🍜 The restaurateur seeking $2.4M from Portland

Crackdown on Commercial Airbnb

In a vote Wednesday, the Portland City Council has closed a loophole to require stronger safety improvements for short-term rental properties in commercial areas of the city where investors can operate Airbnbs similar to hotels (with no resident on site). The city has been working to crack down on Airbnb scofflaws of late — and the rule change makes it easier for them to do so. [Oregonian 🔒]

Pho Gabo Files $2.4M Lawsuit Against City

The Vietnamese restaurant that opted to close rather than pay the repeated fines for the smell of its food has filed a $2.4 million lawsuit against the city: Eddie Dong, owner of Pho Gabo, charges the city with targeting him at least in part based on “race or national origin.” [Oregonian 🔒]

Problems With Police Accountability

On the Friday news roundup, the city has paid out $3.3 million to social justice protesters in recent years even while the police bureau is subject to various forms of oversight. "If you look at all of the different iterations of oversight on police, there’s a lot of overlapping ones, none of which have a ton of teeth,” says KBOO new director Althea Billings. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

“Other Hand,” a mural by artist Olivia Knapp, is in the Montavilla neighborhood (on Southeast Stark at 78th Avenue).

Fun fact: it took her 12 hours a day for 12 days to paint it — a timelapse video of the process is on the artist’s website.

“One of my favorite murals in one of my favorite neighborhoods!” writes reader Emily.

“The red wall to the left is Flying Pie Pizza; the wall is part of the Academy Theater Complex. I love my little neighborhood strip! Shout out to La Bouffe, the best little international market in town, right up the street!” writes reader Michelle Mae Reinwald.

A shoutout to them and the other readers who knew the location: Jacob Loeb, Joan Simko, Weston Ruter, and Scott Pedemonte.

Thanks to reader Michelle Mathews for this coming week’s scavenger hunt suggestion:

Do you know the spot? As always, email in the location if you have the answer. For unofficial bonus points, I always appreciate hearing what you know about it, and also your stories about the location.

Want to submit a photo? Send me a snapshot of somewhere in the Portland metro area, and we’ll consider it for an upcoming Where Is It? segment!