PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🍀 It's St. Patrick's Day, Portland — and for once, you don't need an umbrella for luck. Mostly sunny skies with a high around 61°F make this the rare holiday that doesn't require a rain jacket over your green sweater. Try to get home in one piece.

Portland's homeless services system took a body blow this week after Sunstone Way — one of the city's largest shelter operators, managing over 400 beds across six facilities — announced it will shut down by July 1. The collapse came after a $4.5 million whistleblower lawsuit filed by the nonprofit's former finance director alleged financial mismanagement and the wasting of public dollars. Sunstone, which was already flagged by Multnomah County auditors back in 2022 for overbilling, kept raking in public contracts anyway — over $1 million a month from the city alone. Now Portland and Multnomah County are scrambling to find continuity of care for hundreds of shelter residents, even as the county separately prepares to cut 675 more shelter units due to budget shortfalls. The city promised to "assess options with urgency." Given the track record, hold your breath.

It's official: Lloyd Center is dead. Portland's Design Commission voted unanimously to approve Urban Renaissance Group's master plan to demolish the 29-acre mall — the first indoor mall in the country with an ice rink — and replace it with a decade-long mixed-use buildout of housing, retail, and open space. Community members fought hard to save the ice rink, the only year-round rink within city limits, collecting nearly 4,500 signatures and marching to Mayor Wilson's office. What they got in return was a vague promise of "seasonal outdoor skating" someday in the future. The mall will close later this year. That sound you hear is a thousand figure skaters quietly crying on their way to find somewhere else to practice triple axels in a city that just eliminated their only option.

TriMet released an updated package of service cuts this week ahead of a final board vote expected in April, and it's a grim read. Facing a $300 million budget gap, the agency now proposes changes to 34 bus lines and a truncated MAX Green Line — with the line stopping at Gateway instead of running downtown, a $575 million infrastructure investment effectively kneecapped by fiscal math. The one bright spot: Line 19 on NE Glisan, which serves Providence Portland Medical Center, got spared after a public feedback campaign. Every other cut will affect someone, TriMet acknowledges — before making the cuts anyway. The board holds a public listening session Wednesday. Show up or accept your fate.

Bar Nouveau : Chef Althea Grey Potter's Bar Nouveau — a pop-up turned brick-and-mortar French bistro in St. Johns — is Portland Monthly's hottest new table. Expect chicken liver mousse piped like frosting onto sablé cookies, roast duck with spaetzle, and Sauvie Island produce. Reservations by text only. Very Portland. Website

On March 17, 1948, Portland officially dedicated Mill Ends Park — at just 2 feet in diameter, the world's smallest public park, born from a journalist's joke. It's now a Guinness record holder.

Today's actually a gift, weatherwise — sunny and mild for St. Patrick's Day. Wear something green, and for the love of all things holy, use the Safe Ride Home discount before you try to drive. PBOT's offering $10 off Lyft and Uber for rides starting in city limits, and the MAX is right there. by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]