PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🤙Saturday and loving it. Warmest weekend in months — Saturday hits 68, Sunday climbs to 74 with almost no chance of rain. Great day to go outside and immediately feel better about everything. The city is about to get covered in colored powder. And the e-bike money is almost here.

A missing woman found. A story that ends well, and kind of hilariously. Maria Kilmer, 28, disappeared from Highway 22 near milepost 15 on March 28 after her car ran out of gas while driving from Lyons to Salem. She got in a stranger's vehicle at the scene, leaving behind her purse and phone with her passenger. That was the last anyone heard from her for days. Oregon State Police issued a missing person alert. Tips came in. Law enforcement partners mobilized. Then Friday morning OSP dropped a two-sentence update: Maria has been located. She is safe and unharmed. It's unclear where she ended up or why it took a week to surface, but her mother is glad she’s safe.

Skip the dump lines — and the nails in your tires. Hammerhead Junk Removal — a local, family-owned business backed by 214 five-star reviews — is making junk disappear. Just point… and it’s gone.

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Portland Is About to Put You on a Bike — If You Qualify

Starting Monday, Portland is handing out up to $1,600 for a standard e-bike and up to $2,350 for a cargo model through its new Portland Rides program. The $20 million initiative — backed by the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund — aims to get more than 6,000 low-income Portlanders on battery-powered wheels by 2029. Eligible residents earn at or below 60% of Area Median Income, which works out to about $74,000 for a family of four. You'll need to complete an online safety course and apply at portlandebikerebate.com. Winners are chosen at random. Applications are open April 6 through July 24. If you're not picked the first time, you're automatically entered in the next drawing. First time in Portland history something like this has existed at this scale.

Home Forward's Tenants Are Not Doing Great

Portland's largest public housing agency is under scrutiny again — and this time it's pretty hard to look away. KATU and Willamette Week have both been digging into conditions at Home Forward properties, including the Louisa Flowers building in the Lloyd District, where tenants describe strangers wandering the floors, drug dealing in the stairwells, and a management culture that feels powerless to act. The core issue: a 2022 policy change raised the bar for evicting tenants from suspicion of drug crimes to a felony conviction. That means dealers can stay until a judge says otherwise. Home Forward's board has defended the policy as a housing justice measure. The tenants living inside the buildings are harder to convince. City Council has noticed and is eyeing $20 million in discretionary housing funds as leverage.

Hortlandia is the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon’s annual spring plant and garden art sale — created by gardeners, for gardeners. We bring together specialty nurseries and expert growers from far and wide so you can browse an incredible selection of plants and visit them all under one roof, in one day. You’ll also find garden tools, unique garden art, and handmade treasures — and plenty of inspiration for the season ahead.

TICKET PRE-SALES HAVE NOW CLOSED. PLEASE BUY YOUR TICKET AT THE DOOR.

On April 4, 1906, Portland hosted a Women's Suffrage Conference — fourteen years before the 19th Amendment. Oregon women got the vote in 1912.

Please don’t be shy about sending me photos, upcoming events, or ideas. by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]