🌱 Eviction Help Needed + Expensive Turkey + No Student Mandate

It's Friday, Portland, the end of another week and more than enough reason to celebrate. Let me tell you about some of today's festivities.

First, today's weather:

Morning showers ending by noon, if not sooner. The high temp will be a balmy 51.

Here are the top stories today in Portland:

1. With evictions mounting in Multnomah County, tenants are desperate for assistance of any kind. Applications for rental assistance are piling up, but Oregon Housing and Community Services can't get through them quick enough and numbers show less than half of completed applications have received rental assistance so far. Multifamily Northwest Executive Director Deborah Imse said housing providers and tenants have done their part and now it’s time for the state to do theirs. Could the eviction moratorium be reinstated? (KOIN)
2. The pandemic has led to price hikes and supply problems in nearly every sector, and our Thanksgiving dinner is no exception. KATU's Frances Lin spoke with a few locally-owned grocery stores. The management said they are minimizing the price increase on turkeys and trying to stay competitive in price during the holiday season. “We did not adjust our turkey prices. We are seeing variability in the market for things like packaging and fuel costs, so we have had to make some adjustments, but not on your holiday staple," said Evelyn Murphy, president of Green Zebra Grocery. (KATU)
3. Portland city commissioners on Wednesday voted to spend an unexpected budget surplus on police and getting people living on the streets into shelter beds, among other priorities. Commissioners unanimously voted to spend more than $7 million on putting more officers back on the streets, body cameras for police accountability and new training and hiring programs. Another big portion of the spending package is aimed at helping people experiencing homelessness. More than $18 million will go toward new shelter beds and housing assistance, among other programs. (KPTV)
4. The Portland Public Schools (PPS) board members agreed to postpone voting on a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students 12 and older for up to six months at their board meeting Tuesday night. The members cited Multnomah County’s high vaccination rates among school-age children and the distress a vaccine requirement may cause families who do not trust government-run public health programs as reasons to delay a possible mandate. (Portland Mercury)
5. Portland likes to think of itself as an eco-conscious city and a key part of that is encouraging the use of public transportation. But how can a city encourage affordable housing residents to use transit and shared bikes and scooters more often? Results from an ongoing Portland Bureau of Transportation pilot program and a new report from Portland State University suggest one way to do it: make it free. Since PBOT’s Transportation Wallet for Residents of Affordable Housing (TWRAH) pilot program launched in 2019, hundreds of residents of affordable housing across Portland have tested the hypothesis that removing cost barriers is a crucial way to make our transportation system more equitable. (BikePortland.org)

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Today in Portland:

• Do you like video games? How about the music in video games? If that's your jam, you may want to head over to SE Portland club Holocene. Tonight FamilyJules and ToxicxEternity present SHREDVENTURE, a night of video game metal covers! With support from special guests Super Guitar Bros. Proof of vaccination is required for entry. Tickets available online. Doors open at 5:00 PM.
• It's an evening of laughs at the Alberta Abbey in NE Portland, as it hosts comedian Mia Jackson. To her credit, Creative Loafing in Atlanta listed her as one of its “20 People to Watch” in 2016 and in 2017 it named her the Critic’s Choice Best Stand Up Comedian in Atlanta. Now living in New York, Mia spent the last 18 months on tour with Amy Schumer. Tickets are available online and limited tickets may be available at the door. Show is at 7:00 PM.
• Prepare to question everything you thought you knew about roundhouse kicks, thongs, and katana beheadings. Joe (Matt Hannon, Sylvester Stallone’s one-time bodyguard) is the Samurai Cop, a rock of a man who will do literally whatever it takes to punish criminals — even if that means taking dozens of innocent lives in the process. Who else would be screening such a cult classic but the Clinton Street Theater in SE Portland. Get your tickets online. 10:00 - 11:30 PM.
• If you're looking for a high energy rock night, then the Eastside Bar & Grill in NE Portland is the place for you. Tonight it hosts E. B. and the Satellites along with Nobody Special. 2 Bands, one great vibe! The show starts at 8:00 PM.
• Woody Productions presents Bubble Bash at Rainbow City in SE Portland. It's celebrating Hubbuh Bhubbuh's birthday, so there'll be live music all night long. Tickets available online or at the door. Doors open at 8:00 PM.

Portland Patch Notebook

• Portland Trail Blazers: "Norm’s a walking bucket 🔥" (Instagram)
• Portland Audubon: "We have a wide variety of talented artists who will be at the Wild Arts Festival this weekend at PSU Viking Pavilion. Here’s a small sampling of a few painters: • Photo #1: We Are In This Together by Janel Pahl (@janelpahl) • Photo #2:..." (Instagram)
• Portland Audubon: "A human athlete's heart, when exercising, beats about 150 times per minute. An active hummingbird? 1,200 beats per minute!" (Facebook)
• Oregon Historical Society: "The year 2020 marked the centennial of the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment and the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. OHS commemorated these anniversaries with a powerful original exhibit, Nevertheless, T..." (Facebook)
• Friends of Family Farmers: #Repost @fyp_pdx with @make_repost ・・・ Tutuilla True will be at Hillsdale Farmers Market on Sunday for its Fill Your Pantry Harvest Popup! @tutuillatrue is a Native-owned and operated fishery in Oregon, fishing East up the Columbia Riv... (Facebook)
• Star gazers rejoice! It's time for the Leonid meteor shower to light up the sky. It peaked this morning, but the annual shower runs through Nov. 30. Another event occurring is the blood lunar eclipse happening tonight. It should be quite a sight, provided the clouds cooperate and let us see it. (Portland Patch)
• Sometimes the best thing you can do to help a crab survive is to eat a crab. At least that’s the case when two species, one native and one invasive, are competing for the same resources, as has recently come to pass in Coos Bay on the southern Oregon coast. The European green crab, described by researchers as an “aggressive invader,” has been making its way around the world’s temperate coastlines over the past century. (The Oregonian)
• Let's hear it for Portland restaurant República! It was just named Portland Monthly's Restaurant of the Year. Starting with a menu of homey comfort food dishes not often seen in Portland restaurants — tacos and quesadillas on handmade tortillas, tortas, soups, and guisados — the restaurant was based on a collaborative model where no single chef was the star, and dishes from various regions of Mexico made an appearance in a show of ancestral pride. (Portland Monthly)

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There's so much going on today! But that's to be expected with a bustling city like ours. So get out there and do your part to keep Portland weird and I'll be back tomorrow with more Portland oddities. If you're into these newsletters, consider bringing some friends and neighbors into the fold. You can send them this link to subscribe.

— Dominic Anaya

About me: Doctor, educator and now a writer/artist, I'm just chillin' in Portland, OR with my wife, our ferrets, our chickens and our goats.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Portland Daily? You can email me at portland@patch.com.