PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🩻Friday Sunny and near 80 today. Enjoy it, because an extreme heat watch starts Sunday and the year's first 100-degree days are on the table. The Fire host Dallas Saturday evening, the Renaissance Faire is in full swing, and yes, there's a wasabi festival. The news is all over the place today- let’s go.

The Sunshine Division opened a new free food market in Slabtown this week, at 2121 NW Front Ave., and it works like an actual grocery store. Visitors grab a cart, walk the aisles, and pick their own produce and pantry goods, six shoppers per 20-minute slot. Every opening day slot filled. The 100-year-old nonprofit, founded by Portland police officers delivering food in Goose Hollow, aims to serve 100,000 households this year between the new flagship and a Southeast Portland market on SE Stark that opened the same day. Shoppers sign up in advance and qualify through criteria like SNAP benefits, Social Security income, or having a kid at home. About 80 percent of the food is donated. Oregonian

$600 million says think big

Mayor Keith Wilson is all in on renovating the Moda Center, telling Portlanders "it is time for Portland to think big." The Trail Blazers' new ownership wants $600 million in upgrades, and Wilson is pushing a 20-year funding plan to help deliver it. The city opened a public survey this week and will hold listening sessions this month. Not everyone on council is sold. Members have questioned the price tag, the possible use of Portland Clean Energy Fund dollars, and what the city actually gets in return. A KATU review found a 2024 city report pegged needed renovations at $505 million, about $95 million less than the current ask. An NBA All-Star Game is the dangled carrot.Friday

Khanh Tran bought a rundown property in Southeast Portland near 174th and Powell, planning to fix it up before his first child arrives. Then somebody dumped tires on it. Not a few tires: walls of them, stacked six feet high or more, covering so much of the lot that most of it is now unreachable. Fox 12 reports the pile spans 1.2 acres and runs into the tens of thousands. The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Metro's illegal dumping patrol, and Oregon DEQ are all investigating, and officials have flagged the stack as a fire hazard. The cruelest part: as the property owner, Tran is on the hook for the cleanup. He told KATU he's losing sleep. KATU KPTV

Washington Park Station: This Trimet MAX station is the deepest underground train station in all North America. 260 feet deep. It was built in 1998 by the Oregon Zoo. WIKIPEDIA

On this day in 2020, Multnomah County made Juneteenth a paid holiday for county employees, days before Portland City Council voted to do the same.

If you need me I’ll be watering my garden in a state of panic.

by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]