I Love Portland

Last Saturday morning, I attended the graduation celebration for the City of Portland's Economic Opportunity Initiative (EOI). You may recall when I went to this last year - I was one of the "graduates" of the program. This year, I went as a staff representative for Trillium Artisans, the nonprofit where I work, which is funded by the EOI.

We had seven artisans graduating this year, and one of them, Tim Combs, was a speaker at the event, along with Mayor Sam Adams, (above) and EOI Program Manager Lynn Knox (below).

Here are some pictures that I took of Tim. I was up in the balcony and the lighting was bad, so these didn't come out so hot. But Tim did a great job talking about Trillium's community and ways it has helped him learn to market and sell his art. He even mentioned Etsy!

Afterward there was coffee and chitchat, but we didn't stay long. Chuck, who was sweet enough to come with me, was wearing some Dartgun buttons and was thrilled when Mayor Sam shook his hand and said, "Dartgun." hee hee!

We bailed out of City Hall pretty early and headed down to the waterfront. It was a beautiful day!

We checked out the new location of Portland Saturday Market, which has been moved to Waterfront Park under what looks like a big hangar.

Lots of familar faces and booths that have been at the market for many, many years. I hope the new location will be successful for them! It's still under the Burnside Bridge (which you can see a bit of in the picture below)!

In some ways it seemed a little too crowded and cramped to me - maybe the aisles between rows of booths are narrower? But it also seemed cool - new, fresh, and clean, and will probably be an even better spot for tourists. Apparently there is no ATM on site (like there used to be) and that was a little discouraging, so we didn't end up getting food. Alas, no Horn of Africa, no Jalisco's burritos for us. We just went home and made sandwiches. (Update: I am so sad to hear that Limey passed away and no longer has his yummy British food cart - no more pasties, no more cuppa tea. Sigh. Lea, thanks for letting me know.)


I just wanted to say that I love Portland! I love the fact that I live in a city that funds a program like Trillium, which helps artists to become business people. And I love it for finding a new and better home for Saturday Market. I love living in a vibrant, creative, beautiful city. I feel really lucky to be here.