Broadway Books

Broadway Books LogoA series of posts about places where you can buy, borrow or donate books in and around our amazing neighborhood.

In 1992 two friends decided that Northeast Portland needed a neighborhood bookstore and, after working in the book business for many years, decided to go out on their own to open their own store.  Turning an old furniture store into a bookstore, buying what seemed like a million books for their bookshelves, hiring a few good people, the beginning of an almost quarter century business had begun.  There have been a couple changes in ownership but the spirit of the store  and the dedication to the customers and neighborhood remains the same. As their website states, “Our friends became our customers and our customers became our friends.”

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Annual Eliot Spring Clean Up

Cleanup
2016 Eliot Cleanup

It’s that time of year again when we get the urge to do a bit of spring cleaning and get rid of all that clutter that has been gathering in our closets, basements and garages.  How convenient that the Eliot Neighborhood Association is organizing it’s annual spring clean-up event where you can bring  items that you no longer want that someone else may have been pining for and throw away that broken chair that’s taking up valuable real estate in your shed.

When: Saturday, May 13 from 10 am -2 pm
Where: Legacy Emanuel parking lot at N Graham and Williams

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Just Call Me Darcelle

Darcell and Sue
Darcelle and Sue Stringer at the Darcelle XV 86th birthday bash

“Just call me Darcelle,” says the new Guinness Book of World Records holder as we get started with our interview. Darcelle, born Walter Cole, has brought fame to our Eliot neighborhood and the city of Portland in the form of a world record for being the world’s oldest, still performing Drag Queen. However, before he was Darcelle XV, Cole was an entrepreneur. His business ventures survived urban renewal multiple times in rapidly changing city.

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Fishpeople: Sustainability is Key

New home of Fishpeople on MLK at Russell
New home of Fishpeople on MLK at Russell

It all started at Cascade Head at the mouth of the Salmon River.  It is quite tricky to get to the three rocks past the spit on the other side of the river, but this is where Kipp Baratoff and Duncan Berry were sitting in 2012 when they came up with the idea for their business venture.  They were sitting on those rocks talking about the ocean, the fish and how sad they were with some of the complexities of the seafood industry. They wished the industry could connect better with consumers.  There in the “original boardroom” the idea for Fishpeople was born to transform the consumer’s relationship with the sea.

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Winter Activity – Bella Flora Studio

Bella Flora WindoA series of posts about winter activities to keep you busy until spring featuring exciting business and organizations located in and around our amazing neighborhood. 

There is a wonderful little shop that is really quite a magical place on NE 7th Ave.  At the border of our neighborhood, Bella Flora and owner Elaine Falbo let us escape the day’s stress and enter in to a wonderland of fairy furniture, vintage clothes and glassware as well as antique books, stuffed animals and dolls and an assortment of wreathes and baskets, dried rose bud headbands and crepe paper flowers handmade by Falbo.

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Winter Activity – People’s Yoga

A series of posts about winter activities to keep you busy until spring featuring exciting business and organizations located in and around our amazing neighborhood.

There are many yoga studios in Portland but none are quite like The People’s Yoga.  A free class for riding your bike 10 times to the studio, family memberships at a reasonable price, multiple locations, workshops and special events.

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Winter Activity – Portland’s Culinary Workshop

A series of posts about winter activities to keep you busy until spring featuring exciting business and organizations located in and around our amazing neighborhood. 

Want to sharpen up your cooking skills, hone the skills you have or  learn to make international cuisine?  Well, right in our neighborhood at Portland’s Culinary Workshop you can take classes from the most basic knife techniques and the principles of baking to more advanced classes or classes for couples all in a relaxed environment with skilled professional chef instructors.  They also offer team building classes for your employees such as Pasta from Scratch or even private group classes.

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Winter Activity – McConnell’s Boxing

A series of posts about winter activities to keep you busy until spring featuring exciting business and organizations located in and around our amazing neighborhood. 

Ready to take on the new year and try something new with your fitness regimen?  Right at the corner of NE Broadway at NE 7th Avenue above Cotton Cloud Futons is McConnell’s Boxing Academy. McConnell’s offers a variety of classes for those 13 years and up.  Personal training and private lessons are also available and are geared towards men and women.

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Winter Activity – Dishman

Matt Dishman
Matt Dishman Community Center

A series of posts about winter activities to keep you busy until spring featuring exciting business and organizations located in and around our amazing neighborhood.

When planning your winter activities or starting your new year’s resolutions, don’t forget about the one place where everyone in your family can be entertained, exercised and can also learn something new.

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Winter Activity – Fremont Theater

A series of posts about winter activities to keep you busy until spring featuring exciting business and organizations located in and around our amazing neighborhood. 

In the Irvington neighborhood, at NE 24th Avenue and Fremont Street sits the The Fremont Theater. It is mostly used as a concert venue with concerts for kids during the day and for ages 21 and over in the evening.  One event not to miss is The Cherry Blossom Orchestra.   According to The Fremont’s website, one hundred years ago, on February 26, 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band recorded “Livery Stable Blues and Dixie Jass Band One-Step” and was available for sale on March 17, 1917 at a cost of 75 cents.

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…And the Survey Says

surveyHere’s what Eliot Residents Like about Our Neighborhood and What the Future Looks Like.

First of all, thank you to all who participated in our Eliot resident survey. We had close to 75 responses and they came from a mixture of new and long time residents of our neighborhood.

Here’s a recap about who we are as a neighborhood, what we like, what we’d like to change and also what events you’d like to see us work on organizing so we can get to know each other better and make Eliot an even better place to live!

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Letter from the Eliot News Editor

Happy New Year Eliot! With 2017 upon us it is time to reflect on what we were able to accomplish and experience in 2016 and make some resolutions and plans for this new year.  I find January a month I look forward to as a sort of reboot after all the busyness  of the holiday season.  Now well into winter, we are able to take some time to start a few new habits, take up a new exercise routine, focus on a new skill, try a new entertainment venue and also meet some new friends in the process.

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Kay Toran: Neighbor, Role Model and Leader

Kay Toran
Kay Toran, Eliot native and Volunteers Of America Oregon’s CEO and President

A family of 5 from Alabama decides to make their way to Oregon for a promising future and opportunity. Not such an unusual story for today but being an African American family in the 1940’s such a decision would be brave and fraught with worry about how the Pacific Northwest would treat them and also that it could be a long time before they see their extended family again. This is the beginning of the story of Kay Toran’s life which has been nothing short of an amazing. Growing up in Eliot, working for public and government agencies and finally finding her place in nonprofit organizations, Toran has been a neighbor, role model and leader for our community. The following is taken from an interview with Kay Toran and it is meant to help new as well as longtime residents learn a little more about our neighborhood and one of the families that has lived in Portland for 3 generations.

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