The best, most inclusive Portland skate parks

Menashes Invest in Downtown

The local family-owned real estate investment business Menashe Properties has bought a 183,735-square-foot downtown office building for $13.6 million. The same company owns the abandoned building that became an open-air drug market. The acquisition cost them ​​$75 a square foot — even though it sold for $245 a square foot in 2014. [Willamette Week]

Writer Shot in Eye Speaks for Gun Safety

“I’m one of the lucky ones because the bullet stopped in my eye and it didn’t enter my brain,” says the writer Jessie Kwak, who was shot on July 15 after the Mississippi Street Fair. She’s also speaking out in support of gun safety regulations, specifically Measure 114, which passed last year but is being challenged in the courts. She’s on the road to recovery but lost sight in her left eye. [Oregonian 🔒]

PPS Tries Drug Abuse Prevention Bags

Portland Public Schools distributed 14,000 bags for deactivating expired or illicit drugs as part of an effort to prevent drug abuse. Deterra bags have “non-toxic, carbon-activated crystals inside” that when combined with water “break down whatever’s inside, from expired Ibuprofen to marijuana to heroin,” OPB reports. One bag can destroy up to 45 pills. [OPB]

• Related: The Lund Report’s Emily Green explains Portland’s fentanyl addiction crisis. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

The premier Portland advertising firm Wieden & Kennedy has launched a civic-minded campaign with the slogan “Portland Is What We Make It” — and a mural at Southeast Second Avenue and Yamhill Street.

If it had rainbows the mural would hardly be more full of saccharine-sweet imagery. But seeing the mural in person I found it compelling; I am a sucker for kittens. Still, I wanted to hear from you all about your reaction to the campaign:

A shoutout to the readers who identified the spot: Lauri Byerly and Dean Schmeltz, who wrote in:

“The image of a cat reminds me of a mindfulness metaphor I heard recently:

“A dog will fixate on a bone waved in front of it, and if you threw the bone, most dogs couldn't help but chase it. On the other hand, waving a bone in front of a lion wouldn't break the lion's focus on you.

“The cat in this mural reminds me of a mini-lion: she is holding the big picture of Portland's future in her imagination.”

Today’s scavenger hunt, like last week’s, has been in the news. Do you know where this horse is? Bonus points for whatever you know about her!

🎹 Herbie Hancock | Tuesday | 6:30 p.m.

Catch the iconic jazz and R&B performer. [$73.39+, Forest Grove]

• Best and worst McMenamins, according to our local experts. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

🧡 Marie Yovanovitch | Wednesday | 7 p.m.

Come hear the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who was forced out after she stood up to then-President Trump in 2019. [$52, Concordia]

🏃🏽‍♀️ 4K4Community | Oct. 10 | 4 p.m.

Run to benefit the nonprofit Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center and its affiliated alternative high school, Rosemary Anderson. [$35+ registration/donation, Central Eastside]

Is Portland Actually a National BBQ Hub?

A few years back, Texas Monthly proclaimed Portland had the best Texas-style barbecue scene outside of Texas. But we wanted to hear from a local expert: Oregonian restaurant critic Michael Russell assesses whether Portland really does have the best barbecue scene on the West Coast.