PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🐚Thursday: partly sunny, high 73. The Waterfront Blues Festival kicks off downtown tonight, a Dawson Park drug case wrapped up with 13 months, and yes, parking costs more again. Standard Thursday, really.

Portland's parking is getting more expensive, right on schedule. Starting today, downtown street parking climbs from $3 to $3.20 an hour, Central Eastside meters go from $2 to $2.20, and event parking near Providence Park jumps to $7.40. City-owned garages are up too. Council approved the hikes in May as part of the new fiscal year budget, exactly one year after the last round of increases. PBOT says the money helps close a widening gap in road maintenance funding. Mayor Keith Wilson has called the whole system "fatally flawed." Feels about right. Parking's still free on Sundays, for now. Portland Tribune

Donald Sharma, who ran the Stop N Go Mini Mart across from North Portland's Dawson Park, was sentenced Wednesday to 13 months in prison. He'd pleaded guilty to delivering heroin and attempting to deliver fentanyl, part of a deal that dropped his other charges. Police raided the store back in March 2025 and found cocaine, heroin, meth and hundreds of fentanyl pills, plus guns and thousands in cash. The bust came after years of complaints about an open-air drug market at Dawson Park, a longtime gathering spot in Portland's historically Black Eliot neighborhood. Sharma has to stay 150 feet from the park once he's out. Neighbors say things have calmed down some since the store changed hands. Small win, maybe. The park's still watching. KPTV

Portland Fire & Rescue wants a favor this weekend: report the fireworks, don't just endure them. Personal fireworks have been banned citywide since 2022, but 911 calls still spike on the Fourth, sometimes doubling in volume. So the city wants people using its online form or dialing 311 instead of 911, unless something's actually on fire or someone's hurt. The city logged 4,590 fireworks reports in 2025 alone, and officials say that data helped cut 911 hold times nearly in half, from 26 seconds to 18. "They simply are unsafe," said PF&R spokesperson Rick Graves, who's responded to plenty of firework injuries himself. The Oregon Humane Society adds a reminder too: microchip the dog, because the Fourth sends a lot of spooked pets running. KOIN

PDX Monthly has just released a great article called “The Best Swimming Holes Within 3 Hours of Portland. LINK

Darcelle XV: As Portland just opened the new Darcelle XV Plaza downtown, here’s some more info about the legend herself. Darcelle XV, born Walter Cole, ran Portland's oldest drag club for over 50 years and became the world's oldest working drag queen, according to Guinness. A bronze statue honors her downtown now. She performed into her nineties, cracking the same jokes she'd been telling since the sixties, and never once seemed done. Portland misses her glitter.

In 1971, Oregon lawmakers repealed the state's sodomy law, one of the first major gay rights victories in state history. It took effect the following year.

I’m going to Bend for the weekend to give my dog a break from the fireworks. Poor girl is terrified!

by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]