It’ll be how long till 911 calls are answered quickly?!

Years-Long Wait for Quick 911 Response

In 2019 the average wait time for 911 calls in Portland was nine seconds. It’s now 46 seconds. When will Portland get back to a nine-second wait? “I think that we're a couple years away from that being a plausible scenario,” says City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, who oversees local 911 services. There has been some progress. The average wait time was 64 seconds in the second half of 2022. [KATU]

• Related: The plan to fix Portland’s troubled emergency response. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

Fight Over Bybee Lakes Shelter

Officials with the Bybee Lakes shelter, which transformed the never-used Wapato jail into a 300-bed shelter for sober and clean unhoused people, say they need more public funding to stay open. Real estate investor Jordan Schnitzer bought the jail when Multnomah County sold it after determining the location and building costs wouldn’t make fiscal sense for a shelter. Now the shelter is asking for funding from the county. [KOIN]

Aloha Woman’s Record-Setting Breast Milk Donations

An Aloha woman is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for donating the most breast milk. Over the last nine years, she’s produced up to two gallons a day after she was diagnosed with a condition that means her body overproduces breast milk. She opted for making life-saving donations to help premature infants instead of treating the condition with a double mastectomy. [KGW]

I asked for the now-gone restaurants you miss most, and several readers shared fond memories of delicious bites:

“Two that were on Northeast Alberta: Bernie’s Southern Bistro — the best shrimp and grits, fried chicken, pecan crusted halibut & fried pickles, on the best enclosed outside patio. We went every year for our anniversary and lots of times in between. Cruz Room — creative and absolutely yummy tacos like the Mac, with bacon, crispy cheese, fried pickles, or Bob’s Your Uncle, a riff on fish & chips in a taco, jerk chicken tacos, and the Green Meanie, with pulled pork in verde sauce. Really good sides & salads. It was a really fun place.”

— Kathy Robinson

“Hawthorne Street Fish House. It was our favorite, just the garlic fries alone were enough to go there. Now we don't have a good fish place that we know of. Riyahd — the best Lebanese. Promise Land — awesome Middle Eastern food.”

—Eric Deer

“I miss Bistro Agnes!”

—Cosette Bonjour

I have another: Ataula, the perfect tapas place.

Have any new favorite restaurants? Or new favorite things about our city? Would you email me?

🎬 Enchanted Forests – Soviet Fantasy Animation | Wednesday | 3 & 7 p.m.

Watch a series of fairy tale and fantasy films from the Soviet animation studio Soyuzmultfilm. [$8, Southeast Clinton Street]

• Related: How 7 Portland film fanatics saved the Clinton Street Theater. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

🪡 A Walk in the Woods: National Button Society Annual Show and Sale | Thursday - Saturday | Various

Come see the collections of buttons. [Free, Hayden Island]

📽️ Encanto | Thursday | 7:30 p.m.

Time for some family-friendly fun in the park. Come watch the 2021 Disney film about a girl discovering her magic. [Free, Beaumont–Wilshire]

Must-Try Portland Happy Hours

The pandemic might have brought a few of our favorite restaurants down, but we’re seeing a resurgence of eateries bring back the happiest time of the day — that sweet spot between 4 and 6 p.m. Today on the show, host Claudia Meza talks with Brooke Jackson-Glidden, editor of Eater Portland, about the city’s best happy hour spots to help you ride out the summer season.