added that sites must notify the state if they’re functioning as a testing site, but did not say whether the company had done so.

Owens said Doctors Clinical Laboratory “is on OHA’s list to onboard for [electronic reporting], and we are waiting for additional information from this laboratory to begin the

Allegations include patients receiving results before they took the test, improper handling of testing kits, and delays in PCR test results lasting weeks.

Over the past week, WW has examined how a company could slip through the cracks of regulatory agencies for months while thousands of Portlanders took tests, trusting their results were accurate.

What emerges is evidence of a country in desperation: The scarcity of tests across the U.S. has created a system where overnight startups can make large amounts of money billing the federal government for services over which regulators have little oversight.

ARE THESE LABS REGULATED? Normally, any diagnostic testing site or lab must be federally certified. That certification is governed by the 1988 Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments to the Public Health Service Act, or CLIA for short.

But in 2020, amid the public health emer-

onboarding process.”

It’s impossible to know just how many tests went unreported to the state over the past three months. But the company said last week it performed 80,000 tests a day nationwide during the Omicron surge.

State health officials and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pointed fingers at each other when asked who is supposed to maintain records on testing sites. What is clear is that the more basic the test the sites do, the less oversight government agencies provide.

Center for Covid Control has a “waived” certificate, intended for sites doing low-complexity tests—even though the company was doing moderate-complexity antigen rapid tests and PCR tests (That’s another exception the feds made for COVID-19 testing sites because of the pandemic.)

The feds also expedited the certification process for COVID-19 sites. “They’ve been giving CLIA certificates out like water,” says Ku. Waived sites get no regular checkups, whereas facilities with a higher certificate do undergo normal checkups and evaluations.

“I think the public health agencies need to go to every single one of these pop-ups,” says Ku. “My opinion is that these could be shut down immediately, but a lot of public health agencies just don’t have teeth.”

The Oregon Department of Justice received its first complaint about a Center for Covid Control site Oct. 3. It opened its investigation three months later—just as news broke nationally that the company was under scrutiny.

HOW IS THE COMPANY MAKING MONEY? Last week, experts including Ku told WW that the company was likely billing the federal government for test services.

That was confirmed by independent journalist Michael Figueroa, who reported the lab received $124 million from a federal program that pays companies that provide testing for the uninsured. The story was picked up by USA Today.

WW asked United Healthcare, the company cutting checks for the federal program, last week if CCC or the lab had been paid for tests.

United never responded.

Portlanders who took a test at one of the three Portland-area sites say they were asked to fill out insurance information if they had it.

Opal Brockschmidt did. They filled in their Oregon Health Plan policy number online.

“They said they were going to bill insurance for the test,” Brockschmidt says.

Oregon Health Plan declined to say whether it had been billed by Center for Covid Control or its lab, citing member confidentiality.

WHO’S BEHIND THE PORTLAND POP-UPS? Until last week, Center for Covid Control operated three locations locally.

The site in Southeast Portland is in the parking lot of the Johnson Creek Market. WW spoke to an employee of the market, who said the operator of the site was a friend of the store manager and denied there was any wrongdoing.

“That’s a complete lie,” he said when told the state had received no results. As WW was leaving, he said, “That’s bullshit, fuck that. Use your mind.”

A webpage run by Center for Covid Control, which is now password protected, says it’s searching for “testing site owners” and encourages interested parties to reach out to its franchisee department.

On that same page was a list of all the sites the company said were opening soon. Two new Portland-area sites were listed: an empty storefront at 1541 W Burnside St. and an address in Tigard.

WW visited the Tigard address, which was a light blue house in the suburbs. Two men answered the door, both in their 30s or 40s.

One of the men spoke with WW for 10 minutes, but declined to give his name. He said he had been the manager of the Tigard site and allowed the company to list his home address as a site temporarily. He said his home was not a site, nor was it going to be.

We asked how he found the work: “I just looked around,” he replied. “I don’t know. I just got it.”

NEWS

Knight and Days

The mock-biblical verse promises to “christen your heads with hickory” and “anoint your faces with pepper spray” before ending with an “Amen.”

May 25, 2020: Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murders George Floyd.

A meme mocking protesters is the latest chapter in the Portland Police Bureau’s fraught history.

BY T E S S R I S K I

June 2020: Black Lives Matter protests grow nationwide, including Portland. The RRT is deployed to police protests and riots near downtown courthouses.

June 5, 2020: Black-led Portland group Don’t Shoot PDX files a federal lawsuit against the city accusing Portland police officers of using excessive force against Black Lives Matter protesters and effectively stifling free speech. Four days later, U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez grants a temporary restraining order that restricts the Police Bureau from using tear gas except in situations “in which the lives or safety of the public or the police are at risk.”

tess@week .com

On Jan. 14, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler revealed that a meme associated with the far right had been included in a PowerPoint presentation used to train the Portland Police Bureau’s riot squad, the Rapid Response Team.

The meme’s black-and-white photo depicts an anonymous figure in military gear poised with gloved fist to strike a “dirty hippy”—a white, dreadlocked, wannabe Marxist who reeks of sweat and Patchouli oil, according to the image’s text. The mock-biblical verse promises to “christen your heads with hickory” and “anoint your faces with pepper spray” before conclding with an “Amen.”

It’s not clear when or where the meme originated. In 2017, a web account claiming to belong to far-right brawler Based Stickman, whose real name is Kyle Chapman, posted the image to the website knowyourmeme.com, alongside the title “Prayer of the Alt Knight.”

The meme proliferated online from roughly 2017 to 2019, Google search results show. It was within that time window, in about 2018, that the PowerPoint presentation was created, says Wheeler, although he cautions that the city doesn’t know for certain.

The city says the presentation was part of a training session for RRT members. A court deposition reviewed by WW indicates the training was likely conducted by four agencies, including the Oregon State Police and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

Now, the piece of lowbrow internet fodder has become the latest lightning rod for perceptions among the public, City Hall and, perhaps, the courts about the RRT’s treatment of protesters in recent years. (The riot squad itself is now defunct after voting to disband in June.)

“The extremist imagery and vitriol portrayed by the Portland Police Bureau Rapid Response Team’s training presentation is reprehensible,” said City Commissioner Dan Ryan last week.

The U.S. Department of Justice also weighed in. On Tuesday, it addressed a scathing letter to the City Attorney’s Office and Police Chief Chuck Lovell that accused the city of giving the DOJ a heads-up about the presentation slides less than 24 hours before releasing the PowerPoint to the press.

“Some PPB and city employees knew or should have known about these materials for years,” wrote DOJ attorneys Jonas Geissler and Jared D. Hager. “The city should have reported these RRT training materials when they were developed, as required by [the 2014 settlement] agreement.…The existence of these RRT training materials might have materially impacted our assessments of the city’s compliance with the agreement.”

Wheeler and Lovell said they learned of the image’s existence about four months ago, in September, during the discovery process in an ongoing federal lawsuit between the city and the Blackled organization Don’t Shoot Portland. The group sued the city in June 2020, days after the murder of George Floyd spurred Black Lives Matter protests nationwide, including in Portland.

The lawsuit alleges that Police Bureau officers—specifically those on the RRT—used excessive force against protesters via tear gas and projectiles in an effort to stifle free speech.

Until last week, many of the documents dredged up during discovery in the lawsuit had been filed under seal. Then the protective order was lifted for some of the records, including sworn depositions of police officers, as well as the RRT PowerPoint presentation, says Juan Chavez, one of the attorneys representing Don’t Shoot Portland. He adds that the city provided the discovery documents in mid-September.

July 6, 2020: Hernandez signs a protective order to place many documents in the federal lawsuit under seal.

“We were pretty shocked at what we saw,” Chavez says. He and his colleagues had intended to include some of the materials in a Jan. 14 motion seeking to designate the lawsuit as a class action.

“The legal question is, in fact, a class question,” Chavez says.

“Is there a pattern and practice of violating civil rights in the city of Portland?”

Here’s a timeline to help explain why a meme that peaked in popularity roughly five years ago has sparked an internal affairs investigation within the Police Bureau, swift condemnation from officials, and headlines in local and national news outlets.

Nov. 9, 2011: One of the earliest known references to the meme was posted on a now-archived forum on the website officer.com.

The original poster, a Connecticut lawyer, wrote in the forum that it was intended “for those dealing with occupy movements and so forth.”

2017: An account that purports to be that of Based Stickman posts the “dirty hippy” meme online, dubbing it “Prayer of the Alt Knight.” Stickman is the alter ego of Kyle Chapman, a California man who briefly attained national fame for battling anti-fascists while wearing a gas mask and wielding a large stick. (In May 2017, he visited Portland for a “free speech rally” shortly after Jeremy Christian murdered two men who interrupted his racist rant on a MAX train.) It’s not clear whether the meme was posted at this time by Chapman or one of his acolytes.

Approximately 2018: The PowerPoint presentation is created for training of the Police Bureau’s Rapid Response Team.

The meme appears in the last of 110 slides in the presentation.

Chavez says the city’s estimated date is based on the PowerPoint file format.

The attorneys for Don’t Shoot Portland recently deposed Franz Schoening, the RRT commander during the summer 2020 protests. In excerpts of that deposition, reviewed by WW, Schoening said the training for RRT and the Mobile Response Team is typically provided jointly by instructors from four agencies: the Portland Police Bureau, Oregon State Police, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the Salem Police Department.

Schoening added that the training is usually held at Camp Rilea in Warrenton and that the presentation “appears to be part of the material provided at the state basic RRT MRT course.”

June 27, 2018: A draft report obtained by WW shows Portland police viewed far-right protesters as less of a threat than leftist ones. “One lieutenant felt the right-wing protesters were ‘much more mainstream’ than the left-wing protesters, with a group that was diverse in their viewpoints and tactics,” the report says. The following year, text messages obtained by WW reveal close communications between a PPB sergeant and a right-wing protest organizer.

March 16, 2021: After finding Portland police in contempt for violating the TRO, Hernandez orders five sanctions against the city, including removing Officer Brent Taylor from crowd management duties pending investigations by the Police Bureau’s internal affairs unit or the city’s Independent Police Review.

June 17, 2021: The Rapid Response Team announces its voluntary dissolution following the indictment of RRT member Corey Budworth, who faces one charge of assault for striking a photojournalist.

July 12, 2021: The Office of the Compliance Officer and Community Liaison, which oversees the city’s adherence to the 2012 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, issues a report that describes a “dismissive” attitude of RRT members during a training that Judge Hernandez had sanctioned in March: “We observed this training and found it to be overall disappointing.…RRT members did not seem to take the training seriously (e.g., none of the attendees turned on their video cameras and one freely admitted to ‘multitasking’)…the instructor failed to clarify the difference between physical resistance and active aggression.”

July 14, 2021: Judge Hernandez allows “limited discovery” in the case, meaning the city must hand over relevant documents to the plaintiff and submit to depositions.

Aug. 22, 2021: Portland police stay away as Proud Boys take over a Northeast Portland neighborhood during a demonstration.

Brawls between Proud Boys and anti-fascist counterprotesters ensue. Toese headlines the event.

September 2021: The city discovers the “dirty hippy” slide while compiling documents pursuant to Judge Hernandez’s order for discovery. Don’t Shoot Portland attorneys begin deposing Police Bureau employees. The city provides the discovery documents to Don’t Shoot Portland’s attorneys.

Jan. 14, 2022: The filing deadline for Don’t Shoot Portland to submit its motion for certification of a class of people affected by police actions. On that day, Wheeler’s office releases the PowerPoint presentation to the media, along with statements by him and Chief Lovell condemning the final slide and announcing they had initiated an internal affairs investigation into the matter.

End of January: The city is expected to release a report detailing an outside contractor’s review of possible political and racial bias within the Portland Police Bureau. The review was commissioned after City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty was falsely implicated in a March 3 hit-and-run when at least three Portland police officers, including then-Portland Police Association president Brian Hunzeker, leaked dispatch records to colleagues or the media.

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

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8/20/21 12:33 PM

BY THACHER SCHMID • PHOTOGR APHY BY SAM GEHRKE

HOUSE LE SS ON WH E E L S Hundreds of Portlanders are living in their cars. Here’s how they do it.

WAY UP IN NORTH PORTLAND, not far from the Jubitz Truck Stop, sits a new Portland neighborhood whose homes you won’t find on any map.

Along North Union Court, on a recent rainy day, dozens of decaying RVs, cars and campers lined the road, alongside tents that appeared to be floating in puddles.

The scent of chocolate from a nearby bakery mixed with the smell of cigarette smoke, gasoline, urine and feces. Burn piles, discarded furniture, and orange caps from hypodermic syringes dotted the landscape. Traffic noise and roaring gas generators made conversation difficult.

About 30 people call this swath of city-owned Delta Park home. Some sleep in tents, but most

reside in vehicles ranging from subcompact cars to full-size RVs. This encampment is illegal, but city officials look the other way.

On this Thursday, outside a vintage RV, a humming generator powered lights and a TV inside.

The resident is a man who gave his name as Chris who says he was sober 11 years, then relapsed at the start of the pandemic. Meth is his drug of choice. Within months of relapsing, he lost his job, then his housing.

Life is a challenge in an RV, Chris admits, but better than sleeping in a tent. “The wind just rips through these fucking tents,” he says. “It’s brutal.”

C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 1 2

UNDER COVER: A weather tarp covers an RV parked near Interstate 84 in Northeast Portland.

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

11

CO NTI N U E D F RO M PAG E 11

In Portland, the number of people living in vehicles is growing.

Ben Sand, a former board member of A Home for Everyone, which provides homeless services in Multnomah County, says local vehicle residency is “metastasizing.”

Sara Rankin, director of Seattle University School of Law’s Homeless Rights Advocacy Project, says people living in vehicles is emerging as the fastest-growing homeless subpopulation in the U.S. By some estimates, vehicle residents comprise more than a third of unhoused people in West Coast cities.

On paper, it’s illegal to live in your vehicle in Portland.

But city planner Eric Engstrom says “active” enforcement is not happening right now for three reasons: the Martin v. Boise decision, which says officials can’t sweep houseless people without corresponding shelter space; federal COVID safety guidelines; and because “it’s unpopular and not super effective.”

In many cases, people who live in their vehicles are hidden in plain sight, blending into residential street parking with few signs they’re there besides window shades.

In 2019, the most recent year Multnomah County counted unhoused people, vehicle residents did not appear in official statistics (see “But Who’s Counting?” page 13).

That failure to report a number reflects the wider inattention given to people living in cars and other vehicles.

Even as the numbers keep growing, Portland and Multnomah County officials have repeatedly failed to create a program or location where people living in vehicles can legally park overnight.

“Vehicle residency is a hidden crisis in plain sight,” Rankin says—one both missing from official data and hidden by “thin tin.” It’s reaching “an unprecedented pitch,” she adds, and the result “is not only inhumane, it amounts to a costly rotating door that imposes significant fiscal burdens on cities.”

Vehicle residency has nearly century-old roots, ranging from “Okies” in car homes on Route 66 to Instagram influencers living glam existences in tricked-out vans.

But what’s happening on Portland’s margins is a far cry from #vanlife.

For unhoused people, the logic of the choice to move into a vehicle is clear. Vehicles are often the best option for those displaced from a very expensive housing market, says Tristia Bauman of the National Homelessness Law Center. (Portland is the third-highest metro area in the U.S. for cost-of-living increases.)

What’s it like to live in a small metal box designed for transportation? In five interviews, vehicle residents suggest it’s grueling.

Moving is stressful. Vehicle dwellers do it constantly.

City codes prohibit “camping,” including “any vehicle or part thereof” on public property or roadways. So many vehicle residents just drive around, as Lee, a man living in an aging, graffitied Chevy Astro, says he did for months before settling in Northeast Portland near Interstate 84. (Lee declined to share his last name. For this story, WW didn’t require vehicle residents to give last names, and some of their assertions could not be verified.)

Wheels can be a way of avoiding enforcement actions in Portland, even without driving away. Lee notes recent city sweeps of people living in tents near where he parks 12

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

allowed vehicle residents to remain. He calls the life a “limbo zone” but appreciates such advantages.

The zones where people often settle, near freeways and airports, are noisy. “We’re always screaming at each other,” says Genevieve Nunez, who lives in an RV at Delta Park.

Hygiene is a constant worry, Nunez adds. She relies on baby wipes. “Relationships with your husband, whatever,” she says. “Being a female, you have to.” She showers at the Jubitz Truck Stop, which increased its price from $15 to $25 in June.

Rats can infest a vehicle’s structure. Moisture is a constant battle this time of year. “You have to move around your situation,” Lee says, restructuring the interior so mold can’t grow.

Gas-powered generators or car batteries provide electricity. Lee’s generator failed, so he depends on two car batteries, taking one to Batteries Plus to recharge while the other powers his home.

Lee and many others use inverters—which convert direct current to alternating current—to charge their

cellphones and power Wi-Fi hot spots to access the internet or stream video.

Life in a vehicle is always a challenge. Sometimes it’s an existential threat.

For Sara Kuust and Jake Blackburn, a traumatizing moment living in a vehicle last year merged the challenge of going to the bathroom with the affection and companionship provided by animals.

Last January, after losing their place at a Portland hotel, they moved into the couple’s 1999 Chevy Blazer with a friend and four kittens named Baby Girl, Earl, Li’l Bit and Spaz. They kept a litter box on top of possessions stacked “like Tetris” in the back.

Kuust was pregnant and “had been holding my pee a lot” due to the inaccessibility of restrooms. Her favorite kitten, Baby Girl, was purring in her lap in a big box store parking lot when the unthinkable happened: She had a miscarriage. No doctor, no hospital: just her car.

C O N T I N U E D O N PAG E 1 4

PARK AND RIDE: Occupied vehicles line North Union Court in city-owned Delta Park

For unhoused people, the logic of the choice to move into a vehicle is clear. Vehicles are often the best option for those displaced from a very expensive housing market, says Tristia Bauman of the National Homelessness Law Center.

BUT WHO’S COUNTING? Clues hint at how many people live in their vehicles on the streets of Portland.

How many people are living in their vehicles in Portland? It’s not a figure that local agencies have tracked closely, but clues exist.

Federal officials require local authorities to count the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night every two years to ensure “continued eligibility for state and federal funding.” Locally, the Joint Office of Homeless Services sponsors a street or “point in time” count, and Multnomah County does a shelter count.

The 2021 PITC was canceled due to COVID. So the most recent count was made in January 2019.

But the 2019 count did not report how many people were sleeping in vehicles.

After questions from WW, county officials said they did know the number: 310 individuals. By comparison, the 2017 PITC reported 257 households, including 41 “families with children,” but an unknown number of individuals sleeping in vehicles.

The lack of reporting of vehicle residency in 2019 is confusing because sleeping location has for years been the first question on the PITC survey, which is usually completed by the “head of household.”

“It’s a good question: What the fuck happened to question number one?” says Marisa Zapata, director of Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative. (PSU is handling this year’s count, as in 2017 and 2019, but Zapata was not involved in the 2019 PITC.) The Joint Office of Homeless Services is in charge of the count. Its spokesman, Denis Theriault, says 310 individuals were counted in 2019 but not reported due to a “simple oversight.” He declined to elaborate, other than to note that the 2019 report was the first to include an interactive dashboard.

The PITC is one of several data points that help direct significant sums of federal

dollars through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s complicated and opaque “continuum of care” system. So getting the fullest possible picture of who’s living in cars comes with significant stakes.

Estimates of total federal allocations for homeless services since the CARES Act fall between $12.5 billion and $17 billion.

That’s on top of local funding, including the 2020 Metro homeless services measure, which will provide the Joint Office with nearly $1 billion in the coming decade.

Numbers tallied in the three years since the last official count suggest vehicle residency has grown significantly.

In March 2020, when the pandemic hit, reports of people living in vehicles to the city’s One Point of Contact system tripled, from around 100 to 389—then doubled the next month, to 633. Last month, it hit 1,093.

Some believe the true scope of the vehicle residency problem is much larger than local officials acknowledge. Benji Vuong, who helps distribute food and supplies to people living in vehicles for the group Free Hot Soup, estimates there are 5,000 vehicle residents in the metro area.

This year’s point in time count is scheduled to begin Jan. 26. (To volunteer, email pointintime@pdx.edu.)

PSU’s Zapata says she doesn’t see what’s gained by knowing how many people are in vehicles versus tents: “What would you gain by having that split? Is there a meaningful difference there that would matter to solving homelessness?”

She acknowledges, however, that vehicle residency remains a gray area.

“The stuff on wheels makes me very nervous,” she says. “I think it’s actually quite complicated. How people use RVs to live and survive in, not as recreation—that is not well understood.” T H AC H E R S C H M I D .

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

13

Nomads by the Numbers 310

People residing in vehicles in Multnomah County on a single night, as recorded in the last point in time count, conducted in January 2019. In the 2017 count, there were 257 households but an unknown number of individuals. (In 2011, 150 individual vehicle residents were counted.)

1,093

Reports of people living in vehicles received by the city of Portland in a single week in December. That’s the highest number of complaints recorded by the Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program in the past two years.

2,299

Complaints received by the Portland Bureau of Transportation about people living in vehicles on city streets in 2021. Those complaints declined steeply from 3,750 and 3,873 in 2020 and 2019, respectively. “We think the numbers from 2019 to 2021 are going down not because there are fewer people living in vehicles, but because members of the public are less likely to call now,” PBOT spokesman Dylan Rivera says.

29

RV fires in 2021 that Portland Fire & Rescue logged as “homeless related.” That’s double the 13 such fires recorded in 2020. In 2019, there were three.

$780,000

American Rescue Plan funds allocated to RVP3 through the end of 2024. It began as a pilot program in March 2021 and was recently funded for three years.

999

RVs served by RVP3 since the program started.

6

Locations visited regularly by both PBOT’s vehicle inspection team and BES graywater contractors, because city officials know inhabited RVs are parked there. These sites include Delta Park, camps along Interstate 205 between Southeast Powell Boulevard and Flavel Street, Northeast 33rd Avenue near Marine Drive, and the Big Four Corners Natural Area near Portland International Airport.

14

16,000

Gallons of graywater reclaimed from RVs parked on city streets by the Bureau of Environmental Services’ new RV Pollution Prevention Program, or RVP3, according to spokeswoman Diane Dulken.

38,000

Estimate of people experiencing houselessness in the tri-county area in 2017, according to Marisa Zapata, director of Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative.

This number is driven by school counts, Zapata says.

51%

Percentage of the total 4,015 unhoused people counted in 2019, the most recent available count, who were considered “unsheltered”—i.e., living in a place “not meant for human habitation,” such as a vehicle, street or abandoned building: 2,037 in all.

37%

Percentage of the total 4,655 unhoused people counted in 2011 who were considered “unsheltered,” or 1,718 in all.

$16.2 million

American Rescue Plan funds budgeted for Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office to establish and run six “Safe Rest Villages,” including a “Safe Park Village” for vehicles, for up to three years, according to Ryan’s spokesman Bryan Aptekar.

$1.5 million

Estimated cost of bringing a considered Expo Center Safe Park Village up to permitting standards, according to Aptekar.

60

Maximum number of vehicles per city code that could be hosted on a theoretical, flat, paved 2-acre lot that Ryan’s office is considering, Aptekar says.

40

Average vehicles served by the Safe Parking Zone in Vancouver, Wash. T H AC H E R S C H M I D .

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 1 3

Vehicle residents grapple with other dangers, including addiction and fires. Portland Fire & Rescue spokesman Lt. Rich Tyler says there were 29 houselessness-related RV fires last year—more than double the 13 in 2020, up from three in 2019.

Two RV dwellers died in fires in the past three years, the agency says. There were 1,516 vehicle fires in the four years from 2018 to 2021, a big increase over the previous seven years.

At North Union Court and other local vehicle residency communities, gasoline, propane, cigarettes, stoves, open flames and intoxication can form a volatile mix.

Last year, Chris says, he put gasoline into a container that normally held water, forgetting to tell his partner before going to sleep.

“So she fills the pan up—I think she was boiling water to do dishes,” Chris recalls. “She freaking lights the burner and whoosh! I wake up to her screaming and I see a big flame…I levitated to the front of this fucking trailer, grabbed the fire extinguisher and put it out. It [went up] so fast it was mind-boggling.”

Drugs numb the pain but can lead to addiction, or overdose.

Methamphetamine was the drug of choice for residents of another large vehicle residency community on

Northeast 33rd Avenue in 2020. At Delta Park, Nunez says, “it’s heroin and the blues”—blue fentanyl pills.

Heroin is her drug of choice. “We usually just fall asleep on the bed, sitting up or nodding out,” Nunez says.

Chris claims to have saved four lives in the area by keeping naloxone, a nasal spray that can halt an opioid overdose, in his RV. “Everybody knows to come here if they need Narcan,” he says.

Since the passage of Measure 110 in 2020, possession of most drugs for personal use has been decriminalized in a state that is perennially among the worst in the nation at addressing substance abuse and mental health disorders in rankings compiled by Mental Health America. “We’re always at the bottom,” says Portland Housing Commissioner Dan Ryan.

In the wake of drug decriminalization, Portland Police Bureau Sgt. Jennifer Butcher says, police treat vehicle residents in possession of drugs the same as people inside a dwelling—deprioritizing such calls as long as users are not driving. Police say they see an increase in vehicle residency and a corresponding rise in calls for service to those areas.

Nunez claims two people have died at the Delta Park encampment so far this winter. Those deaths could not be verified, but Portland police say they do have a record

The local response to the church parking idea was “tentative” and “hesitant,” Joint Office spokesman Denis Theriault notes. Catholic Charities of Oregon declined to comment.

Laura Purkey, a St. Johns resident who assists people living in their vehicles with food and services through the volunteer program Free Hot Soup, says local governments aren’t acting with enough urgency.

“Clearly, it’s not enough,” she says. “It’s just a BandAid over a gaping wound. It just doesn’t seem right to me, for this kind of continual crisis, that we don’t have something that’s more organized to kind of step in.

Like [Federal Emergency Management Agency]. Why don’t we have an emergency response? Why are we just letting this continue on and on?”

ON THE ROAD: Critics contend that the government help for people living in places like Delta Park is inadequate.

of two death investigation calls in 2021 at the location.

Many cities have designated “safe parking” programs for people living in vehicles. Unlike Beaverton, Vancouver, Wash., and 43 other U.S. cities, however, Portland does not.

Late last year, Ryan’s office and Metro halted almost a year’s worth of talks to put one at the Expo Center.

Officials blame the difficulty of siting a lot near wetlands.

“Portland does need to move on this,” Ryan says.

“When you’re driving around town, you can just see that there are a lot of people sleeping in their vehicles.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler tells WW that the housing crisis remains a top priority—including Portlanders living in vehicles.

“Trying to accurately understand just how many people are currently living out of their vehicles in Portland is a difficult and complicated task,” Wheeler says. “We know that there are far too many. I fully support the work Commissioner Ryan and his team are doing in developing the Safe Park Program, where Portlanders living out of their vehicles can do so safely and be provided sanitation stations, mental health and living assistance.”

Across the Columbia River, in the metro region’s sec-

ond-largest city of Vancouver, Wash., the situation is different. Nine churches currently host five to 10 vehicle homes apiece, Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle says, and the city offers a program for “30-plus large vehicles” at the Evergreen Transit Center—in total, about 100 spaces.

“It’s all quiet, calm, supervised,” she says. Officials are seeking a second RV site.

There have been cries of “Send them back to Portland,” she says. But, McEnerny-Ogle says, Vancouver has held itself accountable. “These are our own.”

McEnerny-Ogle offered a thought for Portland and Multnomah County. “Just start small,” she suggests.

“It’s like losing weight. Take the big problem, chunk it down into smaller bites.”

The abandoned Expo Center plans were not the first failure to create a designated vehicle residency space in Portland.

In 2018, the Joint Office of Homeless Services allocated $100,000 to Catholic Charities of Oregon for the 2018-19 fiscal year for a “minimum 2,956 nights” so vehicles could park overnight in local faith-based organizations’ parking lots.

There’s no evidence the program ever opened a parking site.

The failure of both county and city officials to find solutions has contributed to public discontent.

Local business leaders, and their new 501(c)(4) organization, People for Portland—funded by Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle and Harsch Investment Properties president Jordan Schnitzer, among others—have made homelessness their central issue.

This week, the group released results of a survey finding that three-quarters of likely voters in the metro area believe city and county spending on homelessness has been ineffective. Sixty-three percent support a safe parking lot at the Expo Center, a project Commissioner Ryan has now abandoned.

But what do vehicle residents want? Housing stability, yes—but also economic stability. All five of those interviewed for this story work and say they’ve lost income during the pandemic. Keeping a job while living in a vehicle, they say, gets harder over time. “It just snowballs on you once you get out here,” Lee says.

A lack of income is only one barrier to moving from a vehicle back into conventional housing. For many, lack of identification, felony records and poor credit can be formidable hurdles as well.

“There’s lists,” Nunez says. “You got to have ID. You got to have this, you got to have that.” Her criminal record is no longer as big a barrier since drug decriminalization, she says—but it still interferes with a lot of opportunities.

Those best positioned to help unhoused people overcome such barriers, or connect agencies and the streets, are social services professionals. But vehicle residents and local volunteers say they almost never see county-contracted social service workers—just enforcement and cleanup crews.

“Nobody comes out,” Lee says. “The only time they come out is Rapid Response [Bio Clean, a cleanup company that conducts sweeps].”

So local vehicle residents often place hope in themselves. “There ain’t no way out,” Lee says. “Just got to work.” Nunez has offers to stay with family but says they’re struggling too, and she’d feel like a burden on them, “another mouth to feed, more laundry, more bills.”

Chris is contemplating sobriety, thinking back to when he made $80,000 a year and lived in an apartment in Tigard.

“When I do start thinking about normality and routine, I want that back,” he says. “But it’s easier to say than to get it back.” He’s not interested in an apartment, though—he’s 36 and has been renting his whole life.

“I need something to own,” he says. He claims he and his partner have “stacked up” $11,000 toward a down payment on a house.

Having learned from a previous mistake, he isn’t keeping it in cash inside a safe in his RV. Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

15

STREET

MLK DAY MARCH ORGANIZED BY DON’T SHOOT PDX Photos by Sean Bascom On Instagram: @baaascom

When Don’t Shoot Portland held a March for Human Rights and Dignity on Jan. 17, it marked the eighth time the Black-led activist group has taken to the streets on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. But this year’s march held extra significance: Just days prior, a federal lawsuit filed by Don’t Shoot Portland forced the revelation of a police training slide that threatened violence against protesters (see page 9). As city officials grappled with that news, marchers walked from Peninsula Park to the Martin Luther King Jr. statue in front of the Oregon Convention Center. “See us now?” their signs asked.

16

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

VOLUNTEER GUIDE SPONSORED BY

Below you'll find 23 Portland nonprofits that need help.

Volunteering your time and energy is invaluable to these organizations.

If you can fill one fo the positions, terrific! If you know someone else who can, point them to this guide.

Keep these opportunities in mind and support these nonprofits who are doing great work.

ABOUT OUR SPONSOR: Subaru of Portland is deeply committed to volunteerism. Through their Subaru Love Promise, Subaru donates annually to local nonprofits that serve the Portland community.

But giving back doesn’t stop at financial contributions.

Subaru team members are doing hands-on work with many local organizations and community projects each year. “Volunteering is our way of building strong bonds with our community.” says General Manager, Chris Borquist. Through SOLVE, Subaru helped clean up over 1,287 pounds of garbage in the neighborhood around their dealership in the SE waterfront. Their team has donated hundreds of science books to Alameda Elementary K5, helped raise money for the Oregon Humane Society Doggie Dash, and collected clothing and sundries for the Portland Gospel Mission. Volunteerism is part of DNA at Subaru of Portland, and they are committed to expand that reach by sponsoring this year’s guide. Learn more at subaruofportland.com/subaru-love-promise.htm

Aging and Disability Services DISABILITY SERVICES ADVISORY COUNCILS How does your organization help Portland?

Aging and People with Disabilities advisory groups, including the Oregon Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Advisory Committee, Oregon Disabilities Commission, the Governor’s Commission on Senior Services and Disability Services Advisory Councils provide feedback on state policy guidelines and issues that affect older adults and people with disabilities. These advisory groups work closely with state and local agencies throughout Oregon to promote person-centered services, independence, and improved quality of life for older adults and people with disabilities.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers can make a difference in their community by applying for membership on advisory groups and sharing their diverse perspectives and experiences. Members support quality of life and services for older adults and people with disabilities by learning about the political process, and advising, educating and advocating to others about local service delivery options.

Contact: GCSS.Info@dhsoha.state.or.us odhhs.info@dhsoha.state.or.us OregonDisabilities.Commission@state.or.us Oregon.DSAC@dhsoha.state.or.us

SENIOR HEALTH INSURANCE BENEFITS ASSISTANCE (SHIBA) How does your organization help Portland?

The Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA) program is a statewide network of certified counselors who volunteer their time to educate and advocate for people of all ages who have Medicare. People who contact SHIBA can get their Medicare related questions answered, ensuring they select the best coverage options for their health care needs. Information and counseling services provided through SHIBA are free.

How can volunteers help?

SHIBA’s success is built on a statewide network of certified Medicare counselors who volunteer their time. Counselors help people in their community understand their Medicare insurance choices and their rights by offering one-on-one counseling, classes, and referrals. SHIBA counselors are required to complete an online training program and 10hour internship as part of their certification.

Contact: SHIBA.Oregon@dhsoha.state.or.us

Animals CAT ADOPTION TEAM (CAT) catadoptionteam.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Together with our community, Cat Adoption Team strives to make the Portland metro area one of the best places in the country for cats and the people who care for them.

They offer adoption, foster, medical care, and low-cost spay/neuter programs, plus other high-quality services to help make life better for cats and people. Join us in saving lives! Cat Adoption Team is a Give!Guide 2021 nonprofit.

How can volunteers help?

Make matches as an adoption counselor, become a foster parent, represent CAT at events, provide daily care for shelter cats, assist spay/ neuter clients, help with administrative tasks, or be a kitty chauffeur. Bring your people skills and compassion for cats to CAT and let’s save lives together!

Contact: Nancy Puro, Volunteer Manager volunteer@catadoptionteam.org | 503-925-8903

Community BLANCHET HOUSE blanchethouse.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Blanchet House alleviates suffering in our community, one relationship at a time, through food, clothing, and transitional shelter programs. We serve anyone who comes to our doors without judgment because we believe everyone deserves dignity, hope, and community.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers are needed to serve meals and drinks to people experiencing homelessness Mon-Sat, 6-7:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., or 5-6 p.m. Sign up and orientation is done online at BlanchetHouse.org/Volunteer.

Contact: Jon Seibert | jseibert@blanchethouse.org | 503-241-4340

BROWN HOPE brownhope.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Brown Hope is planting and nurturing seeds for racial justice and healing. They serve and mobilize communities, specifically black brown and indigenous communities.

Brown Hope is a Give!Guide 2021 nonprofit.

How can volunteers help?

Brown Hope has all kinds of different areas for volunteers to engage. From communications, data, our Black Resilience Fund, and Solidarity Squad which runs our Free Store for black, brown and indigenous community members.

Contact: Carlee Roberts | volunteer@brownhope.org | 971-408-7574

SPONSORED SPECIAL SECTION Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

17

CASA FOR CHILDREN OF MULTNOMAH, WASHINGTON, & COLUMBIA COUNTIES casahelpskids.org

How does your organization help Portland?

CASA for Children recruits, trains and supports community volunteers to speak up for abused and neglected children who are under court protection. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteers help provide a stable, caring presence in these children's lives, giving them hope for the future by ensuring that their educational, emotional, medical and practical needs are met while they are living in foster care.

CASA for Children of Multnomah, Washington, & Columbia Counties is a Give!Guide 2021 nonprofit.

How can volunteers help?

CASA for Children volunteers get to know each child by visiting them and speaking to those involved in the child's life.

CASAs monitor the case by attending meetings and hearings, provide an objective opinion to the court, and make recommendations to ensure that each child's need for a safe, permanent home is met as quickly as possible. Minimum age: 21.

Contact: Jazmin Roque (she/her/ella) | jroque@casahelpskids.org 503-988-5115

CLACKAMAS WOMEN’S SERVICES cwsor.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Clackamas Women’s Services provides resources for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, child and elder abuse, stalking, dating violence, and trafficking. Serving more than 10,000 adults and children annually, their services include emergency shelter and housing resources, 24/7 crisis and support line, mental health counseling and support groups, civil legal services, youth violence prevention education, family empowerment, and community engagement. Clackamas Women’s Services is a Give!Guide 2021 nonprofit.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers help by creating a community of care! From organizing a donation drive for families in their emergency shelter and other programs, joining our Board of Directors, inviting CWS to speak at your workplace, assisting with administrative projects, and supporting children at Camp HOPE Oregon, there are many ways to support survivors by volunteering with Clackamas Women’s Services.

Contact: Brenda Kinoshita | brendak@cwsor.org | 503-557-5820

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY PORTLAND REGION RESTORES habitatportlandregion.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Every item donation and every ReStore purchase helps fund local Habitat for Humanity home building programs. ReStores diverted 7,263 tons of reusable materials from landfills last year. They have four ReStore locations: Beaverton, Gresham, Portland, and Vancouver.

How can volunteers help?

As a volunteer driven organization, Habitat for Humanity’s Portland Region ReStores rely on people like you! Volunteer tasks include processing and pricing donations, merchandising, greeting customers, helping keep the stores organized, recycling metal, providing helpful customer service, and more. Gain new skills, meet new people, and have fun all while making a difference! No experience is required. Volunteer at one of Habitat for Humanity’s four ReStores, warehouse, or out in the community with their drivers.

Contact:

HUMAN SOLUTIONS

OREGON FOOD BANK

humansolutions.org

oregonfoodbank.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Human Solutions expert and caring team eases the housing and homeless crises by providing key services: 1. Shelter and rapid rehousing for people experiencing homelessness. 2.

Services for people to maintain their housing and strengthen their finances. 3. More affordable housing to end our housing and homelessness crises. They also work towards systems change so everyone has the stability of home. Human Solutions is a Give!Guide 2021 nonprofit.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers can help build community with Human Solutions in several impactful ways: 1) Prepare a dish for Human Solutions shelter meal program, 2) Drive to retrieve and deliver donations, 3) Host a donation drive for needed items like diapers, coats/hats/scarves/gloves, canned food, and hygiene items.

Contact:

How does your organization help Portland?

Oregon Food Bank believes that food is a basic human right. Hunger is not just an individual experience; it is a community-wide symptom of barriers to employment, education, housing and health care. That's why they're dedicated to helping people access nutritious food today AND building community power to eliminate the root causes of hunger together. Oregon Food Bank is a 2021 Give!Guide nonprofit!

How can volunteers help?

Oregon Food Bank seeks volunteers and advocates to help build a powerful movement to eliminate hunger for good!

There are many ways to help end hunger in our communities — their volunteers are from all walks of life with different abilities and schedules. Whatever your skills or interests, they welcome you. Join Oregon Food Bank for an on-site food repack/sort or seasonal garden shift, or off-site at one of our Partner Agencies. Or from the comfort of your own home, you can join us for online fundraisers & advocacy initiatives.

Contact:

Brielle Jones | volunteer@humansolutions.org | 971-806-7759

LUTHERAN COMMUNITY SERVICES NORTHWEST lcsnw.org

How does your organization help Portland?

LCSNW works for health, justice and hope. Our services include behavior health, family & community support, refugee & immigrant services, child welfare, aging & independent living, and crime victim services without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, religious belief, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, ability, military or veteran status, source of income or political affiliation.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers provide a lot of support to our agency, specifically in the resettlement process for refugees and immigrants.

From welcoming new arrivals at the airport and transporting them to their new home, to providing a warm welcome meal, there are many needs in the first 90 days after arrival. We put on a quarterly volunteer orientation and training that provides further information about opportunities and what to expect for those that are interested.

Contact: Anna Poole | volunteermanagement@lcsnw.com | 503-231-7480

MEALS ON WHEELS PEOPLE mowp.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Meals on Wheels People enriches the lives of seniors, and assists them in maintaining independence, by providing nutritious food, human connections and social support.

They also use their expertise and capacity to serve other nutritionally at-risk populations. Meals on Wheels People is a Give!Guide 2021 nonprofit.

How can volunteers help?

Meals on Wheels People available volunteer opportunities are: Meal Delivery, Meal Packing, Cleaners 4 Kids, Friendly Chats phone calls and Wellness Check calls. Meal Delivery consists of delivering meals to homebound seniors in our community. Meal Packing consists of packing meals in bags that meal delivery volunteers will use to deliver meals. Their Cleaners 4 Kids opportunity consists of prepping and cleaning the cooler bags that delivery volunteers use to deliver meals to families in the Portland metro area. Friendly Chats phone calls aim to alleviate social isolation through phone conversations with seniors in our community and Wellness Check calls consist of structured conversations where volunteers will ask seniors specific questions regarding their over all wellness.

Contact: Nick Price | volunteer.coordinator@mowp.org

SPONSORED SPECIAL SECTION Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

THE BLACK UNITED FUND OF OREGON bufor.org

How does your organization help Portland?

The Black United Fund is the only BIPOC-led foundation in Oregon and one of the last culturally-specific organizations remaining on historically-Black NE Alberta Street. For almost 40 years, BUF has supported an equitable and resilient future for Portland through programs that have increased postsecondary success for youth, provided philanthropic support to traditionally marginalized communities, and supported small, BIPOC and/or women-led and serving nonprofits and businesses.

How can volunteers help?

The Black United Fund of Oregon is always looking for volunteers, who are critical to our work! BUF welcomes both direct service and behind-the-scenes support. Their greatest volunteer needs include archivists, to support the preservation of the Foundation's history, and those interested in providing mentorship and/or educational opportunities via workshops to our BIPOC youth pursuing diverse post-secondary options. Finally, their Executive Board of Directors has multiple sub-committees as an entry and pathway to board leadership as well.

Contact: melissa@bufor.org | 503-280- 1978

TRANSITION PROJECTS tprojects.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Transition Projects provides individuals with the services they need to end their homelessness, secure housing, and maintain that housing. Serving over 10,000 people annually through street outreach, a resource center, shelters and supportive services, Transition Projects helps Portland’s most vulnerable neighbors start their journey toward stable housing. Transition Projects is a 2021 Give!Guide nonprofit!

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers are critical to Transition Projects’ mission, helping us sustain key areas of our work. There are year-round opportunities for both individuals and groups to get involved in weekly, on-call, or one-time volunteer roles. Individuals are especially needed in our Resource Center, to assist participants accessing both mail and clothing services. Groups are especially needed to support our meal provider program, to bring healthy, nutritious dinners to our shelters.

Contact: Emily Coleman | emily.coleman@tprojects.org | 503-488-7745

Volunteer Programs Team volunteer@habitatportlandregion.org | 503-287-9529 x 40

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Laura Yeary | volunteer@oregonfoodbank.org | 503-282-0555

TRAUMA INTERVENTION PROGRAM NW

SCHOOLHOUSE SUPPLIES

GUARDIAN PARTNERS

schoolhousesupplies.org

guardian-partners.org

tipnw.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Since opening their doors in 1999, the Schoolhouse Supplies mission remains the same: to support public education in the Portland area by providing free school supplies to under-resourced students through supply donation programs and our Free Store for Teachers. They believe every child deserves the right to a quality education regardless of their family’s income or racial/ethnic identity. Schoolhouse Supplies is a 2021 Give!Guide nonprofit!

How can volunteers help?

Every pencil, notebook, and crayon that volunteers touch will wind up in the hands of a student who otherwise would not have had the tools needed to learn. Volunteers can help individually or with a team or organization. Schoolhouse Supplies has many different kinds of opportunities and activities to choose from—some of the opportunities include Warehouse Assistance, Front Desk Greeter at their Free Store for Teachers, Data Entry, or Sorting Books and Supplies.

Contact:

How does your organization help Portland?

Guardian Partners mission is preventing abuse of adults with cognitive and/or developmental disabilities through guardianship case monitoring and education.

How can volunteers help?

Guardian Partners trains volunteers to conduct thorough wellness interviews for adults with disabilities to be sure they are being properly cared for by their guardians. Their volunteers make recommendations to the Court, provide resources and referrals. Any problems observed are reported to Guardian Partners staff and the Court for assistance or intervention.

Contact:

How does your organization help Portland?

Trauma Intervention Program NW is a group of specially trained volunteers who provide emotional and practical support and resources to victims and survivors of traumatic events and in the first few hours following a tragedy. Requested by the emergency response system, schools, businesses, other local non-profits and more, TIP Volunteers respond to 170+ calls per month in the Portland area. Trauma Intervention Program NW is a 2021 Give!Guide nonprofit!

How can volunteers help?

Learn more and register online at tipnw.org for the next TIP Volunteer Training Academy in March 2022.

Contact: June Vining | tipstaff@tipnw.org | 503-823-3937

Education COLLEGE POSSIBLE collegepossible.org

How does your organization help Portland?

College Possible makes college admission and success possible for students from low-income backgrounds through an intensive curriculum of coaching and support. We address the educational opportunity gap by supporting students from their junior year of high school through college graduation. Our near-peer coaches provide historically underserved students with the resources they deserve to navigate the complex college-going process.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers can help staff events, lead mini sessions at family workshops, create gift bags for students and work one-on-one with a high school senior as they complete necessary steps to enroll in college for the fall. We’re also actively recruiting young professionals under the age of 40 for our Ambassador Board that focuses on spreading awareness and raising funds for College Possible. All opportunities are currently virtual until it is safe to return in person.

Contact: Christina Carl | CCarl@CollegePossible.org | 971.407.2975

PORTLAND WORKFORCE ALLIANCE portlandworkforcealliance.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Portland Workforce Alliance believes in big dreams and good careers for all high school students. PWA builds enduring partnerships between local businesses and Portland-area high schools to create opportunities for students to develop career aspirations. By providing students with real-life work experiences and career-learning opportunities, PWA enriches academic knowledge, inspires graduation and helps students make informed choices after high school.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers can share their career journey(s) by participating in mentorships, career days, mock interviews, and the annual NW Youth Careers Expo.

Contact: Katrina Machorro, Partnerships Director career@portlandworkforcealliance.org | 971-220-6260

Colleen Connolly | volunteer@schoolhousesupplies.org 503-249-9933

Environment FRIENDS OF TREES friendsoftrees.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Friends of Trees inspires people to improve the world around them through a simple solution: Planting trees. Together.

Trees play a vital role in our region’s livability. With the help of thousands of volunteers, Friends of Trees plants trees in neighborhoods and natural areas in an effort to build community, fight climate change, and bring the benefits of trees to everyone. Friends of Trees is a 2021 Give!Guide nonprofit!

How can volunteers help?

Friends of Trees has events throughout the Portland metro region every Saturday, October to April. Family friendly, ages 6+ welcome, and no experience necessary–just weather appropriate attire and sturdy footwear. They provide tools, instructions, and leadership so that you have an awesome time planting. Want to get even more involved? You can become a Crew Leader!

Contact: Jenny Bedell-Stiles | volunteer@friendsoftrees.org 503-595-0213

Health & Wellness DOUGY CENTER dougy.org/volunteer

How does your organization help Portland?

Dougy Center provides peer grief support groups for families, including programs for after a death, Esperanza for support in Spanish, and Pathways for families living with advanced serious illness.

Groups meet every other week and are led by master’s-level Group Coordinators and supported by Volunteer Group Facilitators and are of no cost to participants.

How can volunteers help?

Volunteers can apply for training to be a Group Facilitator at any of our 3 locations: Canby, Hillsboro, or SE Portland. More info can be found here: www.dougy.org/volunteer We also welcome volunteers for office/facility and event assistance.

Contact:

Jeni Bennett | staff@guardian-partners.org | 775 - 863-8773

STORE TO DOOR How does your organization help Portland?

Store to Door is a personal, affordable, volunteer-based grocery shopping and delivery service for homebound seniors and people living with disabilities.

How can volunteers help?

Store to Door needs volunteers in a variety of positions, both in-person and remote. Their program has order takers calling clients on Mondays and Tuesdays, grocery shoppers and delivery drivers at two locations on Wednesdays and Thursdays, along with volunteers calling clients on Fridays for a friendly chat. Store to Door grocery shoppers can sign up whenever their schedule allows; other positions require an approved background check and minimum service commitment.

Contact: Carolyn Reed | Carolyn@storetodooroforegon.org 503-200-3333 ext. 113

Youth NORTHWEST OUTWARD BOUND SCHOOL nwobs.org

How does your organization help Portland?

Northwest Outward Bound School’s Public Schools Program connects underserved urban youth with the natural environment and with their own potential, cultivating students’ self-confidence and interpersonal skills while sparking motivation to face and overcome challenges.

Students participate in classroom sessions and outdoor challenge days focused on teamwork, courage, and social-emotional learning. Students test their strengths and challenge their fears.

How can volunteers help?

Northwest Outward Bound School offers a variety of volunteer opportunities. Volunteers can assist in seasonal event help, participate in quarterly community stewardship days, provide assistance to the Public School Program team, and more! If you have a passion and strongly believe in experiential outdoor education and supporting youth, please volunteer!

Contact: Valerie Plummer | vplummer@nwoutwardbound.org 503-459-3515

Valenca Valenzuela | valenca@dougy.org | 503-775-5683

SPONSORED SPECIAL SECTION Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

19

STARTERS

T H E MOST I MP ORTANT P O RTLA N D C U LTU R E STORI E S OF T H E W E E K—G RA P H E D .

R E A D M O R E A B O U T TH E S E STO R I E S AT WW E E K .CO M .

RIDICULOUS

WESLEY LAPOINTE

KGBO/WIKIMEDIA

The Oregon Brewers Guild launches internships for underrepresented aspirants in a field traditionally dominated by white men.

Zwickelmania, the state’s massive open house for breweries, returns in person in February with pandemic safety precautions.

503.445.3700 | PCS.ORG

Music

LIVE performance & Album signing

Thursday

BRIAN BROSE

Millennium Jim Basnight

A collection of Portland restaurants announces plans to expand westward by forming a food hall inside a vacant U.S. Bank building.

AW F U L

AW E S O M E

Tommy Bo stars as Manford in The Great Leap. Photo by Alec Lugo.

SEASON SUPERSTARS

Flying Fish Co. adds food cart ChefShack to its patio, featuring a rotating cast of culinary experts to helm the outdoor kitchen.

THOMAS TEAL

F LY I N G F I S H C O .

ON STAGE THROUGH FEB. 13, 2022

The buffer around Forest Park gets a little wilder thanks to a generous donation of 60 acres for conservation just north of the recreation area.

6pm

Jim Basnight started recording solo and with the Moberlys in the late 70's and led a pre-grunge original rock and roll scene in his native Seattle, before relocating to NYC in 1980. He’s been working live and releasing records ever since.

Portland Opera’s upcoming production of 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning The Central Park Five gets approved for a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

C H R I S R YA N

PORTLAND OPERA

January 27th American Guitarist and cover artist Jim Basnight will be performing live at Music Millennium Thursday January 27th, 2022 and will be signing his latest album “Not Changing” available now!

Reo Varnado, owner of popular Portland barbecue joint Reo’s Ribs and Snoop Dogg’s uncle, dies.

SERIOUS 20

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

�SEE | The Great Leap Portland audiences didn’t get a chance to see Cambodian Rock Band in spring 2020, the popular psychedelic musical that was originally scheduled to close Portland Center Stage’s season that year because of, well, we all know why at this point. The company hasn’t rescheduled that production, but you will now get a chance to see a different work by award-winning playwright Lauren Yee. Like Cambodian Rock Band, The Great Leap combines pop culture with politics and history—this time focusing on basketball and the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989 while toggling back and forth in time. Portland Center Stage at the Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave., 503-445-3700, pcs. org. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Friday, 2 pm select Thursdays, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 19-Feb. 13. $25-$87. �GO | ChefShack Grand Opening After moving into its own standalone location in 2020, Flying Fish Company is expanding again. Owner Lyf Gildersleeve is adding a food cart to the restaurant/market’s patio called ChefShack, which is scheduled to begin feeding seafood-loving customers on Saturday, Jan. 22.

The new kitchen is meant to complement the existing menu and, in an unusual move, there will be a rotating cast of chefs helming the cart, the first of whom is Trever Gilbert (formerly of Departure and RingSide Fish House).

The grand opening party for ChefShack begins at 1 pm, with live music on the covered and heated patio getting underway at 4:30 pm. Attendees will also be rewarded with a free house-smoked salmon with every purchase.

Flying Fish Company, 3004 E Burnside St., 971-806-6747, flyingfishpdx.com. 1 pm Saturday, Jan. 22.

AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS

A L E C L U G O / C O U R T E S Y O F P O R T L A N D C E N T E R S TAG E

☛ DO | Barrel Aged Beer Fest COVID essentially gutted Pine Street Market, the formerly bustling 10,000-square-foot food emporium that used to house names like Olympia Provisions, Pollo Bravo and Salt & Straw.

While the pandemic took out pretty much every tenant, a new one quietly opened last year. The Pine Street Taproom boasts 12 taps as well as a decent cocktail menu. This weekend, however, barrel-aged beers will be the focus, and at just the right time—these potent, smoky, rich brews are the kind of drink you want to hunker down with on a drizzly January afternoon. Pine Street Taproom, 126 SW 2nd Ave., pinestreettaproom.com. Noon-8 pm Friday-Sunday, Jan. 21-23. $30, includes a custom glass and 10 tastings.

YOUR BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE WWEEK NEWSROOM

☛ DO | Vegan January at Rally Pizza If you’re unlike 64% of the population who end up ditching New Year’s resolutions by the end of January, then keep your healthy eating streak going with Rally Pizza’s new plant-based menu. For the third year in a row, the Vancouver, Wash., restaurant is going vegan this month and serving specials like saffron risotto fritters filled with a mushroom ragout, a warm lentil and root vegetable bowl, and a fritto misto muffuletta (weekend lunch only) stuffed with winter produce. And, hey, if you’re looking to break your resolution, Rally can help with that, too, since the regular lineup of pies topped with sausage, beef meatballs and housemade ricotta cream is also still available. Rally Pizza, 8070 E Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver, Wash., 360-524-9000, rallypizza.com.

R A L LY P I Z Z A

GET BUSY

STUFF TO DO IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK, INDOORS AND OUT.

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FOOD & DRINK

THOMAS TEAL

Ghost in the Machine Holy Ghost, the latest in the Hi-Top and Paydirt bar portfolio, has semiautonomous gin fizz-shaking bartenders and an impressive lineup of agave spirits.

BY C A M P Y D R A P E R

SHAKING THINGS UP: Machines behind the bar make a proper gin fizz by agitating the drink for at least five minutes.

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A machine named “Shake Gyllenhaal” goes to town behind the bar shaking up a proper gin fizz. Above the semi-autonomous bartender is a gorgeous mural of some kind of holy priestess looking into the eyes of her skeleton doppelgänger.

The entire tableau should be enough to trigger an existential crisis about the unstoppable growth of automation and our inevitable demise, but a descent into darkness is nearly impossible at Holy Ghost. The bar is just too delightful.

Holy Ghost is the fifth entry in Ezra Caraeff’s bar portfolio, which includes long-standing favorites like Hi-Top Tavern, Paydirt and the Old Gold. But the business has its own personality, which can be found in everything from the drink menu to the décor.

For starters, the place is bright and open, even when the lights are dimmed.

A blue-and-gold color scheme, honeycomb bar tiles, and pillars wound in rope create an airy, almost goddesslike atmosphere. And although the space is quite expansive, it doesn’t feel as though you’ve gotten swallowed by a cavern. Holy Ghost offers an easy vibe. There’s even a hand-lettered mural along one of the roof beams that promises “Everything is gonna be OK.” All it takes is another

Top 5

Top 5

Buzz List

Hot Plates

WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.

WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. BRASA HAYA

1. UNICORN CREATIONZ THOMAS TEAL

412 NE Beech St., 503-288-3499, brasahayapdx.com.

5:30-9 pm Tuesday-Thursday, 5:30-10 pm Friday-Saturday.

Though only open since June, Brasa Haya serves a traditional Spanish coffee that’s already one of the best in town. Rich chocolate vies for dominance with locally roasted Junior’s brew and a cool cloud of amaro whipped cream. Start your meal with a glass and have a second at the end—you’ll be justified because the decadent drink appears on the dessert menu, too.

4765 NE Fremont St., 971-319-1134, nacheauxpdx.com.

4-8 pm Wednesday-Thursday, noon-8:30 pm Friday, 10 am-4 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Despite its name, Unicorn Creationz is more of a tricera-corn. The bar/restaurant is split into three concepts inside the former Alameda Brewhouse space: food cart favorite Nacheaux—whipping up breakfast, lunch and, if you make it there in time, weekend brunch—as well as a bakery/dessert shop called Karnival Kreations, and Bourbon St. Bar. The cart is the heart of this food hall, so get there early on a Saturday to ensure owner-chef Anthony Brown has a spicy chorizo burrito left for you.

2. WEDGEHEAD WESLEY LAPOINTE

2. XINH XINH VIETNAMESE BISTRO

970 SE Morrison St., 971-229-1492, xinhxinhbistro.com.

11 am-8 pm Monday-Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday; 11 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday.

Tucked inside a small strip of businesses on Southeast Morrison, Xinh Xinh is best known for its banh mi and soups. It makes some of the best vegetarian pho in town. Bowls overflow with fresh broccoli, carrots, bok choy, mushrooms and green onions. When packed to go, it’s like Christmas morning—so many presents to open!

3. SARI RAMYUN

2713 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-841-5149, sari.smartonlineorder.com. 11 am-8 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday, 11 am-8:30 pm Monday.

Typically, “ramyun” refers in Korea to instant noodles, the peninsular answer to Top Ramen. But chef Tommy Shin’s stall in the Zipper food court specializes in a chicken noodle soup—well, technically chicken and beef broth, with melt-in-your-mouth brisket slices floating on top. This is a heretical opinion, given the proximity of Basilisk, but Sari makes the best chicken in the Zipper.

4. HAPA PDX RAMEN & WHISKEY WESLEY LAPOINTE

HIGH SPIRITS: Holy Ghost’s focus is on its drink program, which includes affordable cocktails, ranch water and agave-based pours.

sip from that gin fizz and you’ll become a believer in that mantra.

Since this is an Ezra Caraeff property, the drink program is no afterthought.

In fact, that’s why you’ll find the special machine behind the bar agitating your gin fizz ($14). In order to make the cocktail the right way, it needs to be vigorously shaken for at least five minutes—a manual task that keeps it off of many menus. But with mechanical assistance, Holy Ghost can churn out the New Orleans classic with little effort—all it takes is a bit of patience for the jiggling to end (and drinkers are fairly warned since the five-minute process is in the concoction’s name on the menu).

Cocktails here sit in a reasonable $10 to $14 price range. All of them are fun, most are quirky, but their construction is considered. For instance, the rum and Coke daquiri ($10) might sound like a too-sweet slushie that’s been spinning all day inside a 7-Eleven, but it’s surprisingly restrained and well balanced.

A collection of four ranch waters ($8-$11) were light and refreshing, while the tequila old fashioned ($11) lets you feel like you’re doing some “real” drinking without performing a Don Draper impersonation.

And if you have a proclivity for agave spirits, then Holy Ghost has the perfect challenge for you. Drink 20 tequilas, 20 mezcals and 10 of your choice—either as a straight pour or in a cocktail—and you can begin earning prizes and bragging rights as a member of the Agave Social Club.

Holy Ghost can afford to put this much focus on its drink program because the bar isn’t responsible for food. That job has been outsourced to the neighboring Electric Pizza Company, which sells both slices and whole pies. Coming soon to the same complex is 28 Tigers, promising a menu of dumplings, noodles and barbecue.

Though only open a few months, Holy Ghost is already a neighborhood gem. And during a two-year period that’s seen a shocking number of bars turn into apparitions—their run ending too soon because of the pandemic—we’re just thankful Caraeff can keep expanding and finding new ways to create joyful concoctions.

3728 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-477-7637, wedgeheadpdx. com. 4-11 pm Monday-Saturday, 3-10 pm Sunday.

It isn’t on any of the delivery apps, but Wedgehead is still working a solid takeout cocktail game. Thanks to canned cocktail brand Little Hands Stiff Drinks, the Hollywood neighborhood bar has some of the best mobile drinks around. Case in point, the Hot Teddy: a deft mixture of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, housemade ginger-turmeric syrup, cinnamon honey, and fresh lemon. It will cure what ails, every time.

3. HI-TOP TAVERN

5015 NE Fremont St., 503-206-4308, hitoptavern.com.

3-11 pm Monday-Friday, 2-11 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Coffee, tea or whiskey? No need to choose at Hi-Top, which until recently was the baby of the Old GoldPaydirt-Tough Luck family (a fifth sibling, Holy Ghost, just opened in Southeast). The Chai Me is chai-infused rye whiskey with vegan hot butter mix, chocolate bitters and orange zest, while the amaretto coffee spikes a steaming cup of Stumptown Hair Bender with the almondy liqueur.

4. NALU 3848 SE Gladstone St., 503-376-9246, hapapdx.us.

11:30 am-2 pm and 5-9 pm Wednesday-Friday, 5-9 pm Saturday and Monday, 5-8 pm Sunday.

Lots of food carts make the leap to brick-and-mortar, but rarely is the effect quite so sexy as it is at Hapa.

The soup here is a blend of two beloved cuisines: In the “G-Special” ramen, you’ll recognize elements of a Hawaiian plate lunch and a Tokyo ramen. But this is very much an izakaya, and drinks are as much the attraction as the soup: The ginger ale-sake highball is worth traveling across town for.

5.NAK WON

4600 Watson Ave., Beaverton, 503-646-9382. 5-8:30 pm Monday-Saturday.

One of the Portland area’s best Korean spots is back—finally. After a prolonged reopening process following the initial statewide pandemic lockdown, Nak Won has returned, now just a pot sticker’s throw from Old Town Beaverton’s impressive new outdoor dining hall that features several Portland standouts.

Despite the new neighbors, though, Nak Won remains the king of the ’hood, serving authentic, tasty bites, along with the best soup names in town, like Comfort Buttercup and When Miss Piggy Met Hot Potato.

722 N Sumner St., 503-519-3415, nalukava.com. 5-11 pm Thursday-Monday.

Up a steep flight of stairs reached through an alley behind North Portland’s Cherry Sprout Produce, you’ll find an intimate, homespun tea room. The interior sports a few tables and a canopied pillowed nook.

It’s a small operation, but under the right conditions, it might have red lentil soup. There’s always plenty of elixirs on the menu or a shot of fire cider to chase away the winter blues. But what you really need right now is probably Sun on the Mind, a loose leaf tea blend with turmeric, ginger, black pepper and coconut flakes.

5. PINK RABBIT

232 NW 12th Ave., 971-255-0386, pinkrabbitpdx. com. 4 pm-midnight Monday-Thursday, 4 pm-2 am Friday-Saturday, 6 pm-midnight Sunday.

Even before Pink Rabbit transformed its curbside patio into an outdoor discotheque, the Pearl District bar’s collection of picnic tables were consistently full.

But now, there’s a weather-fortified patio full of mirror balls, string lights, additional speakers, and living plant installations. The flamboyant vibe is balanced by a lineup of warm cocktails, including the top-shelf toddy, which drinks like counterprogramming—it is restrained, mellow and deeply comforting.

DRINK: Holy Ghost, 4101 SE 28th Ave., holyghostbar.com. 3 pm-late daily.

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Our Pet Pageant Winners are on stands next week!

PRESENTED BY

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POTLANDER

Pine Away Alpha-pinene, one of the most commonly occurring terpenes on earth, smells like a Christmas tree and boasts therapeutic uses. Here are five evergreen-fresh strains.

BY B R I A N N A W H E E L E R

Alpha-pinene is the most prevalent type of terpene in both nature and cannabis. It adds aroma to citrus rinds, kitchen herbs and all manner of essential oils. Alpha-pinene also perfumes our evergreen-covered pocket of the Willamette Valley, including those expired curbside Christmas trees that—if you’re anything like me—currently spark a daily desire for piney AF cultivars.

Olfactory stimulation aside, alpha-pinene boasts a robust catalog of therapeutic uses, including anti-inflammatory and tumor-reduction properties as well as antimicrobial and bronchodilation benefits. In other words, it’s a respiration-supporting fungus fighter. In addition, and possibly most appropriate for this epoch, both alpha- and beta-pinene are neuroprotectants that, as part of an entourage with cannabinoids, are an effective antidepressant for many cannabis users.

Beyond its coniferous scent, pinene can be described as stank, verdant, bracing, herbaceous, grassy or any combination of those adjectives. The smell hits differently for everyone, just like the first chest-expanding lungful of mountain air. Here are five pinene-prominent cultivars to launch your own low-stakes, evergreen-inspired explorations of the widely available terpene.

Nightmare Cookies

Despite a somewhat unfortunate name, Nightmare Cookies is a reportedly powerful, euphoric strain, and not at all a bad dream.

Bred from a lineage that includes White Moonshine, Blue Dream and perennial favorite Girl Scout Cookies, Nightmare Cookies delivers a much mellower buzz than its name implies, but interested parties should still prepare for a swooning high that’s cashmere soft in the body and neon psychedelic in the head.

This hybrid has the genetics of a sativa but, most often, users report this high as a couch-locking buzz with a heady onset.

The psychotropic effects are potent, so users should party with this strain in a comfort zone. Expect a dry, acrid pine nose and a sweet, herbal pine exhale.

FIND IT: Rose Budz PDX, 2410 N Mississippi Ave., 503-2083955, rosebudzpdx.com.

Elephant Ears

A cross of Dogwalker OG and Grease Monkey, Elephant Ears is another hybrid with effects that overwhelmingly skew indica.

This cultivar delivers a super-spacey, ultra-relaxing high that manages to balance giggly euphoria with cool complacency.

Expect a funky pine perfume with diesel undertones and a sweet, botanical exhale.

This cultivar is known for being an effective treatment for chronic stress, pain and fatigue. Pro tip: In my own experience, after a dab of Elephant Ears, a heroic measure of munchies will creep up slowly as the heavy-lidded, wide-grinned high evaporates. Prepare your pantry accordingly.

FIND IT: Lemonnade PDX, 6218 NE Columbia Blvd., 971-2792337.

Garlic Sherbet

Garlic Sherbet reportedly delivers a focused, energetic high that vibrates at a very mellow frequency. Users overwhelmingly describe uplifting, buzzy effects that feel well suited for activities that require a smooth, velvety energy level and a clear, rose-tinted head high. This is an exceptional wake-and-bake strain, but fair warning: This cultivar is often bred with expert-only levels of THC (typically above 25%). Expect an acerbic pine aroma with undertones of sweet berries and sour fruit.

FIND IT: Bridge City Collective, 215 SE Grand Ave., 503-4779532, bridgecitycollective.com.

Lemon Pepper

Another buzzy, energetic cultivar lauded for the productive highs it delivers, Lemon Pepper is a cross of Lemon Cooler and Lemon Pebbles. Perfumed as expected with notes of citrus for a summery inhale, the effects are generally described as fizzy and uplifting, with an undercurrent of cool that keeps the high grounded. Chatterbox vibes and manageable euphoria are highlights and, as such, users have also reported it is an effective treatment for social anxiety. Personally, a dab of Lemon Pepper has been, on occasion, my primary workout motivation. Your results, of course, may vary FIND IT: Potland, 503-432-8629, thepotland.co.

White Hot Guava

My personal fave from the pinene catalog is White Hot Guava, a cultivar with a nuanced, complex terp profile that, for me, delivers a tightly focused, gently energetic high (that incidentally pairs perfectly with an equally complex cup of coffee or tea). This strain’s lineage includes Guava Diesel and White Hashplant but is often cultivated as a Kush phenotype. Either way, the THC averages around 25%, making this a phenotype best suited for the stash boxes of heavier stoners. Expect a skunky-funky pine perfume and a sweet diesel exhale.

FIND IT: Serra, 220 SW 1st Ave., 971-279-5613, shopserra.com.

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PERFORMANCE

MUSIC

Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

C O U R T E S Y O F P R O F I L E T H E AT R E

Now Hear This Listening recommendations from the past, present, Portland and the periphery.

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD // @BROMF3

SOMETHING OLD

This week’s column focuses on endless cityscape music, the kind that makes you want to find a hover car and swoop between neon billboards in a futuristic urban sprawl. Nobody is better at this kind of thing than 2 8 1 4, whose Birth of a New Day album starts with the plaintive synths and pianos from the Blade Runner soundtrack and turns up the bass. It’s utopian and dystopian all at once, and in a rain-soaked metropolis like Portland, this stuff works wonderfully.

SOMETHING NEW

OFFICE GOSSIP: The work environment turns toxic for the characters in Gloria, based on the playwright’s time at The New Yorker.

The Newsroom Gloria is a hilarious—and horrifying—portrait of life at a Manhattan magazine.

BY B E N N E T T C A M P B E LL FE RG U SO N

Don’t call Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Gloria a play with a plot twist. The first act may wrap with a revelation, but it’s not a twist—it’s an assault on your expectations that roughly teleports the play from the workplace-comedy genre into a disturbing, less-knowable realm.

Produced by Profile Theatre, Gloria is a combustible mix of wit and wrath—a combination of moods the company has perfectly captured. It’s a profoundly unsettling play— figurative and literal trigger warnings are warranted—but thanks to the commitment of the cast and director Josh Hecht, its portrait of vicious violence and chilling callousness is as mesmerizing as it is sickening.

Gloria introduces us to Ani (Brenan Dwyer), Kendra (Akari Anderson) and Dean (Nick Ferucci). They are assistants at a Manhattan magazine but often ignore their work so they can gossip about Gloria (Foss Curtis), the office outcast, and belittle an intern named Miles (Gerrin Mitchell), whose duties include fetching Vitaminwater for Dean and a Luna Bar for Kendra.

While currents of nastiness crackle between the characters, the first act is comfortably entertaining. The magazine is a miserable place to work, but it’s also a hub of reliably entertaining insults, like Kendra’s snarky declaration that Ani could go to “computer school, brain school, or wherever pretty nerds go.”

Verbal brutality gives way to physical vi26

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ciousness when a sudden tragedy rips apart the lives of Ani, Kendra, Dean, Miles and many others. The rest of the play is devoted to the aftermath, starting with a confrontation between Dean and Kendra in a Starbucks and ending with a scene set at a Los Angeles film company where Lorin (John San Nicholas), a former fact checker for the magazine, is temping.

Jacobs-Jenkins has said that Gloria was partly inspired by his days working in a cubicle at The New Yorker, but the play is too fast-paced to capture the awkwardness and tedium that often characterizes office life.

It’s more successful as a study of how human beings exploit atrocities for personal gain, especially when Dean and Kendra pitch dueling book proposals about their experiences at the magazine.

Despite Gloria’s moral outrage at its characters, it rests on unsteady ethical ground.

Profile’s website warns that the play contains gun violence, but Jacobs-Jenkins doesn’t recognize the full implications of that violence.

He uses a gun to propel the story forward without meaningfully addressing the issue of gun control, which makes as much sense as obsessing over a tree’s branches while ignoring its roots.

It’s also troubling that Jacobs-Jenkins is noticeably kinder to the play’s men than he is to its women. For all their flaws, Dean and Lorin are the only characters who believably convey compassion, whereas Ani, Kendra and a writer named Nan (Curtis) serve as manifestations of the play’s apparent belief

that some people are incapable of seeing grief as anything more than currency.

The most forgiving interpretation of this trend is that Jacobs-Jenkins is valiantly defending a woman’s right to play a character without a trace of niceness. If that was his intention, it’s a boon to Anderson, who leans into Kendra’s cruel catchphrases—“schmoozers become boozers,” her assessment of Dean’s networking, is particularly memorable—with impressively suave bravado that makes the character difficult to completely despise.

No one infuriates Kendra more than Dean and no actor matches Anderson’s charisma like Ferucci. The exquisite vulnerability of his performance recalls his portrayal of a gay Mormon in The Falls movie trilogy, especially during the emotionally lacerating Starbucks scene, where Dean and Kendra’s already fractious relationship turns toxic.

As Kendra mocks Dean, Ferucci’s leg vibrates with jittery force. You feel both the actor and the character stockpiling energy for a climactic blast of fury, but without the calculations that cloud so many performances. In Ferucci’s hands, Dean’s rage at Kendra feels raw and real—and more convincing than the play’s attempts at social commentary.

You could dismiss Gloria, which was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as nothing more than a problematic play, but that would do a disservice to Jacobs-Jenkins.

He stumbles because he dares to trek across intellectually perilous terrain, admirably trusting the actors and the audience to follow him even when the journey haunts the soul.

It’s an act of artistic faith that is rewarded beautifully by Profile’s production.

SEE IT: Gloria plays at Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 503-242-0080, profiletheatre.org/gloria. 7:30 pm WednesdaySaturday, 2 pm Sunday, through Jan. 30. $35.

The anonymous Brit who records as Burial strips down his sound to vinyl crackle and haunted samples on his new EP, Antidawn. Depending on how much your enjoyment of his work hinges on the distinctive, jerky drums he’s jettisoned here, this is either Burial’s best or most boring recording to date. But by letting his productions simply drift, he’s penetrated closer to the heart of his sound than ever before—and made a hell of a soundtrack for your next late-night bus ride.

SOMETHING LOCAL

If you’ve ever enjoyed a movie where synthesizers pulse as a strong but silent hero navigates neon-lit streets, the spirit of the late, lamented Chromatics is close by. This year, the flagship band of Portland’s Italians Do It Better label— and the original choice for the influential Drive soundtrack—celebrates the 10th anniversary of their magnum opus Kill for Love, a sad and sprawling album of synth pop so richly atmospheric it feels like ambient music.

SOMETHING ASKEW

Liumin Reduced

by Deepchord Presents Echospace consists of little more than distant drones and field recordings from Tokyo, perhaps the most endless of all cityscapes. The album beautifully captures the feeling of being lost while gazing out a window at distant lights. So many things happen at any given time in a city, and yet from a distance, it all feels so still. Liumin Reduced understands this feeling intimately.

MOVIES

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

CO U RT E SY O F L E S L I E G OY E T T E

SCREENER

FARMER BOYS: Maysville is set in a 1929 agricultural town, where the fate of two brothers is thrown into turmoil.

Kentucky Gambler Though it might sound like a stretch, Centralia, Wash., really does look like the Bluegrass State in the locally produced film Maysville.

BY CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER

@chance_s_p

Centralia, Wash. isn’t nicknamed “Hub City” for nothing—at least in the experience of two first-time filmmakers with some far-fetched needs for their ambitious debut.

The Lewis County town, which to many is merely an Interstate 5 stopover between Portland and Seattle, played host to local director Leslie Goyette’s new period piece, Maysville. Along with Chehalis, Centralia furnished everything a bootstrap production could need to approximate 1929 Appalachia—from a period-accurate courthouse to barn burnings to vintage cars to wheat fields believable as Kentuckian.

“It was surreal,” says producer Michele Englehart. “‘Oh, you need a 1929 tractor?

Well, we have a tractor museum.’”

That restored 1928 Fordson tractor on loan from King Agriculture Museum was a key actor in the saga of Maysville. The plot

traces the fallout when 13-year-old Teddy accidentally kills his best friend Willy in a farming joyride gone wrong. After the incident, Teddy is more or less forced into indentured servitude by his friend’s spiteful, alcoholic father. From that inciting trauma to Teddy’s adult attempts to start anew in Maysville, the story strives for a Great American scope, replete with pastoral details inspired by Goyette’s own youth on a Kentucky tobacco farm.

“I was in such a remote part of Kentucky,” says Goyette, who spent her early years in a town called Furnace Mountain and moved to the Northwest in 1990 to study at the University of Oregon. “We had no neighbors, no telephone, no cable. The things you see Teddy and Willy do in 1929, we did in the 1970s. We climbed in the barns, played with guns, and drove tractors. That’s what kids did when you lived off the grid.”

If Goyette’s childhood memories planted the seeds of Maysville, it was her unlikely partnership with producer Michelle Englehart that added water and sunlight. They first met in 2014, when Goyette’s son and Englehart’s daughter were acting in a commercial for DreamWorks. The two mothers connected that day, but were little more than Facebook friends until Goyette suddenly passed along the script for Maysville, thinking of Englehart’s son Forrest for a part.

“I started crying on page 15,” Englehart remembers.

That affirmation was enough to turn lifelong “closet writer” Goyette into an aspiring director and Englehart, a Seattle IT manager, into her producing partner. Considering neither had any experience making a movie, they had to practice even developing the DIY ethos many indie filmmakers know well, cashing in every possible favor, wearing

every possible hat.

“Michelle and I say we were nine and a half months pregnant for three years,” Goyette laughs.

While the most recognizable face in Maysville is that of Trin Miller, who appeared in the 2016 Viggo Mortensen-led Captain Fantastic, the movie’s soul hinges on its fleeting Tom Sawyer-esque first act, as Holden Goyette and Forrest Campbell are charged with cementing Teddy and Willy’s preteen brotherhood. Both boys, Goyette says, were exceedingly professional but bonded over what passed for childhood fun in 1929.

“When we were moving sets and cameras, they were talking about skateboarding and about how running in the field would’ve been so boring when they were kids,” she explains.

“They just laughed, and I think that comes across on screen.”

On a stylistic level, the atmosphere of Maysville belies its micro-budget, as Goyette aimed to bottle the bygone prestige of violin-soaked Hollywood epics that contended for Oscars in the late 20th century.

“There are no long pauses where the actor looks over across the abyss,” says Goyette, offering Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple as particular touchstones for her. “This is not a Nomadland; it’s not an arthouse film.”

Talking of its Hollywood influences, if there’s one Goyette sought to avoid, it was the legacy of “Dueling Banjos” and Deliverance dominating Appalachia’s cinematic legacy.

Even so, one of the film’s most interesting bits of trivia is the participation of Phillip Steinmetz, the great nephew of banjoist Grandpa Jones of Hee Haw and Grand Ole Opry fame. Steinmetz’s bluegrass contributions are limited to a brief wedding scene.

That plucking aside, Goyette expresses pride in how the Northwest stood in for her old stomping grounds. The story of Maysville is, in many ways, about how families are often doomed to live in the past but communities don’t. It’s their ability to welcome newcomers that keeps them alive, whether it’s 1929 Maysville to a desperate Teddy or 2019 Centralia to two outsiders who really need a 90-year-old tractor.

SEE IT: Maysville streams on Amazon, Google Play and YouTube.

Get Your Reps In TA B E R N AC L E

classic Bicycle Thieves. In typical Burton fashion, however, he goes for a cinematic style that’s the exact opposite of neorealism. Hollywood, Jan. 20.

Border Radio (1987) Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) Tim Burton (in his directorial debut) directs this big-screen adaptation of the beloved Pee-wee Herman Show, in which our goofy hero (Paul Reubens) treks across the country in search of his stolen bicycle—a parodic homage to the 1948 Italian

This semi-improvised independent film from the great Allison Anders follows an L.A. rocker (Chris D. of the Flesh Eaters) who loots a club and then goes on the run to Mexico, leaving his music journalist wife and their friends hot on his trail.

Shot in black-and-white on 16 mm for that gritty DIY look, and featuring a badass cowpunk soundtrack.

Clinton, Jan. 21.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) In Harry’s fourth year, magical teenagers from all over Europe visit Hogwarts to compete in a deadly wizarding tournament. A notable entry in the franchise for the gaudy Yule Ball, the absence of school-sanctioned Quidditch, and for introducing the world to heartthrob Robert Pattinson (then tragically taking him away). Academy, Jan. 21-27.

Lady Snowblood (1978) After three men assault her mother and kill the rest of her family, Yuki

dedicates her life to the art of vengeance, becoming a skilled assassin who is wrath incarnate. The main source of inspiration for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, this revenge thriller is a must-watch for any fans of the blood-spattered bride.

Clinton, Jan. 22.

Wanda (1970) With her debut film Wanda, Barbara Loden became the first woman in cinema history to direct, write and star in her own feature. Playing the titular role, Loden crafts a heartbreaking character study of an aimless antiheroine who, after being fired from her low-paying job in a sewing factory, inadvertently goes

on the run with a hapless bank robber. Clinton, Jan. 24.

ALSO PLAYING: 5th Avenue: My Twentieth Century (1989), Jan. 21-23. Academy: Mad Max (1979), Jan. 19-20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Jan. 19-20. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981), Jan. 21-27.

Clinton: The Shadow & Its Shadow: Nightmares of French Surrealism, Jan. 19. Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Jan. 21. Gimme Shelter (1970), Jan. 23. Burroughs: The Movie (1983), Jan. 25. Hollywood: Dark Star (1974), Jan. 21. Shogun Assassin (1980), Jan. 25.

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MOVIES S A LT I N M Y S O U L

NOW PLAYING TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

Salt in My Soul If you plan to see Salt in My Soul in theaters, bring Kleenex. The heartwrenching documentary follows the life of Mallory Smith, a young woman who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a child. As a teenager, she contracted B. cepacia, a bacteria in her lungs that is often deadly for CF patients. The movie weaves together home footage, diary excerpts, and interviews with her friends, loved ones, and doctors to bring to life Smith’s remarkable story. The film is decidedly lo-fi, with long underwater shots of the sun filtering through ocean waves. It’s often gutting, from the revelation that an experimental phage

therapy that attacks bacteria might have saved her life, if only she’d received it earlier, to home videos of Smith as a 4-year-old undergoing the exhausting and painful daily exercises necessary for her to breathe. Despite suffering from chronic pain, she was a star athlete in high school and went on to produce a book of poetry while studying at Stanford. She kept a 2,500-page diary from the age of 15 until her death at 25.

The writing highlights in lyric and often wrenching prose the pain of her medical journey and the wisdom and zeal for life that she developed as a result of her experience with CF. I challenge anyone to finish Salt in My Soul with dry eyes.

NR. GRACE CULHANE. On Demand.

OUR KEY

: T H I S M O V I E I S E XC E L L E N T, O N E O F T H E B E S T O F T H E Y E A R. : T H I S M O V I E I S G O O D. W E R E C O M M E N D YO U WATC H I T. : T H I S M O V I E I S E N T E R TA I N I N G B U T F L AW E D. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.

ALSO PLAYING A Hero

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi seems poised to become a household name among film buffs around the world following the release of this latest project. He’s already snagged two Academy Awards and most recently won the Best Director Award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival in November 2021, and A Hero is now a leading Oscar contender in the Best International Feature Film category. It begins simply with the main character, Rahim, played with a quiet grace by acclaimed Iranian theater and film actor Amir Jadidi, walking out of prison and into the Iranian urban landscape. Over the course of two days, we learn Rahim was incarcerated because he couldn’t repay a debt and, upon his release, he attempts to start fresh and even performs a good deed. Of course, as the saying goes, such righteous actions never go unpunished. Farhadi never insults his audience with obvious exposition. The viewer is left to discover who Rahim is, the various characters’ motivations, and who the stories’ villains and heroes are. All of the film’s atmosphere and emotional drive is delivered with naturalistic faithfulness by the actors, and ambient street noise replaces a contrived score to emphasize that tone. The story unfolds exactly how it’s introduced by the main character.

With a quiet grace. PG-13. RAY GILL JR. Amazon Prime, Living Room.

The Tragedy of Macbeth At once dignified and deranged, Denzel Washington’s Macbeth is just one of countless pleasures to be found in The

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Tragedy of Macbeth, director Joel Coen’s gorgeously austere adaptation of Shakespeare’s spooky saga about power and madness. The hurly-burly is the same—once more, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand) plot to murder the rightful king of Scotland—but with the help of cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (Amélie) and production designer Stefan Dechant (The Call of the Wild), Coen brings a fresh sheen of grim beauty to the Bard’s text, using stark shades of black and white and eerily barren sets to deliver a master class in menacing minimalism. Even better are the performances, with Washington playing Macbeth as a creepily affable chap—“if there’s power to be had, why shouldn’t I have it?” he seems to wonder—and McDormand singeing the screen with steely terror. She understands that Lady Macbeth’s defining characteristic is her impatience with her husband’s pesky conscience, which makes it all the more haunting when she discovers a conscience of her own. She, Washington and Coen comprehend the play through and through, which is why The Tragedy of Macbeth is more than a movie. It’s a proper Macbeth. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Cinema 21, Eastport Plaza, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Studio One.

The Matrix Resurrections

When the fourth installment of The Matrix franchise begins, we join white rabbit-inked hacker Bugs (Jessica Henwick) as she scrutinizes the epochal 1999 blockbuster’s still-breathtaking opening footage from wholly new angles just before inadvertently reanimating Laurence Fishburne’s

Willamette Week JANUARY 19, 2022 wweek.com

Morpheus within a faux FBI drone/sentient malware (Yahya Abudul-Mateen II). In the first feature directed without her sibling and lifelong collaborator, Lana Wachowski has a surprisingly droll touch and truly shines during trademark bursts of balletic shoot-’em-ups seemingly plucked from some near-future, zero-gravity fashion week. Now that the franchise has granted our heroes unlimited lives (and the world has proven itself to be all too eager to repurpose anti-authoritarian sloganeering for crypto-fascist ends), it’s hard not to notice the film drifting away from super-chic ultra-violence absent any semblance of consequence. In the weirdest way, though, the de facto immortality of Neo and Trinity renders their autumn romance all the more meaningful. However daft the narrative, which demands that Keanu Reeves, reborn as a celebrity game designer, spend each morning gazing wistfully at Carrie-Anne Moss’ latte order as a Bay Area supermom, his unconditional yearning echoes her eroticized devotion that defined the original. That should push the buttons of every aging cynic holding out hope that their first love might yet prove savior. There is spooning. Take the little blue pill.

R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas Town Center, Cornelius, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Oak Grove, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

Red Rocket

Red Rocket opens in July 2016, as adult film actor Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), bruised from a recent misadventure, returns to his hometown on the refinery coast of Texas. A compulsive con man, Mikey pries a fingernail of trust from his estranged wife, Lexi (Bree Elrod), and her addict mother, Lil (Brenda Deiss), hustling to get back on his feet in a brisk, comic opening act before the film reveals what it’s really about. Cinematographer Drew Daniels’ 16 mm photog-

raphy conjures the sweat of an East Texas summer, and director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) excels at casting local nonprofessionals— although Mikey has somehow irrevocably code-switched himself into a SoCal boy. Baker treats even the most flawed of his characters with nuance and empathy. Less nuanced and more questionable are the glamorized sex scenes between 40-something Mikey and the high school junior he grooms, Strawberry (Suzanna Son, an adult at the time of filming).

Nods to Trump’s looming ascendancy are a smokescreen—the relentlessly exploitative Mikey is no demagogue in the making and may instead be an avatar of Baker’s own instincts. How different is Mikey “discovering” Strawberry at a doughnut shop than Baker recruiting Son at a Gus Van Sant screening? How different is a director from a “suitcase pimp” after all?

Mikey and Baker may not have the answers, but their struggle makes for compelling viewing.

R. NATHAN WILLIAMS. Fox Tower, Movies on TV.

Swan Song

When one performer plays identical characters in a movie, it’s often a contorted acting showcase: from Dead Ringer (1964) all the way to Dead Ringers (1988). But rarely, if ever, has it been done with the nuance and composure of Mahershala Ali in Swan Song.

In this Apple TV+ sci-fi drama, the two-time Oscar winner double-embodies Cameron Turner, a terminally ill husband and father debating whether to clone himself (consciousness included) for his family’s benefit. In the frosty, minimal calm of Benjamin Cleary’s directorial debut, Ali’s performance sets the entire tone with each conflicted breath, working out the exact variation between the two Camerons. The original aches to control a process beyond his control (nod to Glenn Close as the preeminent should-we-trust-her cloning scientist), while the genetically unsick version pines to build on the memories of Cameron’s wife

(Naomie Harris) and son (Dax Rey) they now both share. At a distance, Cleary has trouble balancing whether we’re watching an almost hokey tech-overreach thriller or almost maudlin memory piece (some discomforting mix of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina and Never Let Me Go), and it’s sometimes unclear from shot to shot with whom we should identify. But the genre particulars hardly matter.

It’s a Mahershala Ali movie— twice over. R. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Apple TV+.

The Tender Bar

Ever since Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) flatly declared his little nephew hopeless at sports and pointed him toward a bookstuffed closet instead, J.R. Moehringer (Daniel Ranieri) was set on the path toward writerdom. And when The Tender Bar is about J.R. living a life worthy of its namesake 2005 memoir, the film is irresistibly charming. Abandoned by his radio DJ father, J.R. and his mother (Lily Rabe) move into the tough-loving extended family’s Long Island home, cramped with outsized personalities like Grandpa (Christopher Lloyd) and Uncle Charlie. Helmed by George Clooney, who has been on a directing cold streak dating back to 2005, The Tender Bar wisely tunes itself to the avuncular wit that a nearly 50-yearold Affleck inherits from leading men just like Clooney—quick with a line, a wink and (in this case) a free round at the family bar. While Tye Sheridan (as college-age J.R., flirting quite well at Yale) is by no means to blame for the movie’s shortcomings, its homestretch unwisely fixates on J.R. planning to write The Tender Bar and—even more bizarrely—on the memoir’s industry viability. That self-reflexive turn is nearly soul-sucking, presuming we cared about J.R.’s book more than J.R.’s family. Luckily, the soul-sucking isn’t fatal; this one’s all heart. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime.

JONESIN’

FREE WILL

B Y M AT T J O N E S

"The Birthday Game"--not the right calendar section.

ASTROLOGY ARIES

(March 21-April 19): Author Helen Hunt Jackson said that one component of happiness is "a little less time than you want." Why? Because you always "have so many things you want to see, to have, and to do" and "no day is quite long enough for all you would like to get done before you go to bed." I propose you experiment with this definition in the coming weeks. According to my astrological analysis, you will have even more interesting assignments and challenges than usual—as well as a brimming vitality that will make it possible for you to accomplish many but not all of them. Your happiness should be abundant!

TAURUS

(April 20-May 20): Born under the sign of Taurus, Ethel Smyth (1858–1944) had considerable skills as a composer of music, an athlete, an author, a passionate lover, and an activist working for women's rights. She was successful in all of them. I propose we make her one of your role models for the coming months. Why? First, because she did more than one thing really well, and you are now primed to enhance your versatility, flexibility, and adaptability. Second, because she described a formula for high achievement that would suit you well. She said, "Night after night I went to sleep murmuring, 'Tomorrow I will be easy, strong, quick, supple, accurate, dashing and self-controlled all at once!'" (PS: I suggest you make "supple" your word of power in 2022.)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): According to author

ACROSS 1 Rootless aquatic plant 5 "Don't make me laugh!"

8 Steve Irwin exclamation 14 Mario Kart character 15 Modern prefix with tourism 16 Emu or ostrich, e.g.

17 "The $64,000 Question" emcee born one month too late?

19 "The Audacity of Hope" family 20 Have _ _ _ of mystery 21 Hanna-Barbera feline

54 "_ _ _ Rock 'n' Roll" (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts song) 55 Leo's home?

58 Queen guitarist/ astrophysicist born two months too late?

60 Mission to the moon 61 French dressing ingredient no longer regulated by the FDA 62 Frigid finish 63 Most bleached out 64 T-shirt size that may cost slightly more 65 SFO listings

23 Ready to leave the queue

DOWN

25 One of many during 2021 for "Jeopardy!"

1 Convenient

27 Little twerp 28 "Reader" whose last print edition was in 2019 31 Industrious sort 32 Taproom orders 33 Push up against 34 Decreases 35 Newtonian topic 36 Late performer who once dated Nicole Richie and Mandy Moore 37 "Hawaii Five-O" setting 38 Les Etats-_ _ _ 41 Bar fixture 44 Wallace's dog 45 Composer Grieg 46 "Aaagh! That's way too bright!"

26 Mike the Tiger's sch.

2 Ride while you wait for repairs

29 Like some ciders

3 Andromeda, for one

48 Count for MLS or NHL games

30 "Green Acres" costar Eva

4 Fess up

49 Disney World attraction

32 Godparent, sometimes

5 "I'm with _ _ _" (2016 campaign slogan)

51 Arm bones

33 "Fences" playwright born four months too soon?

6 Bank holding, briefly

52 Liver secretion 53 Grand _ _ _ (auto race)

36 Tennis variation

7 Sounds from mall Santas

39 2018 Hannah Gadsby stand-up special with quite a few serious moments

8 Holey footwear

55 Anti-mosquito device sound

9 Morocco's capital

56 _ _ _-Locka, Florida

10 "Let's just leave _ _ _ that"

57 U.S. currency 59 Not feeling so good

42 Take _ _ _ (lose money)

11 Family that runs the "Convenience" store in a Canadian sitcom

43 Purchasing agent

12 Greek vowel

44 Onyx or opal

13 "That's pretty much it"

47 College maj. for instrumentalists

18 Rocket, in the U.S.

40 "Mad Men" actress born ... in exactly the right month?

48 Tabletop gamer, stereotypically 50 Unlikely to fall over 52 Girl with a flock

22 Surname of Roth's complainer 24 Alerter of the 2000s 26 Deadly sin

©2022 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JNZ990.

last week’s answers

Olivia Dresher, "Feelings want to be free.

Thoughts want to be right." Well, then, what about intuitions? In a sense, they're hybrids of feelings and thoughts. They're a way of knowing that transcends both feelings and thoughts.

When intuitions come from the clear-seeing part of your deep psyche rather than the fear-prone part of your conditioning, they are sweet and fun and accurate and humble and brisk and pure.

They don't "want" to be anything. I'm pleased to inform you, Gemini, that in the coming weeks, your intuitions will be working at peak efficiency.

It should be relatively easy for you to distinguish between the clear-seeing and fear-prone modes of intuition.

CANCER

(June 21-July 22): "If you are going to do something wrong, at least enjoy it," wrote humorist Leo Rosten. I offer his counsel to you right now because I want you to have fun if you wander away from your usual upstanding behavior. But may I make a suggestion? As you depart from normal, boring niceness, please remain honorable and righteous. What I'm envisioning for you are experiments that are disruptive in healthy ways, and dares that stir up interesting problems, and rebellious explorations that inspire beauty and truth. They'll be "wrong" only in the sense of being mutinies against static, even stagnant, situations that should indeed be prodded and pricked. Remember Bob Dylan's idea: "To live outside the law, you must be honest."

LEO

(July 23-Aug. 22): Leo actor Anna Kendrick bragged, "I'm so humble it's crazy. I'm like the Kanye West of humility." I'd like to see you adopt that extravagant approach to expressing your magnificence in the coming weeks. I hope you'll add another perspective to your repertoire, too— this one from Leo actor Mae West. She exulted, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!"

Here's one further attitude I encourage you to incorporate, courtesy of Leo author Rachel Pollack: "To learn to play seriously is one of the great secrets of spiritual exploration."

VIRGO

(Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Sammy Davis Jr. (1925–1990) was multi-talented: an actor, singer, comedian, and dancer. One critic described him as "the greatest entertainer ever to grace a stage."

He didn't think highly of his own physical appearance, however. "I know I'm dreadfully ugly," Davis said, "one of the ugliest men you could meet. But ugliness, like beauty, is something you must learn how to use." That's an interesting lesson to meditate on. I think it's true that each of us has rough, awkward, irregular aspects—if not in our physical appearance, then in our psyches.

And yet, as Davis suggested, we can learn to not

WEEK OF JANUARY 27

© 2022 ROB BREZSNY

just tolerate those qualities, but use them to our advantage. Now is a favorable time for you to do that.

LIBRA

(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "It is the nature of love to work in a thousand different ways," wrote the mystic Saint Teresa of Avila. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you're due to discover new and different ways to wield your love magic—in addition to the many you already know and use. For best results, you'll have to be willing to depart from old reliable methods for expressing care and tenderness and nurturing.

You must be willing to experiment with fresh approaches that may require you to stretch yourself. Sounds like fun to me!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "If you are drilling for

water, it's better to drill one 60-foot well than 10 six-foot wells," advised author and religious scholar Huston Smith. He was using well-drilling as a metaphor, of course—as a symbol for solving a problem, for example, or developing a spiritual practice, or formulating an approach to psychological healing. The metaphor might not be perfectly applicable for everyone in every situation.

But I believe it is vividly apropos for you and your current situations.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A well-worn

proverb tells us, "All good things come to those who wait." There's a variation, whose author is unknown (although it's often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln): "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left behind by those who hustle." I think that's far more useful advice for you in the coming weeks. I'd much rather see you hustle than wait. Here's a third variant, which may be the best counsel of all. It's by author Holly Woodward: "All good things come to those who bait."

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Author Harriet

Beecher Stowe wrote, "To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization." I agree, which is why I authorize you to add "Saint" to the front of your name in the coming weeks. There's an excellent chance you will fit the description Stowe articulated. You'll be at the peak of your power to elevate the daily rhythm into a stream of subtle marvels. You'll be quietly heroic. If you're not fond of the designation "Saint," you could use the Muslim equivalent term, "Wali," the Jewish "Tzadik," Buddhist "Arhat," or Hindu "Swami."

AQUARIUS

(Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Since the iconoclastic planet Uranus is a chief symbol for the Aquarian tribe, you people are more likely to be dissenters and mavericks and questioners than all the other signs. That doesn't mean your departures from orthodoxy are always successful or popular.

Sometimes you meet resistance from the status quo. Having offered that caveat, I'm happy to announce that in the coming weeks, your unique offerings are more likely than usual to be effective. For inspiration, read these observations by author Kristine Kathryn Rusch: "Rebels learn the rules better than the rule-makers do. Rebels learn where the holes are, where the rules can best be breached. Become an expert at the rules.

Then break them with creativity and style."

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Piscean author Juansen Dizon tells us, "Don't find yourself in places where people have it all figured out." That's always good advice, but it will be especially germane for you in the coming weeks and months.

You need the catalytic stimulation that comes from associating with curious, open-minded folks who are committed to the high art of not being know-it-alls. The influences you surround yourself with will be key in your efforts to learn new information and master new skills. And that will be an essential assignment for you throughout 2022.

Homework: What is the feeling you want to have the most during 2022?

Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

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COMiCS!

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SPOTLIGHT ARTIST ANDREA BOYD

https://www.facebook.com/andreaboydart/ @andreaboydcreations Andrea Boyd was born and raised in northern Argentina where she first discovered her passion for art as a child. While she was still in high school she attended the School of Visual Arts where she also graduated. She then went on to the National University of Argentina where she completed a degree in architecture and urbanism.

Her primary mediums were pencils and oil, but she recently discovered her passion for watercolor. Andrea resides in North Portland, in the Kenton neighborhood, where she has a home studio for her work.

ARE YOU AN ARTIST?

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