PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🧇It’s Tuesday, folks. Drizzle again today. Expect 63 and a 70% chance of rain before the week finally dries out. Savor it- have you seen the forecast for the week? Woof! The school board weighs renaming Jefferson High tonight, and TriMet's budget math keeps getting grimmer. Coffee's downstairs.

Portland's transit agency plans to shrink operations by 10% over the next two years, and the folks who track it are reaching for grim vocabulary. "This is managed decline," one transportation activist told Willamette Week. The numbers back him up: TriMet ridership has fallen every year for a decade, down more than a third since 2016. Cutting service tends to push riders away for good — a one-way ratchet, as another advocate put it, slow to reverse. The agency says it could add routes back someday, if the money appears. Money has not, so far, appeared. Willamette Week

Located right on the PSU campus, University Station Food Carts brings together locally owned food carts serving flavors from around the world in one vibrant downtown Portland destination. From Thai and Mediterranean to pizza, tacos, and more, there’s something for every craving. Grab a bite, hang out at the indoor full-service bar with a daily happy hour, and enjoy weekly events including comedy, live music, trivia, karaoke, plus rotating pop-up events and local markets. Whether you’re meeting friends, studying, or exploring Portland’s food cart scene, USFC is the place to be. Website

The Portland school board votes Tuesday on whether to begin renaming four schools: Jefferson High, César Chávez K-8, Cleveland High, and Robert Gray Middle. It's a first step, not a new sign, the resolution just starts a process. But the names carry weight. Generations of students, many of them Black, call the North Portland school "Jeff," and its Thomas Jefferson statue came down in the 2020 protests and never went back up. The Chávez question follows national reporting on abuse allegations against the labor leader. Renaming is slow and expensive. So is leaving it alone. Willamette Week

In a Monday letter to City Council, Mayor Keith Wilson warned that Portland's affordable housing system faces "financial insolvency", and that without swift action, major buildings could stop operating in as little as six months. His evidence: units sitting empty for months, unpaid rent, and rising costs. Home Forward, the city's housing authority, is already nursing a $35 million shortfall and takes an average of 185 days to fill a vacant apartment. Wilson's big ask was a stable funding source. He didn't name one. Portland is closing in on its twelfth year of a declared housing emergency. The emergency, at least, is consistent. KOIN

CHERRY BOMBS: Portland's newest soccer team has a riot-grrrl streak. The Cherry Bombs, a USL W League women's side named for The Runaways' anthem and run by the Pickles' owners, play at Lents Park with a mascot named Mary T. Cherry. Next home match is tonight! Tuesday, June 9, 7 p.m. versus FC Olympia at Lents Park.

June 9, 1894: The Willamette crested at a record 33 feet, swallowing downtown Portland. Locals got around by rowboat. Still the worst flood in the city's history. One journalist said “The stench is almost beyond endurance, and if the evil is not speedily corrected sickness may result.” more HERE

Ride the bus while it still stops near you. We'll be back tomorrow.

by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]