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- ADDRESS: 5842-5844 E. Burnside Street
- YEAR BUILT: 1953
- SQUARE FOOTAGE: 1,130
- MARKET VALUE: $559,200
- OWNERS: Viet Quoc Hoang and Thu Phuong Nguyen
- HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: About 18 months
- WHY IT’S EMPTY: Donut Queen closed
Roommates Julie Mathews and Marc Welch moved into an apartment next to Donut Queen on East Burnside Street and 59th Avenue about five years ago.
Being next to a doughnut shop had its advantages. The fritters, Mathews says, were made with real apples, and one was big enough for a whole meal.
Reviews on Yelp confirm her assessment. “The absolute end-all-be-all for Portland donuts,” one reviewer wrote. “I’ll take their apple fritter over any Blue Star, Voodoo overpriced B.S. any day.”
In 2017, WW said Donut Queen had the best apple fritters in town, crediting new owners who took over after two decades of mediocrity.
But about 18 months ago, Donut Queen closed, and things went to hell.
“You wouldn’t believe what we’ve seen in a year and a half,” Mathews says.
People broke into Donut Queen and a cluster of ramshackle cottages in back, and left trash on the property. A couple with a rented moving truck dumped mattresses, until 30 of them stacked up. Taggers covered Donut Queen in graffiti. Rats as big as raccoons ran in and out.
The manager of another property in the neighborhood tells a similar story, but in her version, things were never good at Donut Queen, or in the cottages at the back. The rats were always there, running a well-worn path from the back of the shop to the houses.
“We’re talking rabbit-size full-grown rats,” says the property manager, who declined to be named. “It was filthy.”
Welch says he called the city to complain. Ken Ray, a spokesman for Portland’s Bureau of Development Services, says an inspector found the mattresses and trash, and sent a nuisance violation to the owner on March 21. By April 30, all the crap was gone, and the case was closed, Ray says.
Better yet, the owner painted over the graffiti and fenced the whole property, which is a big deal because it’s a huge parcel—about a third of an acre.
“They took it seriously and took care of it,” Welch says.
The property owners, Viet Quoc Hoang and Thu Phuong Nguyen, didn’t return phone calls.
Welch credits a new city ordinance, sponsored by Commissioner Carmen Rubio and passed by the City Council in February, for the change. Rubio pushed to amend city code to make it easier to compel negligent property owners to clean graffiti off their buildings. Before, the city needed a warrant from a judge. Now a code hearings officer can greenlight the penalties.
“Portlanders expect change, and change for the better,” Rubio said about the property. “Our new way of being able to act fast when it comes to graffiti is working.”
Mathews and Welch were worried this week because someone breached the fence and opened the back door to the old shop, but things have remained quiet otherwise. They still miss the fritters and bear claws, but as long as mattresses don’t start stacking up again, they’ll take the win.