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What do you do when nobody loves you? You write about it. Portland in 2023 was a town going through a breakup on a civic scale, with some people literally packing U-Hauls and others severing emotional ties to certain ideals that had seemed core to the Rip City identity. There was once a dream that was Portland, and it featured less incarceration, an end to the War on Drugs, and robust tax dollars for public services. Nearly all our most-read stories on wweek.com in 2023 featured disillusionment with that vision of the city.
Oct. 4: Damian Lillard Files for Divorce From His Wife, Kay’La Lillard
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Portland’s most beloved basketball player filed for divorce in Clackamas County Circuit Court five days after the Trail Blazers traded him to the Milwaukee Bucks. The latest court filings show Kay’La Lillard is seeking full custody of the couple’s three small children. SOPHIE PEEL.
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Drawing on information from multiple sources, WW reported in July that police suspected Jesse Lee Calhoun, then 38, in the deaths of four women whose bodies were found in the Portland metro area. Calhoun’s case drew wide attention, not only because of the multiple homicides that police suspect he committed, but because he’d been among more than 1,000 inmates that former Gov. Kate Brown released early from Oregon prisons. Calhoun won his release July 22, 2021, in part because he had served on a wildfire-fighting crew. (The killings in which Calhoun is a suspect all took place after his originally scheduled release date.) On Nov. 27, the Portland Police Bureau announced it was taking over the investigation of a fifth woman, Joanna Speaks, who was found dead April 28 in Clark County, Wash. Sources familiar with the investigation into Calhoun’s actions say he is now a suspect in that case as well. Calhoun is currently being held at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario with a release date of June 9, 2024. People familiar with the investigation expect him to be charged in some or all of the five homicides before then. PPB and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. NIGEL JAQUISS.
Feb. 1: They Left: Portland Is Losing Some of Its Biggest Fans
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Before the pandemic, few could imagine that people leaving Portland would ever be a problem. Every year brought more tech bros from California and liberals from the Midwest. Then COVID-19 arrived and protests for racial justice turned into riots. Schools stayed closed too long for many parents’ liking. Taxes suddenly seemed high for a town that couldn’t keep trash off the streets and graffiti off highway signs. Free to work from home, many people chose to live outside Portland—in Bend, in Boise, hell, even in Texas. And just like that, Multnomah County lost population in the year ended July 1, 2020, for the first time since 1987. It happened again in 2021 and 2022. Some readers said WW was crying wolf when the story ran, but many others shared it with friends and relatives who had left or were mulling an exit. The losses were never huge (5,409 people in 2020), but any loss is bad in a state that relies on newcomers to keep its economy on track and its tax receipts flowing. Multnomah County grew by just 0.21% in the year ended July 1, according to Portland State University’s Population Research Center, while the state grew 0.55%. The population plateau prompted state economists to include a “zero-migration” scenario in their quarterly revenue projection for the first time last month. And, in Portland at least, things might get worse before they get better. In a poll by DHM Research commissioned by the Portland Police Association this month, 56% of Portlanders said they would consider leaving Stumptown if they could afford it. ANTHONY EFFINGER.
June 7: A $28 Million Low-Income Apartment Complex Descends Into Chaos in Just Two and a Half Years
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The brand-new Buri Building on Northeast Glisan Street just off Interstate 205 looked like heaven, but residents said it was hell, with people shooting up in stairways, smoking fentanyl in elevators, and vandalizing plumbing. One resident WW interviewed in June, Allen Lumsden, said he threw in the towel and moved out this month. “It is by far the worst property I have ever lived in, and I would like to file a lawsuit if I can find a pro bono attorney,” Lumsden said in an email. Dave Bachman, owner of the company that manages the Buri, didn’t return an email seeking comment. ANTHONY EFFINGER.
July 26: On Portland’s Fentanyl Corner, a Dance With Death Sells for $20
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To understand how fentanyl was wreaking havoc on a few square blocks of downtown Portland, we got to know the people who frequented the spot, chased ambulances, and even bought the deadly drug ourselves. Much has happened since. Gov. Tina Kotek sent state troopers to patrol downtown Portland sidewalks to arrest dealers. City and county leaders are calling for an outright ban on public drug use. The Legislature is now weighing fundamental changes to Measure 110, the law that decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs like heroin and meth. On a recent rainy Monday night, WW returned to the intersection of Southwest 6th Avenue and Harvey Milk Street that was ringed by fentanyl dealers over the summer and found it clear of overt dealing. The market might have moved, but the overdoses continue. Multnomah County’s count this year had exceeded last year’s stratospheric total, 510, by October. LUCAS MANFIELD.
March 22: One of Portland’s Top Real Estate Families Owns a Building That Contains a Fentanyl Market
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It’s cleaner these days. See “The Exorcism” in this issue.
Feb. 22: A Southeast Portland Man Lives in One of Portland’s Least Habitable Apartments
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Things are much better for Luk’as Porter since WW wrote about his noisy, scary neighbors and the water that leaked into his apartment like November rain. The bank that owns the upstairs apartment kicked out the squatters in August, he says, and boarded the door. His own landlords fixed the ceiling in his living room in October, a year after it fell in. There’s more to do, “but when all is said and done, it’s quiet,” Porter says in an email. “No bass. No guns. No motorcycles being stripped for parts above my head anymore. But the sound of a drop of water will still cause the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up.” ANTHONY EFFINGER.
March 25: Who’s Running Downtown Portland’s Open-Air Fentanyl Market?
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Following our reporting on a large, open-air fentanyl market operating at a vacant office-retail building downtown, we combed through recent prosecutions and found the street dealers on the block were mainly homeless men, some with ties to larger criminal organizations. In December, police busted traffickers higher up the ladder, and an alleged ringleader faces criminal charges (see page 4). LUCAS MANFIELD.
May 17: A Low-Income Housing Developer Swears Off Any More Portland Construction
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Michael Gregory became something of a celebrity in the development world after WW wrote about his struggle to build a 12-unit apartment building in the Foster-Powell neighborhood of Southeast Portland. He had stumbled into a thicket of regulations. “I would rather kick myself in the balls 100 times than do this again,” he said at the time. Dozens of readers wrote in with their own horror stories about trying to get permits from the city of Portland. Gregory persevered and finished his project on Southeast Mitchell Street, but by the time he was done, interest rates had climbed, discouraging buyers of apartment buildings. High rates require high rents to make a purchase pencil out. Gregory decided to find renters instead and landed one that wanted the whole complex: New Narrative, a mental health provider. New Narrative offers housing for people recovering from crises. Some of it is temporary, supported by on-site caregivers, and some is permanent. New Narratives pays Gregory $12,000 a month to rent the building. That covers his $300,000 loan on the property and leaves him a few thousand beyond that for another project in Clackamas County that is giving him even more fits than the one on Mitchell Street. You’ll read about that in the new year. ANTHONY EFFINGER.
Aug. 16: Empty and Unwanted, the Iconic Buildings of Portland’s Skyline Are in Trouble
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Since this story ran, things have gone from bad to worse for some of the 16 troubled properties we listed. The lender that financed the purchase of Field Office, a 290,375-square-foot complex on Northwest Front Avenue, has been unable to sell the $73.8 million loan on the property, a sign that investors are still avoiding Portland. Nor did anyone make a cash bid for the foreclosed J.K. Gill Building on Southwest 5th Avenue last month, leaving it with the lender. ANTHONY EFFINGER.