Film, Portland Mercury 
YOUR SUNDAY READING LIST: So Much Election Shenanigans, Return of the Blood Brothers, and the Latest Inbred Dog News
By Wm. Steven Humphrey GOOD MORNING, SUNDAY! It's the perfect time to catch up on some of the great reporting and stories the Mercury churned out this week! (PRO TIP: If you despise being "the last to know," then be one of the first to know by signing up for Mercury newsletters! All the latest stories shipped directly to your email's in-box... and then... YOUR HEAD.) • County Commissioner Candidate Saw More Than $40K Funneled to Her Husband by a Board She Oversees Multnomah County Commissioner candidate Jessie Burke's vision and methods for Old Town’s rebirth have raised eyebrows. Meanwhile, the board she oversees has been accused of being hostile toward homeless service organizations. Suzette Smith • POP QUIZ PDX! Calling all brainiacs: 🤓 It's time for another super fun edition of POP QUIZ PDX! This week's trivia game includes sassy-ass Qs about VOLCANOES! STRANGE LIGHTS IN THE SKY! (And Jill Biden?) JILL BIDEN! See how well you score! 🤔 ROMOLOTAVANI / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES • What Multnomah County Voters Could Learn From Others Who Ousted Progressive DAs Fears over crime and safety can fuel election outcomes, but in cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia, where progressive DAs were ousted in favor of "tough on crime" prosecutors, research shows little evidence that DAs impacted crime rates. JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES • As Maxine Dexter Touts Progressive Values, Conservative Donors are Flooding Her Campaign Coffers With the election to determine who will take over Oregon's 3rd House District just days away, will Maxine Dexter's flood of opaque donations impact the race? GETTY IMAGES/DOUGLAS RISSING • Portland Transportation and Climate Groups Sue Over I-5 Expansion Plan Five Portland groups are suing the state's transportation department to stop its $1.9 billion plan to expand I-5 through central Portland, alleging the project is out of step with local climate and growth plans—despite the state's effort to say otherwise. ODOT • Mercury Music Picks Seattle hardcore band Blood Brothers reunite for US tour, Pickathon delivers second 2024 lineup, Babehoven headlines Polaris Hall, and more music news and picks! • Popular Music From Parenthetical Girls You may remember Zac Pennington from defunct Portland band Parenthetical Girls. With their new group, Popular Music, Pennington and Prudence Rees-Lee's recorded Minor Works which includes a 17-piece Russian chamber orchestra that was recorded via Zoom. DARREN SYLVESTER • THE TRASH REPORT Calling all trash pandas! 🦝 Line up for your weekly spoonful of garbage-y gossip with THE TRASH REPORT. This week: Jill Biden does Lake O, the latest inbred dog news, and Kelly Ripa is doing nothing but ruining everyone's day. NEILSON BARNARD / GETTY IMAGES • Laughing Matter This interview with the fascinating Laraaji might be the best thing you read today. Just some of the topics discussed: Frog puppets, laughter as medicine, being investigated by butterflies, and making music with plants. Lindsay Costello • Theater Review: Hand2Mouth's Spring Show Speaks With the Living, the Dead, and Death Spoiler alert: Everybody dies at the end of Hand2Mouth's Memento Mori. But they also die at the beginning and middle, onstage and offstage, in anticipation and in memory. That’s the point. John Rudoff • SAVAGE LOVE "I've never been able to orgasm, and my current sexual relationship stinks. So why should I continue trying?" Dan Savage and a guest expert ride to the rescue with some solid advice in this week's SAVAGE LOVE! Joe Newton WOW, THAT IS A LOT OF GOOD READIN'. I hope you didn't have any other plans this weekend! Dig in, and remember: Producing all this hard work costs moolah—so please consider contributing to the Mercury to keep it all coming! Thanks!
Portland voters have tried to get big money out of local politics for years, but it has poured into Congressional races this spring. by Abe Asher The final weeks of the campaign to replace Rep. Earl Blumeaneur in Congress have been dominated by reporting on a single issue: the millions of dollars of outside spending that have flooded in to try to stop the candidacy of former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal. The money, as The Intercept and other outlets have reported, is coming predominantly from one source: AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby that appears to have soured on Jayapal for her pro-ceasefire stance in the aftermath of the October 7 attack in Israel and subsequent assault on Gaza. With no limit on outside spending, the deluge of money spent to defeat Jayapal has been eye-popping: Jayapal’s key opponent, state representative and physician Maxine Dexter, is reportedly being backed by an outside expenditure campaign on pace to exceed $3 million by the time the primary ends on Tuesday. Dexter’s campaign raised nearly $220,000 in a single day last week, with the vast majority of those contributions coming from outside of Oregon. The outside spending, in some ways, is setting the race up as a test of how amenable Portland voters are to outside campaign interference, generally, as well as outside spending from the Israel lobby and aligned right-wing forces in particular. If Dexter wins, the consequences may be wide-ranging. “We’d never see the end of [outside spending] in races that are controversial,” Nick Caleb, an environmental attorney who has called on Dexter to condemn the outside spending, said. It’s not just the 3rd District race that has seen a flood of outside money. The Democratic primary in the 5th District, where Jamie McLeod-Skinner is facing Janelle Bynum, has seen a similar surge of spending on Bynum’s behalf from the same political action group that is supporting Dexter. McLeod-Skinner has been the beneficiary of a smaller independent expenditure as well. Local races have had their share of outside money, too. District Attorney Mike Schmidt, facing prosecutor Nathan Vasquez in his re-election bid, has received substantial backing from the Working Families Party and has also been attacked by outside spending from reactionary groups like People for Portland. This level of outside spending is antithetical to the wishes of Portland voters, who have consistently voiced their opposition to big money in politics when given the chance. The city has long used public financing to fund campaigns through its Small Donor Election program, and in 2018, Portland voters passed a measure instituting campaign finance limits by a wide margin. Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a bill limiting campaign contributions on a statewide level. But states and municipalities can’t do anything to stop independent expenditures in federal elections, and it remains to be seen whether opposition to interference from outside groups—particularly those groups who are aligned with right-wing causes—will sway voters when it comes time to fill out their ballots. John Horvick, senior vice president of DHM Research, argued that voters lack consistency on the question of outside spending—that they care deeply about the issue when it hurts candidates they support, but care less about it when it aids them. “Voters will tell us that there is too much money in politics,” Horvick said. “Voters will tell us that they want campaign spending limits. Voters will vote for campaign spending limits. But when you ask people to name all the things they care about on a candidate or an election… how much money was spent just doesn’t come up or so rarely comes up.” Caleb said he isn’t so sure. “Prior to the pandemic, I would say Portland was a place where it kind of hurt you to be seen as the big money candidate,” Caleb said. “I think that people would look at that suspiciously and oftentimes vote against candidates who have the most money in a race or were excessively wealthy.” But Caleb posited that the pandemic may have upended that paradigm—and Jason Kafoury, an attorney who works on campaign finance reform with Honest Elections Oregon, said anger about the state of the city might be upending longstanding norms around attack ads and dark money. “In any other cycle that I could think of, I think it would have a huge backfiring influence with the voters, because it’s way too nasty for Portland,” Kafoury said. “But in this particular cycle, because voters are just so sick and tired of the state of things in Portland, I'm worried that it might be effective.” Nevertheless, there are reasons to believe the dark money forces in support of Dexter are not fully comfortable with how their intervention may be perceived. One reason is that AIPAC appears to have gone an awfully long way to attempt to hide where the money it is injecting into the race is coming from. In early May, The Intercept reported that AIPAC was funneling donor funds through a political action committee called 314 Action Fund, a group ostensibly formed to support Democratic candidates with a science background, to spend in support of Dexter’s candidacy. The fund has declined to disclose its donors, though subsequent reporting from The Intercept has tied a portion of that money to AIPAC donors. Dexter issued a statement on May 3 broadly condemning an unmanned “dark money group” for airing attack ads directed at Jayapal, but has not called on 314 Action Fund to disclose its donors before Tuesday’s election, and has claimed she is unsure of where the dark money supporting her candidacy is coming from. Notably, 314 Action Fund has also spent in support of Bynum, though far less than its spending on behalf of Dexter. “It shows, I think, that AIPAC doesn’t want to be identified with that money—that they would see it as potentially limiting the impact of it,” Caleb said. Given the lack of publicly available polling of the District 3 race, it is difficult to ascertain how the deluge of outside spending has changed the trajectory of the campaign—whether advertising voters have received attacking Jayapal has hurt her campaign, or whether it may be having the opposite effect. If anything, Horvick said, the outsized spending has hurt not Jayapal, but the third major candidate in the race: Gresham City Councilor Eddy Morales. “The space is being filled up by two other people, particularly Dexter, and that leaves him with just less ability to compete for mindshare,” Horvick said of Morales. In the bigger picture, however, Horvick suggested that the people most likely to be swayed by the extent and origin of the big spending are not likely undecided voters. “It’s an issue to people who have already made up their minds,” Horvick said. “It’s an issue to people who are very highly engaged and probably have strong opinions about the candidates one way or another already.” Time will tell. AIPAC and DMFI spending has upended Democratic primaries in the past, including a 2022 race that saw Rep. Summer Lee win election to Congress in a Pittsburgh-based district and a 2021 race that saw Rep. Shontel Brown elected in a Cleveland-based district. But those districts are politically distinct from the district Blumenauer currently represents, and those campaigns were contested prior to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that has seen Israel accused of genocide at a top United Nations court. Given the extent of the spending, the 3rd District race and races elsewhere may give Portlanders the opportunity to clearly reject the presence of dark money in their elections. If the dark money boosts Dexter to victory, however, Kafoury predicts it will make an impression leading into pivotal local elections in November. “I think what you’ll see is the United for Portland, real estate, the big, more conservative Portland money will dump even bigger into the Portland city races,” Kafoury said. “If this works in the primary, then they will do that in the general. Big time.”
This Week In Portland Food News
Two New Cafes Open, A Fire Destroys Fifty Licks, and Bambuza Says Goodbye by EverOut Staff This week brings an influx of caffeine in the form of the new coffee shops Lux Coffee Lounge and Stem Cafe. Read up on that and more of the latest culinary updates, including where to find brisket-topped pizza this weekend and how to support Fifty Licks after a recent fire. For more ideas, check out our food and drink guide. NEW OPENINGS AND RETURNS Lux Coffee LoungeBridgetown Bites reports that co-owners Samir Abdul and Olesya Palamanchuk recently opened this elegant-looking coffee shop on SE Division Street, serving a selection of tea, espresso, pastries, sandwiches, crêpes, toast, and more.Hazelwood
As Maxine Dexter Touts Progressive Values, Conservative Donors are Flooding Her Campaign Coffers
With the election to determine who will take over Oregon's 3rd House District just days away, will Maxine Dexter's flood of opaque donations impact the race? by Taylor Griggs Kevin Foster contributed to this story. Over the past two weeks, it’s become clear that Maxine Dexter’s campaign to represent Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District in the United States House has been the beneficiary of millions in donations from political action committees (PACs) with unknown contributors. Dexter’s campaign has also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent contributions from individual, out-of-state donors—many of whom have donated to Republican candidates and pro-Israel groups in the past. Millions in PAC money has gone toward mailer ads attacking Susheela Jayapal, Dexter’s top opponent in the race. Jayapal and Eddy Morales, another candidate in the race, have both spoken out strongly against the recent flood of donations. Jayapal and Morales—along with dozens of Portland voters—say Dexter hasn’t condemned the dark money spending strongly enough. Maxine Dexter, Susheela Jayapal, and Eddy Morales are all running for the 3rd Congressional District. photos from campaigns While Dexter has continued to tout her progressive stances, opponents have also suggested that the wave of donations—and even more, who they originate from—show she is more conservative than she lets on. They also worry if Dexter wins, dark money PACs and conservative groups would feel more comfortable getting involved in Portland races in the future. The influx of last-minute, outside spending has changed the dynamics of the race in a firmly blue district where voters aren’t used to this kind of national attention and money. But with the election only days away, it remains to be seen how voters will respond to the news. Shady donors Last week, the Mercury reported on claims that the super PAC 314 Action Fund—a mega-donor to Dexter’s campaign—has been serving as a front for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to get involved in the race for Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District. The fund, formed in 2016 to help elect “pro-science” Democrats to public office, is one of two super PACs contributing to the 3rd District race. The other group, Voters for Responsive Government (VRG), is much newer and more opaque, having only formed in April. As of May 16, 314 Action has contributed $2,212,990 to Dexter’s campaign. VRG has spent $2,407,665 exclusively targeting Jayapal. A May 3 story in the Intercept first connected 314 Action with AIPAC, based primarily on testimony from two anonymous Democrats in Congress. In a follow-up story in the Intercept, an anonymous 314 staffer said the PAC has “turned its back on science in order to be used as a weapon against progressives by Zionists.” The 314 PAC cast doubt on the outlet’s sources, writing in a social media post that the stories were made up “out of thin air.” The PAC says their connection to Dexter is clear: She’s a doctor, and they’ve supported her since she first ran for the Oregon legislature in 2020. In fact, Dexter said in a May 3 KGW debate that 314 “recruited her” to run for the Oregon House four years ago. The science background of other candidates 314 has endorsed in this election cycle, however, is more tenuous. For example, 314 has spent $473,514 on Janelle Bynum’s campaign in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District. Bynum has an engineering background, but received a Master’s in Business Administration and calls herself a “small business owner.” Jayapal and Morales say Dexter’s campaign has been the recipient of millions of dollars from “MAGA Republicans,” suggesting 314 Action and VRG are funded by far-right donors. Dexter’s campaign has firmly refuted this, saying Jayapal and Morales’s “attacks fall apart at the first hint of scrutiny.” Dexter’s campaign has also called Jayapal and Morales “hypocritical” for their condemnation of the dark money donations, considering they have also accepted PAC money. But PAC contributions to their campaigns have been much less significant in comparison: Jayapal received $150,000 in donations from the Indian American Impact Fund, and Morales received $58,500 from the National Association of Realtors, which has given mostly to Republican candidates during the current election cycle. The super PACs aren’t required to reveal their recent donors until Monday—the day before the May 21 election—so the political affiliation of the PAC donors is currently unknown. However, campaign finance documents show Dexter’s campaign has received thousands in individual contributions from people who have also donated to pro-Israel PACs including AIPAC, Republican politicians including Nikki Haley and Ted Cruz, or both. Larry Mizel, a Denver-based business executive and philanthropist, contributed $3,300 (the maximum donation) to Dexter’s campaign during a single-day fundraising spree on May 7. That day, Mizel's campaign raked in more than $200,000—almost half of which was donated by people who have previously given to AIPAC or other pro-Israel PACs. Mizel, a longtime Republican big spender, was a campaign finance chair for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, and donated hundreds of thousands toward Trump’s campaign in both 2016 and 2020. In a statement to the Mercury, Jayapal’s campaign manager, Andrea Cervone, spoke out against the conservative donors. "We now know based on Maxine’s own FEC reports that she has been accepting money from the same people who have given millions of dollars to the likes of Donald Trump, Tom Cotton, Ted Cruz, Mike Johnson, Mitch McConnell and even George Santos,” Cervone wrote. “These donors and the agendas they support, agendas that are anti-choice, anti-LGBTQIA+, and anti-climate, are in complete contrast to the progressive values of Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, and what [current District 3 representative] Earl Blumenauer has embodied.” Dexter has been a proponent of abortion access, LGBTQ+ rights, strong climate action, and more liberal causes—which doesn’t seem to make her the ideal candidate for major rightwing donors to support. While Jayapal has been more outspoken than any other candidate about her stance on Israel’s war in Gaza, calling for a cease-fire back in November, Dexter’s message hasn’t been too far off. At the very least, she hasn’t publicly expressed the kind of gung-ho support for Israel you might expect from someone receiving this much money from AIPAC-aligned donors. “I urgently want to see an end to the fighting and achieve long-term peace in Israel and Gaza through a negotiated cease-fire that ensures: (1) an end to the violence, (2) the immediate release of the remaining hostages, and (3) the immediate delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid, including food, water and medicine into Gaza,” Dexter told the Mercury in April, responding to our endorsement questionnaire. “U.S. aid, by law, is tied to strict humanitarian requirements and I would call on President Biden to ensure U.S. law is followed to the letter.” Dexter was endorsed by advocacy and lobbying group Pro-Israel America, which said she “believes Israel has a right to defend itself, by itself,” is “against the [boycott, divest, sanction] movement,” and “feels Iran poses an existential threat to Israel and a direct threat to America’s national security.” But it’s unclear where—or if—Dexter made statements confirming those beliefs. "Who is going to represent us?" Dexter has spoken in favor of campaign finance reform, including after the flood of dark money spending was revealed. Dexter said she didn’t solicit the PAC donations and in the KGW debate, she said she “wasn’t condoning” the wave of dark money donations. She also said she wants to “take care of campaign finance reform…[and] change the laws.” While voters have called on her to more strongly denounce the donations, Dexter’s campaign has kept its focus on her political credentials. “Maxine Dexter is the only progressive in this race who has actually worked with others and delivered on our values,” Nathan Clark, Dexter’s campaign manager, wrote in a statement to the Mercury. “Maxine is immensely proud of the broad and diverse coalition of progressive support that is powering her campaign, including Oregon labor unions, gun violence prevention advocates, and dozens of Democratic elected leaders who know that in Congress, Maxine will work with others to actually improve lives.” On Wednesday, the Dexter campaign released a “state of the race” report outlining how “Maxine Dexter is the strongest candidate in the race.” One of the metrics the report cited was fundraising numbers—Dexter’s campaign raised “more than what her two closest opponents…reported raising combined.” Her opponents haven’t disputed Dexter’s strong fundraising numbers—they just say it comes with baggage. “The most important issue is that this district election is being bought by two outside dark money groups. Democratic voters in this district need to be aware of that. It’s misleading, it’s cynical, and it flies in the face of Democracy,” Morales said during the KGW debate. “This election should be decided by [people in the district]...not by rich people who are connected and know how to use these vehicles.” Several of Dexter’s congressional colleagues also wrote a letter in support of her, saying they “refuse to stand by and allow…Dexter’s integrity and rock-solid progressive values to be questioned,” adding that “the idea that she would ever do the bidding of any group or special interest is offensive and wrong.” “We have all worked directly with Dr. Maxine Dexter. We know she is a person of enormous integrity. She is an effective advocate for this community and always will be. We’ve seen firsthand how Maxine looks at the science, dives into the facts, and works with others to get things done,” the letter states. “We condemn these attacks on her character and we are proud to stand together to vouch for her integrity.” But for those concerned about the impact of outside spending on elections, none of these statements are enough. Voters are concerned that if Dexter wins, similar spending campaigns will become the norm in Portland. Jonathan Tasini, a long-time political strategist who is currently running for Portland City Council, told the Mercury he believes the “connection to the AIPAC money really raises the question: Who is going to represent us?” “What are the politics going to look like for the next 20 or 30 years?” Tasini said. “I don’t want the influence of that kind of money with that kind of political bent [in this seat.]” Whoever wins Tuesday’s Democratic primary will effectively win the general election for the US House seat, considering how liberal the district is. The super PACs, 314 Action and VRG, are required to disclose their donors by Monday.
The Top Six Mercury Stories to Read Before Filling Out Your Ballot!
Election Day is this Tuesday, May 21—want to stop the conservative wave trying to hijack local and state races? We've got information you need to know. by Wm. Steven Humphrey If you haven't filled out your ballot for Oregon's May primary election, be an informed voter and read these revealing articles from the Mercury! (There are definitely some shenanigans going on. 👀) Don't forget, your ballot must be dropped off or postmarked by this coming Tuesday, May 21. • What Multnomah County Voters Could Learn From Others Who Ousted Progressive DAs One of the spiciest campaigns is the battle for Multnomah County District Attorney between current DA Mike Schmidt and his "tough on crime" opponent, Nathan Vasquez. And while voters’ fears over crime and safety often fuel election outcomes, evidence shows prosecutors have little impact on crime rates. Our Abe Asher reports! Justin Sullivan / Getty Images • County Commissioner Candidate Saw More Than $40K Funneled to Her Husband by a Board She Oversees Jessie Burke, the hotel owner and current Multnomah County commissioner candidate, also chairs the Old Town Community Association board. In 2023, several OTCA project contracts were awarded to her husband by the OTCA board, which they both serve on—a pretty clear conflict of interest. And while Burke has also been calling for more homeless shelters during her run for commissioner, public records show that she has actively tried to push shelters and support services out of the Old Town neighborhood. Our Courtney Vaughn has the scoop. Suzette Smith • As Maxine Dexter Touts Progressive Values, Conservative Donors are Flooding Her Campaign Coffers With the election just days away, Oregon U.S. House candidate Maxine Dexter wants to be seen as the top progressive in the race. But as the money keeps rolling in from dark money PACs and conservative, pro-Israel donors, some voters are wary. GETTY IMAGES/DOUGLAS RISSING • Frustrated with Biden’s Stance on Gaza, Activists Want Voters to Write “Uncommitted” on Their Ballots Thinking about writing "uncommitted" on your ballot to show President Biden your displeasure for his support of Israel's mass murder of 35,000 Palestinians? We get it! However, before you do, read this article from Kevin Foster who explains why your "uncommitted" vote may not work the way you intend. MOTOYA NAKAMURA/MULTNOMAH COUNTY • The Mercury's Endorsements for the May 2024 Primary Election! Having trouble figuring out who and what to vote for in our upcoming election? The Mercury has done the research for you with our thoughtful and smart election endorsements. Check 'em out, and be a well-informed voter! Michelle Murk • Your Handy-Dandy Mercury Voter Cheat Sheet! No time to read our excellent endorsements? Grab your ballot and consult our quick 'n' easy voter cheat sheet... you'll be finished and ready to drop off your ballot in no time! Mercury staff
The Best Bang for Your Buck Events in Portland This Weekend: May 17–19, 2024
GNARFEST, Vanport Mosaic Festival, and More Cheap & Easy Events Under $15 by EverOut Staff The weekend is calling with low-key, high-fun events from Gnarly's vegan market GNARFEST to The 9th Vanport Mosaic Festival and from East Portland Sunday Parkways to Lake Oswego's AANHPI Heritage Month Celebration. For more ideas, check out our guide to the top events of the week. FRIDAY COMEDY A RetrospectionClaire Woolner's tragicomic clown confessional is the most surreal performance you'll catch this week (or, like, maybe ever). Woolner's blend of absurdist comedy and improvised clowning plumbs the depths of "ego battle, failure, creativity, and how to survive"—you know, all the important stuff! A Retrospective also swept last year's Hollywood Fringe Festival, winning Top of the Fringe and numerous other awards. If you're not convinced, consider this quote from the New York Times: “Ultimately, her absurdism answers one question: What if the performance artist Marina Abramovic were a clown?” LINDSAY COSTELLO (Kickstand Comedy, Ladd's Addition, $15)
Good Morning, News: Data Suggests District Attorney Changes Do Not Impact Crime, How Jessie Burke Pocketed Public Funds, and a Taco Stand in Mexico Awarded Michelin Star
By Suzette Smith The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! Good Morning, Blood Brothers fans... and (okay) Portland! As we wrote yesterday in Mercury Music Picks, the '00s hardcore band the Blood Brothers announced this week that they're reuniting for a US tour. Therefore this morning's morning news blast will be interspersed with images of opossums—there is no correlation; I just felt like it. IN LOCAL NEWS:• Guess who has two thumbs and got a notification this morning that their ballot was accepted by Multnomah County Elections? This guy. CANCEL ME OUT, MOTHER FUCKERS. Or join me in the founding principle of our nation that is democratic voting. Read the Mercury's May 2024 endorsements here. • Also in ELECTION SPICE, Multnomah County voters will elect a district attorney next week, in what turned out to be a surprisingly spicy race during the May primary. Veteran prosecutor Nathan Vasquez is challenging his boss, current DA Mike Schmidt, for the job. Vasquez is wooing voters with claims about rising crime, a lack of prosecutions and other generalized scary things he blames Schmidt for. But in other counties and cities, data shows a change in DA had little to no impact on crime rates. Abe Asher explains more in his latest piece for the Mercury. • Continuing the ELECTION Scoville scale coverage, the vision and methods of Society Hotel owner Jessie Burke have raised eyebrows in recent years. Now she's defending lucrative contracts awarded to her husband by a community organization they both oversee. News editor Courtney Vaughn has more. Burke says she & (husband) Cohen recused themselves from voting to award project mgmt contracts to Cohen. When asked about criticism that Old Town Comm Assoc. works against homeless service orgs, Burke says it's not true-OTCA helps buy bus tickets for unhoused ppl to leave PDX. https://t.co/5AzEB08yxz — Courtney Vaughn (@C__Vaughn) May 17, 2024 • OPOSSUM BREAK pic.twitter.com/d0WzZf9l5p — Possumeveryhour.io (@PossumEveryHour) May 16, 2024 • Don't forget to take this week's news quiz! It's funny (and guaranteed to make the worst people furious). View this post on Instagram A post shared by Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury) • The Friday morning ticket drop is upon us. Are any shows coming to Portland in the upcoming weeks and months worth their weight in biscuits? Our hardworking calendar team has compiled a list so that you and I may judge them... and be advised of shows we want to see. That too. This week: Aminé's The Best Day Ever Fest, Childish Gambino's New World tour, and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars liiiiiive. • MORE OPPPOSSUM pic.twitter.com/lgI7Jc8tBz — Possumeveryhour.io (@PossumEveryHour) May 16, 2024 IN NATIONAL /INTERNATIONAL NEWS:• The New York Times reports that following the Jan 6 riot at the US capitol in 2021, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito appeared to put up a symbol of support in his front yard—an upside-down US flag. Images show the flag aloft on January 17, 2021. And while various judicial experts have said this is a clear violation of ethics rules, Alito defends, it was the doing of the missus. “It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs,” he told the Times. • This week we've seen a number of unsettling advances by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. The Times reports that, in response, Ukraine is striking back at their invaders with more force, using drones to target energy facilities, like "fuel depots, oil facilities, and a power station." Ukraine's parliament and president also changed the country's laws to allow some incarcerated convicts to serve in the military. The Times also notes: "The measure echoes a practice that Russia has widely used to bolster its forces and that Ukraine ridiculed at the beginning of the war." • The world's "No. 1 golfer," Scottie Scheffler (I already do not care about him) was arrested this morning while trying to drive around traffic caused by a fatal car crash. From @TheAthletic: The PGA Tour has published a statement on Scottie Scheffler's behalf following the extraordinary events of this morning, during which the world No. 1 golfer was arrested on his way to the Valhalla course in Louisville, Kentucky. https://t.co/tPCapIAeQc pic.twitter.com/chrwd6xCIQ — The New York Times (@nytimes) May 17, 2024 • MARRY ME TO THIS OPPOSSSUM pic.twitter.com/HEDyyQqvdz — Possumeveryhour.io (@PossumEveryHour) May 16, 2024 • I don't really give a rip about Michelin stars (watch this statement come back to haunt me—BUT I DON'T), but I do like food carts. So it is of interest that a taco stand in the San Rafael neighborhood of Mexico City—El Califa de León—was just awarded the very first Michelin star ever awarded to a Mexican taco stand. To be clear, this isn't the first food cart awarded such a distinction; that was Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle in Singapore, in 2016, who have since lost their star. Attention like this seems difficult for businesses (as anyone who has participated in Burger Week can relate with), and we wish El Califa de León fortitude in the days ahead. Also very likable in this story, Associated Press reports: "Though Michelin representatives came by Wednesday to present [chef Arturo Rivera Martínez] with one of the company’s heavy, full-sleeved, pristine white chef’s jackets, he didn’t put it on [because he was too busy searing meat for tacos]." A real one. • In closing, I am on this graph (middle). Thinking about the best diagram of all time pic.twitter.com/E2uc4ogawI — Peli Grietzer (@peligrietzer) May 16, 2024 • IN CLOSING AGAIN OPPOSSSUMS pic.twitter.com/72sMbkuPyG — Possumeveryhour.io (@PossumEveryHour) May 16, 2024
What Multnomah County Voters Could Learn From Others Who Ousted Progressive DAs
Voters’ fears over crime and safety often fuel election outcomes. Evidence shows prosecutors have little impact on crime rates. by Abe Asher When Mike Schmidt was elected as Multnomah County District Attorney in 2020, it was in a landslide: Schmidt won with more than 76 percent of the vote, promising in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic to revamp the county’s approach to criminal justice. Schmidt’s election didn’t happen in a vacuum. It came instead as part of a wave of progressive, reform-minded prosecutors who were elected in urban counties across the country with pledges to overhaul their jurisdiction’s approach to criminal justice. Larry Krasner, who was elected district attorney in Philadelphia in 2017, was the first progressive district attorney to make national headlines. But the most prominent member of the movement was likely Chesa Boudin, the son of two formerly incarcerated Weather Underground members who was narrowly elected DA in San Francisco two years later. Now, with Schmidt facing an uphill battle in his reelection campaign against veteran Multnomah County prosecutor Nathan Vasquez, Boudin’s tenure—and what has happened in San Francisco since it ended—may prove instructive for Multnomah County voters. Boudin, like Schmidt, came into office promising to shake up the status quo—eliminating cash bail, restricting pretrial detention, holding police accountable, and establishing an innocence commission within the DA’s office to evaluate potential wrongful convictions. But Boudin’s time in office was shaped most significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic, which arrived less than a year into his term and exacerbated the rampant economic inequality contributing to San Francisco’s most visible issues: homelessness, property crime, and open air drug use. As the city suffered in 2020, a group of its most powerful forces worked to blame the chaos not on the global health crisis or systemic inequality and housing issues, but on Boudin himself. The result was that, just two and a half years into his term, Boudin was recalled by 55 percent of San Francisco voters in June of 2022. The result of the recall election was no surprise: Boudin never led in a single poll of the race and was outspent by a margin of more than two-to-one. His replacement at the helm of the DA’s office was Brooke Jenkins, a prosecutor who resigned from her job in the office to become one of the faces of the recall campaign. Jenkins, promising a return to tough-on-crime policies, wasted little time in shaking up the office. She began her tenure by firing 15 attorneys as well as a number of Boudin’s top advisors and reinstating the use of gang enhancements, prosecuting minors as adults, and refusing to try accused drug dealers in community court. Jenkins also, controversially, dropped a groundbreaking manslaughter prosecution of a police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Black man named Keith O’Neil in 2017. Boudin’s decision to charge the officer marked the first time San Francisco had ever charged a police officer for killing someone while on duty; Jenkins was later accused of lying to protect him. A year following the recall, Jenkins’ approach was not paying any noticeable dividends: violent crime in San Francisco had increased along with arrests and convictions. This was also no surprise to people who study the crime rate, who have long said that the policies of any given DA have no significant effect on the crime rate—a rate instead linked to a number of interwoven factors, including economic factors, police performance, and more. Crime in San Francisco has since fallen, though public perception has been slower to change. “There’s really not a lot of evidence—maybe not any evidence that I can think of from the social science literature—that shows any kind of reliable or strong relationship between the policies of a DA, whether [they’re] anti-carceral or traditional lock-‘em-up, law and order” Jonathan Simon, a professor at the Berkeley School of Law said, referring to a DA's impact on crime rates. That’s true in general, Simon said, but it’s even more true where it concerns the kinds of crime that have been most visible in West Coast cities like Portland and San Francisco since the onset of the pandemic. “The kinds of things that are really irritating people, like open-air drug use, low-level property crimes, break-ins to cars, are even further down the food chain of the kinds of things that might be easily changed or affected by DA policies because DAs are typically seeing people who are coming in for more serious crimes,” Simon said. A 2021 study of the progressive prosecutors’ reform efforts back Simon’s assertion, finding “no significant effects of these reforms on local crime rates.” The study did not look at the effects of possible police work slowdowns in response to reform policies. But generally, Simon and other experts have cautioned that it can be difficult to make sense of year-over-year changes in the crime rate no matter what kind of policy approach is coming out of the district attorney’s office. That has not, however, been the tone of the election in Multnomah County. “Vasquez is trying to make this a referendum on Mike Schmidt’s tenure, really trying to make it a referendum on people's perceptions of crime, drug use, homelessness, Measure 110,” John Horvick, the senior vice president of DHM Research, said. “The Vasquez campaign and supporting groups are saying, ‘I want you to think about all these things you don’t like, and I want you to think about Mike Schmidt.’” Vasquez has had plenty of help getting that message across from groups like People for Portland, and a poll commissioned by The Oregonian/OregonLive published at the beginning of May, just as voters were receiving their ballots, suggests it may be getting through. The poll, though it only included about 300 voters, showed Vasquez holding a substantial lead over Schmidt, with a large number of voters undecided. In addition to their preference for district attorney, pollsters also asked voters what their biggest issues heading into the election were—and those numbers presented a clear picture of the core of Vasquez’s support. “People who said crime and drugs were their biggest issues… overwhelmingly supported Vasquez,” Horvick said. Whether those issues alone can swing the election remains to be seen. Boudin, who now works as the executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at the University of California, Berkeley, has cautioned against using his recall election as a barometer for the Multnomah County race—telling OPB earlier this month that “a recall in San Francisco is a terrible proxy for any normal, general head-to-head election.” One thing that Schmidt has that Boudin didn’t is an opponent—and Schmidt’s campaign, boosted by substantial help from the Working Families Party, has tried to shift the terms of the debate in recent weeks: casting Vasquez, who was formerly a registered Republican, as sympathetic to Donald Trump and politically unacceptable to Multnomah County voters. Horvick said Schmidt has a viable path to victory, but if he is ultimately defeated, his demise may spell trouble for other progressive prosecutors who are being, in Simon’s words, cast as “the addressee with an unhappiness for the general state of disorder.” In Alameda County, across the Bay from San Francisco, reform DA Pamela Price is herself facing a well-financed recall effort later this year. There, criticism of Price has also focused in large parts on crime. But if voters there or in Multnomah County are making their voting decision because they feel a more carceral approach in the DA’s office will reduce crime, they are likely going to be disappointed. “They may feel better to know that there is a crackdown of sorts going on,” Simon said. “Is it likely to change the actual trendlines in especially serious crime? Again, no evidence to support that.”
10 Places To Eat Rhubarb in Portland Right Now
Pie, Doughnuts, and More by EverOut Staff Rhubarb, also known as the "pie plant," is a quintessentially Northwest ingredient and a harbinger of spring. It also holds a special place in my heart—it grew wild near my childhood home, and I love it so much I even named my cat after it. Here's where to get your fill of the blush-pink, sweet-tart stalks this season, from cake to pie to doughnuts. Note: Availability may vary. We recommend calling ahead to check to ensure specials are still available—or just take your chances and accept the fact that you may end up with an equally delicious, non-rhubarb option. BakeshopPastry chef Kim Boyce's whole-grain bakery currently features adorably diminutive rhubarb hand pies on its spring menu.Rose City Park
County Commissioner Candidate Saw More Than $40K Funneled to Her Husband by a Board She Oversees
Jessie Burke's vision and methods for Old Town’s rebirth have raised eyebrows. Meanwhile, her group has been accused of being hostile toward homeless service organizations. by Courtney Vaughn A candidate running for the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners is defending lucrative contracts awarded to her husband by a community organization they both oversee. Jessie Burke, owner of the Society Hotel in downtown Portland, and previously Posies Café in North Portland, is a Multnomah County Commissioner candidate, as well as the board chair of the Old Town Community Association (OTCA). Her husband, Jonathan Cohen, serves as the treasurer for OTCA’s board. Last February, the OTCA board voted to award several project management contracts to Cohen and his property development company, Equity Development Labs, to oversee more than $1.2 million in Old Town public improvement projects. Burke is a co-founder of Equity Development Labs, and is registered as a member on state business filings. Cohen was chosen to oversee and hire contractors for the restoration of the Chinatown Gate, the installation of decorative lanterns and lights, a road repair project, and early construction phases of a forthcoming Steel Bridge skatepark. In addition to managing the public improvement projects, Cohen’s company was also tapped to disburse $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds on behalf of OTCA. The federal ARPA funds were granted to OTCA by the city, and were earmarked for security and improvement projects around Old Town. The money was doled out to local businesses and property owners in the form of grants for security gates, security glass on storefronts, and resin tree wells to discourage littering and prevent erosion. Cohen was hired by the board he sits on to handle the grant applications and distribution of funds to each business. Recruitment for each of the project management gigs wasn't widely publicized. Aside from the job search site Indeed, the only other solicitation notices appeared on OTCA’s own website and newsletter. The board received just two bids, one of which was from Cohen. He was later chosen to oversee each project. For his services, Cohen was paid somewhere between $43,000 to nearly $52,000, based on advertised project scopes and payment scales. Whether the community association should’ve awarded monetary contracts to one of its own board members is raising ethics concerns. When asked whether the arrangement presents a conflict of interest, Burke says Cohen didn’t participate in the board’s decision to award him the grant management contracts. Neither did she. “Our board voted to acknowledge the conflict,” Burke told the Mercury. “[Vice chair] Scott Kerman facilitated the process and [my husband] Jonathan Cohen did not participate in the discussion or the vote. He left the meeting for the board to discuss freely. With only two applicants, and Jonathan being the only applicant with contracting and construction project management experience, Jonathan was awarded the contract.” While it’s not against the law for a nonprofit organization to award contracts to one of its own board members, nonprofit legal experts warn that a perceived conflict of interest can “jeopardize the organization’s reputation and diminish public trust in the organization” writes Gene Takagi, an attorney with NEO Law Group, in a blog post about nonprofit law. City Commissioner Mingus Mapps, whose office awarded OTCA the $500,000 in 2022, did not respond to a request for comment. The Mercury contacted six Old Town businesses and organizations, some of which are OTCA members. While a few said they aren’t actively involved with OTCA and weren’t aware of the association’s recent projects, others declined to speak on the record, but registered concern over the contract arrangements. Kat Mahoney is the executive director of Sisters of the Road, one of several nonprofits serving Portland’s houseless community from Old Town. Mahoney says the way OTCA awarded the contracts sends up red flags. “I would worry that that is going to be a conflict of interest and falls under self-dealing,” Mahoney says, but for Sisters of the Road, the concern is less about board votes, and more about board dynamics. “I don't mind if you and your partner are going to be part of a neighborhood association, that’s not my concern,” Mahoney continues. “My concern is who is represented in decision making, who gets a seat at the table, and who’s not being represented.” Old Town has been a hub of basic services and resources for Portland’s unhoused population for decades. But in recent years, some groups say they’re feeling the pressure of OTCA’s vision for Old Town, which feels increasingly business-oriented and less friendly to groups that neither encourage nor profit from tourism (such as Burke’s Society Hotel) or draw shoppers and diners to Old Town. Staff at one nonprofit say the OTCA atmosphere feels less than welcoming. Others say they’ve found OTCA leadership to be “openly hostile” toward homeless service organizations. Ground Score Association, an organization that connects low-income and unhoused people with job opportunities doing urban gleaning, recycling, and waste management, says they haven’t found a warm reception at OTCA. “Because many of our workers come from homelessness, we get the cold shoulder,”says Nic Boehm, operations manager at Ground Score. It’s one of the reasons Ground Score isn’t heavily involved in OTCA. “Our interest is just in making sure we're a good neighbor and we’re in good communication,” Boehm says. Burke pushes back on the notion that OTCA isn’t friendly to service providers. “My guess is this is less of an objective statement, and more of a personal sentiment,” Burke says. She notes OTCA’s board includes Scott Kermen, who runs Blanchet House, and Mary-Rain O’Meara from Central City Concern—both longstanding organizations serving Portland’s poor and unhoused. OTCA also partners with other nonprofit providers. “We have a working relationship with Union Gospel Mission, who splits the cost [with OTCA for] bus tickets for unhoused individuals who want to leave Portland,” Burke notes. “Portland Rescue Mission is one of our biggest supporters, City Team is looking to move to the neighborhood and we have a great working relationship.” However, on at least two occasions, Burke and OTCA tried to prevent service organizations from staying or locating in Old Town. Records show Burke decried a plan for the Joint Office of Homeless Services to buy a building in Old Town for use as a shelter. The plan came not long after a temporary shelter–a converted former Greyhound bus station–closed after a few years of operation. In an email to city and county leaders, Burke said Old Town is oversaturated with homeless organizations that threaten the livelihood of businesses and the neighborhood overall. “This [Greyhound shelter] was always intended to be temporary, and it is not Old Town's responsibility to carry a disproportionate burden for the City and County in this crisis,” Burke wrote. She included a map of Old Town showing more than two dozen social service agencies within the neighborhood’s 68-square-block radius. “This is absolutely untenable for us, and we have no way to ever create a healthy ecosystem of a neighborhood if the government is actively working against us,” Burke added, suggesting the city develop a neighborhood grading system based on each area’s mix of affordable housing, market rate housing, retail, office space, restaurants, and other criteria. Burke’s letter got support from Commissioner Dan Ryan and his staff, as well as John Bishop, the president and CEO of Pendleton Woolen Mills. “For many years Old Town has been a place for very low-income residents, often retired. I don’t advocate displacing them,” Bishop wrote to the city, echoing Burke’s concerns. “Adding a JOHS facility will do that. Pendleton’s employees feel unsafe in our neighborhood and they are not nearly as vulnerable as the longtime residents.” Bishop said Pendleton would lose employees at its Old Town offices if the JOHS shelter went in, threatening, “disagreeable alternatives” the company would have to consider. On another occasion, Mahoney says Sisters of the Road (SOR) also experienced pushback from Burke and other local groups when she was negotiating the purchase of the House of Louie building in Old Town as new headquarters for the nonprofit. Mahoney and her staff were told Chinese cultural groups were interested in the purchase, in an ongoing effort to “buy back” Chinatown property and maintain its cultural identity. “Frankly, many cultural communities, including the Chinese community, were disheartened that SOR purchased the building, even though SOR was informed that the Chinese community is actively trying to buy back Chinatown property,” Neil Lee, president of the Oregon Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, wrote in an email to Mahoney and others. Sisters of the Road staff told Lee and several others on the email thread that House of Louie sat empty for several years, with no other interested parties looking to buy it. “We hear your concerns about the gentrification of Chinatown and that House of Louie feels like yet another loss for the region's cultural identity. If we heard that there was an offer from a member of the community, we would not have made an offer on behalf of Sisters. However, the fact is, Sisters also has a long history in this region. We've been just two blocks away for over 40 years,” Mahoney and SOTR board members replied in the email. “We, too, want our neighborhood to thrive. However, we want to push back on the implication that houseless people and those of us who serve them cause instability. This narrative is rooted in stigma against poor people and a big mission of our organization is to make sure the unhoused community is treated with the same humanity and dignity given to the rest of society. “ OTCA plays a substantial role in Old Town, an area brimming with cultural history, but one that’s also been among Portland’s most distressed neighborhoods. Since 2021, the association has received funding from the city to oversee a Chinatown gate repair project, a street lantern project, and is poised to take a key role in the development of the Steel Bridge Skatepark. Since opening the Society Hotel in 2015, Burke has been an advocate for reinvigorating Old Town with new businesses, market-rate housing, and cultural landmarks. After the pandemic ravaged local businesses and left a lasting impact on downtown Portland, Burke became vocal about the city’s need for more immediate action to address homelessness, crime, and squalid conditions that have plagued some pockets of downtown–particularly Old Town. Through her leadership position at OTCA and role as a hotel owner, she’s played an outsized role in Old Town’s transformation. The sentiment among some Old Town nonprofits is that Burke and OTCA want to see fewer unhoused people and service organizations in Old Town, and more shopping, tourism, and dining, which would benefit the Society Hotel and other businesses. “People who are poor have been in this neighborhood for a long time, and rather than trying to erase them, people should be lifting up their knowledge,” says Kaia Sand, executive director of Street Roots, a nonprofit newspaper sold directly to readers by unhoused Portlanders. Burke says she’s just trying to strike a balance in the neighborhood. “While Old Town has housed a concentration of social service agencies for the last few decades, it was originally Portland's downtown, and later Japantown, and eventually included New Chinatown,” Burke notes. “It remains Portland's Japantown and New Chinatown, and so while some social service agencies want the community to accept that Old Town is just for social services, what I have asked of everyone is that we aspire to be a balanced community where everyone can serve their customers and community.” Burke’s bid for county office has largely been built on her criticism of Multnomah County’s current governance, particularly around homelessness, addiction services, and housing. She advocates for more accountability for money spent on services, and a “dramatic increase” in available homeless shelters, despite her recent opposition to new shelters in Old Town. This story has been corrected to note that Burke no longer owns Posies Café. Her ownership tenure ended in 2020.
Mercury Music Picks: Seattle Hardcore Band Blood Brothers Reunite for US Tour
Pickathon delivers second 2024 lineup, Babehoven headlines Polaris Hall by Suzette Smith The shows rolling towards Portland right now are massive, and Mercury Music Picks is abristlin' with excitement to tell you about them. We've got picks kicking off as soon as tomorrow and a jaw-dropping reunion you'll need to ticket-stalk for fall. Let's hit the cream cheese. Blood Brothers reunite for US tour I'm screaming like Johnny Whitney over here because Seattle hardcore band the Blood Brothers announced this week that they're reuniting for a US tour to support a reissue of their 2004 Crimes. It's been a solid decade since Blood Brothers briefly reunited for LA's FYF Fest in 2014, and the group hasn't toured properly since 2007. If Portlanders still recall those wild and sweaty, strangely wholesome, technically wonderful shows of yore, this show is going to sell out FAST. (Actually the presale sold out in less than an hour, so now we wait for 10 am Friday, when general tickets drop.) We're willing to manage expectations about how many emo punks the band's other vocalist Jordan Billie can lift out of the audience (as they duet scream lyrics into his microphone) this time around. (Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark, Tues Nov 12, 8 pm, $36, tickets here, 21+ on the main floor, all ages in the balcony) Pickathon's second line-up Portland's favorite farm-situated music festival dropped a second crop of confirmed bands slated to grace its magical collection of stages this summer. In March, Mercury music columnist Jenni Moore wrote "we are particularly stoked to see is French Canadian neo-soul singer/bassist Adi Oasis... Other must-see acts to catch at the festival include indie rock singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett, deeply improvised and experimental free-jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements, soul, funk, and hip-hop fusionists the Soul Rebels." On Wednesday, Pickathon revealed "notable new additions to the 2024 lineup are Pitchfork’s Best New Music winner Kara Jackson, Seattle’s jazz drumming phenom Kassa Overall, and Portland’s folk favorite, Anna Tivel." Read the whole list here. (Pickathon, 16581 SE Hagen, Happy Valley, Aug 1-4, $180 - $375, tickets here, all ages) Laraaji Laraaji has opened for Solange, performed with plants at South by Southwest, and created hazy albums with fellow experimenters Sun Araw and Blues Control. Make no mistake: he's “out there,” but also a true New Yorker grounded in his vision, creating everything from guided meditation and reiki albums to force-of-nature instrumentals that have helped shape the New Age and ambient music landscapes for decades. His process is compact and portable. Using modified autoharps, electrified kalimbas, an array of pedals, and improvisational trance states, Laraaji channels an ambrosial, lilting sound that’s positioned him as something of a do-good sonic alchemist in musical history. Curated and presented by Age of Reflections, an immersive event series for sound, light, and space, Laraaji and the Sea and Cake's Sam Prekop will perform as a duo for this Solar Reunion Tour. Read more about Laraaji (and his frog puppet, Dr. Love) in this Stranger interview. (First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park, Fri May 17, 7 pm, $58.71, tickets here, all ages, w/ Sam Prekop) LINDSAY COSTELLO Parenthetical Girls Depending on how long you've read the Mercury, you may remember—and be overwhelmed with fury towards—the paper's former music editor: clever, morose, Christmas-music-loving weirdo Zac Pennington. The former leader of Parenthetical Girls (the sort of band some Portland music scene person would miss their turn at the crosswalk describing; then abruptly add: "It's like musical music? But pop."), Pennington moved to LA in 2014 where he and Prudence Rees-Lee formed the utterly unsearchable Popular Music. He hasn't played Portland in a while, and he's terrified—at least according to this profile by Melissa Locker. (Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, Fri May 17, 6 pm, $10, tickets here, 21+ w/ Twingle) Stardew Valley: Festival of Seasons Stardew Valley is many things: It's a farm simulation video game that rejects the soul-crushing grind of city life. It's an inclusive story told through oddball (but thoughtfully-crafted) video game characters. It's a place where a workaholic can finally unwind by making her little teal-haired avatar complete chores for 20 hours of the in-game day. And it's a game where the soundtrack slaps. Stardew debuted months before Stranger Things in 2016, but "Winter (The Wind Can Be Still)" will give you all the quiet synth awe of that show's soundtrack, and "Mines (Crystal Bells)" is essentially a stripped back Nine Inch Nails instrumental—though all the game's music was composed by its creator Eric Barone AKA ConcernedApe. In keeping with the style of the times, a chamber orchestra has taken Barone's score on tour and will perform a "Festival of Seasons" for two shows in Portland. I haven't been interested in the cultural gimmick that is video game score as orchestral piece before now, but if I wanted to hear any song adapted as such, it's probably "Fall (Ghost Synth)." (Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, Sat May 18, 5 pm & 8 pm, $49 - $75, tickets here, all ages) <a href="https://concernedape.bandcamp.com/album/stardew-valley-ost">Stardew Valley OST by ConcernedApe</a> Lake In my memory, Lake is an enormous band—with something like ten members—and they surround their audience at shows, using woodwind instruments to pipe their sweet, atmospheric sophisti-pop into our hearts. In reality, LAKE is a regular-size band and they play conventional instruments as well as fanciful ones, but they sometimes tour with friends and collaborators—ending up someplace between big band ensemble and stripped-down folkpop. Much of the world knows Lake—whether they realize it or not—from "Christmas Island," the credits song of Pendleton Ward's fantasy cartoon Adventure Time. However, in the Pacific Northwest, Lake has been with us for two decades, after kicking off their enduring, timeless vibe in Olympia Washington. Last month, K Records released a remastered LP of the 2009 album Let’s Build a Roof, the group's most popular album, so Lake is doing the good-natured thing and taking those songs (and others) on the road for a short West Coast tour. (Turn! Turn! Turn! 8 NE Killingsworth, Sat May 25, 8 pm, $15 suggested, $10-20 sliding scale, 21+ w/ New Issue, Jason Traeger) <a href="https://laketheband.com/album/lets-build-a-roof-klp213">Let's Build a Roof [KLP213] by LAKE</a> Babehoven Regardless if you recognize the gift of Maya Bon's songwriting, it's undeniable that Babehoven are blissful ballers live. When we saw them with Indigo De Souza in December, they threatened to steal the show, as they enveloped the crowd in warm melody. Ryan Albert played guitar with vigor, whipping his axe like a hula hoop, while their touring bassist Cole Brossus appeared comically opposite, unmoving in a black turtleneck. Now based out of Hudson, New York, Bon used to once call Portland home, and local indie label Good Cheer released Bon's 2018 EP, Sleep. Mercury music critic Ben Salmon saw the potential therein, writing: "Maya Bon knows her way around a beautiful melody. Several of them, actually... Babehoven's potential is sky high." Last month's brand new Water's Here in You builds on 2022's Light Moving Time, proving Babehoven is only getting better. This North America tour offers the chance to see them headline to support the new album. (Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Court, Wed June 12, $18, tickets here, 21+ w/ Stephen Steinbrink)
Ticket Alert: The Best Day Ever Fest, Childish Gambino, and More Portland Events Going On Sale This Week
Plus, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Live and More Event Updates for May 16 by EverOut Staff Aminé is putting on for Portland and debuting The Best Day Ever Fest this summer. Multi-hyphenate artist Childish Gambino, aka Donald Glover, previously claimed he would retire his rap moniker following the release of his next album—so don’t miss the opportunity to see him on his New World Tour. Plus, RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars LIVE will slay the house down boots with appearances from fan faves Angeria, Jorgeous, Roxxxy Andrews, and Vanessa Vanjie. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use. Tickets go on sale at 10 am unless otherwise noted. ON SALE FRIDAY, MAY 17 MUSIC Acid Mothers TempleAladdin Theater (Fri Oct 4) Aoife O’Donovan & Hawktail: All My Friends TourAladdin Theater (Fri Sept 27)On sale at 9 am Allison RussellWonder Ballroom (Sat Nov 9)
FREE TICKETS THURSDAY: Enter to Win Free Tix to See Parliament Funkadelic with George Clinton, The Prids, Sabertooth Festival, and More!
By Wm. Steven Humphrey Who's ready to have some fun? Well, the Mercury is here to help with FREE TICKETS to see some of Portland's best concerts and events—our way of saying thanks to our great readers and spread the word about some fantastic upcoming performances! (Psst... if you want to say thanks to the Mercury, please consider making a small monthly contribution to keep us alive and kickin'!) And oh boy, do we have some fun events coming at ya this week! CHECK IT OUT! • Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Kamasi Washington on June 2 at the Crystal Ballroom! Kamasi Washington is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader born and raised in Los Angeles. His three bodies of work to date include The Epic, Harmony of Difference (an EP originally commissioned for the 2017 Whitney Biennial), and Heaven and Earth, all of which are among the most acclaimed of this century. His new album Fearless Movement, inspired by dance and the birth of his first daughter, is out now. Get your tickets now or enter to win free tix here! Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside, Sun June 2, 8 pm, $40-$50, all ages • Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see Parliament Funkadelic ft. George Clinton on June 14 at the Crystal Ballroom! George Clinton is one of the foremost innovators of funk music, and was the mastermind behind the bands Parliament and Funkadelic and captured 40 hit R&B singles, including No. 1 hits "Flashlight," "One Nation Under a Groove," "Aqua Boogie," and "(Not Just) Knee Deep." Don't miss your chance to celebrate 50 years of funk! Get your tickets now or enter to win free tix here! Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside, Fri June 14, 8 pm, $55-$70, 21+ • Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see The Prids on May 25 at Polaris Hall! The Prids play Polaris Hall on May 25th! One of Portland’s longest running bands, DIY dark pop outfit The Prids share swirling pop songcraft and air-brushed punk melodies from their best and most cohesive album yet, Do I Look Like I’m In Love? Get your tickets now or enter to win free tix here! Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Ct, Sat May 25, 8 pm, $16, 21+ • Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see This Will Destroy You on May 25 at Aladdin Theater! This Will Destroy You plays Aladdin Theater on May 25! Atmospheric post-rock outfit This Will Destroy You visits in celebration of the 10 Year Anniversary of their acclaimed LP, Tunnel Blanket. Get your tickets now or enter to win free tix here! Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, Sat May 25, 8 pm, $25, all ages • Enter to WIN FREE TICKETS to see the Sabertooth Festival on May 31-June 1 at the Crystal Ballroom! Sabertooth psychedelic stoner rock festival draws nigh! Catch two full nights of rock on two stages, and enjoy beer brewed on site in collab with Sabertooth bands. Featuring Black Mountain, Blackwater Holylight, Death Valley Girls, and more! Get your tickets now or enter to win free tix here! Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside, Fri May 31 & Sat June 1, $40-$85, 21+ GOOD LUCK! Winners will be notified on Monday. Check back next week for more FREE TIX from the Mercury!
POP QUIZ PDX: Sassy Ass Trivia About Volcanoes, Jill Biden, and Your Newest Corporate Sponsor!
See how well YOU score on this week's super fun quiz! by Wm. Steven Humphrey HELLOOOOO THERE, BRAINY BUTT! It's time once again to put your brainy-brain to the test with this week's edition of POP QUIZ PDX—our weekly, local, sassy-ass trivia quiz. And this week, your brain will be tested on how much you know about VOLCANOES! STRANGE LIGHTS IN THE SKY! Jill Biden? JILL BIDEN! And which absolutely horrible corporate sponsor will you wear on YOUR SHIRT? 🧐 But first, how did you do on the previous quiz? Super-duper! And I cannot express how excited I am about the majority answer for this question. IF ONLY IT COULD BE SO! 🙏 OKAY, TIME FOR A NEW QUIZ! Take this week's quiz below, take our previous pop quizzes here, and come back next week for a brand spankin' new quiz! (Having a tough time answering this quiz? It's probably because you aren't getting Mercury newsletters! HINT! HINT!) Now crank up that cerebellum, because it's time to get BRAINY! Create your own user feedback survey
Good Morning, News: Clean Energy Money Saves City's Bacon, Fewer People Leaving Portland, and Supremes Foil GOP's Scheme
By Wm. Steven Humphrey The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! Here's your reminder that we are now less than a week away from our May primary election, SO IT'S TIME TO FILL OUT YOUR BALLOT. But before you fly into a full-blown panic, the Mercury is riding to the rescue with our 100 percent trustworthy endorsements, and (for those in a hurry) our handy-dandy Voter Cheat Sheet! (It's especially good for those who loathe reading. And speaking of reading, let's read some only partially loathsome NEWS.) IN LOCAL NEWS: • While it's still tentative and a final vote will be cast on June 12, Portland City Council has approved Mayor Wheeler's $8.2 billion budget, in which financially troubled bureaus like PBOT and the fire department will be saved by funds scraped away from the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), which is supposed to be paying for the city's future climate projects... but here we are. (Note to the conservative haters who won't stop bitching about Portland's progressive policies: I guess our ideas saved your bacon this time, didn't it?) Vibe check: City Council city budget meeting. pic.twitter.com/DfUeEgmTMj — Alex Zielinski (@alex_zee) May 15, 2024 • On the topic of climate plans: Five local environmental and transportation safety advocacy organizations are suing the Oregon Department of Transportation, and demanding a moratorium on the $1.9 billion Rose Quarter freeway expansion program on the grounds that it runs counter to the city and county's plans for climate action and neighborhood development (and is also absolutely terrible for the environment as well as the health and safety of Portlanders). Our Taylor Griggs has the deets! • Portland and other cities in the metro area is reportedly still losing people to the suburbs, but not nearly as much as they were in recent years. Roughly 4,170 residents high-tailed it out of town from July 2022 to July 2023, as compared to the prior year when we lost 8,500 people. And for those who are convinced that Portland's urban problems are what's chasing folks away, wake up and smell the coffee: The Rent Is Still TOO DAMN HIGH (which is a fixable problem, if we cared enough about facts instead of political histrionics to repair it). • Speaking of "too-damn-high-rent": City Auditor Simone Rede's office has released a report showing that Portland officials spent $5 million from a tax on developers who refuse to produce affordable housing on bureaucratic costs rather than using it to build low-income housing—which was kind of like the whole idea. And while the program has so far created 566 affordable apartments in 78 buildings since 2017, "city auditors found that those with the greatest racial and economic disparities struggled to access those units. They also noted that most of the affordable apartments created were studios or one-bedrooms, which don’t easily accommodate families or large households." (Another sad example, like in Measure 110, where a great idea is hobbled by a lack of planning from our elected leaders.) This interview with the fascinating Laraaji might be the best thing you read today. Just some of the topics discussed: Frog puppets, laughter as medicine, being investigated by butterflies, and making music with plants.https://t.co/6IUaphsOIS — Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) May 15, 2024 IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS: • A tough loss for conservative capitalists as the Supreme Court shot down a challenge which could have severely restricted funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In a 7-2 decision, the Supremes ruled that the public protection bureau could continue to be funded by profits from the Federal Reserve, instead of an annual appropriation which could be stopped at any time by whichever party is in power (* kaff-kaff* Republicans). • Michael Cohen returns to the stand today to be grilled by Trump's attorneys in the "orange turd's" NYC hush money criminal case. And while the defense is desperately trying to besmirch Cohen's (admittedly shaky) character, they are fighting an uphill battle to combat the tsunami of evidence against Trump HA-HA-HA. Trump lawyer Todd Blanche brings up a Truth Social post Trump shared in March calling Cohen a "jailbird." Blanche asks Cohen if he responded to Trump and if he called him "Dumb—- Donald."Cohen: "Sounds correct." — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 16, 2024 • In other Trump trial news, several high profile Republicans have been showing up to support former prez Orange Turd at his trial—such as the weak-chinned House Speaker Mike Johnson who has labeled the case "an atrocity," leading many to believe Johnson does not A) support law & order, and B) know what the word "atrocity" means. • I only have one problem with this scene: Who parks their bike on the stairs? this scene should be studied pic.twitter.com/yGNq6KkQYQ — 2000s (@PopCulture2000s) May 16, 2024 • Despite the assumptions of many Americans, the nation's economy is looking a lot better as of late with the Dow index (made of 30 blue-chip stocks) breaking past the 40,000 threshold for the first time ever, signaling that inflation is finally cooling. (So spread the news to your friends who refuse to believe otherwise!) • And finally... the weekend needs to get here. NOW. Cat vs dog.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/zPwzfekn0C — Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) May 15, 2024