Willamette Week, October 26, 2022 - Volume 48, Issue 51 - "2022 Give!Guide"

out of state.

The only police department to loan an officer to TriMet? Milwaukie

Homeowners on Southeast 89th Avenue could be billed $165

month for sidewalks for the next 20 years.

Vacancies at the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office have doubled in 2022.

This year, the pattern carved into The Pumpkin Patch’s corn maze depicts the farm’s two new cows: Brahmans named Cinnamon and Sugar.

A Nightmare Before Christmas singalong party at Alberta Rose Theatre

week also

Enter the Ball Pit of Doom

you dare this weekend at Mur derboat’s Halloween party. 45

There’s a $40 deposit on the Closed Casket cocktail at Hey Love’s Halloween pop-up so guests won’t steal the ceramic mermaid mug. 47

Tell your kids they can’t have Mellow Vibes’ white cheddar jalapeño Potcorn because it’s too spicy—not because it’s drugs. 48

There is a universe where Play boi Carti is an elder hip-hop statesman and Panic! At the Disco is classic rock. 49

Vancouver native Nick Richey’s latest film was inspired by a formative phone-sex hotline call.

Last week, WW released its endorsements in 40 contested election contests on the November ballot, as well as 14 bal lot measures. One of our decisions, however, vacuumed up all the oxygen: an endorsement of challenger Rene Gonzalez over incumbent City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. Many longtime readers expressed feelings of betrayal. Two days later, Hardesty’s own campaign was fundraising on the outrage generated by WW’s endorsement of her opponent. Here’s what our readers had to say:

CANDACE AVALOS, VIA TWITTER: “This town doesn’t deserve the countless women of color who actually make the change Portlanders cry out for only to dump them immediate ly the moment they threaten your power, scapegoating them for the damage the problem atic men you support created. Shameful & grotesque.”

JT, VIA WWEEK.COM: “It’s been pretty interesting over the past few months to see WWeek get some religion on being more even-handed and logical as it relates to city government and the issues Portland faces. Props for that.”

KLINT FINLEY, VIA TWITTER: “WWeek’s endorsement of Gonzalez is a betrayal of its readership and the city the paper is meant to serve. As usual, The Mercury’s endorse ments are on point.

“WW’s endorsement reasoning is unbelievably bad. It’s based entirely on the fact that he’s not Hardesty, even though they admit that she’s being unfairly blamed for the city’s issues and has much to recommend her despite her mistakes. WW is suggesting by implication that Hardesty is so bad that Gonzalez couldn’t pos sibly be worse, as they are not able to come up with any good reason to vote for him other

than ‘Portland needs change.’

“There are numerous prob lems with this logic, foremost among them that Gonzalez doesn’t represent meaningful change. Despite his claims to the contrary, he is the status quo. He represents Portland traditional centers of power: the police unions, real estate developers, and other business interests that have fought real change in Portland for so long.

Hardesty is one of the few city counselors to challenge that status quo in any meaningful way…

“Gonzalez’s campaign is based on a lie: that there’s a quick and easy way to end crime and homelessness, and that it’s incarceration. This is as untrue today as it was four years ago when we first elected Hardesty. We need more like her.

“For all WW’s ‘We need change at any cost’ doomer attitude, they are also opposing charter reform. WW is not advocating change. They’re advocating an eternal status quo that benefits the rich at the expense of the vulnerable.”

YOUDIDNTREDDIT, VIA RED

DIT: “I’m a Hardesty supporter and I find it absurd that the one left-wing City Council member is getting blamed for everything wrong with Portland when the center has the majority.

“But there has been a massive

failure by leftists in Portland of treating homelessness as a serious issue in beyond making the status quo more comfort able for homeless people. It’s all complaints about anything the centrists propose with no actual plans to fix a problem.

If you can’t even admit it’s bad for people to be sleeping on the street or in a public park, then you can’t be surprised that most of the city isn’t listening to you.”

PORTLAND POLITE, VIA WWEEK.COM: “Oh, man. You know the city really is a dumpster fire when even WW acknowledges it by endorsing Rene and bailing on the awful Jo Ann. Nice job, WW.”

MAYOR_OF-SASSYLAND, VIA REDDIT: “It turns out that the general voting population, based on polling, prefers a candidate who at least gives lip service to general concerns of safety and crime enforcement over one that barely even acknowledges these are a problem. This isn’t that hard to figure out.

“Hardesty has done great work with [Portland Street Response] and [the Portland Bureau of Transportation], and she has consistently been the most engaged and accessible to her constituency. But her blind spots on two issues, that happen to be the top two issues consistently in polling (crime/ safety and homelessness), along with tone-deaf messaging, are going to sink her candidacy. If she had shifted even just a little bit, I don’t think she would be in this predicament.”

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: P.O. Box 10770, Portland OR, 97296

Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx

We’re considering building an ADU, doing most of the work ourselves. A realtor friend says city permits and fees—independent of construction costs—could total $100,000. Is he right? And what will they do if, instead of an ADU, I build a “shed” that just happens to be pretty nice inside and move somebody in? —Booty and the Ho-Fish

I wouldn’t dream of casting aspersions on your friend, Booty. Still, I must remind you that, as a Portland realtor, he would be in a financial position to do top-quality drugs every day. I’m not saying you can get your permits for green stamps and a handful of pocket lint, but it’s not as bad as your buddy thinks.

The Bureau of Development Services says most permitting fees are scaled to the dollar value of the completed structure. The total permitting bill typically comes to 8% to 9% of the total valuation, so unless you’re building an accessory dwelling unit out of solid gold and catalytic converters for $1.5 million, you’re not coming anywhere near a hundred grand.

One important caveat: If your plan requires changes to city-owned infrastructure, get ready to cough up an arm and a leg (to mix a metaphor) in systems development charges, or SDCs. Giving your ADU its own connection to the city water main, for example, can set you back around $8,000 (sewer not included).

Still, if you’re careful (and a little lucky), you may be able to avoid SDCs—two of the three sample projects BDS provided to me did, and both got through the whole permitting process for less than $6,000.

But what if you go full cowboy and don’t pull permits at all—what’s the worst that can happen? If you build to code—and don’t plan on selling your house—it might be as little as paying for an after-the-fact permit and sub mitting to a building inspection. If you do sell, you’re required to disclose any unpermitted work, which could affect the buyer’s ability to secure financing.

If you ignore the code? The worst would probably be a fire, caused by your shoddy wir ing, that destroys both the ADU and your actu al house on a night when you were hosting the Most Ruthless Personal Injury Lawyer Awards in your living room. Will your homeowner’s insurance have your back if your unpermitted structure is to blame? Fuck around and find out, I guess.

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

COURT PACKING TIME FOR GOV. BROWN:

When Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Martha Walters announced her retirement last week just two years into a six-year term, the move signaled a wholesale restocking of the bench. It’s one that will accelerate if Republican Christine Drazan wins the Nov. 8 governor’s race, because Democrats are eager to minimize Dra zan’s potential impact on the courts. Although judges are nominally subject to election, the governor retains the constitutional power to fill vacancies. Judicial retirements have allowed Gov. Kate Brown to appoint more than 100 new faces to state courts, including six justices to the seven-member Oregon Supreme Court. Walters joins fellow Supreme Thomas Balmer, who an nounced Oct. 3 he’d retire at year’s end, also four years short of his term’s conclusion; and Justice Adrienne Nelson, who is moving up to the feder al bench. When Brown fills the three vacancies on the top court, she’ll likely pull from the 13 judges on the Oregon Court of Appeals and the circuit courts, creating additional vacancies. Upon Balmer’s retirement announcement, Brown signaled she was preparing to make a slew of appointments, notifying previously unsuccessful applicants she would automatically consider them for openings. Oregon Judicial Department spokesman Todd Sprague says the retirements are “not uncommon.”

LAUDERDALE HOSTS SOIREE FOR JOHNSON:

Former state Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) has watched her unaffiliated candidacy for governor sink in the polls over the past month. So it was surprising to see an invitation to an Oct. 23 cocktails-and-ice cream fundraiser for Johnson at the home of Pink Martini bandleader Thomas Lauderdale. Co-hosts included former Gov. Ted Kulongoski, Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, high-powered divorce lawyer Jody Stahancyk and onetime state Sen. Margaret Carter (D-Portland)—all figures sophisticated enough to read poll results that suggest Johnson has no chance of winning and disproportionately takes votes away from Democratic nominee Tina Kotek. Lauderdale, whose band held a 2011 con cert to support Occupy Portland and backed for mer City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly and Com missioner Jo Ann Hardesty, is often aligned with

progressives. He tells WW he planned to host an event for Johnson earlier in the campaign, but was busy touring with Pink Martini and organiz ing a campaign against Portland’s charter reform measure. He says he’s not worried that a vote for Johnson could boost Republican nominee Chris tine Drazan’s prospects. “There’s no compelling reason for Tina Kotek,” Lauderdale says. “It’s all about fear of Drazan. I’m 52, but I still vote with my heart, not for the lesser of two evils.”

NO CAMPING AT THE ZOO: Mayor Ted Wheeler detailed plans last week to construct three mas sive sanctioned campsites with capacities of 500 each. The announcement was greeted with en thusiasm by state Democrats for whom Portland street camping is an election-year albatross—and skepticism from social service providers who wonder, among other things, where such large encampments could go. One of the sites initially considered, WW learned: a piece of property abutting the Oregon Zoo in Southwest Portland. That idea has already been nixed, the mayor’s office tells WW, because of its proximity to the biggest paid tourist attraction in the state. The zoo, run by regional government Metro, attracts over 1.5 million visitors annually. Another site that’s been discarded for the same reason: a plot of land near OMSI on the inner eastside.

PCEF (FINALLY) SPEAKS FOR THE TREES: In the first two rounds of grants from the Port land Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund, precious little money went to planting trees, even though they are a proven technology for removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing shade in urban heat islands. Portland’s best-known arboreal organization, Friends of Trees, got rejected in the first round and won just $95,791 in the second, when PCEF doled out $122 million to other nonprofits. But the group may have better luck in the future. As part of an overhaul of PCEF led by City Commissioner Carmen Rubio, the fund is making tree planting a priority. It’s directing $40 million to “growing an equitable tree canopy,” according to a presenta tion by PCEF program manager Sam Baraso. A portion of the money would go toward training a tree-planting workforce and building a pool of contractors, according to Baraso’s presentation.

POLICE WATCHDOG ON SHORT LEASH, DOJ

SAYS: City officials met behind closed doors Oct. 25 with advocates and federal attorneys to hash out a plan to improve the Portland Police Bureau. The city has been under federal oversight for nearly a decade due to excessive use of force by police officers against protest ers and people with mental illness. Now federal attorneys say the city is failing to uphold its side of the settlement agreement signed in 2014. City spokespeople say they cannot comment on the meeting. But Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland says the plan was to discuss whether to appoint a court-appointed monitor to broker a deal, a solution that was urged last year by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon, who oversees the settlement agree ment. That was likely not the only subject under discussion. In a Monday brief, federal attorneys accused the city of undermining the indepen dence of the Portland Committee on Commu nity-Engaged Policing, which, according to the brief, has not been allowed to set its own agenda and only recently acquired enough members to reach a quorum. The panel was supposed to be assessing the city’s progress toward compliance with the agreement. “The mayor and his team will continue to welcome feedback and strive to provide helpful support for PCCEP as it carries out its important work,” a spokesman for Mayor Ted Wheeler tells WW

THOMAS LAUDERDALE

The Outer Limits

BY NIGEL JAQUISS njaquiss@wweek.com

With nearly two weeks until ballots are counted, the three major candidates for Oregon governor have collectively raised about $60 million—one-and-a-half times the previous record.

“That’s disgusting,” says Jason Kafoury, a Portland lawyer and co-petitioner for ballot measures that would place limits on campaign contributions. Oregon is currently one of only five states with no limits. “Big checks are drowning out the chance for everyday Oregonians to have their voices heard.”

Many of the voices speaking the loudest in this campaign don’t live in Oregon. Of the money the three leading candidates have raised so far, one-third—$20 million—comes from out-of-state donors.

And for all her talk of getting big money out of politics, it’s Democratic Party nominee Tina Kotek who’s accepted the most cash from out of state. Such donations constitute 47% of her campaign haul.

“The people of Oregon are not deciding this election,” Kafoury says. “The national parties are—and that’s sad.”

Here are the totals as of midday Oct. 25, along with each can didate’s three largest out-of-state contributors.

BETSY JOHNSON, UNAFFILIATED

$17.3 million raised, $1.63 million from out of state

Her largest out-of-state donors:

1. Sierra Pacific Industries (timber), Redding, Calif.: $501,000

2. Global Companies LLC (oil), Waltham, Mass.: $210,000

3. CalPortland (cement), Glendora, Calif.: $175,000

CHRISTINE DRAZAN, REPUBLICAN

$19.6 million raised, $6.73 million from out of state

Her largest out-of-state donors:

1. Republican Governors Association, Washington, D.C.: $5.8 million

2. Pahlisch Ventures LLC (homebuilding), Seattle, Wash.: $250,000

Should Merritt Paulson sell the Thorns and the Timbers?

We asked city and county officials and candidates.

Depending on next month’s election, the Port land City Council could add a soccer expert.

Rene Gonzalez played the sport at Willamette University. Years later, he helped build United PDX, the city’s largest youth soccer program. And he has some serious issues with the way Merritt Paulson, owner of the Thorns and the Timbers, does business.

“The Timbers were bullies in youth soccer,” Gonzalez says.

The teams loaned their names to youth clubs in the region, including the Westside Timbers (now called the Westside Metros) in Beaverton, the Washington Timbers in Vancouver, and the Eugene Timbers.

Gonzalez says the Timbers came to him at United PDX and offered a sponsorship, but it didn’t come with any money that United could use for player scholarships.

Gonzalez said no thanks. “United never wore a Timbers patch, and that was intentional,” Gon zalez says.

“The Portland Thorns and Portland Timbers

have enjoyed successful partnerships in youth soccer in Oregon over the years,” says Timbers spokesman Collin Romer. “Without our support, youth soccer in the state would not have the reach, scope and stability that it does today.”

Our conversation with Gonzalez, who is run ning to unseat City Commissioner Jo Ann Hard esty, started with this question: Should Merritt Paulson sell the Timbers and the Thorns? Mo mentum for such a sale is building, especially as the team’s powerful supporters’ groups launch campaigns to buy the clubs.

Here, Gonzalez was more circumspect.

“Should anyone force him to sell the teams? I don’t know,” Gonzalez said. “Now, the pitchforks are coming. For the good of the game, I don’t know if that should dictate their future either. At minimum, Portland values should be reflected.”

Other city officials and candidates were more forceful. Over the past month, we’ve repeatedly asked local officials if Paulson should sell. Here are their answers.

ANTHONY EFFINGER.

3. Brian Drouhard (Bluewater Farms), Othello, Wash.: $250,000

TINA KOTEK, DEMOCRAT

$23.2 million raised, $11 million from out of state

Her largest out-of-state donors:

1. Democratic Governors Association, Washington, D.C.: $5.88 million

2. American Federation of Teachers, Washington, D.C.: $500,000

3. Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters, Kent, Wash.: $500,000

Source: Oregon Secretary of State’s Office

Should Merritt Paulson sell?

MAYOR TED WHEELER: YES

“The information revealed in the investigation by the U.S. Soccer Federation is horrific. This egregious treatment of women in sports is un acceptable and anyone who knowingly covers up allegations of sexual abuse should have no role in professional soccer.”

CITY COMMISSIONER DAN RYAN: YES

“My understanding is that this decision is with the executives who run the National Women’s Soccer League and Major League Soccer and— most importantly—with Thorns and Timbers fans and sponsors. As a Portlander who has at tended soccer matches since the 1970s, I know the relationship between the community and our Thorns and Timbers runs deep. ”

CITY COMMISSIONER JO ANN HARDESTY: YES

“I am outraged and saddened at the toxic cul ture and damaging behaviors exhibited by the Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns front office further revealed in this week’s investigative report. How long will it take for women in sports to be treated fairly? I stand with the Rose City Riveters and all Portlanders who are calling for Merritt Paulson to sell the team.”

CHIEF OF STAFF JILLIAN SCHOENE FOR CITY COMMISSIONER CARMEN RUBIO: YES

“She does believe that Merritt Paulson should

sell, and certainly hopes and wants that part of any deal would keep the teams here because we are deeply committed to their success.”

COUNTY COMMISSIONER JESSICA VEGA PEDERSON: YES

“We have the best soccer fans in the country, and we deserve a franchise we can all be proud of.”

COUNTY COMMISSIONER SHARON MEIERAN: YES

“I have been lamenting the fact that right now things are so chaotic, and it’s sad that even the things we love and that distract us from our woes, like soccer, are fraught with abuse and dysfunction. Sell, and let’s move on to a healthier environment for the players and the fans!”

COUNTY COMMISSIONER SUSHEELA JAYAPAL: YES

“The values that have been displayed by the Tim bers’ and Thorns’ leadership are not the values of Portland or of the team’s incredibly passionate and loyal fans. It should go without saying that sexual harrassment and other abuse absolutely cannot be tolerated and that people who commit it must be held accountable—not protected—yet fans had to keep saying it, again and again, for action to be taken. Yes, he should sell, and if he does not, he should be forced to do so.”

City Commissioner Mingus Mapps and County Commissioner Lori Stegmann didn’t respond.

Behind the record amount of cash in the Oregon governor’s race lie big geographic differences in where the money originates.

REINFORCEMENTS: U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley joined Tina Kotek at the Wonder Ballroom last weekend.

No Guns, Will Travel

In November 2020, the depths of the first pandemic winter, TriMet administrators raised alarms about public safety on Portland’s transit system.

“TriMet’s security staffing is low,” read the findings from an agency presentation given to community groups. Denver’s similarly sized transit system had nearly three times as many “nonsworn” security personnel. BART, in San Francisco, had five times as many cops.

According to a customer survey presented at an August meeting of TriMet’s board of directors, nearly half of respondents listed “better security” as one of the top improvements that would entice them to take the bus or MAX more often. And the agency desperately needs to bring back ridership, which has yet to recover from the pandemic.

So TriMet has gone on a hiring spree. In two years, it has nearly doubled its security staff: from 125 to 229, with plans to bring on 90 more. “We have been actively increasing our security presence on the system as fast as we can,” says TriMet spokeswoman Roberta Altstadt.

Although TriMet is beefing up its security staff, it’s losing cops. TriMet relies on partner agencies to staff its Police Division. In 2021, The Portland Police Bureau, short-staffed itself, pulled all of its officers out of the Transit Police and put them back out on the street.

Since 2019, the number of cops in the TriMet Police Division has fallen from 55 to 18. And although TriMet has funding to pay salaries for 65, only the Milwaukie Police Department has stepped in to fill the gap. The city offered one officer, who will join the division in December.

So TriMet is turning to unarmed security guards instead. It’s con tracting them from Portland Patrol Inc. and Allied Universal Security Services. And despite a “national shortage of security officers,” the agency has more than doubled its number in two years thanks to an $8-an-hour pay hike.

The effort to add more unarmed security personnel on buses and trains goes back years. After TriMet beefed up police patrols in the wake of a double murder on a MAX car in 2017, protesters stormed a board meeting in protest, arguing that armed cops intimidate people of color and were the wrong solution to the problem.

Last year, TriMet launched a new Safety Response Team, made up of “contracted security staff” trained to do social service outreach. The team now has 48 members.

Maia Vásconez-Taylor, a community organizer at Bus Riders Unite!, says the team is a “step in the right direction.” But, she adds, “it’s not perfect.”

It, like TriMet’s unarmed “customer safety officer” program, con tracts guards from Portland Patrol. The company made headlines late last year for hiring Michael Stradley to train new recruits. Stradley is the former West Linn police lieutenant who left in disgrace for his involvement in the wrongful arrest of a Black man.

Address: 2436 SE 12th Ave.

Year built: 1927

Square footage: 13,568 (lot); 3,399 (warehouse) Market value: $1.46 million

Owner: Carter Machine & Tool Inc.

How long it’s been empty: At least TK_two years Why it’s empty: The longtime owner died.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more attractively located ghost building than the graffiti-festooned warehouse on a triangular-shaped lot at the intersec tion of Southeast 12th Avenue and Division Street, on the southwest end of Ladd’s Addition in the Hos ford-Abernethy neighborhood.

Some of Southeast Portland’s choicest residential real estate lies just north of the lot. Popular restau rants—Double Dragon, Genie’s, Pine State Biscuits and the Apex beer bar, among many other hot spots— lure crowds to lower Division, and parents covet the adjacent Abernethy Elementary School. All that makes the building’s disuse a topic of fascination— and concern—to neighbors.

Brad Copenhaver, 40, who rents a house adjacent to the property, says there have been few signs of life in the Carter Machine building since he moved in a couple of years ago. The only sign of activity: A contractor stores forms for shaping concrete under a frazzled tarp outside the loading dock on the build ing’s western face.

“I was worried about it when we first moved in,” Copenhaver says of the building’s vacancy.

Some campers occupied space adjacent to the building for a while, but they’ve moved on. Copen haver says a caretaker periodically replaces broken windows with plywood and keeps trash picked up.

“It’s actually been OK,” he says.

For decades, the building belonged to Russell Car ter, who, according to his Oregonian obituary, was a decorated World War II soldier who founded the Carter Machine & Tool Co. in 1973.

Records show that after Carter’s death in 2020 at age 96, ownership of the building passed to his daughter, Wanda Osgood of Portland, and his son, Ron Carter of Sarasota, Fla.

Osgood declined to discuss the building’s history but tells WW its days of lying fallow are numbered.

“We are in the process of selling it,” Osgood says. “We are fielding offers on a daily basis.” NIGEL JAQUISS.

Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, explains why it’s emp ty, and considers what might arrive there next. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.

don’t want, when they can’t even support our neighborhood in the ways that we are asking.”

Abei says he’s aware of the neighbors’ letter.

“I hear what the letter says,” he tells WW “It’s intimating, ‘We don’t want to pay any thing.’” But he disputes there is “anything on the written record that all 14 property owners are opposed to it.”

Moving an LID before the City Council typ ically requires more than 50% of the property owners who are to be burdened with the cost to sign a petition in favor of it, calculated either by total square footage or on a one-property, one-vote basis. But not this time.

Walked Over

Pensioners are gobsmacked that the city could bill them for sidewalks in East Portland.

BY SOPHIE PEEL speel@wweek.com

On a clear September evening, 20 people gath ered at Berrydale Park in the Montavilla neigh borhood of Southeast Portland, the plastic feet of their lawn chairs sinking into the ground near the community garden.

The residential streets surrounding Berry dale Park are among the parts of East Portland where city transportation officials have pledged to rectify decades of neglect: roads cratered with potholes and lacking sidewalks.

And on this warm evening, a city official told neighbors of a plan to construct sidewalks along Southeast 89th Avenue and portions of Taylor Street.

Partly on their dime.

Fifteen homeowners would each be billed just under $24,000, to be exact, plus interest. Only one homeowner could opt out—the rest could not. Portland Parks & Recreation planned a near-total renovation of Berrydale Park itself, including a new skatepark and playground. And the city decided to build sidewalks next to the park on both sides of 89th and along parts of Taylor—and bill homeowners for the cost.

Under Portland city code, homeowners are responsible for maintaining the sidewalks in front of their houses, but less often are they asked to build the sidewalks at their own ex pense. One circumstance in which they are: when the streets become the subject of a local improvement district, which requires contribu tions from nearby property owners to upgrade road conditions. That program is overseen by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, a bu reau under the watch of Commissioner Jo Ann

Hardesty.

For years, the Portland City Council has vowed to refocus its infrastructure efforts on the most neglected parts of town. Now it’s do ing so, and the residents of those places are unhappy. They say City Hall hasn’t considered that people living in low- and middle-income neighborhoods don’t have the means to pay for upgrades that are commonplace in Laurelhurst and the Alphabet District.

On Oct. 12, the City Council voted unani mously to continue planning for the 89th Av enue project—over the objections of 12 of the 14 homeowners who would be charged. Many of them say the expense could force them to sell their homes.

“I’m on Social Security and I can’t afford any more expenses,” says Doug Voigt, 70, who purchased his home on 89th Avenue in 1991 for $46,000. “I didn’t figure I’d have to pay 24 grand for the whole neighborhood.”

Nobody questions that the streets around Ber rydale Park leave something to be desired. Wa ter pools in the gravel where a sidewalk should be on the northernmost side of 89th. The as phalt of the street blends into gravel that blends into the lawns of abutting homes. Parkgoers must walk in the street, hugging tightly to cars parked roadside.

One way to remedy such hazards: a local improvement district, a financing method for infrastructure projects that requires proper ty owners to pool their money to cover costs. In the past 20 years, Portland has completed 58 local improvement districts. East Portland contains just 17 of them.

At the Oct. 12 hearing, PBOT program admin istrator Andrew Abei told the City Council that Montavilla residents had asked for fixes to the street.

Aebi recalled a moment during a Sept. 6 meet ing with neighbors as a good argument for why the street needed improvement: “As we were discussing…I heard a bloodcurdling scream behind me, and a young girl had wiped out on the street there, and she skinned her knee or something, and it was a tangible reminder that kids need safe places to be and a safe place for a young child to ride a bike.”

Neighbors who attended the meeting dispute that the scream was “bloodcurdling.” And that’s not their only bone of contention with Aebi.

“ We feel like we got blindsided by this,” says Dennis Kemper, who purchased his house on 87th Avenue in 1987. “And they said the city can lien your house if you don’t pay it.”

The city offers homeowners conscripted into such projects the ability to pay the amount back over five, 10 or 20 years. Still, that could mean a $165 monthly charge for 20 years.

Voigt and Kemper are two of the 12 neighbors who signed a letter asking the City Council to kill the project due to the financial burden, es pecially for homeowners who are retired and living on fixed incomes.

Signatories claim none of them asked for the project.

“Our neighborhood has been dealing with issues of nearby homeless camps, on property we are told is the responsibility of PBOT,” it read, in conclusion. “It’s almost laughable that PBOT is putting their effort into forcing each of us to spend $23,000 on a project that we

The city says because the parks bureau owns most of the property in question, and will foot over three-quarters of the bill, City Hall can make the decision without the consent of near by homeowners.

Abei says local residents have an obligation to the greater good.

“ We have a one-time opportunity to piggy back on what is being built,” Abei says. “Are we going to walk away and do nothing at all for this neighborhood, leave the potholes and the drainage problem?”

At the Oct. 12 hearing, City Commissioner Dan Ryan peppered Aebi with questions about the cost burden for retired homeowners on fixed incomes, asking if the city could offer exemptions or hardship waivers.

Abei said no—but added that the city could defer the loan for an additional five years. The Oregon Constitution mandates that cities un dertake such projects, he says, “based on benefit to property, not based on ability to pay.”

When asked by Ryan later at the hearing if it was possible to pull other neighbors in after two Montavilla residents just blocks away testi fied they were willing to chip in, Abei said: “I’m reluctant to cast the net wider and pull people in.”

The City Council’s unanimous Oct. 12 vote to greenlight planning for the project isn’t the final word on the matter. It simply gives Abei permission to move forward with planning; the project must return before the council Nov. 30 for final approval. Homeowners can file grievances against the project, but only the council has ultimate authority to kill or approve it, no matter the level of support or dissent. The council can also amend the project, including its boundaries and “all matters contained in the plans and specifications,” according to city code.

Hardesty and Mayor Ted Wheeler offered strong support for the plan. Wheeler called it a “significant public good for everybody in the area,” and Hardesty said access to the park required new sidewalks.

“This community would not be satisfied,” she said, “if we put in a big, beautiful park and people had to go through mud and a lack of sidewalks and still walk in the streets to access it.”

Neighbors tell WW they see it differently.

“Most people didn’t have to pay for their side walks. Why are they singling us out?” Kemper says. “It’s a really profound financial hardship.”

NEGLECTED: Road conditions along Southeast 89th Avenue are emblematic of City Hall’s decades of infrastructural neglect in East Portland.

“We feel like we got blindsided by this. And they said the city can lien your house if you don’t pay it.”

POWER OF

Justice Delayed

A staffing shortage at the sheriff’s office sometimes brings Multnomah County’s criminal courts to a standstill.

BY LUCAS MANFIELD lmanfield@wweek.com

On the morning of July 6, a judge, a prosecutor and a defense lawyer sat in a downtown Portland courtroom and waited. They were there to record the guilty plea of a man accused of a hit-and-run. Only there was one problem: The defendant wasn’t there.

And it wasn’t his fault. The Multnomah County Jail was on lockdown—there’d been a COVID-19 outbreak, and the jail had lost track of the spreaders. No one had told the court.

“ We were unaware where the few positives were housed,” wrote Multnomah County Sheriff’s Capt. Stephen Reardon to Circuit Judge Andrew Lavin, who had complained about the wasting of court resources in an email thread newly obtained by WW

Reardon, who runs “court services” for the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, told Lavin the jail had developed a plan to prevent similar incidents in future. But that plan hasn’t stopped a torrent of complaints about the jail’s in ability to get inmates to court on time.

Last year, clerks began keeping a list. Since Oct. 22, 2021, they’ve recorded 420 delays—many over an hour long.

The holdup in July may have been just a matter of mis communication, but it comes as jails are struggling with a staffing shortage that is sowing chaos throughout the criminal justice system. The lack of public defenders remains the most critical issue—but the shortage of corrections staff is causing headaches at both the jail and the courthouse.

Hearings are rescheduled at the last minute. Jurors have to stand outside in the rain as they wait their turn at the jammed security checkpoint. And public defenders complain they can’t get in touch with their clients because no one is there to escort them to the phone.

The number of corrections deputy vacancies at the Mult nomah County Sheriff’s Office doubled between the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, even as the agency cut positions. As of earlier this month, there were still 35 vacancies.

And with a tight hiring market only getting tighter, there’s no relief in sight.

“It just delays everything,” Presiding Judge Judith Matarazzo tells WW. She’s trying to whittle down a backlog of cases held up by the pandemic, and the delays are “making that more difficult,” she says. Defense lawyers and judges have packed their schedules, causing even short delays to cascade into longer ones.

In August, Judge Nan Waller’s courtroom waited 65 min utes for a plea hearing to begin. (“Told delay would take 45-60 minutes, expectations met,” the clerk noted.)

In dozens of cases, hearings have had to be rescheduled. Last October, a hearing was canceled after a clerk was told there would be a two-hour wait.

In a February email, public defender Chris O’Connor told Chief Criminal Judge Cheryl Albrecht there were “notable jail phone access issues.” He called his client late in the day on a Friday only to be informed by a jail deputy, “We are shutting down.” Albrecht replied she was collecting complaints and would engage in “conversations this week, hoping to mitigate some of these problems.”

Eight months later, the problem still isn’t fixed. Albrecht referred questions to Judge Matarazzo, who has been meet ing with county administrators about the staffing issue. But there’s no immediate solution, Matarazzo says. “They don’t have enough people to do what they need to get done.”

This summer, administrators began closing the main lobby at the Inverness Jail in Northeast Portland at 3 pm. Mean while, phone-in access to adults in custody is dependent on staffing, says Chris Liedle, spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

That office is still working on solutions, including a “sched uling program” to give inmates evening access to the phones, Liedle says. In the meantime, he adds, the agency is “aggres sively recruiting and hiring to continue to provide the highest level of service possible.”

Matarazzo isn’t reassured. “What’s the long term plan?” she asks, noting that the problem will only get worse as court filings return to pre-pandemic levels.

“I don’t want to be sitting here three years from now having the same conversation.”

STATEWIDE GOVERNOR Tina Kotek (D)

OREGON LABOR COMMISSIONER Christina Stephenson (NP)

CONGRESS

U.S. SENATE Ron Wyden (D)

U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 1 Suzanne Bonamici (D)

U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 3 Earl Blumenauer (D)

U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 5 Jamie McLeodSkinner (D)

U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 6 Andrea Salinas (D)

OREGON SENATE

DISTRICT 15 Janeen Sollman (D)

DISTRICT 17 Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D)

DISTRICT 18 Wlnsvey Campos (D)

DISTRICT 19 Rob Wagner (D)

DISTRICT 20 Mark Meek (D)

DISTRICT 24 Kayse Jama (D)

DISTRICT 26 Daniel Bonham (R)

OREGON HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 25 Ben Bowman (D)

DISTRICT 26 Courtney Neron (D)

DISTRICT 27 Ken Helm (D)

DISTRICT 28 Dacia Grayber (D)

DISTRICT 29 Susan McLain (D)

DISTRICT 30 Nathan Sosa (D)

DISTRICT 33 Maxine Dexter (D)

DISTRICT 34 Lisa Reynolds (D)

DISTRICT 35 Farrah Chaichi (D)

DISTRICT 36 Hai Pham (D)

DISTRICT 37 Jules Walters (D)

DISTRICT 38 Alistair Firmin (R)

DISTRICT 39 Janelle Bynum (D)

DISTRICT 40 Annessa Hartman (D)

DISTRICT 41 Mark Gamba (D)

DISTRICT 42 Rob Nosse (D)

DISTRICT 43 Tawna Sanchez (D)

DISTRICT 44 Travis Nelson (D) DISTRICT 45 Thuy Tran (D)

DISTRICT 48 Hoa Nguyen (D)

DISTRICT 49 Zach Hudson (D)

DISTRICT 50 Ricki Ruiz (D)

DISTRICT 51 Walt Trandum (D)

DISTRICT 52 Darcy Long (D)

CITY HALL

PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL POSITION 3 Rene Gonzalez (NP)

MULTNOMAH COUNTY COUNTY CHAIR Sharon Meieran (NP)

BALLOT MEASURES

MEASURE 111 HEALTH CARE YES

MEASURE 112 REMOVES SLAVERY YES

MEASURE 113 PUNISHES WALKOUTS NO

MEASURE 114 GUN RESTRICTIONS YES

MEASURE 26-224 PCC BOND YES

MEASURE 26-225 METRO PARKS LEVY YES

MEASURE 26-228 CITY CHARTER REFORM NO

MEASURE 26-230 GENDER-NEUTRAL CHARTER YES

MEASURE 26-231 NONCITIZEN VOTING NO

MEASURE 26-232 RANKED-CHOICE VOTING YES

MEASURE 26-233 JAIL VISITS NO

MEASURE 26-234 COUNTY OMBUDSPERSON YES

MEASURE 26-235 AUDITOR ACCESS YES

MEASURE 26-236 CRC QUALIFICATIONS NO

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE: There are not enough deputies to escort criminal defendants to court.

In the pages that follow, you’ll find 235 local nonprofits organized into 10 categories. Each performs an essential service. Taken together, these wonderful organizations do so much for Portland we don’t know how our region could survive without them. Please learn as much about as many of them as you can at giveguide.org. We hope doing so will inspire you to give early—and often—during our year-end campaign.

You’ll also find profiles of this year’s five Skidmore Prize winners. The award celebrates Portlanders under the age of 36 who do amazing work for local nonprofits. Each of this year’s award winners more than fits the bill. (You can read about them and this year’s finalists on pages 15-21.)

Along the way, you’ll find information about our wonderful sponsors and business partners. A huge thank-you to all of them! And you’ll learn about Big Give Days, which provide fabulous incentives for giving.

Since its founding in 2004, WW’s G!G has raised nearly $50 million for local nonprofits. This year, we’re shooting for

$8 million from 17,000 of you. We hope to accomplish this, in part, by making giving both easy and fun. On the “easy” side, we have a great one-stop shop of a website courtesy of Roundhouse. (To repeat: The URL is giveguide.org.) On the “fun” side, along with a multitude of engaging incentives, this year we asked students at Pacific Northwest College of Art to design this issue. Under the supervision of their professor Kristin Rogers Brown, Samantha Brass, Kacie Jones, Skylar Scott, Zoe Sevier, and Alicia Vidal have done a wonderfully quirky job and given these pages real character. We hope you appreciate their efforts.

Julie Mancini, who during her life was involved in more than a handful of Give!Guide participants and did more for Portland than just about anyone we know, left us this August. At a memorial in her honor in October, two of her basic sayings were offered up: “Money is like manure. It needs to be spread around.” And: “Make it better.” We urge you to do as Julie would have: Please use your debit and credit cards to spread it around the Give!Guide

website—knowing

gifts make everything they touch better.

The recent past has not been kind to Portland and her neighboring communities. We hope your gifts—and the amazing work produced by this year’s participating non profits—will be part of getting the places we all love back on their feet.

Some Serious Goodies!

No matter how much or how little you give, you get some serious goodies in return! It’s what we like to call a win-win situation.

If you give $10 or more...

You get freebies and discounts from some of our favorite local spots! From free chips and salsa to a bagel with cream cheese, you can check out all of the fun incentives at giveguide.org. We’ll send you a link to claim your gifts through Kuto after you’ve donated.

Donor Incentive Partners include: Barrow PDX, Black Rose Market, Blooming Candles, Clever Cycles, Crafty Won derland, Cully Central, Farina Bakery, Flex & Flow, Gluten Gem Bakery, Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels , Herbivore Clothing Co., Hoot-n-Annie Home Resale Furniture and Decor, Kelli Thomsen Beauty, La Casa de Mamá, Linda Le tra Bilingual Books, Nong’s Khao Man Gai, Nourishment, Pacific Holiday, Paperjam Press, ParWest Golf, ¿Por Qué No? Taqueria, Rachel & Rose, Raíces Morenas, Raylee Consignment, RōM, Ruby Press Mercantile, Straightaway, Taqueria Los Pepitos Locos, The Concrete Rose, The Herb Shoppe.

Big Give Days

NOVEMBER 3

Get entered to win one of these prizes when you donate to nonprofits on the following Big Give Days. You’ll be entered for every donation $10 or greater without limits, so give big and often!

DECEMBER 7

E-Bike Giveaway from Splendid Cycles

You could win a Riese & Müller Nevo GT electric bike from Splendid Cycles! The winner's e-bike will be cus tom ordered after a fitting at Splendid Cycles.

NOVEMBER 9

Game Time with the Blazers

Win one of three of these Portland Trail Blazers prize packages:

1. A pair of 100-level tickets to a game with a parking pass, and a team-autographed basketball

2. A pair of 100-level tickets to a game with a parking pass, and an autographed Jusuf Nurkic shoe

3. A pair of 100-level tickets to a game with a parking pass, and a gift bag with Blazers merch

NOVEMBER 17

Atlas Tattoo’s Big Ink Giveaway

Two donors will win $250 gift certificates from Atlas Tattoo. Donate for the chance to win some fresh ink! No tattoos? No sweat. Winners can give their big prize to a friend and make a lasting impression.

If You’re 35 or Under: Atlas will give out two additional $250 gift certificates. That’s four chances to be a winner!

NOVEMBER 23

Big Book Day with Powell’s

Win a $500 gift card from one of Portland’s favorite independent bookstores, Powell’s Books.

If You’re 35 or Under: Powell's Books will give out a second $500 gift card. That’s two chances to be a winner!

NOVEMBER 29

A Getaway That Gives Back with Salishan Coastal Lodge

You could win a one-night stay at Salishan Coastal Lodge, nestled among old-growth forests, Siletz Bay and the Pacific Ocean!

Shopping Spree from New Seasons Market

Give $10 or more and you could win one of three gift cards from New Seasons Market. Enjoy the best local foods and products from your friendly neighborhood grocery store!

• One grand prize winner will receive a $500 gift card to New Seasons Market.

• Two winners will each receive a $250 gift card to New Seasons Market.

DECEMBER 15

Cotopaxi’s Big Travel Pack Giveaway

Win one of four Cotopaxi’s bestselling Allpa Travel Pack Backpacks stuffed with a water bottle, Mercado reusable tote, fanny pack, packing cubes, and more!

DECEMBER 21

Trek’s E-Bike Extravaganza

Trek Portland is giving away a Bicycle Package! The package includes a Trek FX+ 2 bike (or a bike equiva lent in value, $2,499.99), a helmet, lock, floor pump, water bottle and cage—yow!

DECEMBER 28

Big Beer Day with John’s Marketplace

Win one of five $200 gift cards from John’s Market place! Stock up on all your favorite beers, wines, NA beverages, and snacks just in time for your New Year’s festivities! You must be at least 21 years of age to win.

DECEMBER 29

Portland Nursery’s Big Plant Palooza

Win a $500 gift card to one of Portland’s favorite plant nurseries, Portland Nursery.

If You’re 35 or Under: Portland Nursery will give out a second $500 gift card. That’s two chances to be a winner!

DECEMBER 30

OCT’s Big, Beautiful Oregon Getaway

Give $10 or more today and you could win a Mount Hood Timberline Lodge Experience courtesy of Friends of Timberline. See package details at give guide.org.

Donors must give on a Big Give Day to be entered to win a BGD prize. For a complete list of incentives, visit GIVEGUIDE.ORG.

To give—and for more on this year’s nonprofits—visit giveguide.org.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CAMERON MUNN

Every year Willamette Week awards the Skidmore Prize to four young Portlanders who work every day to make Portland a better place and to preserve the community-oriented nature of the city we all know and love. This year we were so impressed that there's five winners! If you’ve ever wondered who’s really making a difference in our community, read on.

T his year's finalists included: Joy Alise Davis (Imagine Black Futures), Gustavo Martinez (Bienstar), Charelle Stanley (Wild Diversity), and Elona Wilson (Next Up).

Winners of the Skidmore Prize must be under the age of 36 and work full-time for a local nonprofit. Winners received their awards, including prizes of $4,000, at the beginning of the Give!Guide campaign.

to,” Zolfaghari-Azar says. “It’s one of the only things in my work that I lose sleep over.”

Babak Zolfaghari-Azar’s criminal justice reform career began in the back of a Beaverton Police car when he was 17 years old. After being illegally pulled over and then booked into an adult jail for furnishing alcohol to minors (a charge that was thrown out in court), Zolfaghari-Azar—a straight-A student who had just graduated from Beaver ton High School and was headed to Portland State Uni versity—spent 12 hours in an orange jumpsuit that would change the rest of his life.

A nd it’s challenging work. As the senior policy man ager at Partnership for Safety and Justice, ZolfaghariAzar must be able to walk confidently in a wide variety of spaces: courthouses, lawyers’ offices, families’ living rooms, and policy meetings with legislators and lobby ists, to name a few. It’s also one of his special gifts, say his PSJ co-workers.

“ Everyone is moved by his warm yet strong and commit ted presence,” says Shannon Wight, PSJ’s deputy director.

“I learn from him regularly just by observing how he does his job and the impact he is able to have.”

away from the westside suburbs, politely saying, “I don’t vibe well with Beaverton.”)

In 2019, PSJ helped pass Senate Bill 1008, which soft ened Oregon’s mandatory minimum sentencing law Mea sure 11 by making sure juvenile offenders aren’t automat ically charged as adults and giving them a “second look” halfway through their sentences. Zolfaghari-Azar helps ensure that 1008 and other recent laws are implemented successfully. “That work is in fact harder,” Wight says, than passing the law in the first place.

Zolfaghari-Azar is grateful that PSJ encourages him to continue the direct-service work that he has done throughout his career. He serves as an advocate and support for about a half-dozen young men who are facing charges or are incarcerated, and their families.

“

I don’t think of it as a job or a career,” he says. “It’s a moral responsibility; it’s why I’m here.”

Zolfaghari-Azar, now 34, was shivering cold, hungry and asking for assistance for a man in the booking area who was vomiting while police dismissed his concern and joked around.

“ It’s this dehumanizing element that I keep coming back

A first-generation Iranian American, Zolfaghari-Azar and his family had no experience with the U.S. criminal justice system. He learned more in graduate school at PSU studying criminology and from yet another time he was illegally pulled over, this time in Tigard. (He mostly stays

In his free time, Zolfaghari-Azar hikes, cares for his dogs Daisy and Rumi, and coaches boys’ junior varsity basket ball—first at Grant High School and now at West Linn. Working with teenagers on ball-handling skills or keeping good grades balances out his PSJ job.

“Coaching is so easy compared to talking to families where the kid is facing an attempted murder charge and 10 years in prison.” RACHEL SASLOW

To give—and for more on this year’s nonprofits—visit giveguide.org.

Cecilia Estraviz’s actual job title at the food agen cy Lift Urban Portland is operations manager, but she has come up with some more clever ones. A s the manager of Lift UP’s food warehouse in Northwest Portland’s industrial area, Estraviz is a “food Tetris expert,” because she accepts lots of food, stores it safely, and then gets it out to her clients. A Lift UP volunteer deemed her an “Incremental Improver” because each time the volunteer arrived at the warehouse, Estraviz had changed something small to improve the experi ence for everyone.

Finally, all the physical moving of canned foods stacked on pallets makes her quip that her job is “CrossFit with helping people.”

Those pallets are loaded noticeably lower than they were a few months ago due to the end of the government’s COVID-19 relief funds and the rise in inflation. Add in skyrocketing fuel prices, stolen vans, supply chain issues, heat waves, ice storms and wildfires, and it is an exceptionally challenging time to be fighting hunger, says Lift UP executive director Stephanie Barr. (And a hopeful one, given that President Biden has vowed to end U.S. hunger by 2030.)

Still, “Ceci doesn’t accept that hunger is an inevitable, unsolvable problem,” Barr says. “She sees the systemic issues that create hunger but she keeps her focus on ensuring our neighbors have the food they need to stay healthy and secure.”

Estraviz oversees the on-site food programs at 50 low-income buildings in downtown and North west Portland, serving over 3,000 food-insecure

SKIDMORE WINNER

people each year. Twenty-seven of the buildings have on-site food pantries where Lift UP saw a 57% increase in food distribution in the past year.

And it’s not just cans of chili and boxes of macaroni: One September morning, Lift UP was distributing broccoli, eggs, bread and a late-summer bounty of peaches and zucchini.

That said, Estraviz doesn’t judge clients for the food choices they make.

“ When was the last time you were at the grocery store and you went up to someone’s grocery cart who had macaroni and said, ‘Hey, that’s not the healthiest thing to eat’?” she says.

“You didn’t because no one does that. It’s really disrespectful.”

Estraviz, 32, grew up in a single-parent home in Southwest Portland. As a financial aid student at Jesuit High School with a Spanish-speaking moth er, there was “a lot of otherness” in her childhood.

One of the ways she felt different was that her kitchen had plenty of staples such as beans and tortillas, but her pantry wasn’t overflowing with the abundance she saw at friends’ houses.

“ It wasn’t until I got older and started reflect ing on it where I realized, ‘Oh, I was in a food-in secure household,’” she says. “I don’t think we had the language for it.”

One in five Oregonians experience food inse curity right now, according to the Oregon Food Bank. It’s time for people to update their as sumptions about who visits food banks. Estraviz just helped Oregon Health & Science University set up its own student food pantry, for example.

“ It’s families, people with student loans, people whose homes have burned down—it’s things that can happen to every single one of us,” she says.

RACHEL SASLOW

Help share warmth and joy by bringing a new with tags on coat to any of our offices during business hours from Nov. 28th–Dec. 14th. All donations go to Impact NW to help people in need stay warm this winter.

Our

drive is not only about supporting the physical comfort of folks in our community. It’s about empowering one another and letting each of our neighbors know that they are cared for, loved, and seen.

LOCATIONS

As the first person in her family to graduate with a college degree, Itzel Chávez Gómez knows firsthand the challenges college freshmen face. Choosing a major, for example. When Chávez Gómez, now 28, was deciding what to study at the University of Oregon, she relied on one source: the CBS show CSI: Miami

Latina students to spend 21 years of their lives being ashamed of who they are,” she says.

G rowing up in Beaverton as one of four chil dren of a then-undocumented single moth er, the only Latina friends she had were her cousins. She dreaded roll call on the first day of school, worried the teacher would botch the pronunciation of her name. The internalized op pression ran so deep that Chávez Gómez “just wanted to be white.”

Inspired by the character Eric Delko, Chávez Gómez was poised for a career as an undercover agent—double-majoring in political science and Russian because the fictitious Delko’s father was Russian.

“ It’s hard to understand what college really is, especially when you don’t have family who has done it before,” Chávez Gómez says.

Chávez Gómez is now the college and career coordinator at the Forest Grove-based nonprofit Adelante Mujeres (“Women Rise Up”). She men tors more than 30 Latina seniors at seven high schools in Washington County, helping them choose a college, fill out applications, and apply for financial aid. She shares her CSI: Miami story with students all the time: “I feel like a mom, tell ing them, ‘Don’t make the mistakes that I made.’”

In Eugene, she took ethnic studies classes that “opened up my whole world.” She learned about Latino history and, for the first time, started to embrace her own Mexican heritage. (She also learned about the racism embedded in the U.S. criminal justice system, which soured her on the idea of working for law enforcement.)

Her work at Adelante Mujeres continues this celebration of her culture. “I don’t want other

Chávez Gómez pioneered Adelante Mujeres’

“Chicas in College” program, which supports 70 Latinas across nine colleges in Oregon, con necting them with campus resources and each other. She also developed the first-ever Chicas Emergency Grant that covers college-related expenses such as tuition, books, housing, meals and transportation.

Adelante Mujeres’ youth development advo cate and project developer, Carmen Walsh, says Chávez Gómez works extra hard to make sure students “know someone has their back”: She has thrown summer barbecues and stayed up until 4 am writing recommendation letters for students who have asked at the last minute.

“Itzel gives students the permission to picture what their future could look like and to dream big,” Walsh says. “What a gift.”

RACHEL SASLOW

Clackamas

Kat Salas never thought she’d have a social worker-type job. She also never thought she’d live to age 27, either, but here she is at the Nite Hawk Cafe & Lounge on North Inter state Avenue on a Friday afternoon when the fancy coffee shop across the street is unexpectedly closed. “This is more my vibe anyway,” she says.

Salas is program manager for New Day, an arm of the nonprofit New Avenues for Youth. Since its founding in 2018, New Day has served about 450 youth ages 12 to 25 who are being sex trafficked or are at risk for sexual ex ploitation.

New Day helps youth leave their traffickers and end sub stance use, but also assists with other life and safety goals. This could include getting a driver’s license, housing, vocational training, mental health services, clean needles,

fentanyl test strips, or groceries.

“ We’re trying to work ourselves out of the job,” Salas says. “We’re trying to get folks to a place of independence and stability where they don’t need us anymore.”

J ust a few years ago, Salas herself would have been eli gible for New Day even though, on paper anyway, she had never had a job in her life. Instead, Salas lifted herself out of the sex trades at age 23 by getting her tattoo license. Just as she was building momentum in her new career, though, the pandemic shut down all tattoo shops. She applied for an outreach job at New Day even though she had never had a job on paper in her life.

“ Kat’s lived experience and equity lens to envision and enact change sets her apart from anyone else I’ve met in my 12 years of this work,” says Sarah Nedeau, director of community-based programs at New Avenues for Youth.

Salas envisioned a transitional housing model for clients in the New Day program Butterfly House—the first of its

kind in Oregon. Four people at a time can stay for up to 16 months at Butterfly House; rent, utilities and food are provided. Case managers help with conflict resolution and long-term housing plans. It’s all about building more options for the residents. “You can say no if your rent is covered in a way you cannot say no if your rent’s not cov ered,” Salas says.

S he considers her work at New Day a “radical eulogy” to the people she met in the sex trades who did not make it out. She is alive, she says, because of the women who took care of her when she was a young adult—giving her advice, affirmations, lash glue and baby wipes in strip club dressing rooms.

“

Now, I get to work with people who understand some of my pain and struggle, but we also get to work togeth er to problem-solve these really broken parts of the sys tem,” she says. “I can’t imagine a job that someone could offer me that I would like more than my job.”

RACHEL SASLOW

On a fall morning on a farm in the Columbia River Gorge, Qiddist Ashé has already fed the goats, harvested herbs for medicine-making, and tended to the farm cat Sheba, who just gave birth to a litter of five kittens. Ashé is weeks away from purchasing a nearby 10-acre farm as the co-founder and executive director of the Black Oregon Land Trust.

B ut Ashé, 28, isn’t ready to call herself a farmer. It’s a matter of humility.

“ I want to give a lot of reverence to the people pulling 10-hour days with their hands in the soil,” she says. “I’m a ‘budding land steward’ and learning so much from my friends and colleagues.”

That same morning, she had a handful of non-agrarian tasks as well, including working on a grant application for BOLT, a photo shoot, and meeting with other Black land stewards in the area. BOLT, which she started two years ago, creates opportunities for Black farmers in Oregon to connect with each other, access land, and build genera tional health and wealth.

In the most recent U.S. Department of Agricultural census, only 64 of Oregon’s 67,000 farm producers were Black. Although this strikes Ashé as an undercount, her visibility work has been effective: “I just talked to a farmer out in Eastern Oregon who told me, ‘I had no idea there were other Black farmers here.’”

The lack of diversity on Oregon farms traces back to the state’s founding: An 1857 law excluded African Americans from settling in the territory.

A shé lives in a 140-square-foot tiny home perched on the 19-acre Mudbone Grown farm in Corbett, which is growing crops such as greens, beans, flowers and squash this fall. Youth organizations and volunteer groups visit weekly—a benefit of being so close to the eastern out

skirts of Portland.

“Qiddist approaches her work with a spirit of abundance, and this has been an inspiration for me,” says Mudbone co-owner Shantae Johnson. “She works with an open hand and heart.”

G rowing up in Southwest Portland, Ashé hosted an environmental club in her parents’ backyard in elementary school. At 15, she journaled about wanting to raise her future children communally and grow her own food.

Before she started BOLT, Ashé was an elementary school teacher and then a midwife, attending hundreds of births (just the one feline birth so far). She sees BOLT as a continuation of that work: making sure mothers and children are well-fed, educated and have opportunities to build wealth. “All of these threads came together with land at the core.”

She also draws from her birth work when she conceptualizes the growth of BOLT itself. She tries to resist the pressure to always be “scaling up” while fund raising and pitching to donors, and instead move at the “pace of the relation ship.”

“ We’ve done a lot in two years, but we’re still young,” she says. “We have to think about what is sustainable for each other and for the earth.”

Kenji

The region’s nonprofit support system is deeply connected to our community, often working hand-in-glove to achieve specific missions and causes. Local companies and foundations know doing good business means also doing the right thing. The 296 business partners listed below are dedicated to helping our participating nonprofits reach their fundraising goals. Their partnerships make a difference in our quality of life. They deserve the highest of fives.

¿Por Qué No? Taqueria

Meatballs

A Children’s Place Bookstore

Active

Dairy

TMS

Adorn Body Art: Incentive

Aesthete

Aimee Mattingly

Akasha Massage

Alberta Co-Op

Altar PDX

Always Be Birdin’

Amalfi’s Restaurant and Mercato America’s Phone Guys

Anonymous

ArcTeryx

Argyle Winery

Arnerich Massena Artists Repertory Theatre

Bad Beards Microroastery

Bar Carlo

Barrio Barrow PDX

Beach Hut Deli

Benito and Frances C. Gaguine Foundation

Bergstrom Winery

Big Town Hero-Gresham

Black Rock

Edwards

Killian Pacific

Kissing

Casa

Lange

Langer’s

Barozzi

Left

Life

Mamá

Pacific

STCK

Linda Letra Bilingual Books

Lloyd

Club

LMC Construction

Beer Hall Magna Kusina Mandos Mundo Entertainment Mari Rose Tattoo

Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation

Marshall’s Haute Sauce

Maybelle Clark Macdonald Fund Meat for Cats and Dogs Mikiko Mochi Donuts

MiNGO

Mississippi

Candles

Bob’s Red Mill Natural

Bohemian Tea Peddler

with

Brain

Brainium

Bridgetown

Byenveni

Canopy

T&A

Taqueria

Tattoo

The

The

The

The

The

The

The

The Rosewood Initiative is a place-based nonprofit in outer East Portland that supports community-driven solutions for a thriving neighborhood.

convene and work collaboratively with nonprofits and government agencies, creating a true Community Hub complete with sustainable programs that meet the immediate needs of our neighbors, while also working upstream to address root causes.

that everyone deserves a safe, well resourced

amenity

neighborhood.

Animals

“People who care about animals tend to care about people. They don’t care about animals to the exclusion of people. Caring is not a finite resource….” —Jonathan Foer

The well-being of humans and other animals is intricately tied. The mental and physical health benefits humans experience when connecting with animals are well researched and docu mented. Caring for pets can reduce loneliness. Working with animals through training and therapy has been shown to in crease trust, problem-solving, and social skills in humans. These same skills make us better prepared to face and overcome life’s challenges. In a chaotic world, caring for animals can lead us to better care for ourselves and one another.

As we face ever-widening divides within our society, our re

lationships with animals can instill in each of us vital values: kindness, empathy, and love. That’s one way your local animal charities make such a powerful impact in our community. As we humans connect deeply with animals, so too do we strengthen our ability to connect and collaborate with each other.

Whether it’s providing services that keep pets and people to gether through hard times, offering opportunities for youth and dogs to learn life skills from each other, helping people and pets find love, or creating healing moments for horses and humans alike through programs that connect people with equines, it all comes down to strong relationships.

The nonprofits in the Animals category know that our com munity is stronger when we care for all living things. A donation to support your animal charities is a way to show love, care and connection to a wide

—

Giving to Oregon Cultural Trust Qualified Nonprofits

If you think Oregon should provide more

for arts, heritage and humanities

then look closely to find the 50 “OCT Qualified” nonprofits in this year’s Give!Guide. They’re all part of the Oregon Cultural Trust. When you donate to any of these non profits, you’ll be invited to make a matching gift to the Cultural Trust during the checkout process.

Donating to OCT Qualified nonprofits makes you el igible to direct a greater portion of your taxes (taxes you’re going to pay anyway) to supporting cultural projects in the state. Oregonians who pay state income tax will qualify for the Cultural Tax Credit— dollar for dollar—on their tax returns (up to $500 for an individual, $1,000 for a couple, and $2,500 for a company).

As uniquely Oregon as public beaches and the Bottle Bill, the Oregon Cultural Trust was established in 2001 by the Oregon Legislature as an ongoing funding en gine for arts and culture across the state. Learn more at CulturalTrust.org or (503) 986-0088.

BY MICHELLE BLAKE, FENCES FOR FIDO; SARAH BRADHAM, PROJECT POOCH; HEATHER MILLER, CAT ADOPTION TEAM; AND MICHAEL VANDERWA TER, ZEB'S WISH EQUINE SANCTUARY, ON BE HALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

Civil & Human Rights

Sponsored by Davis Wright Tremaine

BY MIKKI GILLETTE, BASIC RIGHTS EDUCATION FUND, AND SAVANNAH WEBER, ACLU OF OREGON, ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

From the overturning of the federal constitutional right to abortion, to state and local efforts discriminating against trans youth, to voter suppression of Black, brown, and Indigenous communities, and more, our fundamental rights and freedoms—and democracy itself—are under attack.

As organizations that strive every day for our collective liberation, we understand the backlash for what it is: an anti-democratic reaction to decadeslong movements that have moved the arc of history towards justice and greater racial equity. In Oregon, this includes cultural shifts and policy wins led by countless communities. This is the work carried forward by the groups in the Civil and Human Rights category.

In these difficult times, we unite as movements, organizations, and individuals to light the path forward. Together, we can create a society that works for everyone: where we all have access to safety, good working conditions, quality food, marriage equality, and health care, and where our region has the resources and will to help all of our neighbors have a place to call home. It’s in this way that we can ensure our democracy is by and for all the people. Together, we make our own light.

Join us in the hard but beautiful work of practicing hope and perse verance as we build a brighter Oregon—for and by all of us.

Immigration

BY EMILY TEIXEIRA, POLITISIT, ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

“Community” can mean different things to everyone but often refers to a group of people living in proximity or sharing a common characteris tic. We prefer to define it as a feeling of togetherness that comes from sharing common interests and goals.

Our organizations and missions are as varied as our city, but we share the privilege and responsibility of caring for our neighbors. We are 28 organizations that focus on supporting, building and/or celebrating a specific sector of Portland’s diverse community. Our common interest as community-based organizations is a future in which we all can thrive.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant inequities that have always existed, and although our experiences with the pandemic were all different, we experienced a global pandemic together. Apart. While the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet behind us, we are grateful for the advances made that have allowed most of us to be together again, though many still cannot.

As community-based organizations, we have seen and relished the re awakening of communal spaces, in-person events, celebrations, meetings, and the general sense of togetherness these past months have allowed. But we know many of our neighbors are still very vulnerable and we strive to support our whole community.

The importance of the work we do for our communities is often in the spotlight during times of crisis—the pandemic, wildfires, social unrest, etc.—but it is always critical and continues long after the spotlight moves on. Which is why our work requires long-term support and partnerships.

As we all begin to reengage with our communities, we encourage everyone to expand their own definition of community and seek out new communities to join or support.

These organizations focus on

building and/or

of Portland’s culturally

a specific

community.

Participants in World Stage Theatre’s Black History Festival NW, funded in part by the Oregon Cultural Trust.

Clackamas

CWS

a total of

Clackamas Women’s

Creative Expression

Sponsored by Oregon Cultural Trust

BY ADRIAN BROWN, SCRAP CREATIVE REUSE, ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

Creative expression is one of the most accessible forms of mental health support, self-care, and self-expression. Within every one of us is a desire to create, to make things better, to go beyond our limitations, to imagine a better future. But it can be hard to do that on our own. The 30 diverse organizations in Give!Guide’s Creative Expression category work across a wide variety of channels and media to provide their community oppor tunities to join with others of different backgrounds to work together to make Portland—and the world—a better place to be.

Each one of the incredible organizations in the Creative Expression category inspires and fosters creation in their own unique way; they prioritize the voices and experiences of many marginalized and vulner able populations, whether through live performances, radio broadcasts, bodily movement, various types of music, writing in different forms, education, even waste reduction. But what they all do, more than any thing else, is create community—a place for people to come together, share experiences, challenge themselves, learn, and grow.

Donate today to the wonderful organizations in the Creative Expres sion category to help us uplift and create better communities for us all!

These organizations focus on supporting, creating and/or celebrating the arts in the Portland area.

Artists Repertory Theatre

BRAVO

Caldera

Crave

CymaSpace

Echo

Ethos

Fear

Orchestras

Gather:Make:Shelter

Independent

Montavilla

Native

Education

Sponsored by Bank of America

BY JILL MURRAY, READING RESULTS, AND JAMIE STRICKLER, OPEN SCHOOL, ON BEHALF OF THE CATE GORY’S NONPROFITS

Education nonprofits across our region are addressing the gaps and barriers created by systemic inequity. We are working to provide a robust and equitable education for all. Systemic oppression takes many forms, including racially disproportionate discipline, ableist expectations, transphobia, and many other realities; all oppression creates barriers to students’ success. We collectively push forward the movement for racial justice, economic justice, and other powerful forces of social change in order to empower students to heal and create the futures they want for themselves.

Our collective impact is powerful for students of all ages, cultures, and learning styles. We create trauma-informed programming and identity-affirming communities to meet every student’s needs. Because a person’s experience with education is multifaceted, all of us in Give!Guide are approaching the goal of equitable education through a particular lens. We are each doing our part to address critical community needs by meeting every person where they are.

Education is fundamental to addressing opportunity gaps. When students access quality education, they are more likely to experience steady employment, financial security, physical and mental well-being, and domestic security. Let’s care for the future of our students and our community together. Explore all the education nonprofits and find the niche that means the most to you. Our impact on the lives of local students will be magnified by the support of every single donor.

Environment

Sponsored by A to Z Wineworks

BY KATI DUFFY, WILLAMETTE RIVERKEEPER, AND PAME LA SLAUGHTER, PEOPLE OF COLOR OUTDOORS (POCO), ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

We in the environmental field want to make the world a better place for all—for people now and for future generations. For wildlife, insects, fish, trees, the earth, water, and air.

We advocate in courts. We educate. We buy land, rehabilitate it, protect it, share it. We break up cement. We re-green. We create healing spaces for BIPOC. We plant trees in the city. We work to preserve cultural tra ditions. We create safe spaces for LGBTQ2S+ people. We rehabilitate injured wildlife.

We understand that nature is healing and that all living beings are connected to nature. We are all helping to make those connections stronger in our own way. We are privileged and grateful to know that our work is helping to make things better.

Here is what we all have in common: our planet. As divided as Portland can feel sometimes, we all share our city, our rivers, our forests, parks, mountains, trails, and our world. We can’t underestimate the power of nature to heal us as a community and as individuals.

We know that climate change threatens these things we love so much, and sometimes it feels impossible to make a difference. But there’s power in community, and Portland is never hopeless. If protecting the whole planet is too daunting, start small.

There are 27 nonprofits in the environment category this year. Support your local environmental nonprofits during Give!Guide. Explore the abundant natural areas that Portland offers. Find your own connection to nature, heal, and grow.

These organizations focus on environmental education, conservation and advocacy.

AdoptOneBlock

Bark

Columbia Riverkeeper

Columbia Slough Watershed Council Crag Law Center

Depave Ecology in Classrooms and Outdoors ELSO Inc.

Forest Park Conservancy

Friends of the Columbia Gorge

Friends of Trees Grow Portland Neighbors for Clean Air Northwest Trail Alliance

Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center

OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon

Oregon Wild People of Color Outdoors

Portland Audubon ReBuilding Center

The Blueprint Foundation

Tualatin Riverkeepers

Twende Solar Verde

Willamette Riverkeeper

Wisdom of the Elders Inc.

Sponsored by CareOregon

BY LORNA DAY, SAM DAY FOUNDATION, ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

Tens of thousands of people in the tri-county area are searching for a reason to be hopeful, all because of a situation related to their health. Hope for adequate nourishment for a newborn, hope for staying sober through the holidays, hope for another meal, hope to avoid a mental health crisis, even hope for a treatment that will cure their child’s cancer. Many are simply hoping to be treated as valuable members of society within a health system difficult to navigate and susceptible to bias.

While COVID has taken an unprecedented and appropriate priority, individuals suffering from many other conditions have had to take a position farther down the line. Rare-disease care, chronic conditions, mental health, even the essential nutrition to fuel one’s body and mind are still a critical need for many in our community.

There are 18 health-centered nonprofits in this year’s Give!Guide that understand the needs of those who may have been or felt forgotten. They excel at offering a tangible kind of hope, through specialty medical care, counseling, and nutrition. Hope is nothing without engagement, and our best accomplishments in this world come from compassionate, resourceful, and engaged people who are willing to address challenging issues for the sake of human beings in need.

This year’s Health nonprofits are fully engaged and eager to put new resources from this Give!Guide season to work. They see the forgotten, they feel the hurting, and they show up to make a difference.

These organizations focus on human health education, care and/or advocacy.

Baby Blues Connection

Bridges Collaborative Care Clinic

Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare

Friends of Hopewell House Kinship House

MIKE

North by Northeast Community Health Center

Northwest Mothers Milk Bank

Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette

Portland People’s Outreach Project

Portland Street Medicine

Project Access NOW

Sam Day Foundation

The Dental Foundation of Oregon

The Lund Report

The Marie Equi Institute

Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center & Foundation Wallace

Home

Sponsored by Neil Kelly

BY ERIC GOLD, NORTHWEST PILOT PROJECT, ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

The homelessness and housing crisis throughout the Portland metro region can’t be missed these days. It’s in the news daily, is the topic of many debates, and is front and center on our sidewalks, in our parks, and in our neighborhoods. Homelessness and housing insecurity can also be hidden crises, much deeper than the street-level conversation.

The organizations in Give!Guide’s Home category work with low-in come families, veterans, older adults, youth, and other highly vulnerable groups to help them stay safe, to provide shelter and ultimately perma nent housing, and to overcome the barriers that have led to inequitable housing outcomes for communities of color and others. Whether it’s short-term shelter, eviction prevention, safety from domestic violence, long-term rental vouchers, building new affordable housing, or helping someone buy their first house, the Home organizations are crucial to individual and community well-being.

As the pandemic enters its third year, many housing-related protec tions are expiring. By supporting the organizations in the Give!Guide Home category, you can make a real difference to so many! These organi zations center the needs of people experiencing houselessness, offering social services and sustainable solutions on the individual level, while also working on systemic solutions to address the crisis at its roots. With your support, we can meet our region’s housing crisis and continue to work for real, permanent housing for everyone in the community.

These organizations focus on housing solutions (permanent, transitional, short-term and emergency shelters), repairs, legal aid, and more.

Bienestar

Bridge Meadows

Clackamas Women’s Services

Community Energy Project (CEP)

Community Warehouse

Family Promise of Metro East

Good Neighbor Center

Habitat for Humanity Portland Region

Impact NW

Janus Youth Programs, Inc.

Northwest Pilot Project

Our Just Future (formerly Human Solutions) Path Home

Proud Ground

REACH Community Development

ROSE Community Development Corporation

Taking Ownership PDX

SUPPORT HEALTH AND HOUSING FOR ALL

Cascadia Health provides affordable mental health care, addiction services, primary care, and housing to Oregonians of all ages and backgrounds.

Support whole health care at CASCADIAHEALTH.ORG/GIVEGUIDE

Human Services

Sponsored by The Standard

BY LIZ STARKE, ROSE HAVEN, ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

Looking out for each other, that is what makes us human. The power of community and our ability to share knowl edge and resources are what distinguishes us. Our survival is linked to this simple concept as a species, and nonprofit organizations are no different. We rely on each other.

As Oregon faces the second-highest rate of unsheltered residents in the U.S., the work is harder than ever. There is no one solution to the multifaceted issues our communi ties face, but each one of these organizations specializes on one aspect so together we can provide holistic care to the complex individuals that need it. None of us operates in a vacuum; we refer to each other, call each other when we need advice or are low on supplies, and always share if we have extras! By supporting any of these nonprofits, you are supporting the whole community, because lifting each other up for the common good is what we are hardwired to do. It is in our mission statements!

All you need to do is look out the window to see how much need there is, and know that we rely on your sup port to do the work. You may think that a small donation doesn’t matter, but when everybody does what they can, we can create meaningful change. Together, we are filling the gaps in a broken system, and we need your help more than ever before.

These organizations focus on providing services to marginalized communities.

Alano Club of Portland

ALSO - Advocates For Life Skills And Opportunities

Bradley Angle

CASA for Children, Inc.

Central City Concern Centro Cultural de Washington County Children’s Center

Domestic Violence Resource Center

Dougy Center: National Grief Center for Children and Families

Family Justice Center of Washington County

Family Promise of Tualatin Valley

Friends of the Children—Portland Haymarket Pole Collective Hygiene4all

Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)

NAMI Multnomah

New Avenues for Youth NW Instituto Latino Operation Nightwatch - Portland Outside In p:ear PDX Diaper Bank

Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center + Rosemary Anderson High School ( POIC + RAHS)

Pueblo Unido PDX

Rahab’s Sisters

Red Lodge Transition Services Rose Haven CIC

Sarah Belllum’s Bakery and Workshop (SBWW) Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC)

Stone Soup PDX

The Cupcake Girls

The Miracles Club Urban League of Portland William Temple House

The 35 & Under Challenge

Are you 35 or younger?

Help us give away $10,000!

You don’t have to be Daddy Warbucks to make a dif ference by supporting causes that matter to you most. Simply give $10 or more to your favorite nonprofit at giveguide.org and nudge them closer to winning the 35 & Under Challenge! The nonprofit in each catego ry with the most unique donors aged 35 and under will be awarded an extra $1,000 from our friends at Tandem Property Management. That’s $10,000 for the charities with the most younger donors!

One goal of WW’s Give!Guide is to encourage giving by younger donors to build a culture of active citi zenship. It’s one of the many ways we create a more compassionate and connected community.

If you have children or teens in your family or among your friends, this is a great opportunity to teach them about charitable giving. Ask what’s important to them and use giveguide.org to research the different causes and specific nonprofits. Let them make choices and discover the power of positive change. It’s an easy lesson in empathy, empowerment, and citizenship.

Sponsored by

HungerSponsored by New Seasons Market

BY LOU LÉ, KINDNESS FARM, ON BEHALF OF THE CATEGORY’S NONPROFITS

One of the biggest changes we’re seeing across the board as nonprofits addressing hunger in Portland is the tremendous increase in individuals seeking food assistance. Undoubtedly, we’ve all noticed the escalating pace of inflation, raising the cost of groceries by more than 10% this year. This significant increase has led more Oregonians than ever to experience food insecurity, causing many people to seek out food assistance for the first time in their lives. Within those facing food insecurity, certain de mographics—including people of color, immigrants and refugees, trans and gender nonconforming folx, single parents, and renters—experience disproportionately high levels of hunger. Having a diverse group of mu tual-aid organizations supporting our neighbors and families, especially those with increased barriers to access, is incredibly important.

There are a few meaningful ways to support the amazing group of organizations in the hunger category. First, learn about us! We all work as a wide web supporting our community—together we try to fill all the gaps. Learn about the work we are doing and find the organizations that connect with you most as an individual. We all have different ways in which we can give. Find the one that’s most accessible to you! If you’re able to provide a monetary donation, donate to Give!Guide and spread your donation across multiple nonprofits. If you are able to contribute time, volunteer! If neither of those are accessible, spread the word to others. Your contribution truly matters and makes a real difference in our community.

These organizations focus on food insecurity, food systems, farming, gardening, gleaning, and nutrition.

Black Food Sovereignty Coalition

Blanchet House of Hospitality

Farmers Ending Hunger

Farmers Market Fund

Feed The Mass

Feed’em Freedom Foundation

FoodWaves

Friends of Family Farmers

Friends of Portland Community Gardens

Growing Gardens

Lift Urban Portland (Lift UP)

Meals on Wheels People

Milk Crate Kitchen

Oregon Food Bank

Our Village Gardens

Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon Portland Backpack

Portland Fruit Tree Project

Rogue Farm Corps

The Kindness Farm

Tualatin Food Pantry

Zenger Farm

AMAIZED AND CONFUSED

Photos by Aidan Barbar

On Instagram: @barbarbarbarbarbar_

Judging from the long line of cars streaming onto Sauvie Island last weekend, it looked as if pretty much everyone in Portland was headed to one of the area’s many farms for fall traditions, including the always-popular corn maze at The Pumpkin Patch. Now in its 24th year, the network of paths through a field of towering stalks always changes to create a new design. Visitors this year walk through a depiction of the farm’s two new Brahman cows, Cinnamon and Sugar. The maze is open through Oct. 31.

iGO: The Nitemare B4 Xmas

The Saloon Ensemble is back for another live performance of Danny Elfman’s score for The Nightmare Before Christmas, director Henry Selick’s Tim Burton-conceived tale of the misadventures of Jack Skel lington, pumpkin king of Hallow eentown. The event includes sing alongs, a costume competition and screaming contest (eee!). Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 503-719-6055, albertarosetheatre. com. 8 pm Thursday-Friday, 3 pm Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 27-30. $15$30.

rGO: R.I.P. City

Oregon’s only strip club haunted house has made its return after a two-year pandemic pause, but this time inspiration for its ever-chang ing theme didn’t come from slasher flicks, time-travel fantasies or the cardinal sins. In 2022, the scariest thing organizers could think of was their own hometown. R.I.P City is, yup, you guessed it: based on the disastrous reputation our down town has acquired. That means the dancers at Guilty Pleasures Gentlemen’s Club will pose amid graffiti, needles, dumpster fires and discarded mattresses. It’s part sexy, part scary and 100% Portland Weird. Guilty Pleasures Gentlemen’s Club, 13639 SE Powell Blvd., 503760-8128, eventbrite.com. 10 pm Thursday-Monday, Oct. 27-31. $20 general admission, $30 VIP. 21+.

BDANCE: Freaky Deaky Portland

Calling all local freaks: The event billed as “Halloween’s most notori ous electronic music festival” is back for its second year and promises to be freakier than ever. Freaky Deaky, the dance party/costume ball that started in Houston four years ago, takes over the Portland Expo Cen ter for two nights, with a lineup that includes Los Angeles DJ Svdden Death, genre-bending world bass queen CloZee and hypnotic techno sensation LSDream. Don’t forget to come dressed to the nines—the theme is spooky and sexy. Portland Expo Center, 2060 N Marine Drive, 503-736-5200, freakydeakypdx. com. 6 pm Friday-Saturday, Oct. 2829. $59.50-$107. 18+.

cGO: Cosmic Circus

The group that has produced ev erything from the world’s largest blanket fort party to a rave on a plane in the middle of a forest helps you celebrate Halloween in the most bizarre way possible this year. Murderboat partners with Code Name to bring Cosmic Circus to Alberta Abbey, where you can ex plore an otherworldly marketplace that includes everything from con tortionists to Space Age sourcery to

FREAKY DEAKY PORTLAND

clowns. There will be tech and bass house beats spun by local DJs, a cotton candy machine, a tea lounge serving extraterrestrial elixirs, alien captor karaoke, and the infamous Ball Pit of Doom. Enter if you dare (a warning that applies to any ball pit, really). Alberta Abbey, 126 NE Alberta St., murderboat.com. 9 pm Friday-Saturday, Oct. 28-29. $45$80.

WATCH: Provoke Film Festival

Cinemagic loves a good retrospec tive, and this one promises to be a doozy. It’s a lineup of horror movies all directed by women—including Raw, the directorial debut of French provocateur Julia Ducournau (who later won the top prize at Cannes for Titane, aka The Movie Where a Woman Is Impregnated by Her Car). Cinemagic, 2021 SE Hawthorne Blvd., thecinemagictheater.com. Multiple showtimes Friday-Thurs day, Oct. 28.-Nov. 3 $7-$9.

sLISTEN: Halloween Organ Spooktacular

From The Exorcist ’s spine-tingling tubular bells to the eerie piano score of the Halloween franchise, scary movie soundtracks can be as icon ic as their characters. But perhaps few instruments are associated with horror films as much as the organ.

Trinity Music demonstrates just that at this event, where a team of four organists play a lineup of spooky music, like Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and Böellmann’s ghoulish Suite Gothique. There will also be some less-terrifying Hallow een caroling. Costumes are encour aged, and prizes will be awarded via a free raffle. Trinity Episcopal Cathe dral, 147 NW 19th Ave., trinity-epis copal.org/music-series. 7 pm Satur day, Oct. 29. Free.

yGO: Día de Los Muertos

If Halloween is about fearing the tortured souls of the departed, Día de los Muertos is the exact op posite: The holiday is a tribute to friends and family who have passed. You can learn more about the Mex ican tradition at Hillsboro’s Walters Cultural Arts Center, which will have a customary altar displaying ce ramic instruments, masks, seashells and other cultural artifacts. You can also expect live music, dancing and an exhibit titled Indigenous Voices, featuring work by Orquidia Violeta, Luis Jimenez Castro, Abdiel Flores Ubaldo and Hampton Rodriguez. After visiting Walters, head down town to check out the Hillsboro Art Walk First Tuesday, since the two events happily coincide. Walters Cultural Arts Center, 527 E Main St., Hillsboro, 503-615-3485, hill sboro-oregon.gov/Walters. 5 pm Tuesday, Nov. 1. Free.

STUFF TO DO IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK, INDOORS AND OUT

Cocktails From the Crypt

BY JAY HORTON @hortland PHOTOS BY CHRIS NESSETH

Late one recent Monday evening, passersby glancing inside Hey Love—the flora-enveloped tastemaker lounge occupying the ground floor of boutique hotel Jupiter Next—wouldn’t have been particularly surprised by the scene. A typically tourist-heavy cli entele was seated amid thickets of local revelers sloppily talking shop as a windowside DJ spun lightly remixed Siouxsie Sioux.

Had they peered a bit closer, though, a few elements might have raised eyebrows. The last-call crowd on an otherwise typically sleepy mid-October weeknight was weirdly large and looser than usual—perhaps a consequence of the vacant skull glass es littering the tables. Toy ravens were roosting in the ceiling garden—a new decorative touch—and skeletons lurked around every corner. Final orders paired hemoglobin-red mixed drinks with oil-slick black small plates. While one hesitates to identify any outfit as a costume, the DJ’s pointy hat and wide-collared cloak certainly looked like a last-minute stab at witch garb, and no matter how figure flattering her tightly cinched tunic hap pened to be, something other than fashion concerns prompted bar manager/co-owner Sophie Thomson to wear a nun’s habit.

“ We worship at the Book of the Holy Hammered—complete with holy water,” Thomson laughed. “Let me grab my bible!”

Every evening for the remainder of the month, Hey Love will transform itself into Black Lagoon: an immersive pop-up lounge serving craft drinks steeped in the darkest traditions of tiki. The installation is one of 10 across North America, representing the most ambitious effort yet by high-end cocktail consultants Trash

Collective. But, Thomson explains, her bar’s unique interior design aligned seamlessly with the pop-up’s aesthetic.

“Since there were already some lagoon features here, we could add on décor as we went along rather than having to start from scratch, which was nice,” she says. “All the plants normally here are real, but we wanted some twisting, turning, viney things. We’re maximalists. More is more, that’s definitely the big thing for us, and we just tried to throw everything we could at that swampy, spooky, kind of dark feeling.”

Pop-up bars come in a variety of flavors—from vacant lounges painstakingly imagineered to resemble a Diagon Alley dive (and turn crap lager into $20 butterbeers) to brewery- or distillery-led trunk show-style appearances. In general, the focus tends to be on what or where you’re drinking. However, like last year’s Yuletide-themed installation Miracle, the central conceit behind Black Lagoon’s long Halloween pre-party is all about when you’re drinking.

If the less-than-revolutionary idea evokes images of bartenders dressed like Dracula upselling “spooooky” seasonal samplers (the lazily lurid online branding and garish menus hardly help), the actual execution of Black Lagoon’s concept somehow avoids obvious gimmickry. Macabre curios and nods to the dark arts were carefully embedded in Hey Love’s vegetation, and familiar drinks along with standard pub grub dishes get fanciful takes here.

Though recognizably influenced by tiki culture, the signature cocktails concocted by the Black Lagoon coven benefit from the shifting parameters. None of the drinks on display depends on dry ice or other parlor tricks to justify its $14 to $16 price. Aside from the aforementioned skull-served Holy Diver—a more penetrating Scorpion Bowl for the adventurous foursome—drinking vessels weren’t the point. If anything, the $40 deposit demanded (and returned with your cup) to sip a Closed Casket from a ceramic mermaid proved an inane hurdle to enjoying the inventive brandy and single-malt scotch tipple: think passion-fruit julep, in which

darker flavors warped the sugars toward sharper, spicier effects.

Among the house specialties, Blood Rave was an arresting brimstone swirl of mezcal, beet, absinthe, falernum and bitters; but the drink I’ll miss most once this pop-up ends is the Scream ing Banshee—a yogurt-enlivened take on ye olde gin fizz with Botanist gin, Giffard apricot brandy liqueur, pineapple and lime.

Though the small “Bites” portion of the menu may look like an afterthought, the food may have been the pop-up’s biggest success. At just $10, the soy- and chile-glazed Vampyre Bat Wings’ daunting size and Stygian shade masked a restrained seasoning, gently complementing an impossibly moist chicken, while the Monster Mac slider was a dense flavor bomb and far more filling than the size of the blackened bun or negligible price tag ($9) would suggest.

Even at peak spookiness, Hey Love could schedule actual chainsaw massacres every other hour and still seem like the least scary bar in its neighborhood. No matter how playful the underlying concept or personalized the individual flourishes, it remains at heart a hotel lounge—a stylish, well-lit hotel lounge filled with mismatched and often benumbed travelers.

“A few of the hotel guests were quite surprised,” Thomson explains. “I tried luring them in with my bible and my holy water, and they did not go for it. Somebody asked if I was a Halloween riddle that they had to solve. I just wanted them to come hang out, but they took a drink and scurried away back to their room, which they’re welcome to do. Some people are here for a board meeting, and I don’t think we jibed with board meeting energy. And that’s OK! But there’s a little something for everyone here— delicious food and drinks, some extra ephemera. And, you know, I won’t be wearing a nun costume forever.”

DRINK: Black Lagoon at Hey Love, 920 E Burnside St., 503206-6223, heylovepdx.com. 3 pm-midnight Monday-Thursday, 3 pm-1 am Friday, 10 am-1 am Saturday, 10 am-midnight Sun day, through Oct. 31.

FREAKY TIKI: The Black Lagoon pop-up is a mashup of Polynesian flair and Halloween haunts.

Pot-Assisted Parenting

Raising another human is hard. Relieve some of the stress with these low-key, manageably dosed cannabis products.

BY BRIANNA WHEELER

National Parenting Week exists because parenthood is physi cally, emotionally, financially and spiritually exhausting. Let’s face it, one gendered Sunday of recognition a year is a pretty paltry form of parental appreciation. We deserve an entire week getting pats on the back.

Facts are facts: No matter how awesome and brilliant and amazing your kids are, being responsible for whole other human beings can super-suck sometimes. Parenting takes a tremendous amount of energy, focus and intention, and it can be easy for a caregiver to let their own needs fall by the way side, especially in regards to galaxy-brain self-care. Which is why Parenting Week should be completely co-opted by stoner parents.

Even when using cannabis as medication, stealing away for sesh after sesh isn’t an option for most moms and dads, so hav ing a stash box peppered with low-key, manageably dosed items specifically is a crucial part of the pothead parent playbook. So while Parenting Week may have already passed (it technically wrapped up Oct. 21), it’s not too late to celebrate yourself for doing the hardest job in the entire world: making good people.

And if you’re a childless homie, for the love of Gawd, use this article as motivation to pad your parent friends’ stash boxes.

Hapy Kitchen Uplift and Relax Tinctures

When your kid has pushed you past your limits and it feels like steam is beginning to shoot from your ears, the last thing they’re going to do is chill out while you eat a thick bar of can nabis chocolate in front of them, satisfying as that may be for the parent. Instead, calm down with a microdose of one of Hapy Kitchen’s tinctures, which deliver a shimmer that can be maintained throughout even the toughest of days. When taken sublingually, these solutions can deliver highs similar to weed that you smoke. When drizzled over a bagel or bowl of oatmeal, the effects will be more akin to those of an edible.

BUY: The Canna Shoppe, 6316 NE Halsey St., 503-660-5209.

Mellow Vibes Gourmet Potcorn

I personally recommend the white cheddar jalapeño variety of this medicated popcorn, not only because it’s delicious; if your kid asks for some, you can always say, “No, it’s too spicy,” instead of “No, it’s drugs,” thanks to the heat from the peppers—and you’d still be completely honest. These bags of popcorn contain 100 milligrams of THC total, so nibbling on a kernel or two every few hours can provide a very manageable mood boost without completely stoning the user. For longer days when extra patience and extra cheer are required, this spicy snack could be the key to your parental success, or at least the key to avoiding a meltdown of your own.

BUY: Cannabis Curb, 4069 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 971-255-1542, cannabiscurb.com.

Laurie + Mary Jane Cheese Crisp Crackers

Laurie + Mary Jane’s savory crackers are low-dose treats that deliver a super-silky, mellow buzz. Each cracker contains around 3 milligrams of THC, which can easily be split in two

for an uplifting microdose. All of this local company’s formu lations use a full-spectrum, infused coconut oil, rather than solvent-based extracts or concentrates, so even at a low dose, expect robust, full-body effects that linger even as the buzzier elements of the high have evaporated.

BUY: Gram Central Station, 6430 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-284-6714.

Portland Oven Pot Sauce

For all of the parents who keep hot sauce in their bags, con sider adding a mini bottle of Pot Sauce, a vinegar-based chile condiment with 50 milligrams of THC per 10-milliliter bottle. Available in three different heat intensities, these have the same complex savory-spicy smack of Tapatío or Crystal, while delivering a very mild dose (less than 5 milligrams of THC per dash) of cannabis. Bonus: Pot Sauce’s tiny bottles look like a cross between biohazardous glue and demonic eye drops, so there’s virtually zero chance of accidental mix-ups, unless your kid loves nuclear hot sauce—in which case, maybe avoid this product altogether.

BUY: Pot Mates, potmatespdx.com.

Luminous Botanicals Sun Syrup

Sun Syrup is one of the most valuable medications in my pantry. This lemony, honey-thick tonic is the perfect replacement for traditional sweeteners in tea or coffee, and at 1,000 milligrams of THC per bottle, a little can go a long way. I’ve drizzled this syrupy concoction on doughnuts, French toast and even apple slices. Luminous Botanicals can be trusted to deliver therapeu tic-grade products, the bright flavors never feel overdone and the business’s organic approach never wavers. That means its medicine always feels equal parts holistic and fun, which is a vibe many parents can use.

BUY: Gnome Grown Dispensary, 5012 NE 28th Ave., 971-3462098, gnomegrownorganics.com.

Documenting the Why

Filmmaker Jon Meyer discusses his music documentary series Kontrast

BY MICHELLE KICHERER @michellekicherer

For years, Portland documentarian and Talk Station frontman Jon Meyer has been filming musicians whose work he admires. It started as a way to improve his craft with hopes of someday turning the footage into a documentary.

“Eventually I had enough where I was like, ‘Man, if I went and followed up on all these people that’d be really interesting, to see where they came from and where they are now,’” Meyer tells WW. That ambition birthed his black-and-white documentary project Kontrast

Meyer wanted to provide an in-depth look at emerging artists in the hope that sharing their stories would help elevate their careers. Take Cassandra Lewis, whose style has been described as “cosmic Americana” and “psychedelic soul.” The first time Meyer heard her sing, he thought, “Oh, my God. I’ve never been in the presence of such undiscovered talent like this, you know? Like, nobody knows who this person is? What?”

As with most of Meyer’s projects, one thing led to another. He captured hours of footage of Lewis before, during and after shows. And eventually, he decided to send a tape to his friend Marco Collins, the renowned DJ at Seattle’s KEXP.

“I never send him anything, not even on my own work,” Meyer says. “I was waiting for it to be something so good that he would trust me to only send him the good stuff.” Sure enough, Collins loved the tape. He came down to Portland to see Lewis play, and as soon as he got back to Seattle, he started playing her on KEXP.

Soon, Collins introduced Lewis to a media group, which led to her signing a record deal. “And I know all of that because I was there to film the whole thing,” Meyer says. From her early shows to meeting Collins to getting signed, Meyer captured it all.

Kontrast has also featured Talilo Marfil, the West Bisayan, Filipino American hip-hop artist Meyer first met at a barbecue

about 10 years ago. “He and some dudes were rapping in a cir cle,” Meyer recalls. “I’m normally more of a singer-songwriter person, but I can beatbox. So our first communication was about 15 minutes of beatboxing and rapping.”

Marfil’s energy and story spoke to Meyer. “I learned that he used to be in prison, that he was trying to get youth off the streets, that his sister had cancer and Down syndrome and, at the time, he was doing a fundraiser for that,” he says.

Meyer called Marfil and asked if he could just start filming and see what they came up with. The resulting multipart episode of Kontrast (which features fellow hip-hop artist Wassla) allowed viewers to learn about Marfil’s backstory and watch him teaching hip-hop history to kids from elementary through high school.

“ We’re giving them hope and helping them make better deci sions,” says Marfil in the first part of his Kontrast documentary. “It’s hard for me to see how much help I could be because of all the mistakes I’ve made in my life, but the only way I know how to do it is by gathering a community with music. And I’ve been pretty effective with that.”

Marfil just released “Big Flip,” which features Swiggle Mandela, Taryn and JayR Tha Barber (and quickly went viral). As for Meyer, his ultimate goal is to get enough funding to be able to put out a new documentary every month, building on the relationships with artists that he forges over the course of several years.

“Every episode, even though they’re only 15 minutes long, covers at least three years,” he says. “I don’t want to put out any episode that’s filmed over the course of six months. The joy of watching these episodes is watching change.”

SEE IT: The third installment of Kontrast’s “Talilo/Wassla” series plays with artists’ performances and a Q&A with Jon Meyer and Wassla at Kelly’s Olympian, 426 SW Washington St., 503-228-3669, kellysolympian.com. 8 pm Sunday, Nov. 13. $7-$10. More episodes available at kontrastdocs.com.

THURSDAY, OCT. 27:

After their Fairlights, Mallets and Bamboo compi lation helped bring the wonders of ’80s Japanese ambient music to the Stateside indieverse, Port landers Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile decided to further explore that style with their Visible Cloaks project. This is strange, burbling stuff that creates an alien-seeming environment rather than simply evoking its predecessors—or worse, the jumble of aesthetic signifiers to which “Japan” is often reduced. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-2397639, holocene.org. 8 pm. $12. 21+.

FRIDAY, OCT. 28:

The Oakland, Calif., experimental music scene tends toward the witchy and gothic—and as that scene’s breakout star, Spellling has taken the logi cal next step by embracing her inner Stevie Nicks. The artist born Tia Cabral loves to float around onstage with ribbon-festooned tambourines and sing of dancing aliens. And though her music is moody enough to tickle The Needle Drop’s An thony Fantano’s typically dour tastes (he blessed last year’s The Turning Wheel with a rare 10), the strongest impression from her songs is that she’s having a blast being alive. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503-284-4700, startheaterportland.com. 9 pm. $20. 21+.

SUNDAY, OCT. 29:

The music Ash Gutierrez makes as glaive is beamed in from a universe where Playboi Carti is an elder hip-hop statesman, where Panic! At the Disco is classic rock, and where formative high school experiences happen over Zoom—the world of a 17-year-old in 2022, which is exactly what he is. Yet he’s got an interesting, conservative quirk: He dresses like he just stepped off the Motown charmschool assembly line. If he brings back artists ac tually getting dressed up before they go onstage, he can retire knowing he accomplished something good in this world. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 503-284-8686, wonderballroom.com. 8 pm. $25. All ages.

WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR BY DANIEL BROMFIELD @bromf3

ON THE BACK OF A SLEEPING TIGER

George Saunders explains the inspirations behind his new collection Liberation Day.

BY MICHELLE KICHERER @michellekicherer

“Most of the time we live on the back of a tiger,” George Saunders tells WW . “And most of the time, the ti ger is sleeping. We get to concentrate on being writers, parents; we know who we are and what we’re trying to do. Then every so often the tiger wakes up. And during the pandemic, the tiger woke up just to say, ‘Hey, you’re not in control of shit, actually.’ So, it’s lovely when things go according to plan and the world is your friend. But when it isn’t, that’s pretty interesting too.”

Saunders’ wisdom reverberates through Liber ation Day (Random House, 256 pages, $28), his first short story collection since 2013’s acclaimed Tenth of December (in the interim, he won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for best work of fiction in English for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo and wrote A Swim in the Pond in the Rain, arguably one of the best books about writing ever written).

While the characters in December often reach some version of a heroic ending, the nine stories in Liberation Day are written in what Saunders calls “a different kind of storytelling register” that aligns with the grim world we’re living in.

“ You can have a big heroic narrative, but what’s going on with COVID? How’re we doing on climate change? Some problems are really

stubborn, and they don’t just go away because you decide to face them,” he says.

Saunders’ stories start by playing with lan guage to make it musical and poetic (note the line breaks when the protagonist in “Elliott Spencer” is learning to talk again, or the brain stormy thoughts of the writer in “The Mom of Bold Action”).

“A lot of times, something just feels fun, so I kind of just go for it,” Saunders says. “And after that, of course, you try to make it meaningful and coherent, but the first impulse is often like: You know when you’re a kid and you’re walking to school and you suddenly just feel like singing? Why? Well, just because, you know?”

and almost fake…I thought, 20 minutes from now, if one of these guys gets a flat tire, the oth er is gonna pull over and help him. But they’re screaming at each other like they’re the worst enemies in the world. So that was a nightmare for me. It really gave me a headache.”

Equally terrifying is the collection’s title piece, about a group of people whose brains are encod ed with knowledge so intimate they can reenact Civil War battles in disturbingly accurate detail. If that sounds similar to Saunders’ 2012 story “The Semplica-Girl Diaries,” it’s because while writing “Liberation Day,” he was working on a “Semplica” film adaptation (currently, there are plans for it to be shot in 2023 with director Richard Ayoade).

Collectively, Liberation Day is about people who are confused or misled or deluded in some way. “And then something happens to move them towards truth,” Saunders says.

That perspective informs “Elliott Spencer,” in which an organization brainwashes formerly homeless people into becoming something like real-life bots to use in political protests. The inspiration for the story’s protest scenes came to Saunders after he covered the 2016 Trump campaign for The New Yorker—and watched pro testers wait outside auditoriums until Trump’s supporters emerged.

“It was like a terrible meeting of two rivers,” he says. “The feeling was so aggressive and violent

He adds: “Originally, I thought it was kind of a dark book, but when I see it that way, it’s kind of hopeful. Because every single person in this book, they start out in one place and the world gently—or not gently—urges them to be a little more truthful about things. Which, I think, is ultimately a pretty hopeful thing.”

SEE IT: George Saunders appears in con versation with Jess Walter (and moderator Geoff Norcross) at the Portland Book Festival, First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1126 SW Park Ave., 503-227-2583, literary-arts.org. 10 am-11 am Saturday, Nov. 5. $15-$25 adults; $5 Arts for All; military servicemembers, veterans, and 17 and

free.

The Heat and the Night

Vancouver native Nick Richey’s new urban odyssey was inspired by a formative phone-sex hotline call.

BY CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER @chance_s_p

When film director and Vancouver, Wash., native Nick Richey returned to Portland this month to screen 1-800-Hot-Nite, the husk that is Lloyd Center made an impression on him.

“It’s almost like you’re inside someone else’s memory of what a mall is, and they haven’t finished placing the stores,” says Richey, who was showing his sophomore feature at the Portland Film Festival. “All they can re member is Hot Topic, the ice skating rink, Orange Julius.”

That’s not dissimilar from how Richey describes the eerily nostalgic concrete backdrops of his film, which hits video on demand Nov. 4. 1-800-Hot-Nite follows three ad olescent boys bouncing around the streets of Los Angeles after protagonist Tommy’s parents are suddenly arrested. The director calls it a one-night “urban odyssey,” as the three best friends chaotically scour their neighborhood for shelter, food, adventure, cash, a pool party, and a bizarre sense of connection with a phone sex operator.

To pull off the alien feeling of a childhood being lost in real time, Richey would scout locations like baseball diamonds and YMCAs and then film them as inaccessible to the wandering boys—“faded versions” of kids’ staples, as the director puts it.

The film is fueled by the tension, humor and solidarity of three friends on a collision course with real-world problems, with Richey citing Stand By Me (1986) and The 400 Blows (1959) as touchpoints. Tommy is played by Dallas Dupree Young (who, unbeknownst to Richey when the film was shooting in July 2021, was about to become a series regular on Netflix’s Cobra Kai).

Much like Low Low (2019), Richey’s Vancouver-set debut feature, 1-800-Hot-Nite is heavily inspired by the director’s hardscrabble youth across the Interstate Bridge. Autobiographical nuggets from a free-range childhood populate the script, but Richey’s early experience calling a phone sex hotline was the seed of the project.

Richey recalls squeezing into his apartment com plex’s phone booth with his friends at age 13 and giving “1-800-HOT-FUCK” a ring. When a similar scene opens the film, we see the boys rapt with curiosity, trying to talk

dirty (their attempts almost have a Mad Libs quality). Playing along with their fill-in-the-blank dialogue is Ava the operator, played by Ali Richey, who is a producer on the film (and is married to Nick).

“ We had to grow up too early,” the director says. “We were kind of dancing on this knife’s edge of adulthood and boyhood, and I wanted to see if I could do that in this film over the course of one night.”

Like the story itself, the film’s L.A. production was a nocturnal improvisation. Hot Nite shot Friday through Sunday over six weekends, and the all-nighttime setting and labor restrictions for minors meant the three leads— Young, Gerrison Machado and Mylen Bradford—could work only from 9 pm to midnight. Early on, Richey says, he’d leave the set on Sunday thinking the production was doomed, but then have all week to rework the shot list.

“ We were shimmying up a light post, duct-taping LED lights to the post, and saying, ‘OK kids! Walk past here,’” says Richey, adding that time is a production’s most valu able commodity. “Who gives a shit about a dolly track or a crane if you don’t have 25 days to shoot?”

With positive notices out of Festival du Cinéma Amér icain de Deauville, distribution by Quiver and a child star with nearly a half-million Instagram followers, Hot Nite appears to be a leveling up for Richey’s directing career.

He’s ready to do it again—and he’s hoping to next film his thriller script about two Oklahoma women who kidnap a kid and go on the run, Thelma & Louise style.

Richey aims to raise a $5 million budget for that film, whereas Hot Nite topped out at $250,000, about half of which was previously earmarked as Nick and Ali’s down payment on a house. But the couple has no regrets about making a movie instead, he says.

“ You never know if you’ll be able to replenish the bank account, but you feel like, yeah, it was the right decision, creating another round of opportunity,” Richey says.

“That’s really all you can hope for in the film world we live in today.”

SEE IT: 1-800-Hot-Nite hits VOD on Friday, Nov. 4.

STREAMING HORRORS

YOUR SPOOKY FILM QUEUE

BY ALEX BARR

If you expect elevated social commentary and realistic plot lines from your scary movies, go ahead and skip James Wan’s Malignant (2021). If, however, you’re willing to suspend your disbelief enough to witness a horror virtuoso alchemize timeless genre tropes while simultane ously creating an entirely unique (albeit kitschy) monster, Malignant deserves a spot on your watchlist. Avoid even the briefest synopsis—the less you know, the better. HBO Max.

SPOOKY PICK 2:

Before Malignant, James Wan cemented his image as the mastermind behind Generation Z’s nightmares with The Conjuring (2013), which follows real-life couple Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) as they investigate the haunting of the Perron family home. This movie is the perfect studio scream: It scares in all the right moments, surprising with jabs when you least expect it. Also, if you want to see the film on the big screen, it’s playing at the Academy Theater through Thursday, Oct. 27. HBO Max.

SPOOKY PICK 3:

You can’t keep your eyes off the slow-motion train wreck that is Kevin Lewis’ Willy’s Wonderland (2021). Nicolas Cage stars as a brooding vagabond (credited as “The Jan itor”) who travels to a podunk town with an unexplained mission to decimate the haunted Chuck E. Cheese-like animatronics who prey on unknowing passersby. This film makes outrageously bold choices (Cage’s character remains completely silent throughout the entire 88-min ute runtime), all while doing absolutely nothing to explain or justify them. Needless to say, you’ll never see another horror movie like it again. Hulu.

SPOOKY PICK 4:

Adam Robitel’s first feature-length film, The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014), is a contemporary mockumentary that checks all the right boxes. Michelle Ang stars as Mia, a Ph.D. student documenting the daily life of an Alzhei mer’s patient, Deborah (Jill Larson), and her daughter and caretaker, Sarah (Anne Ramsay). After observing Debo rah’s behavior for several days, it quickly becomes clear to Mia that something sinister is at play. Amazon Prime, Tubi, Vudu.

THREE KINGS: Mylen Bradford, Dallas Dupree Young and Gerrison Machado.

SPOOKY PICK

Eraserhead (1977)

David Lynch’s experimental fever nightmare loosely fol lows a depressed man (Jack Nance) living in a desolate industrial apartment, but is mostly a surreal allegory for fears of fatherhood, manifested in the form of a chron ically crying baby-creature-thing. It’s actually kinda cute. Before all the pus, of course. Clinton, Oct. 27.

Coraline (2009)

Filmed and set right here in Oregon, Coraline follows a precocious purple-haired girl (Dakota Fanning) who dis covers a whimsical, sinister world hidden in her family’s new house. It was also last film by director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas)…until now. His newest stop-motion adventure, Wendell & Wild is now playing at the Hollywood Theatre. Academy, Oct. 28-Nov. 3.

Raw (2016)

In this ravenous debut feature from Julia Ducournau (Titane), a 16-year-old vegetarian arrives at veterinary school, where she discovers her latent taste for human flesh. Fifty percent body horror, 50% coming-of-age metaphor, 100% grade-A cinematic meat. Screening at two different theaters this week, so both east- and west siders have easy access (and no excuse not to go). 5th. Avenue, Oct. 28-30; Cinemagic, Oct. 29 and Nov. 3.

Body Bags (1993)

Zip yourself in for this rare screening of Showtime’s made-for-TV horror-comedy anthology, featuring one film by Tobe Hooper and two by John Carpenter (who introduces each segment in character as a creepy cor oner). Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine star, but keep an eye out for cameo appearances by Wes Craven, Sam Raimi, Roger Corman, and other horror legends. Holly wood, Oct. 29.

Revenge (2017)

When a young woman is left for dead by three men in the desert, she recovers and returns with a fearsome vendetta. Director Coralie Fargeat turns rape-revenge on its head with her feminist reimagining of the provoc ative genre’s tropes. Like Raw, the film screens as part of Cinemagic’s Provoke Film Festival, spotlighting wom an-directed horror. Check out the rest of the killer lineup below! Cinemagic, Oct. 30 and Nov. 2.

ALSO PLAYING:

Academy: The Conjuring (2013), Oct. 26-27. A Night mare on Elm Street (1984), Oct. 26-27. The Fun House (1981), Oct. 28-Nov. 3. Cinemagic: House (1977), Oct. 27. The Being (1981), Oct. 28. Pet Sematary (1989), Oct. 29 and 31. Saint Maud (2019), Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. The Banana Splits Movie (2019), Oct. 30 and Nov. 1. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982), Oct. 31. Clinton: Viy, or Spirit of Evil (1967), Oct. 26. The Howling (1981), Oct. 28. Scanners (1981), Oct. 28. Satan War (1979) and Spec tre (1977), Oct. 29. Hollywood: Daughters of Darkness (1971), Oct. 28. The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999), Oct. 28. The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Oct. 29. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Oct. 30. The Lost Boys (1987), Oct. 30. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Oct. 31. Cyborg (1989), Nov. 1.

TÁR

Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is the master of time—or so she says. When asked to explain why a conductor is more than “a human metronome,” Lydia, maestro of the Berlin Philharmonic, says the description is not entirely inaccurate. Under the sway of her baton, time starts, stretches and stops. She’s in control—which is why, inevitably, TÁR must be about her losing control. Written and directed by Portland-raised filmmaker Todd Field (Little Children), the movie finds Lydia on the precipice of a career-crowning, pandemic-delayed performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Yet despite her success, she’s haunted, not only by ethereal threats (including a growling dog who may or may not be real), but by rumors of sexual impropriety that cloud her reign as the world’s foremost female conductor. Lydia doesn’t behave like an innocent woman—she deletes count less emails from a former protégé who died by suicide—but TÁR has no interest in tidy answers. Delighting in our discomfort, Blanchett and Field morally box us in by making Lydia as lovable as she is despicable. Even when she stares into the abyss of so-called cancellation, she has a strange magnificence (especially during her caterwauling performance of a made-up, accordion-accompa nied song called “Apartment for Sale”). Whether the film’s ethics are dubious or simply nuanced promises to be a furiously contested matter of perspective. What won’t be is Field’s directing. As the camera smoothly follows Lydia as she journeys through a tunnel or along a river, you feel your world expanding. Visually, intellectually and emotionally, TÁR is epic-scale cinema. That is why, like its heroine, it will leave you both troubled and awestruck. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cinema 21.

DECISION TO LEAVE

Director Park Chanwook loves a curse. From revenge (Oldboy) to vampirism (Thirst) to abuse (The Handmaid en), the Korean master often treats character motivations as binding covenants of passion and perversion. So it is with Deci sion to Leave, for which he won Best Director at Cannes. When a Busan immigration officer falls to his death, his widow (Tang Wei of Lust, Caution fame) and an investigating detective (Park Hae-il) enter a classic noir twostep of suspicion and attraction (a trope deployed by everyone from Hitchcock to Eszterhas). But Park has plenty to add, always emphasizing character over casework: This investigation’s intensity fatalistically marks the participants. Certain elements re call Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder, especially the casting of Park Hae-il, whose boyish beauty is pulverized by his character’s job here. But the film is mostly interested in the detective as an idea—an assembly of attractive, manipulatable qualities, from his dignified-cop mannerisms to ex tra storage pockets in his slacks. Rest assured, there are jaw-drop ping foot chases and skirmishes, but Decision to Leave is mostly Park Chan-wook at deconstruc tive play. In the long lineage of cops and suspects improperly entwined, here’s a new cosmic joke about relationships: At last, a man who pays attention. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Cine ma 21, Hollywood.

DARK GLASSES

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Legendary Italian mastermind Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red ) has had a hand in creating some of the most iconic horror films across decades. However, his latest release, Dark Glasses, is assuredly not one of them. There’s plenty that the film does right, includ ing Dziga Vertov-styled double exposures and anxiety-inducing diegetic music and it features a powerhouse performance by star Ilenia Pastorelli as an escort blinded by a serial killer. However, no actor or editing team could have saved the movie from its awkward implosion of dialogue (the story’s flatness rivals its heroine’s similar lack of dimen sion). Worse, Dark Glasses lacks the stamina necessary to string an audience along while setting up scares. Just when you think the film is about to make a turn for the better, scenes end as quickly as they began, rushing toward an illogical conclusion. If you’re looking for a never-ending cycle of disappointment from your next viewing experience, look no further. NR. ALEX BARR. Cinemagic.

TICKET TO PARADISE

Romantic comedies aren’t crafted to subvert expectations, but to satisfy them with a formula that leaves everyone happy—a formula that’s far more delicate than it’s given credit for. Writ er-director Ol Parker (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again) is no

newcomer to this arena (he also wrote The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel ). Working with two A-list veterans of the genre, George Clooney and Julia Roberts, he gets Ticket to Paradise off to a fantastic start, but it falls apart from there. Clooney and Roberts play David and Georgia, a bitterly divorced couple forced to reunite for the graduation of their daugh ter Lily (Kaitlyn Dever) from law school and to see her off to Bali for three months (with the obligatory best-friend character with all the best lines, played by Billie Lourd). When they receive word that Lily is forgoing her law career to marry a local guy she just met and live with him in Bali, they freak and rush to stop the wedding, a plot that never rings true. Lily’s leap of romantic faith is difficult to buy in the modern age, especially without the spark generated by similar characters seeking a contested shotgun wedding in films like Why Him? or Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Seeing Clooney and Roberts together, though, is like listening to a new album from a favorite band of your youth. They can still hit those wonderful, familiar notes to satisfy their old fans, but this time, it’s doubtful they’ll attract any new ones. PG-13. RAY GILL JR. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Eastport, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Progress Ridge, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

JONES

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the

to work as hard as

too.

I

with flair and

now have a surprisingly

how you do your

you feel about your work. To take

advantage of this potential break

you should inspire yourself to give more of your heart and soul to your work than you have previously imagined possible. (PS: By "work," I mean your job and any crucial activity that is both challenging and rewarding.)

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Here's my weird sug gestion, Taurus. Just for now, only for a week or two, experiment with dreaming about what you want but can't have. And just for now, only for a week or two, go in pursuit of what you want but can't have. I predict that these exercises in quix otic futility will generate an unexpected benefit. They will motivate you to dream true and strong and deep about what you do want and can have. They will intensify and focus you to pursue what you do want and can have.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Your most successful times in life usually come when all your various selves are involved. During these interludes, none of them is neglected or shunted to the outskirts. In my astrological opinion, you will be wise to ensure this scenario is in full play during the coming weeks. In fact, I recommend you throw a big Unity Party and invite all your various sub-personalities to come as they are. Have outrageous fun acting out the festivities. Set out a placemat and nametag on a table for each participant. Move around from seat to seat and speak from the heart on behalf of each one. Later, discuss a project you could all participate in creating.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A Cancerian reader named Joost Joring explained to me how he cul tivates the art of being the best Cancerian he can be. He said, "I shape my psyche into a fortress, and I make people feel privileged when they are allowed inside. If I must sometimes instruct my allies to stay outside for a while, to camp out by the drawbridge as I work out my problems, I make sure they know they can still love me— and that I still love them." I appreciate Joost's perspective. As a Cancerian myself, I can attest to its value. But I will also note that in the coming weeks, you will reap some nice benefits from hav ing less of a fortress mentality. In my astrological opinion, it's PARTY TIME!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo poet Antonio Machado wrote, "I thought my fire was out, and I stirred the ashes. I burnt my fingers." I'm telling you this so you won't make the same mistake, Leo. Your energy may be a bit less radiant and fervent than usual right now, but that's only because you're in a recharging phase. Your deep reserves of fertility and power are regenerating. That's a good thing! Don't make the error of thinking it's a sign of reduced vitality. Don't overreact with a flurry of worry.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Siegfried Sassoon became renowned for the poetry he wrote about being a soldier in World War I. Having witnessed carnage firsthand, he became adept at focusing on what was truly important. "As long as I can go on living a rich inner life," he wrote, "I have no cause for complaint, and I welcome anything which helps me to simplify my life, which seems to be more and more a process of eliminating inessentials!" I suggest we make Sassoon your inspirational role model for the next three weeks. What inessentials can you eliminate? What could you do to enhance your appreciation for all the everyday miracles that life offers you?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You Libras have a talent that I consider a superpower: You can remove yourself from the heart of the chaos and deliver astute insights about how to tame the chaos. I like that about you. I have personally benefited from it on numerous occasions. But for the next few weeks, I will ask you to try something dif

ferent. I'll encourage you to put an emphasis on practical action, however imperfect it might be, more than on in-depth analysis. This moment in the history of your universe requires a com mitment to getting things done, even if they're untidy and incomplete. Here's your motto: "I improvise compromises in the midst of the interesting mess."

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Fear is the raw mate rial from which courage is manufactured," said author Martha Beck. "Without it, we wouldn't even know what it means to be brave." I love that quote—and I especially love it as a guiding medi tation for you Scorpios right now. We usually think of fear as an unambiguously bad thing, a drain of our precious life force. But I suspect that for you, it will turn out to be useful in the coming days. You're going to find a way to transmute fear into boldness, bravery, and even badassery.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): For decades, the Canadian city of Sudbury hosted a robust mining industry. Deposits of nickel sulphide ore spawned a booming business. But these riches also brought terrible pollution. Sudbury's native vegetation was devastated. The land was stained with foul air produced by the smelting process. An effort to re-green the area began in the 1970s. Today, the air is among the cleanest in the province of Ontario. In the spirit of this transformation, I invite you to embark on a personal reclamation project. Now is a favorable time to detoxify and purify any parts of your life that have been spoiled or sullied.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The literal meaning of the ancient Greek word aigílips is "devoid of goats." It refers to a place on the earth that is so high and steep that not even sure-footed goats can climb it. There aren't many of those places. Similarly, there are very few metaphorical peaks that a determined Capricorn can't reach. One of your specialties is the power to master seemingly improbable and impassable heights. But here's an unexpected twist in your destiny: In the coming months, your forte will be a talent for going very far down and in. Your agility at ascending, for a change, will be useful in descending—for explor ing the depths. Now is a good time to get started!

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Evolved Aquarians are often blessed with unprecedented friend ships and free-spirited intimacy and innovative alliances. People who align themselves with you may enjoy experimental collaborations they never imagined before engaging with you. They might be surprised at the creative potentials unleashed in them because of their synergy with you. In the coming weeks and months, you will have even more power than usual to generate such liaisons and connections. You might want to make a copy of this horoscope and use it as your calling card or business card.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I surveyed the history of literature to identify authors I consider highly intuitive. Piscean-born Anais Nin was my top choice. She used language with fluidity and lyri cism. She lived a colorful, unpredictable life. No one better deserves the title of Intuition Cham pion. And yet she also had a discerning view of this faculty. She wrote, "I began to understand that there were times when I must question my intuition and separate it from my anxieties or fears. I must think, observe, question, seek facts and not trust blindly to my intuition." I admire her caution. And I suspect it was one reason her intuition was so potent. Your assignment, Pisces, is to apply her approach to your relationship with your intuition. The coming months will be a time when you can supercharge this key aspect of your intelligence and make it work for you better than it ever has before.

Homework: Imagine you have taken a particular consciousness-altering drug. Imagine how it affects you. Newsletter. FreeWillAstrology.com

Sunlan

by Kay Newell