By Erin Moore
OnPoint Community Credit Union opened a new, full-service Portland branch on NE Fremont Street at N. Williams Avenue on August 30, 2018. Located in the walkable and bike-friendly North Williams Corridor, the branch features a bike-thru teller window. This is OnPoint’s second new branch in Portland’s vibrant eastside, having opened its Hawthorne branch in May of 2018.
This column features businesses in Eliot and just beyond our neighborhood’s borders to help our residents learn what exciting businesses and opportunities are located in and around our amazing neighborhood.
This issue we focus on women-owned businesses in and around Eliot. See the list below for other women-owned businesses to check out.
Continue reading Within and Beyond the Borders of Eliot—Women-Owned Businesses
While many neighborhoods in Portland have a local bike shop, few neighborhoods have what could be considered to be a “Bike Hive”. Eliot is home to a vibrant community of businesses and nonprofits passionate about supporting people who ride bikes at any level of expertise. The intersection of North Page Street and North Williams Avenue is home to several local businesses dedicated to cyclists: Metropolis Cycles, Igleheart Custom Frames and Forks, Ahearne Cycles, Breadwinner Cycles and Café, Signal Cycles, and Endurance PDX, with Bike Farm and Cycle Oregon just a few blocks away. I wanted to learn more about these businesses, how they collaborate, their views on what they offer to Eliot, and what they want the neighborhood to know about them.
Vibe Cafe, located at 2808 NE MLK Jr Blvd, is an indispensable local business. It doubles as a laundromat and a cafe, serving residents of the apartments above it and the surrounding community. Vibe Cafe has been closed for a few months now because they are investing in a remodel.
Ray Shellmire is the founder of Shellmire Unlimited, P.C., offering individuals, families, small groups, and organizations counseling services for personal development, wellness, domestic violence, depression, anxiety, the harmful effects of racial oppression, discrimination and inequality, and other bio-psycho-social issues. They also offer massage therapy. Mr. Shellmire began his practice in 1991 because previous employment revealed that clients were only interested in him and how he fulfilled their needs for counsel and support services. Leasing space at Oregon Association for Minority Entrepreneurs (OAME), he provided a therapeutic environment for clients. A year later, his practice grew, so he trained other clinicians to do cultural specific training, and by the year 2000, he had an entire wing at OAME. In 2012, he moved and expanded to Vanport Plaza, Vancouver WA., Gresham and to Mid-K Plaza in 2014.
Continue reading Shellmire Unlimited, P.C.: Redefining Health and Wellness
Pay it forward. This is a well-known phrase that is easy to understand and possible to enact but rarely a lifelong philosophy that continually directs your life. One Eliot businessman has dedicated his life to paying it forward and it has had a positive effect on his life and the life of others. You might have been to the food cart pod on Vancouver and Fremont or maybe you’re new to the Eliot neighborhood and are looking for some convenient and delicious dinner options. Jimmy Wilson owns the food carts at this location and the story about how they came to be located here is one of dedication and generosity.
The steam from cooking noodles drifts easily across 7th avenue into the Eliot neighborhood. The pale brick building on the corner of Tillamook doesn’t give much away, only a simple sign in English and Chinese characters – America’s Noodle Inc.
A series of posts about places where you can buy, borrow or donate books in and around our amazing neighborhood.
The east side of Portland has an affinity for buildings that are painted outlandishly bright colors. It is necessary in a city that has more overcast days in a year than sunnier ones. Another essential aid for surviving the melancholy Portland winter is books. Add a lime green coat of paint and books together and you get Microcosm Publishing on Williams and Graham. Microcosm Publishing is an independent publishing house that highlights skill-building, telling hidden histories, and fostering creative pursuits by publishing books about DIY skills, food, bicycling, gender, self-care, and social justice.
A series of posts about places where you can buy, borrow or donate books in and around our amazing neighborhood.
On Knott Street, in what used to be the Albina Library back in 1912, sits The Title Wave Used Bookstore. In 1988 Title Wave opened its doors selling discard books from Multnomah County Library’s collection. With an ever-changing inventory, there are 20,000 used books, audio books, CDs, DVDs and magazines to browse through. With bargain prices that start at $2 for hardback novels and some items only setting you back $.25, anyone can find something that they need to complement their home library or to satisfy that literary fix. They have great selection of children’s book as well as large print items. As an added bonus, all educators receive a 25 percent discount every day by just presenting a valid educator ID. If those prices aren’t enough of an enticement, there are special markdowns every Wednesday. All proceeds go back to the Multnomah County Library.
A series of posts about places where you can buy, borrow or donate books in and around our amazing neighborhood.
The Multnomah County Library has many branches but the closest one to our neighborhood is the Albina Library located on NE 15th Avenue just north of Fremont next to Whole Foods. Besides having a large assortment of books, CDs, DVDs, magazines and even eBooks to loan, there are many events and classes for all ages. It also has an interesting past.
A series of posts about places where you can buy, borrow or donate books in and around our amazing neighborhood.
Portland’s oldest independent children’s book store has recently moved to just beyond our neighborhood border to Fremont and NE 14th Avenue behind Whole Foods. More than 40 years ago Lynn Kelly and Jan Bruton opened A Children’s Place Bookstore and through various locations and iterations it has remained a popular literary fixture passing along the joy of reading and, as the new owner Pam Erlandson likes to say, “raising readers”.
A series of posts about places where you can buy, borrow or donate books in and around our amazing neighborhood.
Black Hat Books is an eclectic bookstore that opened only a year ago. Located between Stanton and Graham on MLK, it is home to unique collections of Latino and Native-American literature and history, as well of one of the largest collections of African-American literature, history, and poetry in the Pacific Northwest.
A 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.”
A series of posts about places where you can buy, borrow or donate books in and around our amazing neighborhood.
The Children’s Book Bank is a local nonprofit that engages the community in collecting, sorting, and distributing new and gently used books to children who might not otherwise have books in their homes. Children living in poverty often enter school lacking the foundational vocabulary needed to learn to read and early literacy skills are directly linked to a student’s success in school and beyond. That’s why The Children’s Book Bank collects and distributes books to children in need ranging from birth through eighth grade. We distribute books through Head Start programs, public schools, and more.
At the corner of NE Graham St and MLK Boulevard lies a building which, from the outside, looks like many other buildings in the neighborhood. However, on the inside is a newly renovated community space occupied and run by Open Signal.
Eliot Neighborhood 