The New Frontier
Flush with hip businesses and new young residents, yet still dealing with the same old problems of drugs, crime, and poverty, St. Johns finds itself at a crossroads.
By Randy Gragg
St. Johns Twin Cinemas
View Slideshow »KATHRYN WOODWARD, owner, Tulip Pastry Shop
View Slideshow »“HAMMER,” barfly
View Slideshow »“JOHNNY,” busker
View Slideshow »LYNETTE DAVIS, St. Johns resident
View Slideshow »KATHERINE MURPHY & HAMAD ALNAJRAN, bartender & owner, Slim’s Bar
View Slideshow »BABS ADAMSKI, unofficial mayor of St. Johns
View Slideshow »DICK ARMSTRONG, woodburner
View Slideshow »JAIME POTTS, owner, Atomic Daylight; president, St. Johns Boosters
View Slideshow »ANISHA SCANLON, organizer, Cathedral Park Cleanup
View Slideshow »NOELLE WINIECKI & NIC CASHOILI, Ladybug Organic Cafe Baristas
View Slideshow »LEGONG GELATO & ANNA BANNANAS, N Lombard Street scene
Sharon Osbourne don’t need no ding dong Diet Coke, baby.
The disheveled man mumbles hoarsely into a dingy pay phone receiver, speaking in frenzied gulps of conversation about some plasticine celebrity in his mind, impervious to the what-the-hell gawking of passers-by. Around St. Johns he’s known by a few different names. Telephone Man. Trash Shirt (for the way he sometimes stuffs his clothes full of discarded papers). Transistor.
And per his usual MO, Telephone Man has spent the bulk of his day wandering trancelike up and down N Lombard Street, stopping mechanically at every pay phone along the way, an apparent slave to some unscratchable itch for Ma Bell. And for whatever reason, the subject of his phantom call is always one Sharon Osbourne, the woman who turned her husband, Ozzy, Prince of Darkness, into a punch line.
Dang it, I told you Sharon Osbourne don’t need no ding dong Diet Coke.
Not even four years ago St. Johns, the much maligned, rough-and-tumble outpost on the North Portland peninsula, was still being defined by its variety of shady characters. From harmless eccentrics like Telephone Man to gaunt addicts sucking on brown bags to much more sinister elements—prostitutes turning tricks in the alley behind the St. Johns Apartments, drug dealers peddling heroin at the now-defunct Bluebird tavern, fights (at least one fatal) inside Slim’s bar. All the while, the blue-collar workers who made up the bulk of the neighborhood’s population—many working in and around the Rivergate Industrial District of the Port of Portland—kept a stiff upper lip and tried to make the best of things.
Published: July 2010
Great story on St. Johns. Your web-exclusive slideshow of St. Johns isn’t working. Please fix it, I need more St. Johns action!
Big news…34 years in the making the brownfield in downtown St. Johns is a major step closer to being redeveloped. On Wednesday, June 16, 2010 the City Council selected a development team. More info here, http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/06/17/north-portland-brownfield-development-closer-to-completion/
If I’m not mistaken, Angel O’Brien is the owner of Ladybug Cafe. And that’s not her in the photo. And she is not married to someone named Bennington.
I moved here 3 1/2 years ago, bought a house, got married, got a dog and my office is here in the John. I love it here, this is my neighborhood. Thanks for the article.
We bought a house in St. Johns 3 years ago and also love living here. It’s great to be able to bike and walk everywhere, 5 coffee shops, farmers’ market and NEW Krugers permanent produce market on Lombard (year round!), Swap n Play, it’s becoming a great spot for young families and professionals. Oh, and it’s a 15 min. jaunt to downtown! Thank you for writing about our neighborhood!
http://pdc.us/new/releases/2010/news-release-2010-06-18-mainstreet.asp
“Mayor Sam Adams congratulated St. John’s Main Streets Coalition, NE Alberta Main Street Program and Hillsdale Community Foundation as the initial districts to launch the Portland program, which will be the first urban Green Main Street program in the country.”
I’ve visited St. John’s a couple of times – and will be back again since my son and his family live there. It is rough around the edges but you can definitely start to see the swing back towards some “gentrification”. Three cheers to all those who have kept a stiff upper lip & are making the best of things as well as to all the transplants who have moved to the area and are improving their homes and neighborhoods with all their ideas and “new blood”, while enjoying all the tradition of St. John’s.
SO yeah, that’s not Angel or John, her ex-husband… That’s Noelle and myself, Nic. Very funny, please fix this.
St. John’s has a lot more to offer then white people moving in and making it a “better place.” Local business’ that have been in the neighborhood for years are what makes St. John’s—such as Santa Cruz and Nicola’s. St. John’s has a lot of misfortune, but it’s also one of the most diverse neighborhood’s in all of Portland. We need to be celebrating this and recognizing the people who have lived in this neighborhood after the 1950’s and before the gentrification.
I have lived in st.johns my whole life , it has gotten better around here and has come a long way . and what make st. johns the place it is are the people . I can walk down the street and run in to someone i went to kindergarden with it is nice to see peole u knew when u were little and see how they are doing and how far we have both come . friends and family are what make st. johns what it is why dwell on things that are, and happen every where
Depressing that the author, and owner of the recently opened hipster bar “the fixin to”, opens his article by mocking an elderly local resident who happens to be harmlessly mentally disabled. I plan to treat his business with similarly little sympathy (been there …. weak food, weaker drinks, unfriendly staff).