🌱 Library Safety Risks + Safe Rest Village Frustrations

Welcome to Thursday, Portland. If New York is the city that never sleeps, can we be the one that occasionally naps? Here's what's going on today.

First, today's weather:

It's going to be a cloudy day with occasional bouts of rain and a high temp of 48.

Here are the top five stories today in Portland:

1. It was just after 6 pm on Feb. 26 when a patron at the Midland branch of the Multnomah County Library attacked two employees. The man, agitated and yelling, head-butted and punched the two staffers until a co-worker pinned him against the library’s glass doors. The February attack at Midland, a library branch on Southeast 122nd Avenue at Morrison Street, is just one incident in a series of violent confrontations in recent months at the county’s public libraries. They often serve as a refuge for people living on Portland’s streets who are struggling with mental illness, substance abuse, and the trauma of living outside. (Willamette Week)
2. Portland government officials, cannabis entrepreneurs and industry advocates came together to support a report on how cannabis tax revenue can help communities most harmed by cannabis prohibition, among other issues. On Monday, April 11, the city held a press conference in relation to the Cannabis Policy Oversight Team’s policy report. The report highlights CPOT’s role in advancing policy to aid cannabis businesses dealing with the aftermath of COVID, increased burglaries, vandalism and wildfires. (KOIN)
3. The new Behavioral Health Resource Center is set to open its doors in downtown Portland this fall. What this center offers those in need is different than anything else in Multnomah County because it’s going to be run by people who know firsthand what it’s like to experience homelessness or addiction. “Often times, with behavior health services or when an individual is going to treatment, they are being told what it’s like to experience addiction or mental illness from a book or a theory or a reference,” Deandre Kenyanjui from the Multnomah County Health Department Office of Consumer Engagement said. “This is people who have been there with lived experience who are going to be here in the process walking them through step by step.” (KPTV)
4. Multiple roads through the West Hills area of Portland could remain closed for several more days due to recent — and upcoming — winter weather, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Hannah Schafer with PBOT said crews have been on 24-hour schedules to remove debris from roads following Monday's unprecedented April snowstorm. The PBOT crews have also been salting the roads in case there's more winter weather to come, which could add to the amount of time the roads are closed. (KGW)
5. Frustrations are high as Portland moves closer to building six Safe Rest Villages. "I think the city is in a tough spot. There's no easy fix," said Jacob Williams, the University Park Neighborhood Association treasurer. He says people who live near the Peninsula Crossing Trail have been pushing the city for sanctioned camps for years, anything to help manage the dangerous conditions in their neighborhood. When the city announced it would build a Safe Rest Village near the trail, residents were optimistic and organized. Officials sent a list of 23 questions to Commissioner Dan Ryan's team, asking about the impacts. The last answer is the one that sounded an alarm. It was about stakeholder meetings. It is a word the city uses a lot. (KATU)

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Today in Portland:

• Come to Powell's City of Books in downtown Portland to hear author Jim Ruland discuss his book Corporate Rock Sucks. Featuring never-before-seen interviews with the label's former employees, as well as musicians, managers, producers, photographers, video directors, and label heads, Corporate Rock Sucks presents a definitive narrative history of the ’80s punk and alternative rock scenes, and shows how the music industry was changed forever. Ruland will be joined in conversation by Joshua Mohr, author of Model Citizen. The talk starts at 7:00 PM.
• Please join Willamette Women Democrats in an online event to welcome eight candidates for county offices, all very experienced in their fields of expertise. County candidates are nonpartisan and while each county is different in its organization, they have many of the same top issues to resolve. Candidates will have an opportunity to introduce themselves and present their priorities for the offices they seek. A Q&A session will follow. There is no cost to attend this event, but you must register to receive the Zoom link. 4:30 - 5:30 PM.
• Come experience the eclectic sounds of Lakim from the Soulection crew live at Fortune in downtown Portland. Featuring opening support from resident DJ Bryson Wallace, this event is going to be one for the ages. Doors open at 8:00 PM.
• See, feel, and shop Brooklyn Tweed's newest yarn in person at the Imbue Open House. Bring your yarn-loving friends! Get a sneak preview of new patterns, try on samples, and be the first to knit with this scrumptiously squishy new yarn. 6:00 - 8:00 PM.
• James Blount will be performing at Mississippi Studios in North Portland. Jake Blount is an award-winning banjoist, fiddler, singer and ethnomusicologist based in Providence, RI. He is half of the internationally touring duo Tui, a 2020 recipient of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize, and a board member of Bluegrass Pride. Joining him will be AJ Lee and Blue Summit. Tickets available online. Doors open at 7:00 PM.

From my notebook:

• 🎂 Happy birthday to Wendy Red Star, who was born #OnThisDay. Shown here, “Apsáalooke Roses” pairs the artist as a child (right) next to her daughter, Beatrice (left), both pictured wearing regalia at the same age, a nod to their intergenerational collaboration as artists and the matrilineal Crow nation. (Instagram)
• “I would not only say no light rail. I’d say no bicycles, no pedestrian super-accommodation.” That what Betsy Johnson, one of Oregon’s leading 2022 gubernatorial candidates and recipient of $1 million (so far) from Nike founder Phil Knight, told a radio show host when asked about her view on the Portland-to-Vancouver I-5 freeway expansion project. (Bike Portland)
• After 15 years studying housing policy—10 years as a journalist, the last few for a sustainability think tank—Michael Anderson has come to what might seem like an obvious conclusion: The main factor driving the rising cost of all housing in Portland is the cost of building new housing. If we want Portland homes to cost less, either to buy or rent, we need it to be less expensive to create a new home or apartment. With that in mind, he suggests five ways to meaningfully cut our housing costs, none of which require living without windows. (Willamette Week)
• Let the bells ring and the confetti fall: PIZZA WEEK IS BACK, BAY-BEE! With mask requirements lifting, it's time to start lifting some pizza... into YOUR GORGEOUS FACE! And the best pizza pie makers in Portland are ready to strut their pizza stuff! Along with their pizza-loving pals at Electric Lettuce (purveyors of great weed), the SPLIFF Film Festival (tickets on sale now!), and EverOut Portland (the greatest event calendar in the city), the Mercury is proud to present what might be their greatest Pizza Week lineup ever-one that features 26 different pizzas at 28 Portland locations, available across the city and lovingly crafted by your favorite pizza masterminds. (Portland Mercury)
• Ehow Chen was born in Taiwan, grew up in Bend from age five and has lived in Portland for over a decade. A former Yelp Elite reviewer for several years, he’s since turned his attention toward uplifting small food businesses on his Instagram page @ehow.eats. (Portland Monthly)
• Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is famously trying to remake transportation in the U.S. with self-driving cars and “hyperloop” trains. But does this potentially wondrous commuter transformation match the transit dreams from 60 years ago? Take the Levacar — please. If you were around in the early 1960s you might remember the hoopla over Ford Motor Co.’s “levitation car.” The Levacar Mach-1, This Week magazine heralded in 1961, was the “car that never touches the road.” A “frictionless cushion” of forced air kept the concept car floating just above the ground. A turbo-jet engine would push it forward. (The Oregonian)

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That's your day, folks, may it be a good one for all of you. If you want to hear more news and event in Portland, come on back tomorrow. You know where to find me.

— 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.