MediterraneanGrocery Wholesalers in Portland, OR

A Portland Public Schools board committee voted against using the former Whitaker Middle School campus to host a city-sanctioned homeless village.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland Public Schools (PPS) board committee on Wednesday voted against using the former Whitaker Middle School campus in Northeast Portland as a site for a city-sanctioned homeless village.

In October, city officials announced they were looking into the site, located off Northeast 42nd Avenue near Killingsworth Street, to build one of six Safe Rest Villages throughout Portland.

"As a PPS Board member, I have a fiduciary duty and responsibility to utilize our land and properties to support our mission to educate Portland's children and this proposal does not meet that mark," board member Julia Brim-Edwards said

Brim-Edwards said the property is adjacent to a neighborhood park that she considers a community hub. She also mentioned the board adopted a resolution in the early 2000s to possibly replace Whitaker with a different middle school, which further propelled her decision to vote against the site.

Commissioner Dan Ryan, who is leading the city's Safe Rest Village program, released a statement that said, in part, "Although today’s vote is unfortunate in terms of the Safe Rest Villages program, it is understandable. The City is passionate about building partnerships with organizations and entities that are ‘all in’ to deliver concrete action for."

Ryan said the pending relocation of Harriett Tubman Middle School, based on the Oregon Department of Transportation's plan to widen the Rose Quarter section of Interstate 5, is a "clear and obvious rationale for such a decision."

The city had planned on opening all six homeless villages by the end of 2021, but it has been a struggle for officials to find suitable sites. In early December, the city pushed back the plan to 2022.

So far, Commissioner Ryan's office has only announced three planned locations:

One proposed site near Southeast 45th and Harney was nixed when the city discovered that the land sat in a floodplain. A different proposed site that would've allowed people to park cars and RVs at the Portland Expo Center was rejected because it would have cost $1.5 million to redevelop the land for it.

Meanwhile, Ryan asked the school board to consider other properties in the school district's portfolio for a possible Safe Rest Village site.

"Our city is suffering deeply from our houselessness crisis," he said. "It is impacting us all, and everyone is looking to local leaders to step up in these trying times and do things that we’ve never done before. We welcome PPS as a partner to provide viable solutions and hope this is just the beginning."

A mask mandate for all public buildings is likely to go into effect as soon as Friday in South Portland to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The City Council Tuesday told City Manager Scott Morelli to draft an emergency proclamation that would allow him to enact the mask mandate. Mayor Deqa Dhalac is expected to sign the emergency order Friday, effectively putting it into play for five days, and the council will officially vote on it next Tuesday.

“The CDC currently recommends that you should wear a mask in public indoor settings where there are areas of substantial or high transmission of COVID,” Morelli told the council Tuesday. “Cumberland County has been in high transmission since early September 2021.”

The CDC defines a high transmission rate as 100 or more cases per 100,000 population, or a positivity rate of 10% or more of the population, within a 7-day period. Cumberland County is among 3,204 counties nationwide that has a high transmission rate, according to the most recent CDC data. Only 16 counties within the United States are not currently considered to have a high transmission rate, with six considered substantial and 10 considered low.

South Portland, with a population of 26,250, has seen 2,568 probable and confirmed cases of COVID-19 through Jan. 16, 2022, with a population of 26,250, according to the Maine Division of Disease Surveillance.

The city updated its health measures in August 2021 to align more closely with those of the CDC and in response to the County Transmission Level being increased from substantial to high. The high transmission recommendations included a mask requirement inside city buildings, and that staff members, boards and committees are encouraged to meet virtually.

South Portland schools currently require students and staff to be masked when indoors.

South Portland’s mandate differs from the mandates in Portland and Brunswick; there will not be fines issued to non-compliers and no city staff will be responsible for enforcing the requirement.

Councilor Linda Cohen was the only councilor who spoke against a mask mandate at a public hearing Tuesday.

“Why do we have to tell adults the right thing to do?” she asked. “I think we’ve gotten to the point where we have to look out for ourselves.”

Residents spoke in favor and in opposition to a mandate.

John Pani said a mask mandate would make them feel more safe.

“My wife and I went grocery shopping recently, and in one of the grocery stores in town, everyone wears a mask,” he said. “We felt free. We were really happy to be there. We felt safe there.”

Pani avoids local stores where employees and customers are unmasked, he said.

Kate Hopkins of Davis Street, who said she was a vaccinated nurse, is against the mandate.

“I think that there’s really a desire to feel like you’re doing something and I think we’ve done that,” she said. “Ultimately, I don’t think that a mask mandate really makes sense. I think it is going to be hard to enforce.”

Chuck Martin, who owns a retail business in the west end of the city, is also worried about the mandate’s enforceability.

“I don’t think there’s a one-size fits all solution for every business here,” he said. “In mine, there’s often periods of the day when it’s only staffed by one person and I don’t think it’s realistic, or even really safe, to task that person with policing the city’s mask policies while still performing their job duties and helping customers.”

Councilor Jocelyn Leighton stated that “100 percent” of the business owners and residents she had spoken to prior to the workshop supported the mandate.

“When you’re backed up by a city mandate, you have the support of the council and other community members behind you … which empowers businesses to keep their employees safe, to keep their customers safe,” Leighton said.

Councilor Katherine Lewis cited economic concerns with the heightened transmission rate due to the omicron variant as a reason she supports a mandate.

“People get sick, even if they’re not in the hospital, not in the ICU, but sick at home waiting to recover and can’t go to work,” Lewis said. “That has had a multiplier effect, and I think that will continue.”

She compared wearing a mask to using a seatbelt. While a mask doesn’t guarantee the wearer will not be infected, it helps, she said.

Councilors were also in favor of providing masks and mask signs for businesses. While mask distribution is expected to take some time, the signs will be available sooner.

Comments are not available on this story.

For the past half decade, Portlanders have correctly been treating Upside Down as a kind of tumbledown burrito bar and beer garden, a bar-hopping refuel station between the Bear Paw Inn and the Brooklyn Park Pub with picnic tables ringed by a picket fence. But take one bite of the Brooklyn Sandwich, with its brown sugar-rubbed pork, cornichon mayonnaise and caramelized cabbage, and you’ll know something is up.

“There’s a lot of regular people who don’t know who I am,” Oswaldo Bibiano says of the clientele at Upside Down. “But they see that I do my fries right here, I cut them by hand, and I always run out because people really love them.”

Since the start of 2017, Upside Down has been the domain of Bibiano, once one of Portland’s most celebrated chefs for his work at Autentica and the short-lived Mextiza. Those two midscale Mexican restaurants led to Uno Mas, a popular two-location taqueria. All four restaurants have since closed. Now, after laying low in the Brooklyn neighborhood for five years, Bibiano is ready to expand once more, recently opening Smart Donkey, a new burrito bar with craft beer on tap and a full liquor license in a former car wash near Southeast Powell Boulevard.

At Smart Donkey, Bibiano and his team are rolling out 10 hulking burritos, with a lineup of weekend breakfast wraps on the way. There aren’t many tricks here — you won’t find any crispy cheese ala Angel Food & Fun — just good quality ingredients kept fresh and made to order, as they are at Upside Down. You will find some overlap between Bibiano’s two menus: Upside Down’s hipster bowl is now Smart Donkey’s hipster burrito. Both have braised cabbage, kale and Sriracha-spice crema.

The most notable thing after two visits to Smart Donkey might be how much each meat tastes like itself. The barbacoa – modeled after a version from Zumpango del Rio in Bibiano’s home state of Guerrero – has tender hunks of fatty, beefy brisket. Big pieces of rich, porky pork in the chile rojo combine their juices with a piquant red sauce, pinto beans and pico de gallo. A Baja-style fried fish burrito is made extra crispy with a little Topo Chico in the batter. Rolled up tight, they stay warm in their foil for the ride home. But they taste better eaten on site, even more so alongside some fresh-fried tortilla chips, chunky guacamole and a lime-tart margarita.

For now, it’s probably better to think of Smart Donkey as more of a one-cart pod than a full restaurant. Indoor seating has been kept purposefully limited, though you will find covered tables behind and on either side of the bar. But Bibiano has bigger plans for the space, including bringing in a food truck, Tehuana Oaxacan Cuisine, to serve tacos, tortas and enchiladas. Once the latest COVID flareup dies down, Cinco de Mayo and Fourth of July celebrations could bring live music to the lot.

And down the line, Bibiano could even see a return to a less portable form of dining, “if I’m still here, maybe in a year or two, not Autentica but similar...”

Smart Donkey: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, 3420 S.E. 50th Ave., 971-544-7219, order online via Clover

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

A weak front that’s pushing moisture eastward through northwest Oregon will bring rain through the morning in the metro area, but then that’s about it until well into next week.

The National Weather Service says high pressure building over the Pacific will move in behind the front beginning Friday.

Portland will mostly see showers in the morning Thursday under cloudy skies. The high will be about 54, but a check of temperature stations across the metro area as of 5:30 a.m. showed most locations were near that temperature already. Expect temperatures to hold fairly steady before cooling later in the afternoon.

#pdxtraffic It's also, again, an oddly warm morning. Daytime highs for Thursday are supposed to reach 54. But it's basically 54-ish in most areas now. Expect temps to just hover for most of the day. Long drying out period starts Friday! pic.twitter.com/MG08em8Uig

— PDX Traffic Alerts (@TrafficPortland) January 20, 2022

Snow levels, which had been holding steady above 6,000 feet for most of this week, will drop during the evening. Any precipitation left over the Cascades once the front passes could bring a few short shots of new snow to pass-level roads, but accumulations should be minimal as the skies dry out.

Once we get past Thursday’s rain Portland will be looking at dry skies well into next week. High pressure could trap cooler air at the surface and cause some inversions overnight. Friday may start with foggy conditions, especially in wind-sheltered areas. Forecasting models are unclear if overnight winds will be strong enough to keep fog at bay in the metro area.

Once any lingering fog burns away, expect partly sunny skies and a high of about 49 degrees.

Saturday could also start with some dense fog, but it’s likely to clear faster than Friday’s did. Once the fog is gone, Portland will see mostly sunny skies and a high of about 50 degrees.

Clear skies and above normal temperatures will be the theme through Sunday and into the first part of next week. Current long-range forecasts are showing no chances of rain through about Wednesday.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Yelp has announced its top 100 restaurants for 2022, and four Portland eateries made the list.

The mobile app and website created the list by reaching out to “Yelpers” for their favorite dining spots. Then, Yelp ranked each by total number of submissions, rantings, reviews and geographic representation.

The list also highlighted restaurants from all over the country.

Below, you will find the four Portland restaurants that made the list, along with one outside of the Portland metro area:

Location: 525 S.W. Morrison St., 15th Fl, Portland

Hours: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Wednesday – Sunday

Contact Information: (503) 802-5370

The downtown restaurant focuses on pan-Asian cuisine overlooking the City of Roses.

“From street food-styled starters and meal-sized classics, to rice and noodle specialties to ethically-sourced sushi, Departure Portland embraces the bounty of the Pacific Northwest to deliver the fiery flavors of the Far East,” said Departure on its website. “Whether steamed or stir-fried, smoked or sautéed, each dish leads guests to another stage along Departure’s culinary adventure.”

Location: 422 S.E. 81st Ave., Portland

Hours: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday – Sunday

Contact Information: (503) 208-2253

According to the restaurant‘s Instagram, it serves fresh fish, cold sake and 20 micros on tap.

Location: 2038 S.E. Clinton St., Portland

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday – Sunday for Lunch and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday – Sunday for dinner

Contact Information: (503) 231-2859

The restaurant specializes in Japanese cuisine and has a sushi bar available for both fish and vegetarians alike.

“Our masterful sushi chefs use only the freshest and highest quality ingredients from fish to vegetables, along with the exceptional service you expect,” according to Yama and Sushi & Izakaya’s website.

Thai Sky Kitchen

Location: 6036 S.E. Division St, Portland

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. & 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday – Saturday

Contact Information: (971) 222-5649 and website

Location: 401 E 10th St., The Dalles

Hours: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday – Saturday

Contact Information: (541) 980-5001

The Riv operates as an espresso bar, kitchen and venue space out of a 100-year-old church.

“The Riv Cafe still operates as a Breakfast and Lunch Cafe,” said its website. “They have become known for outstanding espresso, house made pastries, farm to table style food and are Blue Zone Approved.”

For a full list of restaurants on Yelp’s list, click here.