(13 posts)

The Albina Vision is a 50-Year Plan––But It Starts Now

WHAT: The Albina Vision is a community-led effort to revitalize a district that was once the heart of Portland’s black community. The plan calls for building nine city blocks of affordable housing and community gathering space, and capping the I-5 freeway that displaced thousands of families in the 1960s — but the project is about […]

Community / February 20, 2019

Meet Portland’s Most Beloved Used Book Store (Not Named Powell’s)

WHAT: Title Wave Used Bookstore is where library books go to retire. From children’s books to DVDs and travel guides, this hidden gem in Lower Albina has something for every reader. WHY IT MATTERS: The shop prices and resells library materials from 18 Multnomah County branches, so they can have a second life in the […]

Community / February 20, 2019

The Church that Stood Strong

WHAT: Lower Albina has seen a lot of change over the last 50 years, but one constant through it all has been the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, which will celebrate its 75th birthday next month. The church has withstood decades of gentrification and displacement, and its members today span multiple generations. WHY IT MATTERS: […]

Community / February 14, 2019

Meet the Duo Behind a Podcast That’ll Move You — Or At Least Try

Can you imagine a Portland with more bikes and public transit on the road than cars? Because it might not be far away. As things stand now, roughly half of Portlanders commute to work alone by car, while 33 percent walk, bike, carpool, or ride public transit to work. (The remaining 17% work remotely, carpool, […]

Changemakers / February 13, 2019

Portland Transit Has Never Looked Cooler

If anyone can make the inside of a TriMet bus look magical, it’s Brian Lum. Lum is TriMet’s web and social media coordinator, and he’s the man behind the photos that appear on the transit agency’s social accounts. His goal? To start a dialogue about sustainable transit through photography — creating images of iconic parts of Portland […]

Changemakers / February 7, 2019

Lale Santelices, Safe Routes to School Coordinator

Safe Routes to School: It Takes More Than Just a Stop Sign

What does it take to keep kids safe on their way to school? Stop signs and crosswalks only go so far. That’s where the work of Lale Santelices, PBOT’s Safe Routes to School (SRTS) coordinator, comes into play. “It doesn’t matter how many signs I put up or how many crosswalks I paint,” she said. […]

Changemakers / January 31, 2019

Fatou Ouattara is the chef behind Akâdi, one of the only West African restaurants in Portland

Akâdi brings West African food to Portland

Spices from scratch, sauces from scratch, slow-cooked goat and whole-fried tilapia: Akâdi, which means “tasty” in Bambara (a Mali-originated language), is a restaurant in Portland’s Albina district that lives up to its name by serving homemade West African food from chef-owner Fatou Ouattara’s native Bouaké, Ivory Coast. Ouattara, who immigrated to the U.S. to attend […]

Food / January 31, 2019

Meet David Bouchard, a Blind Portlander with a Vision for Transit

Not enough braille and large print. Quiet or unclear stop announcements. No accessible real-time arrival information. As a blind transit rider, Portlander David Bouchard has a unique perspective on where systems like TriMet fall short on accommodating everyone in the community. “Since I can’t drive, I’m transit-dependent, and I realized very quickly that public transportation […]

Changemakers / January 23, 2019

Video: Meet the Bar Behind the Bookshelf at Circa 33

Sunnyside is home to a lot of books — from the Belmont Library to the Powell’s on Hawthorne — but not all the books in this neighborhood are quite what they seem. At Circa 33, what looks like a bookshelf is actually a secret entrance to the bar’s hidden speakeasy. Inside, you’ll find a cozy […]

Food / January 8, 2019

Video: Clean & Safe Employs Formerly Homeless Portlanders

If you follow NextDoor or your neighborhood’s Facebook group, you’ll probably know that complaints about needles, trash, and graffiti are becoming increasingly common in Portland. Neighbors say the problem is getting worse, but in at least one part of town, the city is having some success addressing it. For 30 years, Central City Concern’s Clean […]

Community / January 7, 2019