Willamette Week

Multigenerational households—that is, homes with three or more generations in the mix—are more common than they used to be, due to a combination of spiraling costs of care for both elders and children as well as shifting cultural norms. Sometimes this simply involves bringing an older relative or a grown child into a spare room or converted attic—but many opt for an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU.

In recent years, some of Portland’s largest nonprofit providers of supportive housing have begun to face a remarkable new expense: They effectively had to start self-insuring their properties after insurance companies backed away amid surging costs to repair units that had been burned, flooded or left in disarray.

Lillian Hardy didn’t expect to start an 850-member club. On a sunny day in mid-June, Hardy posted to her brand Landdd’s Instagram, inviting women and woman-identifying individuals to join her at a “secret river spot” in Oxbow Park near Troutdale. She created a corresponding WhatsApp group to share logistics and directions. More than 30 women came, but the WhatsApp group exploded overnight, reaching 300 members in less than 24 hours.

Our own junk drawers are not so compelling. But being able to snoop around in other people’s? Now that could be interesting. A photo book called Junk all about Portlanders’ junk drawersis now available in a few local stores and for order online (blahblahblah.love, $49). Michael Apruzzese’s 192-page book is billed as “a collection of intimate, private, useless and forgotten treasures”—all pulled from Portlanders’ junk drawers. “Every single person’s drawer is different, and not just by a little bit.

The Trail Blazers held their annual media day Monday morning in a small room in the back of the Moda Center, their home since 1995, which has become the main topic of discourse in Portland this year.

How much? $62,000 across three contributions. Who got it? Andrew Morrison, Republican candidate running to represent District 48 in the Oregon House of Representatives. That district includes parts of Southeast Portland in Multnomah County and the northern part of Clackamas County. He faces incumbent Democrat Lamar Wise, who was appointed to the seat in 2025 following the death of Rep. Hoa Nguyen. The race could be a close one; Nguyen won the seat by just 1,678 votes in 2024. Who gave it?

A recent Oregon Values and Beliefs Center poll showed that prospective voters expressed the least amount of trust in the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners out of all local governments. Three candidates running for county chair this November are trying to change that. The board’s agenda is set by the county chair, and the current chair, Jessica Vega Pederson, isn’t running for reelection.

FAMILY ALLEGES BULL RUN DISRUPTIONS: A Boring, Ore., family alleges in a lawsuit filed in Clackamas County Circuit Court on Sept. 28 that the city’s $2.6 billion Bull Run Filtration Project has subjected their home to “near-daily noise, vibration, dust, and blocked access” and has “disrupted” nearly all of the family’s daily activities, including sleep. The 95-acre treatment facility to filter Portland’s water is expected to wrap in 2029.

In June 2025, Portland Public Schools officials entered into a relatively small, $149,500 services contract with a Texas-based construction firm called Procedeo, at the time a newcomer to Portland. The firm was there to find ways to make the planned $466 million modernization of Jefferson High School cheaper and faster, and the school district initially waved Procedeo through with a contract just under the threshold that would have required approval by the Portland School Board.

Biotech leaders and politicians descended on an office park in Hillsboro this week to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new $750 million factory expansion by biotech company Genentech. Cameras clicked as officials smiled and symbolically shoveled dirt into the air. Specific terms of the state’s deal with Genentech remain unclear. Gov.