Your Daily Guide

First Major Oregon Secretary of State Candidate

Tobias Read, who is currently serving his second term as state treasurer, will run for Oregon secretary of state in 2024. He lost to Gov. Tina Kotek in last year’s Democratic primary for governor. [Willamette Week]

Kmart Fire Had Less Asbestos

Initial tests of debris from the fire at Parkrose’s former Kmart showed asbestos, but there’s good news: Subsequent testing has found less contamination than initially feared. State officials say the company that’s currently leasing the Kmart building, called Prologis, is covering the cost of the emergency response. [KGW]

Landlord Incentives for Heat Pumps

Oregon landlords can receive up to $5,000 in rebates to install a heat pump and with it comes air-conditioning for tenants. The Legislature passed a bill this year seeking to create energy-efficient homes. [OPB]

The Case for Decriminalizing Sex Work

Sex workers (and some lawmakers) want Oregon to decriminalize sex work. Elle Stanger, a Portland-based sex educator, sex worker, and host of the “They Talk Sex” podcast, discusses how it would work and why consulting adults should be able to pay or be paid for sex. (Note: This podcast touches on sexually explicit content.) [City Cast Portland 🎧]

It is possible to wander through the streets that inspired the fictional world of Beverly Cleary’s classic children’s books, as if through the set of a movie.

The Grant Park and Hollywood neighborhoods are speckled with the places that inspired the fictional universe of Ramona Quimby, the spunky little girl who is so beloved she is honored with a statue in the neighborhood park.

🛼 First Stop: 3340 NE Hancock St.

That’s where Beverly Cleary lived from fourth to eighth grade. The street served as a model for the imaginary Klickitat Street where both her fictional protagonists Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins lived. It is still possible to imagine a curious child, pumping the pedals of her tricycle on that sidewalk.

🧶 Next Stop: Northeast Klickitat Street at 37th Avenue

The real Klickitat Street was up the hill from one of the homes Cleary’s family rented. In this neighborhood, it’s a stretch of larger houses than the working-class residences of the Quimby’s life. Cleary chose her fictional street name because it reminded her of the sound of knitting needles, I learned in my tourings.

🍨 Final Stop: Paulsen’s Pharmacy (4246 NE Sandy Blvd.)

Not all remains the same, of course, in Portland. There’s now a Tesla parked in the driveway where Cleary imagined Ramona playing “brick factory” (aka pounding bricks into dust) with her friend and neighbor Howie Kemp. The street that Henry would sled down (Northeast 33rd) is far too busy these days. And Paulsen’s Pharmacy (the basis for the fictional place Ramona ordered ice cream sodas) closed during the pandemic, though you can still look in the window at the bar.

Thanks to the readers who pointed me in the direction of the Multnomah County Library’s self-guided tour. Consult that map for more information, including the schools where Cleary attended (like the one that now bears her name).

For a more comprehensive tour, there’s also a book: “Walking with Ramona: Exploring Beverly Cleary’s Portland.”

🚌 Seventeen-year-old Adah Crandall is an organizer with Sunrise Movement, a national youth climate justice organization. She’s been a leading voice opposing some of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s megaprojects to expand highways. She spoke with the City Cast Portland podcast last week about the billion-dollar I-5 Rose Quarter project, but she also shared a gripe she has about our city’s bus system:

“I'm annoyed that TriMet has been putting the screens on the bus stops that say when the bus is coming, updated with the times, which is great and super helpful and fantastic. But some of them are just fully the wrong line. Some of them, it tells you when this other bus line is coming to a stop that is not actually where you are, which is annoying.

“Google Maps is usually slightly better. But it's always funny when people are learning to take the bus here, and they're like, ‘Yeah, I've got the TriMet app.’ Because somehow Google and Apple Maps are more accurate. And sometimes none of them are right.”

“The bus just shows up whenever it wants to. Which, you know, wouldn't be a problem if the bus came more frequently!”

🚍 How’s TriMet these days in your experience? Email me.

City Cast Portland lead producer John Notarianni contributed this segment.

🎵 She’s Speaking | Wednesday | 5 p.m.

The Wednesday summer music series, Music on Main, this week features a group that combines blues, jazz, rock, and folk. [Free, Downtown]

🔬 ‘Oppenheimer’ | Wednesday | 3 p.m. & 7 p.m.

The 35mm version of the film is playing for those of you who were too busy seeing “Barbie.” [$10.25, Northwest]

🎤 Parliament Funkadelic with George Clinton | Saturday | 8 p.m.

It’s the legendary funk singer and bandleader. [$66.57, Downtown]

• Related: McMenamins: the best (and worst) of the ever-present brewpub. [City Cast Portland 🎧]