City Cast Portland
📚 The county’s latest, gorgeous new library
May 19, 2026 · — Rachel Monahan
Good morning! Portland area voters still name homelessness as their top concern, though it’s fewer than in years past.
That may be because homelessness is becoming less visible, the Oregonian reports: Even as the numbers rise, there are fewer tents and large encampments in the city’s business districts — which some poll respondents mentioned.
Today's Must-Know
Get Your Ballots In Today
It took me till yesterday to get my ballot filled in, and I know there are a lot of you out there who are also late to this. On the podcast, we’ve been exploring a few of the key decisions in front of voters, like the gas tax repeal and the gubernatorial primaries, along with a few more races that may be a little tougher to make a decision on. [City Cast Portland 🎧]
- 🗳️ Metro Council races: On today’s City Cast Portland episode, what’s at stake in the regional government Metro Council races? Spoiler: They make land-use decisions, oversee our garbage, and tackle homelessness regionwide. [City Cast Portland 🎧]
- ⚖️ Four competitive judicial races: It’s almost unheard of for voters to have a say in this many competitive judicial races, which shaped up to be a contest between those endorsed by Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez versus “more progressive forces.” [City Cast Portland 🎧]
- 🗞️ Newspaper endorsement: The local papers have made their endorsements. Read the Oregonian, Portland Mercury, and Willamette Week for various perspectives on the candidates and the ballot measures.
- 📻 A ballot guide: OPB has a series of stories to learn more about the races (no endorsements offered).
What's CITY Talking About
A Brand-New Library in Gresham
On Saturday, the new East County Library opened its doors. It’s a beautiful space with a lot of exposed wood and includes a 200-person auditorium and an audiovisual studio. The project was, OPB reports, “perhaps the most ambitious building funded by Multnomah County’s Library Capital Bond,” which renovated or built new libraries for each branch over the last six years. [OPB]
- Two more to follow: The projects at the St. John’s and Belmont branches are still ongoing — and scheduled to reopen this summer. [OPB]
Backyard Coyotes
A family of coyotes has made their home in a Southeast Portland backyard. And the homeowner has captured it on camera. [Oregonian]
- Coyote cam: You don’t have to watch long to spot the six adorable coyote pups. [YouTube / Oregonian]
A Boom in Local Saunas
A local sauna entrepreneur says that Oregon is now competing to be the sauna capital of the United States. Willamette Week dug up data to show it’s an increasingly popular business at the very least: 30 new Oregon businesses with the word “sauna” in their name were registered in 2025 alone. [Willamette Week]
- Notable number: The first-ever Willamette Sauna Festivaali, which took place in February, had 1,000 attendees. [Willamette Week]
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What To Do
Tuesday, May 19
- 🎭 We Are Taiwan | Winningstad Theatre (Downtown)
- 🎻 Open Bluegrass Jam | McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern (Hillsboro)
- 🎬 Interstellar (Sci-Fi Film Festival) | OMSI
- 👕 Clothing Swap & Fashion Activism Action Party | Soapbox Portland (Sunnyside)
- 📚 Book Publishing Q&A | BOLD Coffee & Books (Goose Hollow)
- 🦴 Science Pub: Fifty Years of Paleontology at John Day | Kennedy School (Concordia)
- 🎸 Augustana: All the Stars and Boulevards (20th Anniversary) | Alberta Rose Theatre
Wednesday, May 20
- 🎬 Once Upon a Time in the West | Cinemagic Theater (Southeast Hawthorne)
- 🎤 Acoustic Village Open Mic | Artichoke Community Music (Hosford-Abernethy)
- 🎯 Drag Bingo at Darcelle's XV | Darcelle's XV Showplace (Old Town)
- 🎬 Project Hail Mary (last day) | OMSI
- 🎤 Brandi Carlile | Hayden Homes Amphitheater (Bend)
- 🩰 White Bird: Ballets Jazz Montréal | Keller Auditorium
- 📚 Veronica Roth in Conversation with Kendare Blake | Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing (Beaverton)
- 🎤 Paola Ramos: A Voice of the People Series | Winningstad Theatre (Downtown)
⛽ Coping with higher gas prices: Oregonians are getting creative with how they’re commuting and running errands as the price of gas rose again in the last week — to an average of $5.27 a gallon in Oregon.
Some people have turned to electric cars, motorcycles, walking, or skateboarding, while others are being more careful about planning out errands to align with where they need to be anyway.
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