❄️ Portland’s winter has felt colder, but is it?

Damian Lillard Scholarships at PSU

The former Blazers basketball superstar Damian Lillard is keeping up his Portland connections, even after his move to Milwaukee. He’s launched $25,000-a-year scholarships to Portland State for applicants from the East Bay in California, where he grew up. [Willamette Week]

A Bill for Easier Civil Commitments

The Oregon Legislature is weighing legislation that seeks to make civil commitments for mental illness more common. Some disability rights groups oppose the measure while some parents of children with severe mental illness are pushing for it. [KOIN]

Cold But Warmer Than Usual

If you feel like it’s been uncommonly cold this winter, you’re not alone. But the facts aren’t on your side: Portland is having a warmer-than-average winter, and climate change means we’re simply more accustomed to milder temperatures. [OPB]

Last week, the newsletter included gripes about some obvious ways our city falls short. But Portland is an incredible place too.

Today we have some shoutouts about why this city is getting better and better from freelance reporter Jenni Moore, who recently shared her picks for the city’s best Black-owned restaurants and other foodie destinations on the City Cast Portland podcast.

She also shared what she loves about Portland right now:

“I love that Portland is growing and that more people are coming to live and vacation here because it is bringing so much more diversity, opportunity, flavor, and just life to the city. 

“I also love having access to such an active, creative community of artists, arts patrons, and lovers of culture — and especially that queer and trans people of color can take social refuge and be leaders here.

“As much as I personally and politically have issues with the direction of some of these platforms and their founders, one good thing that the internet and social media have done is made it easier for different cultural communities here in town to connect the last 10 years or so.

“[It’s made it easier to] be able to network, and organize and support one another in ways that are really cool (often in these sort of bubbles that overlap — e.g., the queer community, the vegan community, the Black-owned biz community, BIPOC-owned biz community), and often showing up in different markets, collectives, or event series like PDX Black Collective, My People’s Market, or Black Girls Brunch Club.”

What do you love most about Portland right now? Please share your view with us.