☕ Local coffee shops take over Starbucks

Snowpack Is Melting Early

Oregon’s historically low snowpack is melting early. The snow is disappearing four to 10 weeks earlier than normal, meaning streams and rivers will be dryer sooner. That’s a problem, particularly east of the Cascades, where communities get as much as 70% of their water — for agriculture, hydropower, recreation, and drinking — from the snow stored up in the mountains. [Oregonian]

Council Passed Mayor’s Budget

In a series of marathon budget sessions last week, City Council made only minor changes to the mayor’s budget. Among the amendments they passed, they cut $2.5 million of the councilors’ security budget in place of proposed cuts to Portland Street Response and Community Health Assess and Treat — both of which are unarmed teams that respond to public safety calls. City Council also found funding to keep a fire engine at the St. Johns station. [OPB]

• Related: During the 27 hours of meetings, things got tense at times, and the factions representing what counts as the right and the left wing of Portland’s political spectrum often couldn’t reach a compromise. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

Local Coffee Shops Take Over Starbucks

There are now two local coffee chains that have snapped up shuttered Starbucks storefronts: By fall, Roseline Coffee plans to have a new shop in the vacant Starbucks location at East Burnside and Northeast 28th Avenue. And Push Pull is opening in a Multnomah Village location by August. [Oregonian]

Before summer is out, the beloved Lloyd Center mall and its ice-skating rink are slated to close. To mark the end of that era, we asked for your memories of the mall — and got a few to share with you.

Here’s one to get us started:

“I was in the second grade. I know that because we moved to California in the third grade.

“My grandma Cherie and I would often go to Lloyd Center for back-to-school clothes or Christmas gifts for my parents. Back then, one of the anchor stores was Meier & Frank. Department stores weren't the 70% sale signs with racks of clothes crammed together like they are now. They were open and big and full of everything from sequin evening gowns to La-Z-Boy recliners.

“There were women who would spray perfume on little cards for you, and I remember collecting them like playing cards. I'd bring them home and lay them out on my dresser and put them up to my nose again and again, thinking this is what luxury and fancy women must smell like. When my grandma and I stepped across the threshold into Meier & Frank, there was this silver metal flooring that softly blew out warm air. It was like a big hug, a warm welcome into the store and out of the mall. I loved it.

“Lloyd Center back in the 80s was bustling. It was the center of the eastside. Yes, ice skating. But also places like Hot Dog on a Stick with those primary-colored fitted uniforms and tall hats. My grandma is no longer with us, but I have such fond memories of holding her hand riding the escalators of Lloyd Center. It was the mall of my childhood.” — Jess Jensen, NW Portland

📲 Your memories? Please email us your memories of our mall.