Gossip Should Have No Friends

[December 6th, 2006] SIGN OF THE TIMES It's gentrification fallout season again! As reported last Thursday on wweek.com: Two weeks ago, 43-year-old restaurateur Christopher Pierce arrived at his new Northeast Alberta Street restaurant, Francis , to find the locks on his doors filled with Super Glue, a little trick that cost him $500 to repair. Last Thursday, he was greeted by a spraypainted message reading "Gentrification This Way " and arrows pointing toward the door of his business. "I have cedar planking," Pierce says. "I don't know if I'll be able to get the graffiti off without painting, which would ruin the look of the building and probably cost thousands of dollars." "It was probably those little undereducated, tattooed punks who don't even live in the neighborhood who did it," he added. In years past, a number of Alberta businesses have been targeted by vandals apparently incensed by the influx of new money and faces to the once racially diverse 'hood. Pierce, who is white, has lived in the Alberta area for 15 years. Francis will remain open for biz despite the decorations to his building. Police Sgt. Brian Schmautz said that there's no plan to increase patrolling since there's no statistical increase of graffiti in the area.

THE CITY THAT TOURS Where should jet-setters looking for the top travel destination on the West Coast head for? Why, Portland, of course! Who needs the Golden Gate Bridge and Space Needle, anyway? The well-known travel guide Frommer's annual list of Top Travel Destinations for 2007 was released last week and included Portland in its top 12. Our fair city was chosen along with other notable tourist destinations Ethiopia and Asheville "Not to be Confused with Ashville," N.C. OK, so this isn't exactly your typical tourist guide. But Frommer's sells over 2.5 million copies of their guides each year and its website gets over 7 million additional visitors, so don't be surprised if you see lots of camera-wielding tourists wearing City of Bridges T-shirts. Portland was noted for its numerous outdoor summer activities (no mention of our new November rain record) and our "flourishing restaurant scene." Oh yeah, and Portland also won after the Metro Portland Tourism Alliance hosted the editor of Frommer's last May for an "in-depth media research tour ."

DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION It's 11:30 am, you just rolled outta bed and you've been aching to check out how the local media wastes its days. How about droppin' by WW's First Annual Open House (2220 NW Quimby St.), which takes place 10 am to 4 pm Wednesday, Dec. 13? Now, we're not offering up pints of booze at this midday office looksee because we don't want you showing up to your holiday temp gig at Macy's Santaland reeking of cheap whiskey and newsprint. But we are welcoming snoops to our digs with hot chocolate from local sweets master SahagÚn—which, really, is better than cheap whiskey, meth and whippets put together—and other assorted PG-13-rated treats. Also up? Guided tours to the mythic lands of production, editorial and display advertising, and straight answers on everything you wanted to know about WW but were so very, very afraid to ask.

WHAT YOU MISSED ON WW'S LOCALCUT.COM THIS WEEK: Booker Seann McKeel leaves Acme after one and a half years, causing the notoriously-local-music-supporting venue to write sad poems in its diary, and Portlanders to hope that Acme gets over it soon...Hip-hop group Clockwerk announces a tour and an unofficial debut album, Due Yesterday, the (apparent) foreplay to get all hot for their bigger-deal 2007 release..."Friendly, Friendly World" chats with two talented and unfortunately down-on-their-luck blues musicians...Plus, MP3s from John Callahan, Eldorado, Plan R and more.