Welcome to Village Portland, neighborhood news & actions in East Portland.
We’re here to bridge the gap between news & civic participation… and to encourage folks get involved with their community and support their neighbors. There are a million voices fighting for your attention, but we want to help you connect with your village, your neighborhood… where your power to connect and make change is the strongest.
Explore your Village with DuckDuckGo, the search company that respects your privacy (at the DuckDuckGo link, for repeated searches leave site:https://villageportland.com/ in the search box).
Read more about how to get involved and promote your business or organization below, or you’re an organizer or writer interested in bringing a Village Portland to your neighborhood, contact Andrew Wilkins, Publisher & Editor:
It’s a bigger city than some know… and it’s easy to find ignore problems in neighborhood some have only seen on a map.
There’s been a plague of gun violence in East Portland, and in this East PDX News article, a closer look is taken at several of the most recent incidents.
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Like I said before, it’s great to connect with a new media creator, but it’s next level to meet an editor that brings a team of brilliant folks with them.
That’s the situation with Rose City Residential— a group of “ragtag team of local journalists, academics, and urban policy nerds who want to redefine what makes a home here in Portland for those who have been historically underrepresented, including low-income renters, queer folks, people of color, and the Black community.”
The inaugural article was from Julianna Robidoux, the group’s organizer. It’s about her story, and what brought her to tackle this difficult issue. Read it here.
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Though the election is on everyone’s minds, it is past time for folks to mail your ballots. You can also get a ballot printed, even on election day. Learn more here.
But you can walk it in… all libraries are a safe ballot drop-off spot.
And speaking of elections, this is just in from Jen Travis and Pandemic Duck News….
She’s super prolific and political, but here’s one that we can all get behind. Do right by your voters, or you’ll be sent home.
Viva la revolution… at the ballot box. đź—ł
She set up this peace symbol of candles in front of Portland City Hall for folks to take home. Gotta love her creative activism. Follow her @jen3taft on Twitter.
What influenced me to gather a group of radical idealists to work on creating an inclusive Portland
By JULIANNA ROBIDOUX
I believe in the radical notion that housing is a human right, and that everyone deserves a place to call home no matter their social class or background.
Since I moved to Portland in 2013, the cost of housing has increased and the impact of gentrification has spread. The socioeconomic implications of this led me to write my honors senior thesis on the experience of the Eastern African immigrant population here. All of this has led me to my current project— Rose City Residential— a media project about housing issues in Portland.
I’m a young professional from the East Coast living in Portland. I’ll admit I’m part of the reason its population has steadily increased, and as a result, so many luxury high rises and often harmful urban renewal projects fill the landscape.
Photo by Julianna Robidoux
Going door-to-door as an enumerator for the 2020 Census underscored the disparity of the quality of housing available to people based on their incomes. I’ve been to affordable housing units where absentee landlords have neglected to maintain the property for their own objectives, forcing their tenants out onto the street.
I’ve been to 26-story luxury high-rises that have so many empty units it’s truly mind-boggling how we could simultaneously have such a high houseless population.
With the defunding of Section 8 over the last several decades and recent cuts to other public housing programs— not to mention the impact of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic— affordable housing is in higher demand and less accessible than ever.
The concept of home
What comes to mind when you hear the word “home”? By definition, the term is pretty broad. Merriam-Webster offers six definitions for the noun including: “one’s place of residence”, “the social unit formed by a family living together”, “a familiar or usual setting: congenial environment”, and “a place of origin”.
For a long time the term “homeless” was used to describe anyone without an official address to call their own. Now, the more PC term is “houseless”, because, as Kimberly Hunt puts it in a blog post on the non-profit, Do Good Multnomah’s website, “ … a house is just a place. It is simply a physical space that they currently do not have”.
Having moved from my hometown to a different state with my family at the age of seven, the concept of home has always been a little ambiguous in my mind. In 2001, when my mom got a job as a night-time news reporter at a well-known newspaper in Manchester, New Hampshire, my parents packed up our minivan and drove me and my older brother Bill six hours north of our home in Levittown, Pennsylvania to start a new life.
While 320 miles might not sound far, it felt like light years away from everything I knew as a young kid. In my hometown my mom was a well-known lifestyle columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times, the local newspaper everyone had delivered to their doorsteps each morning. She was so well-known that people would often recognize her and stop us on the street to tell her how much they related to her columns. Our roots within the community of Levittown could not have gone any deeper or spread any further.
After we moved to an apartment complex in Nashua, New Hampshire my concept of home quickly readjusted from being the place where everyone I knew and loved in the world was, to the place where my immediate family was— Mom, Dad, and Bill. That first year in New Hampshire taught me how to make new friends and adapt to a new environment.
Once my parents found a house within their budget we moved to Manchester, where my mom’s job was. Whereas our apartment complex in Nashua was made up of more low-income families and immigrants, the tight-knit community we found in Manchester was one of families that go back generations. Although I found my footing once more, I never fully felt like I fit in.
As a result, most of my friends were other outsiders; that’s where I found my new home. My identity as an outsider is also where my interest in creating an inclusive community stems from.
Changing landscapes
Photo by Julianna Robidoux
After living and traveling abroad for a while post-high school, I landed in Portland. I worked as an AmeriCorps member in an elementary school in Hillsboro to gain residency in Oregon before starting college. It was during AmeriCorps that I met my friend Rahel, a fellow team member whose family came to Portland in the 1990s as refugees fleeing civil war in Ethiopia.
Rahel and I have remained friends over the years. One of her super powers is finding the hippest brunch spots that Portland has to offer. It was one sunny Sunday afternoon when we went to a particularly trendy spot on Alberta Street in Northeast Portland that stuck with me. Rahel, a former resident of the neighborhood, made a sweeping hand motion and informed me that the entire street looked completely different just a few years before.
Rahel explained that while it was difficult for her family to constantly move over the years, their experience pales in comparison to that of the Black community in Northeast Portland that has been historically redlined and displaced.
This trendy urban landscape of yoga studios and smoothie shops had caused the rent to steadily increase, pushing her family further and further out, until they finally settled in Gresham where they reside now.
Seeing firsthand how Portland has slowly transformed over the years coupled with hearing Rahel’s perspective on Portland’s ever-changing landscape was the catalyst for my focus on gentrification and displacement.
Redefining home
Is it true what they say: that home is where the heart is? Or is home simply a place where you rest your head at night? Is home a tangible place or is it more of a feeling? Is it a group of people— a so-called social unit formed by a family living together, like Merriam-Webster describes it? Or a group of friends, roommates, or the broader community within the town in which you live?
I believe a city should be designed to be a place for all to call home— longtime residents, newcomers, low-income, and high-income renters alike; immigrants and refugees, people experiencing houselessness, people with means and those without. I believe the City of Portland has failed to keep this sentiment in mind when planning and designing our urban landscape.
That’s why I’ve assembled a ragtag team of local journalists, academics, and urban policy nerds who want to redefine what makes a home here in Portland for those who have been historically underrepresented, including low-income renters, queer folks, people of color, and the Black community.
We’re looking for more writers and community members to share their housing and gentrification-related stories with us. If you have a story to share or know someone who does, please let us know! We want to amplify the various individual voices that make up our city.
I hope you follow along on our journey here at Village Portland as we publish Rose City Residential!
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Footnote: As we’re just starting out, we’re looking for socially conscious businesses to sponsor our blog. If you are a business owner or an employee at a local business and want to contribute to our project, please reach out to us!
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Julianna Robidoux is a local freelance writer based in Southeast Portland. Passionate about affordable housing and immigrant rights, she is a regular contributor to The Immigrant Story, a local nonprofit that amplifies the stories of immigrants and refugees.
Before graduating from PSU in 2019 with a major in international studies, she wrote her senior honors thesis on gentrification and displacement, focusing on the experience of the Eastern African community here.
When she’s not reporting on social justice issues, you can find her thrifting, enjoying live music or being overly competitive at bar trivia.
Raceme Farm Collective andBlack Food Sovereignty Council & Coalition organized the event that featured performances by vendors including song and drumming by 7 Waters Canoe Family and drumming by Black Futures Farm; Aztec dance by Yankuik Ohtli; a performance by Kiki House of Flora; and a music set by DJ Gila River Monster.
While the market has been a bi-weekly occurrence, happening every other Monday from 11 a.m. to 3 – p.m. throughout the summer, it will switch to monthly as the weather cools down.
The next Come Thru market will take place on November 9. at the same location.
Below are some of the vendors who were at the event along with information about their businesses:
Niedente Healing Collective
Photo by Julianna Robidoux
Tula Sabes, founder of Niedente Healing Collective, took advantage of the market to connect with the community.
According to the collective’s Instagram page, “Niedente is culture made up of African spirituality, numerology, and many other pro-black practices that benefit the wholeness of oneself.” Niedente offers customers healing sessions, crystals, reiki classes, and healing sabbaticals.
You can find her business page on Instagram @_niedente_ with a link to her online shop.
Urban Orange
Photo by Julianna Robidoux
Nichole Champion, owner of Urban Orange, shared a tent with Sabes. She said while growing up she always wanted to be a fashion designer, and was so determined she even settled on the name for her future business, Urban Orange, at the age of 12.
She made her debut at the market on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, offering hand-crocheted scrunchies, ear warmers, fingerless gloves and purses just in time for the cool fall weather.
Happiness Family Farm
Photo by Julianna Robidoux
Chanel Igiraneza and Rosata Niyonzima operated a booth for Happiness Family Farm, which boasts culturally diverse vegetables grown locally and sustainably.
They deliver produce through Masafresh.com, whose tagline is “Bringing local farmers markets to you”. They regularly operate a booth at Come Thru and the St. John’s Farmers Market.
The race to be mayor of Portland is on. Challenger Sarah Innarone is in the lead by 11 points, according to a poll by released earlier this week. If you missed the debate Thursday night between Mayor Ted Wheeler and her, you can watch it here.
The run-off for a Portand City Council seat between incumbent Chloe Eudaly and Mingus Mapps was held on Friday. Watch the replay at the Portland Tribune‘s website here.
In Oregon, you can register online. The last day to register to vote in the November 4th election is October 13.
Read about all the ballot initiatives on the November 4th ballot here.
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Fall fun is fun:
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Keep an eye out for the Montavilla Mini-Farm‘s open hours. It’s a really cool venture that brings fresh food to the city.
We did a short film on the farm a few years back, as part of our enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, community, and urban gardens:
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9TH
Live jazz:
At Montavilla’s jazz and wine hot spot, Neil Mattson & Shao Way Wu will be playing outside— and the weather looks like it will be fantastic.
Vino Veritas, 7835 SE Stark St * 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. * free
Balancing a passion for social justice and equality as well as the commitment to bring honest and unbiased stories to the public can be a challenging task.
My path to becoming a freelance journalist without experience or formal education has been quite the adventure, and has convinced me to pursue journalism as a career.
The beginning
I have been leading a double life. By day I run a small business. By night, I suit up for war-like conditions and film police and protesters going head-to-head. Juggling all of these responsibilities hasn’t been easy, but the experience has been fulfilling in ways I couldn’t have foreseen.
Getting to this point has been a truly strange and exciting journey. A fervor for equality led me to protest, but it was a thirst for knowledge and truth that led me to journalism. I started down a rabbit hole when I began filming, not knowing where or what it would lead to.
My Journey started at the end of May, after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Like many other people, I watched with horror as Floyd struggled for and lost his life on camera. I was struck by the unnecessary and brutal treatment he received as a result of institutional racism and militaristic police tactics.
I felt compelled to do something about it. This feeling grew into a burning desire to go out and protest— even though I’d never marched, chanted, or waved a sign for a cause in my life.
After a couple of weeks of daily protesting, I started to keep a video and photo journal of the events I was witnessing. More and more, I saw this documentation becoming a way to record important events occurring at the protests that weren’t getting fair representation in mainstream media.
I took a video journalism class in high school and have dabbled in photography where I have enjoyed capturing intense and beautiful moments in life. However, livestreaming was something I had never done before May 2020.
When it became apparent that people were interested in watching my live videos in June, I made it my mission to film as often as I could so viewers could see what was happening with the Portland protests.
A 30-second video of a fire doesn’t tell a complete story. Many people watching from home wanted to make up their own minds about the protests that were happening in their cities, rather than solely listen to what mainstream media was telling them. So, I equipped myself with ballistic gear and set out with my new gimbal.
A chaotic scene
My first experience with the police declaring an unlawful assembly over the LRAD (long-range acoustic device) was on June 26, 2020.
I started the night off at the Multnomah County Justice Center where arguments were happening between groups. I was trying to decide whether I should go home or not when someone in my livestream comments let me know that I was needed to document at Portland Police Bureau’s North Precinct.
It’s great to see so much momentum behind this venture that is Village Portland. So many smart, involved, big-hearted neighbors are stepping up to tell their stories. (It took a while for folks to get it, but we won’t get into that.)
Her story makes history come alive, and you can really empathize with all the hard work it took to make that church a reality. Hopefully, the hard work by Ida Thompson and church leaders inspires us all to better community service.
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Wanting to get out of town for a late-season road trip? Reggie and Paula did too… but they don’t always feel safe out in the world. The latest episode of Life in the Village:
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Outer Powell Blvd. upgrades:
Upgrades to Powell Bou between SE 122nd and SE 136th Avenues are finished, and you can visit the stations virtually here. At the link, you can also sign up for updates and learn what to do if your property is to be impacted.
The next phase will stretch from SE 99th to SE 122nd Avenues, and SE 136th Avenue to the Portland / Gresham border just east of SE 174th Avenue.
“AshMob Strolling Brass Band will appear and stroll down SE 80th from Burnside to Stark with a concert in front of Montavilla Station. No Cover charge~Tips appreciated… “
“Hey everyone, we have a big “dumpster” clean-up coming up — this means you can skip a run to the dump and save yourself some money if you have large trash / recycling items that you need to get rid of! It’s completely FREE to the community!”
Visit the link in the heading for more details.
Mt. Scott Churchm 10603 SE Henderson St. * 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. * free
“Join us this weekend for a pop up houseplant sale! 2 days of 12+ sellers. There will be plant, plant supplies, macrame and crafts. 100% outdoor. Masks required and social distancing recommendations apply.”
1816 SE Marion St. * Sat. 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. & Sun. 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4TH
Farmers markets:
Expect fall favorites as well as late summer bounty at both of these excellent farmers markets.
Learn about Montavilla Farmers Market is vendors here.
7700 block of SE Stark St * 10 am – 2 pm
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At Lents International Farmers Market you can “double up” your SNAP benefits. Read more about the market and that program here.
SE 92nd & Reedway, between Foster Rd & Harold St * 9 am – 2 pm
It seems we traded smoke for rain, and somehow lost summertime weather in the bargain. But the fall is always beautiful here, and brings new opportunities…
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Apple tasting:
The excellent apple tasting event at Portland Nursery won’t be happening this year, but you can still visit to taste apples and get 99-cent deals! Learn more here.
9000 SE Division St * September & October
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Here’s a great, inspiring comic from Pandemic Duck:
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Housing help:
On a Facebook group, a helpful neighbor in Lents pointed out this opportunity for folks in that area about long-term housing.
The Portland Housing Bureau is offering a no-interest loans of up to $40,000 for repairs, and the Down Payment Assistance Loan is designed to help, “first-time homebuyers purchase a home in Portland’s Interstate Corridor and Lents Town Center Urban Renewal Areas.”
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH
Farm fest:
Zenger Farm is having their Harvest online this year. There’ll be two events: one early for the youth and another happy hour later on.
Learn about their work, participate in seed saving, make a healing syrup, and many more activities— all to celebrate their 20 years of service to the community!
As a positive counter to a Right wing rally planned for this weekend, Brown Hope and NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon are raising money during “Black Joy Weekend” to give to Black identified Portlanders.
Read more here in the Portland Mercury, including how to participate.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH
Farmers markets:
And just like every Sunday during season, East Portland’s excellent farmers markets are open:
The Montavilla Farmers Market is every Sunday, learn more about their vendors for this week’s market here.
7700 block of SE Stark St * 10 am – 2 pm
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Lents International Farmers Market is also Sunday!
Learn more about the market here, including how to “double up” your SNAP benefits.
SE 92nd & Reedway, between Foster Rd & Harold St * 9 am – 2 pm
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Be safe out there and do your best to find your joy this weekend.
Photograph of the Montavilla Mission congregation, 1916 Source: The Sunday Oregonian, July 30, 1916 (Historic Oregon Newspapers)
I love stories. Stories are how we make sense of the world. Since I began researching Montavilla history about two years ago, I feel like the stories of this neighborhood have been revealing themselves a layer at a time, in all their diversity and complexity.
Most recently my research on Montavilla’s Black community has added yet another layer. It’s a layer so complex and so rich that it’s really several stories.
To me, it makes sense to begin with Shiloh Baptist Church, since for over 40 years it was a center of the community’s spiritual, cultural, and social life.
Before there was Shiloh Baptist in Montavilla, there was Montavilla Mission, founded in 1916. A photo and short article in The Sunday Oregonianof July 30, 1916 credits recently-license preacher, George Gardner (1880 – 1937) and Mrs. Ida “Thomas” [Thompson] (1872 – 1960) with starting this Church which met at East 79th Avenue and Stark Streets.
In the photograph above, Rev. Gardner stands proudly in the center of his flock, but it’s difficult to say which of the women might be 44-year-old Ida Thompson. The congregation around Rev. Gardner seems to be the majority of Montavilla’s Black population at the time.
It’s been a rough year so far for a lot of folks— so how about we chill out a bit with some amazing animation from our talented Village Portland contributors?
Let’s start with some rainy-day musings from Michael B (@UrbanHumanBeing on Instagram):
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More talk of rain, this time as a metaphor from your cartoon friends at Village Portland exclusive Life in the Village by Anne Cascadian (she’s just about ready to step into social media).
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Jen Taft (jen3taft on Twitter) is another talented local creator who has stepped up to work with Village Portland.
Pandemic Duck has a lot to say about just about everything happening these days, so follow her to keep up.
All these creators are further proof that making art can help keep you from quacking up during hard times. ✌️ & ❤️
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From September 10th through 30th, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Time Based Art festival is happening in person and online:
Online & various locations * Sept. 10th – 30th
“In this year— our 25th— we need to talk, share, experience, process, and open our eyes to new possibilities— to the newly possible.”
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A historical look back:
“The show consists of images of people, places and things no longer in our city. They’ve assembled 30+ new prints, including a large scale, wallpaper sized, 1956 service station tourist map of the city of Portland as it was then, and images ranging ‘from the magnificent to the mundane.'”
PushDot Gallery, 2505 SE 11th at Division St. * Sept. 4th – Oct. 30th
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH
“The Vino Veritas Live Music is back! Every Friday, throughout the month of September, we will have live music on the patio from 7:30-9:30 pm!”
Vino Veritas, 7835 SE Stark St * 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. * free
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20TH
As we found in our recent visit to the Lents International Market, farmers markets are wonderful opportunities to grow community and entrepreneurial ventures.
East PDX News published a story on the Montavilla Farmers Market recently, and found that they’ve been able to double the area of the market— making it easier to shop and social distance.
Wildfires are burning throughout Oregon, destroying property, placing about half a million residents under an evacuation warning (not evacuated as we and many outlets first reported), and inflicting heavy smoke upon us all.
Around 40,000 Oregonians have had to evacuate, Gov. Kate Brown clarified after the Oregonianquestioned that claim.
As of 1 p.m. Friday, Multnomah and Clackamas County officials say there’s no threat of evacuation to Multnomah County residents— but many in Clackamas County have evacuated, and the entire county is under a warning.
Volunteer with OVOAD here. I signed up so we’ll see what they say…
They’re also recommending a Facebook group that is offering direct support (“clothes, shelter for animals, a place to camp”), but it doesn’t seem to be administered— so be aware of that.
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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH
Unfortunately, due to the wildfires both the Lents International Market and Montavilla Farmers Market are closed today. They both made the announcement Friday.
Last week, we had beautiful weather at the Lents market for our video visit we’re calling “Lents International Market: Growing Community and Entrepreneurship”. It’s hosted by Michael B— a rad new contributor who’s talents include graphic design, radio, improv.
You can’t eat or drink it, but you can hopefully feel the community and entrepreneurial spirit we felt so strongly there. It will be up on our YouTube page tonight! Like, comment, share… and join us by hitting that subscribe button.
We hope our good time and all the wonderful entrepreneurial enterprises spotlighted brings you a bit of comfort in these rough times.
