PORTLAND DRIZZLE

Tuesday brings mostly sunny skies, high 70s. City planners hold a hearing tonight on zoning changes meant to squeeze more affordable housing into Portland's denser neighborhoods. Portland Police say their signatures are all really real. New restaurants opening this week: The Malarkey, Bar Scorpio. Check out Sordid Behavior at the Noshpit tonight- it’s an adult storytelling / comedy show and it’s a riot.

The original PDX World Naked Bike Ride rolled out of Wilshire Park Saturday night, and organizers estimate about 10,000 people showed up, bare skin and all, to protest car dependency and cyclist vulnerability. This is the older of Portland's two naked bike rides, running since 2004. A second one, the newer WNBR Portland, rolls August 8, so if you missed your window, you get another shot. Only in Portland do we get two. KATU

Today at 5 p.m., the Planning Commission holds a public hearing on the Housing Bonus Alignment Project, zoning changes meant to make it easier to build affordable, accessible, and multi-bedroom housing in dense areas outside downtown. The proposal has been in the works since June, built from neighborhood outreach and developer feedback. Written testimony is open through the hearing, though oral sign-ups closed Monday evening. It is not flashy. It is the kind of meeting that quietly decides what gets built two blocks from your house. portland.gov

Portland's police-hiring ballot measure, backed by the Portland Police Association, is tracking below the 40,437 signatures it needs for November despite submitting nearly 63,000. Rather than concede, backers alleged bias in the count, with union president Aaron Schmautz claiming a "culture of corruption" at city election offices. As evidence they cited an official who caught a canvasser misrepresenting the measure, though she has no role in verifying signatures. Multiple state complaints already accuse canvassers of misleading voters. The campaign now wants a state recount. Willamette Week

JJ’s Neighborhood Bar opened its doors earlier this month on the corner of SE Hawthorne and 46th. The menu has some very creative bar food like tots & tobiko, crispy mortadella skewers, and what really caught my eye is the Eastside Rickey cocktail- I grin for gin!

I found this ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review on Google from Shery W after I wrote the blurb above: “I can't say enough about our new neighborhood bar! The food was excellent! Who knew that tater tots could be served so elegantly and be so delicious? Our Ricotta and olive nosh was also amazing:-) The drinks were fabulous. I had the Eastside Ricky. It was so good, I had to have another…” — 🥂Sherry, great minds think alike!

On July 28, 2000, Bend-raised snowboarder Chris Klug received a liver transplant. Six months later he won a FIS World Cup gold medal. Central Oregon does not mess around.

Did anyone else catch the name of the attorney in the police-hiring story? 😆 It was Wigglesworth. Tracey Wigglesworth.

by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]