Editorial and Sales Address: 1837 S.E. Harold Street Portland, OR 97202-4932 Remit bill payments to: Accounts Receivable Department P.O. Box 45, West Linn, OR 97068
January, 2025- Vol. 119, No. 5 Scroll down to read this issue! Memories of THE BEE's first 100 years! In 2006, THE BEE celebrated its centennial of serving Southeast Portland! A special four-page retrospective of Inner Southeast Portland's century, written by Eileen Fitzsimons, and drawn from the pages of THE BEE over the previous 100 years, appeared in our September, 2006, issue. Click here to read the special centenary retrospective!
_________________________________________ BEE SUBMISSION AND AD DEADLINES Next BEE is our February issue, with a deadline of January 23, 2025. (The Marchissue has an ad and copy deadline of February 20.)
INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING?CLICK HEREFOR RATES AND INFORMATION! ____________________________________
Want to subscribe to receive the PRINT version of THE BEE in the mail? Email circulation@pamplinmedia.com -- or telephone 503/620-9797, during weekday business hours. The 12-issue annual print subscription is$25 per yearfor addresses anywhere in the United States.. International rates are available; inquire via the e-mail address or the telephone number two lines up! _________________________________________________________________________
Daily news! The Portland Tribune is updated a number of times every day, to bring you the latest news of the Portland area and Oregon. Click on the banner at left to read the Tribune online!
THE BEE has a second website -- searchable for past stories. The content for the current month includes what is on this one, presented in a different format. To visit our newer website, click the banner at right!
GDPR NOTICE: The owner of this website, www.ReadTheBee.com, collects no information on this site from any reader, and never has.
Oregon Pacific Railroad owners – Tim, Brian, Craig Samuels – say they’re happy that the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation will be acquiring the business started by their father, Richard “Dick” Samuels. (Photo by David F. Ashton)
Railroad Heritage Foundation to buy, run, ‘Sellwood’s Railroad’
By DAVID F. ASHTON For THE BEE
For decades, the continuing story about East Portland’s “short-line” Oregon Pacific Railroad (OPR) has been a fascinating one.
Since the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation (ORHF) came up with the idea of having Christmastime Holiday Express steam-locomotive powered excursions through Oaks Bottom, those outings have run on “Portland Division” tracks owned by Oregon Pacific Railroad (see the related Holiday Express story elsewhere on this month's website).
When its founder, President and Chief Engineer, Richard A. “Dick” Samuels, passed away on May 28, 2021, many speculated about the future of the railroad, which was left in the hands of his three sons – all of whom had already been working for the Oregon Pacific Railroad for decades.
When, on December 3rd, the Rail Foundation announced, “[We have] entered a sales agreement to acquire the Oregon Pacific Railroad”, THE BEE spoke with the Samuels brothers – Tim, Brian, and Craig – in their railyard near Ochoco Street about the planned sale of their family business.
“First, we just wanted to say thanks for taking an interest in our railroad throughout the years,” said Tim (whom Brian and Craig nominated to be the family spokesperson – because “he’s the eldest”). “We’ve enjoyed our time operating a short-line railroad, and working with our father over the years.
“30 years in the railroad industry is tiring, and wears on your body and mind; we will all have our 30 years in for railroad retirement as of October of 2026,” acknowledged Tim.
Railroad a continued success “A lot of people thought we would struggle operating the railroad when our father passed away, but we all think we have done a pretty darned good job over the last 3-1/2 years – the railroad is in the best physical and financial condition it's ever been in. We feel we have ‘nothing left to prove’, and we know our father would have wanted the Portland line to go to the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation – an organization that he helped to found! – so it's simply a perfect fit for everyone,” Tim went on. “So, the three of us are all excited to pass the railroad on to the ORHF – to watch it grow and prosper. As for us, we’ll more time for our families and to pursue other interests for which we’ve had so little time.”
When the sale is eventually completed, the ORHF will acquire all assets of the “Portland Division” of the Oregon Pacific Railroad. That includes the five miles of track between OMSI and western Milwaukie; the locomotives; the track maintenance equipment; and the shop.
A year in the making “The idea for the agreement to transfer ownership of the Oregon Pacific Railroad to our organization has been in development for over a year; starting when the Samuels brothers approached us, expressing their interest in selling the railroad,” ORHC Executive Director Renee Devereux told THE BEE. “Our relationship with this railroad spans more than 20 years, and we’ve relied heavily on the use of its line for our revenue and excursion runs, like the Holiday Express.
“Dick Samuels, the visionary behind the Oregon Pacific, had a deep passion for sharing the joy of railroading, and was regularly in the locomotive for Saturday train rides, bringing smiles to passengers of all ages.
“For him, being in the locomotive and guiding a train full of happy passengers, was truly his happy place,” Devereux recalled. “After his passing, we at the Rail Heritage Center took on the responsibility of continuing those Saturday train rides, ensuring his legacy lives on by providing these experiences for our guests, and visitors to Portland.”
The primary consideration in the purchase, from the ORHF’s perspective, Devereux said, “is securing the future of rail excursions in Portland, not only for today but for generations to come. This acquisition ensures the continued operation of these cherished experiences.”
The transaction is expected to be finalized in the fall of 2026.
Olivia Clark was the “easy top vote-getter” in District 4, in the November election to introduce more citywide representation and a more professional organization to Portland City Government. (Courtesy of KOIN-TV-6 News)
‘Ranked Choice’ voting finally resolves District 3 and 4 races
By ERIC NORBERG Editor, THE BEE
It took quite some time for the complicated mathematical reductions of “Ranked Choice” voting to arrive at the final three winners in Portland’s first City Council races in Districts 3 and 4, in which the fields were choked with candidates.
In the end, in District 3, the winners were school teacher Tiffany Koyama-Lane, state lobbyist Angelita Morillo, and former Portland Commissioner Steve Novick, in a district which is entirely located in Southeast Portland – and which includes Brooklyn, Creston-Kenilworth, Woodstock, and Brentwood-Darlington, among others.
District 4, which includes all of Portland west of the Willamette River – but which was also stretched to include Sellwood, Westmoreland, Eastmoreland, Reed, and the Portland portion of Milwaukie’s Ardenwald neighborhood – wound up with the three winners being Olivia Clark, a former TriMet official; economist Mitch Green; and, in a very narrow win over Eli Arnold, a Sellwood resident who is also a downtown bicycle policeman, Multnomah County official Eric Zimmerman was eventually awarded the third seat.
KOIN-TV, a news partner of the Carpenter Media Group, of which THE BEE is a member, reported that Olivia Clark was the easy first-place finisher in District 4, after which Morning News Anchor Ken Boddie interviewed her about her plans on the newly-constituted 12-member Portland City Council. She said that her priorities are broadly in the areas of public safety and affordable housing.
“Public Safety means not just more police on the streets, but it really means making sure that the response time is improved – that if you dial 911, somebody actually answers the phone and somebody gets there within a reasonable amount of time,” she said.
“The homeless issue is a part of public safety. It’s not safe for people to be living on the streets, and it’s not good for the rest of us either. And housing development – we need more affordable housing. We need to streamline our permitting process. I know the current City Council has worked on that, but it’s up to us to implement it.”
KOIN-TV is based downtown – leading Boddie to observe that one of the other big issues that’s happening in downtown Portland involves the “incredibly high office vacancy rate. Workers are not coming back downtown, and some of landmark businesses such as U.S. Bank and the Portland Clinic are closing services due to safety concerns.”
Clark replied that the solution to that is finding even more ways to bring people back. “We need to have more housing downtown, and we need to look at options for activating the storefronts that are empty downtown,” she said. “But I’ll be looking to the property owners, the Chamber of Commerce, and others, for ideas about how we activate what we’ve got.”
Additionally, Clark has previously said Portland needs to “revisit the climate emergency action plan that allocates Portland Clean Energy Fund money to mitigate climate change.” As a result, she says she is encouraging other incoming City Council members to see how, or if, they would prioritize each of the items listed in the plan, all in the name of preparedness.
“One of the other things I’ve said on the campaign trail is that I want to make sure that all the City Bureaus – particularly infrastructure Bureaus – are ready for climate change, that they’re prepared, that there’s resiliency, redundancy,” she commented. “So for example, if the water gets cut off to my building, I want to know the water department, the water bureau, has a plan for how to restore that, because there are huge climate changes coming through.”
The new-look Portland City Council – led by its new Mayor, Keith Wilson – will take office in January.
Although the heavy storm clouds overhead made it as dark as twilight in early afternoon, the PGE “equipment failure” is clearly visible at the top of this pole at Flavel and 60th in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood. (Photo by David F. Ashton)
Storm damages power pole; Brentwood-Darlington goes dark
By DAVID F. ASHTON For THE BEE
A storm, with high winds, swept across Inner Southeast Portland on Tuesday, November 19th, blowing down some tree branches. Overall, though, there appeared to be little significant wind damage east of the Willamette River.
However, electric power flickered and then went out for a significant portion of Inner Southeast, centering on the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood. At 1:53 p.m., both East Precinct officers and a Portland Fire & Rescue crew were dispatched to the intersection of S.E. Flavel Street at 60th Avenue to investigate reports of an electrical transformer on fire.
A neighbor there told THE BEE that he’d heard a loud “pop”, and then saw fire flaring on the top of a wooden utility pole near the northwest corner of the intersection. “It looked like the insulator for the high-voltage wire failed, and [electricity] began arcing down the wet pole,” he said.
A main circuit breaker for the whole area tripped, the arcing stopped, and the fire self-extinguished. It was clear to arriving first-responders that a cross member on the top of the pole, holding the high-voltage wires, had burned through, snapped off, and the wires mounted on it were dangling on the service lines below.
Through the magic of Portland General Electric (PGE) technology, about 20 minutes later, that area was isolated, and electric power was rerouted, restoring service to most of the affected area – though the remainder had to wait for the repair to be completed.
“This outage was caused by an equipment failure,” later explained PGE Communications spokesperson John Farmer.
“The extended outage affected 425 customers,” he told THE BEE. “Our crews completed repairs and had the power back up and running for the remaining 425 homes and businesses just before midnight that day.”
All these new features, in paint and concrete, are designed to make the decision of kids and adults to cross S.E. Bybee at 14th Avenue safer than it has ever been before. But, whether that’ll work as intended will depend upon how drivers approach that intersection in the future. (Photo by Eric Norberg)
Risky intersection gets a makeover in Westmoreland
By ERIC NORBERG Editor, THE BEE
The Portland Bureau of Transportation has been getting static for many years over the unsafe street crossing that students going to and from Llewellyn Elementary School have been using, despite advice not to.
It was never supposed to be a crossing; it’s on a blind curve at S.E. Bybee Boulevard at 14th Avenue, and a car speeding around the curve on 13th towards eastbound Bybee would come upon the 14th intersection too soon to slam on the brakes and stop, if people are crossing there. PBOT and the SMILE Transportation Committee have been fretting over this for a long time.
While PBOT was trying to encourage schoolchildren to walk a block east and cross in the marked crosswalk at 15th – but without a lot of success – residents have been adding eye-catching vinyl ribbons to the warning sign on 13th, where the road starts to curve, to urge drivers to slow down. THE BEE has received and published letters about the dangers of that intersection from time to time.
Now, PBOT has made its move. The intersection has been re-engineered to try to make it safer, and in the process it has acknowledged that children will cross wherever they want to, like it or not, and have tried to accommodate them in the process.
The roadway in the curve has been re-striped with paint to direct cars to the outer side of the curve, where the view is better, and concrete mid-street barricades are now on both sides of 14th Avenue at that crossing.
In addition, a pedestrian refuge has been incorporated into the center curbing on the east side of the intersection – and, although no actual crosswalk has been painted there, the addition of two non-skid ramps on both sides of Bybee there, plus placement of two more against the mid-street curbing, makes it pretty clear that there is a crossing.
Further, there are now yellow pedestrian signs with arrows pointing down to the road on both sides of the street.
Will it be safer for kids crossing the street there? That is certainly the hope. But anyone crossing there will still be expected to look both ways, and to make sure the street is clear as far as can be seen particularly to the west, before attempting the crossing.
And if you’re a driver, for heaven’s sake watch out at that intersection as you approach it!
For the time being orange barrels and warning cones will surround the new mid-street curbing on both sides of the intersection on Bybee, to call attention to all the new features there, but eventually they will be removed when it is assumed most local drivers will know what’s now there in the road.
Meantime, parents will still be well-advised to accompany their kids in crossing Bybee whenever they can, just as in the past, to try to keep them safe.
Jolly Santa and Mrs. Claus greet kids during every Holiday Express trip along the east side of the Willamette River. (Photo by David F. Ashton)
Riding the steam-powered ‘Holiday Express’ through Oaks Bottom
By DAVID F. ASHTON For THE BEE
Since the colorful fundraiser began in 2005, the Holiday Express steam-powered locomotive December train rides through the Oaks Bottom Natural Area has been a signature event for the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation (ORHF) – with the exception of a couple of years clouded by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The ORHF has just greatly expanded its Holiday Express operating season – starting these weekend runs right after Thanksgiving Day, and continuing them through January 4, 2025 – for a total of 102 excursions, their longest season yet.
In the past, we’ve mainly covered these by watching the trains departing – first from a temporary station set up at Oaks Amusement Park, and now more recently from the Oregon Rail Heritage Center (ORHC) – and from inside the Center’s Enginehouse.
Riding the Holiday Express We upped our game by experiencing the Holiday Express for ourselves this season, so with tickets in hand we hopped on board.
Taking seats at a table in the vintage dining car, we watched as the train pulled away from the Rail Center, rumbling south along the Oregon Pacific Railroad tracks at a leisurely 12 mph.
Our sunset excursion provided unique views of the Willamette River, as the train clickety-clacked its way past Oaks Amusement Park, before slowing to a stop at S.E. Spokane Street in Sellwood.
Along the way, Santa and Mrs. Claus – along with a band of merry elves – made their way through the train, meeting some 200 riders, distributing candy canes, giving hugs, and getting photos with families. “I’m thrilled that I’ll be giving away 19,000 candy canes this season,” Santa confided to THE BEE.
Volunteers are essential Greeting returning riders as the train pulled in was ORHF Executive Director Renee Devereux. “The Holiday Express is vital to our organization for many reasons,” she told THE BEE. “It’s our largest community event, helping us to connect with, and bring joy to, thousands of people of all ages – while celebrating the heritage of railroading.
“Even more, it fosters a love for trains, while it showcases the incredible work of our volunteers,” Devereux continued. “Additionally, the excursions generate significant revenue to support our mission to preserve and share Oregon’s rail history throughout the year.”
Elaborating on their volunteers, she remarked that about 40 of them maintain the locomotives and railcars throughout the year – as well as operate the trains during the Holiday Express, in addition to the spring and summer excursions.
“We’re so grateful for the 135 additional volunteers who contribute by decorating the railcars and our Center, providing meals during shifts, and helping with event operations – such as will-call, parking lot management, being loading hosts, car hosts, and more,” commended Devereux.
Get tickets now; rides sell out Daytime trips offer a variety of scenery and a chance to see wildlife in Oaks Bottom; the early dusk trains offer an opportunity to see the train decorated with lights.
On operating days, Holiday Express excursions leave punctually – so plan to arrive at least 20 minutes early, so you aren’t left behind! Before or after your ride, enjoy the activities in the “Enginehouse”. The round-trip rides leave from, and return to, the Oregon Rail Heritage Center just east of OMSI at 2250 S.E. Water Avenue. The MAX Orange Line stops right in front, and there’s a parking lot if you’re driving.
For more information – and to purchase your tickets in advance to assure you’ll be able to ride – visit their website at https://www.orhf.org/train-rides/holiday-express
We took the ride! Now YOU can, too – in this brief and exclusiveBEE VIDEO! –
Trying to remember or locate a BEE advertiser? Click here to e-mail us, and we'll help!
Fair warning: We have so many great photos on page 2 this month, it may take a moment or two to load on slower connections! Now, prepare to enjoy what we have for you on page 2!
READY TO TURN TO PAGE 2 -- FOR "MORE NEWS"? Click here!
Note to readers: At some point, this, our original Internet website, may be replaced at this web address by our new website, as part of the Community Newspapers group. At that time, you will still be able to access this, our original -- and smartphone-friendly -- website, if you save this address: www.sePDXnews.com. Right now, it takes you to our newest website; if you ever find our newest website appearing at www.ReadTheBee.com, you will then be able to find this old familiar website at that "sePDXnews" address. And, you'll still have your choice of which one to visit!
