I’ve been listening to a local news podcast called City Cast Portland. There are 12 similar podcasts, called City Cast, around the country. These are moderated by local, impassioned reporters who have the goal of reviving love for one’s city, and getting to the bottom of local stories via concerns that the people in the neighborhoods actually care about.
Episodes are a mix of “Where are Portland’s best dive bars?” and “How do all the lifting bridges work when a big ship comes through?” and “How did our first use of Ranked Choice Voting actually pan out?” and “What are the best hikes to see wildflowers?” and “What’s going on with the Pappy Van Winkle scandal?” and “What’s a better way to pay for highway maintenance and earthquake retrofitting for schools?” There are interviews with people like the Police Chief, and the Mayor, and once a week they highlight a specific Portland neighborhood with someone who lives there and loves it, and is eager to tell us about it.
I recently began a membership with them, it’s called being a “neighbor,” that comes with perks like ad-free listening. We recently took a tour of the St. Johns neighborhood in Portland – for free, and only for members.
St. Johns (no apostrophe) is one of my favourite neighborhoods in Portland. I’ve been lucky enough to have a couple of reasons to go there more often than other places, because Kellen’s partner, Cameron, grew up there. When the kids were in high school, and in the years just after, I drove to St. Johns all the time, shuttling them to each other’s houses before they could drive. Then my longtime friend Vladimir moved here from Honolulu, and he also did not drive, so I came here all the time to visit him. Vlad has since moved to the Mississippi district – another one of my fave Portland neighborhoods.
So we met the show’s host, Claudia Meza, and tourguide Tanya Lyn March from Slabtown Tours on an unusually hot day, and began our two-hour walking tour. Most people held up in the heat because Tanya took it easy on us, and kept us in the shade often. She regularly offered people a route back to the bar we would eventually end up at, and a couple people took it to go wait for us in the air conditioning.
Our tour began with the creation of the area of St. Johns, and interesting tidbits like how they fought to be independent of the city of Portland at first, and how the two cities used passive aggressive tactics to fight about it, like putting in a railroad line to isolate them from each other. There were often funny bits of information, like the fact that the city was founded by James Johns. He added the “Saint” just…because.
We learned about the 1910 Sikh riot, which was when the white people of St. Johns felt that Indian immigrants at the mills were taking their jobs and attacked them, beating them and running most of them out of town. Soon though, the Mayor and eight other white people who had caused the riot, were indicted. We learned about a prominent Chinese American family that invested deeply in the community for generations.
Then the tour then covered changes over time, and plugs for current businesses, and the St. Johns Boosters. We learned that Mr. Holland’s Opus was filmed there. We also learned that the first plywood in the country was made here, and that today, 64% of businesses in St. Johns are women-owned.
Lots of great places to eat were pointed out, to include my fave burrito place in all of Portland, Tienda Santa Cruz – you have to walk through the bodega in the front to get to the restaurant in the back. We saw Slim’s – a bar that Claudia Meza talks about all the time. I couldn’t recall it, and when she pointed it out, I could see why. From the street, it’s so dark you almost can’t see the door, there are no windows, the shingle hidden in trees, just the word “Slims” painted on the door. But inside is apparently worth a trip, and word has it that the food is amazing. Now I want to go, but all my St. Johns connections have moved away!
We were all pretty eager to visit the Sticky Wicket, a new (and likely the ONLY) Cricket Sports Bar in Portland. Not so much for the cricket, but for the air conditioning and cold drinks.
I’d recommend everything in this post: learning history, visiting St. Johns, becoming a member of any City Cast you’re interested in, and walking. 🙂
Conscious Engagement 
I am reminded of Cambridge and Boston in the old days before things got richified,and made bland.
I’ll bet Boston has THE BEST stories from the early days. You’d need to do a walking tour series, one for every 50 years, ha ha.
That would be fun. I was there in the sixties, and base some of my stories on the happenings in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.
Sounds like a fun way to get to know a neighborhood, Crystal, and an interesting podcast designed to bring people together.
Yes to both things. I love walking tours! I try to do them when I can. I’ve done one in Boston, and one in Salem, MA. I know there are a couple in Portland, and we will have to do one of those too.
Peggy and I did the Boston Walk. It was great fun and the history was incredible!
How far away is it from tour place?
Is that a typo? Were you asking how far from our place? St. Johns is sort of far, a 40 minute drive even though it’s due north of us here in Tigard. That’s because it’s on the other side of the Willamette River, and there’s no bridge directly between us. So we have to go East or West first, cross the river, then come back.
Me? Typo? 😂 Yes, thanks for the info. 40 minutes is just down the road in Australian terms. That’s very inconvenient there’s not a bridge. Maybe start a petition and movement to get a bridge built.
Oh right, Australia must be like the western US for distances. I wrote my comment without thinking. Often my readers say something like “an hour away? that is ridiculous” but for us, it’s like, well, that’s where the store is…so…. gotta drive it. Living in Portland now with things 5 minutes away is a brand new experience for me!
I can’t remember the days where there wasn’t a lot of planning just to go to town 😂
This was quite the educational day for me. I had never heard of those neighborhoods and of course walking tours are low on my ability list but you do see so much more when you walk. I miss being able to do that. I’ll notify the daughter of the podcast. All my information these days comes from them. Mr. Holland’s Opus was a favorite movie of mine just behind Max Dugan Returns. I would have loved learning all about the different areas. Gosh, I miss Portland area so much. No flying anywhere until something changes RE: air safety. I enjoyed going on the walk with you here. Thanks.
I forgot all about Mr. Holland’s Opus, but we should try to find it streaming somewhere. I remember liking it. Richard Dreyfuss was in some good movies. Oh hey, he was in Jaws! And Close Encounters, right? Jaws gave me nightmares for years, but maybe I could watch it now. Pretty sure I’ve never seen Max Dugan Returns.
Yes, learning about the different Portland neighborhoods is fun. I like when they talk about a place I know, but I’m also enjoying when they talk about a place I’m unfamiliar with. I hope they cycle through them all again, once they’ve covered them all. It would be cool to get new people each time, to tell about their own neighborhood.
Oh gosh, air safety. What a crazy thing to have to worry about now. The world is all new and unpredictable and what a hard thing to have to manage.
Loved hearing the local stories and quirks of St. Johns, now I really want to check out Slim’s and that burrito spot!
I’ll go with you! ha ha 🙂
This is an ode to neighbourhood
Oh yes, what a nice way to put it. I think the idea of walking tours of neighborhoods is rather romantic.
What a cool thing! I’ll have to look for something similar in the Seattle area. I like Derrick’s description: an ode to a neighbourhood. And Portland has so many!
I feel sure that Seattle must have them, especially to talk about the underground stuff, the immigrants and the early days.
Yes, I actually checked amd one is in the works for Seattle! I’m on an email notification list for when it goes live. Thanks for the heads-up!
Oh yay!!