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Special Spaces – Jazz at the Cotton Club

Posted on October 9, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Arts & Culture, Concordia News

By Leo Newman | Contributing Writer

Paul Knauls’ talent agent called him from Oakland to let him know the deal was set: come January, 1970, Etta James would play a four-week residency at the Cotton Club, “the only club on the West Coast with wall-to-wall soul.” Knauls made all the necessary arrangements. James would be backed up by Knaul’s house band, Billy Larkins and the Delegates, and the “At Last” singer would stay at Knauls’ five-bedroom house on N Williams and Monroe Street, which exclusively accommodated talent travelling through town. When the Delegates’ drummer backed out of the gig on the first day of rehearsals, Knauls plucked a teenage Ron Steen from across the street and put him behind the drum kit. Steen had never played for an audience.

Knauls, an airforce mechanic, moved to Portland from Spokane in 1962 with a dream of opening a nightclub for Portland’s African-American community. Successful nightclubs lined Albina’s commercial district along N Vancouver and Williams Avenues- and then there was the Cotton Club. By 1962, the small, declining nightclub on N Vancouver and Tillamook was a venue for burlesque shows and community events under the ownership of Lee “Mr. T” Thompson. Knauls bought the club from Mr. T, whose “high yellow” complexion, old suit and low grumble reminded him of a “grumpy old white man.” Its house band, an organ trio, was made up of neighborhood kids Hank Swarn on guitar and Mel Brown on drums. In an attempt to look older, the band members wore matching tuxedoes complete with bowtie and cumberbund. Brown, an 18-year old PSU freshman, had to sit in the kitchen between sets. 

Knauls reopened the Cotton Club in 1963. The small nightclub, a converted auto repair shop, was split into a bar and a showroom. The latter’s wooden floors and sandy wall paneling radiated amber. Tables circled around a waist-high, velvet-lined stage. Hoping to rehabilitate its reputation, he ditched the burlesque dancers and brought in organist Billy Larkin to lead the house band. The new trio became immediately popular. 

“That’s when things really got going,” says Brown. A year later, Billy Larkin and the Delegates would find themselves cutting their first record, Pigmy, in Dick Bock’s Los Angeles recording studio. The Delegates would rock the Cotton Club until 2:30AM, when attendees poured out onto Vancouver looking for an after-hours bar, such as Knaul’s own Geneva’s, which he opened in 1968. 

Alternatively, when Brown and his roommate George Page got their hands on new jazz records coming out of Chicago, they invited other musicians to their apartment off 8th and Knott to listen. “You couldn’t even get in the door,” Brown remembers, “we had all the latest sounds.” A decade later, Page would help start KBOO radio, where he showcased Black music that major stations refused to broadcast.

During Knauls’ tenure, the Cotton Club became Portland’s prime destination for popular Black musicians of the 1960s. Notable performers included Cab Calloway, Sammy Davis Jr., Big Mama Thorton and Little Esther Phillips. Oregon Journal writer Doug Baker featured the club in his column “Baker’s Dozen,” which helped popularize it among Portland’s White community. 

In 1965, Brown moved to Vancouver BC to drum a young band led by a young Tommy Chong, which had recently been signed to Motown. Brown got on well with the Motown crew and was touring the world with the Temptations by 1967. Between tours, he worked as a session musician for Motown in Detroit.

The Cotton Club closed its doors in 1970. Knauls cites racial division following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the development of the Legacy Emmanuel Hospital as contributing factors to the closure of the Cotton Club and Paul’s Paradise, another Albina bar he owned. 

In January 1970, Billy Preston introduced Brown to the Beatles after a London concert at the Talk of the Town nightclub. Preston invited Brown and two other members of the Temptations’ backing band to help him record a version of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord.” In 1973, Brown moved back to Portland, where he formed a new trio and in 1978, the trio went on the road with Diana Ross. 

In the years to follow, Brown and Steen became pillars of Portland’s jazz scene, both establishing Sunday jam sessions around town that live in legend for local musicians. Steen has hosted a Sunday jam session at Clyde’s Steakhouse, another jazz institution, for the past 20 years. Brown has longstanding residencies at the Jack London Revue and Salty’s on Columbia, and plays regular gigs at the Alberta Street Pub. 

Catch these Portland jazz greats in concert this month at these locations:

Ron Steen

Every Sunday from 7:30-10 pm
Clyde’s Steakhouse (5474 NE Sandy Blvd.)

Mel Brown

Saturday, October 4th, 1 -3 pm
Alberta Street Pub (1036 NE Alberta St.)

Thursday, October 16th, 8 pm
Jack London Revue (529 SW 4th Ave.)

Every Friday, 6 -9 pm
Salty’s on the Columbia (3839 NE Marine Dr.)

From the Board – Join Us for Conversations with District 2 Councilors and CNA Elections

Posted on October 5, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News

By Cathy McCarthy

Hi, Concordia!

Last month, we were delighted to host District 2 Councilor Dan Ryan at our September monthly meeting. He shared his perspective and answered questions on a wide range of topics—from services for unhoused neighbors, to small business support, to building stronger connections with neighborhood associations. It was an open, informative conversation, and we look forward to continuing the dialogue.

I wanted to share with you that over the coming months, neighbors will have two more opportunities to connect directly with our District 2 leaders. In October, we will welcome Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney, and in January 2026, Councilor Sameer Kanal.

Having access to your representatives means being able to ask questions, raise concerns, and share ideas with the people empowered to act on them. These conversations are also a chance to meet fellow neighbors, discover shared priorities, and show our leaders what matters most to the Concordia community. You don’t need to be an expert—just bring your perspective and your voice.

Speaking of civic engagement, don’t miss the November CNA Board meeting when we will hold board elections and vote on our updated bylaws. All Concordia neighbors are invited to attend, and your participation is vital.

Half of the board seats are up for election this year, including Chair; East 1; Northwest 1; Southwest 1; and At-Large positions 1, 3, and 5. Even if current board members run again, any qualified neighbor is welcome to put their name forward. Membership is open to all residents, property owners, and business licensees, 14 years of age or older, as well as governmental agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations, located within the district boundaries as defined in the map below. All details are available in the bylaws.

The updated bylaws are available for review at tinyurl.com/CNABylaws.

If you have questions about the election or upcoming meetings, please reach out to chair@concordiapdx.org or to me at AL4@concordiapdx.org.

Key Dates 

Wednesday, October 8, 6 – 8 pm
Community and Board Meeting with Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney

Wednesday, November 12, 6 – 8 pm
CNA Board Elections and voting on updated bylaws

Wednesday, January 14, 6 – 8:00 pm
Community and Board meeting with D2 Councilor Sameer Kanal

20-Year Anniversary Celebration at Ainsworth Linear Arboretum

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News, Trees

Tree Team founder and Concordia resident Jim Gersbach invites you to a special event this fall.

By Jim Gersbach | Concordia Tree Team

Come celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Ainsworth Linear Arboretum with cake and ice cream, puzzles, giveaways, and other fun stuff. Organized by the Concordia Tree Team, all events are free and open to the public.

Date: Saturday, Oct. 4

9-10 a.m. – One-hour guided tree walk. Learn about some of the fascinating trees on the west end of the arboretum with founder Jim Gersbach (myself.) Meet me on the northeast corner of Ainsworth and Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in front of Walgreens. The walk will be wheelchair accessible.

10-10:30 a.m. – Tree-related activities. Look for the Concordia Tree Team on the north side of Alberta Park along NE Ainsworth. Entertain yourself or friends and family with crossword puzzles and fun stuff for young ones.

10:30 – 11 a.m. – Tree planting. Local volunteers and city officials will commemorate the anniversary with the planting of a new tree in the median opposite Alberta Park.

11 – Noon – Tree parade. Join the revelers and walk east along Ainsworth to Kiss Café where free cake and ice cream will be served. Tree costumes encouraged!

The arboretum extends 1.5 miles along NE Ainsworth from Fernhill Park to Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Originally the median was a monoculture of Norway maples. These were supplemented in the ’80s by plantings of red oak, Raywood ash and European beech. Those four tree species and a scattering of sycamore maples (now a declared invasive in Oregon) and two green ash were all that grew in the median for decades.

As these trees died of age or other causes, such as sun damage to the thin-barked European beeches, Portland Urban Forestry and the Tree Team led an effort to get the City of Portland, which owns the median, to use the median as a showcase for promising new street trees, and to serve as a place to trial new species for possible use.

From just six species in spring 2004, (when the first deliberate planting to create this arboretum for street trees was done,) there are now more than four dozen species in the median from 30 different genuses. Some of the trees were planted as part of Friends of Trees neighborhood plantings in Woodlawn, Vernon, and Concordia or were donated from individuals. The majority, however, have come from Portland Urban Forestry.

Portland Urban Forestry waters young trees for three summers. After that, volunteers with the Concordia Tree Team water trees to help them grow faster and survive Portland’s increasingly dry summer months.

To learn more about this neighborhood treasure or how to get involved to help, visit ainsworthlineararboretum.org.

A native Oregonian, Jim Gersbach has lived in the Concordia neighborhood since 2002. He founded the Ainsworth Linear Arb ore t um b ac k in 2005 and was involved in helping create the Cully-Concordia International Grove and the Concordia Learning Landscape Arboretum.

The Marvel of the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant

Posted on September 25, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News

By Keith K. Daellenbach | Contributing Writer

Have you ever wondered where wastewater goes when you flush the toilet? If that toilet is in Portland, it very likely ends up at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant on North Columbia Boulevard. This facility, operated by the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services (BES), continuously serves a population of 650,000 people.

Before 1952, raw sewage went directly into the Willamette River and Columbia Slough. Today, through nearly 75 years of incremental investment, the treatment plant processes an average of approximately 70 million gallons of wastewater per day. During periods of wet weather, the plant can process up to 450 million gallons per day. The big pipe system, a $1.4 billion investment (ca. 2011) that nearly eliminated combined sewer overflows, can hold 119 million gallons of sewage – sewage that would otherwise overflow into the Willamette River.

Large screens at the incoming Headworks Facility (built in 1996) filter out sticks, rocks, and litter, which are then trucked to a landfill. Next, the wastewater flows into an array of primary clarifiers, which are rectangular, concrete-lined pools, causing solids to settle as the wastewater movement slows. A bottomscraping mechanism removes sludge. Then, the liquid flows into aeration basins, where air is supplied. Trillions of microorganisms break down the organic material in an aerobic reaction, which creates byproducts of water and carbon dioxide. The wastewater then moves to the secondary clarifiers.

Circular clarifiers are the final step in separating fluids from solids. Alongside the eight existing secondary clarifiers, two new secondary clarifiers (each of which is 28-feet deep by 150-feet in diameter) were recently added to the plant and substantially increased its capacity. Wastewater from the aeration basins enters from the bottom center of these large clarifi ers and slows to a carefully designed fl uid speed, allowing remaining solids to separate for collection. These new clarifiers, located at the north end of the plant adjacent to the Columbia Slough, are part of a $515 million, seven-year upgrade aimed at increasing treatment capacity and reliability. The entire project is scheduled for completion in early 2027.

Given that the plant is in a low-lying area just above the water table on unstable soil, the potential for liquefaction during a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake is very high. Sophisticated construction methods were employed to construct a grid of concrete grout columns within the soil, extending nearly 70 feet down to provide a foundation designed to allow the new clarifi ers to remain operational following a signifi cant earthquake.

As the wastewater leaves the plant, it is treated with sodium hypochlorite to kill microorganisms. This disinfected effl uent is conveyed 2.3 miles north in a pipe to the Columbia River at river mile 105.5, where it is dechlorinated before entering the main stem of the Columbia River in approximately 43 feet of water off the north side of Hayden Island.

Waste also departs the plant as a biosolid. It is collected from the clarifiers, and, unlike the liquid effluent, is broken down in an anaerobic process that is largely free of oxygen. In ten large, above-ground, 90-foot to 120-foot diameter tanks called “digesters”, the sludge is heated to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, where microorganisms reduce the biomass content with methane and carbon dioxide byproducts. The solid, digested material is dewatered via fi lter presses and centrifuges, and then trucked 200 miles east, where it is applied to agricultural land in Eastern Oregon as a nutrientrich source of fertilizer to grow crops for animal feed. Nearly 100 percent of the renewable methane biogas byproduct is captured and added to NW Natural’s gas distribution network to serve as truck fuel eliminating the need for 1.3 million gallons of diesel valued at $3 million annually.

Investing in wastewater treatment plants replaces aging infrastructure, accommodates population growth with additional capacity, and responds to new regulations requiring enhanced treatment. Portland is famous for its pristine Bull Run drinking water supply near Mount Hood. At the other end of the water-use cycle, we are fortunate to have the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant in North Portland. Through continual investment and upgrades, BES protects Portland’s public health and the environment.

Join the TIF Action Planning Committee

Posted on September 14, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Uncategorized

By Clarence Larkins | Contributing Writer

A new Tax Increment Finance (TIF) committee is in the process of developing the Cully district’s first action plan, a document intended to guide roughly $35 million of investment in affordable housing and economic development over the next five years. In addition to large areas of the Cully neighborhood, the district boundary includes smaller portions of Beaumont-Wilshire, Roseway and several blocks of Concordia, west of NE 42nd Avenue (see shaded area on map). The committee is seeking Concordia neighborhood residents to join and support its mission.

Project Background

In 2018, a coalition of partners in the Cully neighborhood approached Prosper Portland to explore a community-centered TIF district that took historically underserved, marginalized and underrepresented voices into account during the district creation process. The goal was to ensure all Cully area residents could stay and benefit from the prosperity that district growth can bring, rather than be pushed out and replaced by it.

The Cully TIF District Plan was adopted in November 2022. A governance charter was adopted as part of the District Plan, which established a Community Leadership Committee to partner with Prosper Portland and the Portland Housing Bureau (PHB) in a co-creation model to guide investment.

By state law, TIF resources may only be used for physical, permanent improvements – so, for example, TIF dollars could be used to support the development of a daycare center, but could not be used to fund payroll for workers. These dollars can fund new residential or commercial development, home or business repairs, and things like down payment assistance for prospective low-income homeowners.

Get Involved

The TIF Action Plan committee meets the fourth Wednesday of each month from 6 – 8 pm at 4636 NE 42nd Ave. Each meeting contains a public comment period, which provides opportunity for individuals to provide ideas and feedback directly to committee members, Prosper Portland and PHB staff. All are welcome.

For more info:

-Visit prosperportland.us/portfolio-items/cully-tifdistrict.

– Contact Kathryn Hartinger at Prosper Portland (hartingerk@prosperportland.us).

– Contact Leslie Goodlow at the Portland Housing Bureau (leslie.goodlow@portland- oregon.gov).

Clarence Larkins has been a NE Portland resident for over 50 years. He is the the founder and president of Straight Path Inc., a non-profit that helps pave promising paths for young adults transitioning from foster care.

Contributor Marsha Sandman Passes Away, Leaving Memories of a Life Well Lived

Posted on September 2, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News

By Kyle Stuart

CNA and Concordia News mourn the loss of our longtime contributor and friend, Marsha Sandman, who passed away on August 2nd from chronic lymphocytic leukemia at the age of 76. Her son Kyle would like to share her story.

Marsha SandmanMarsha was born November 24th, 1948 in the back bay of Boston to second-generation Jewish immigrants. Her uncles were the first bagel bakers in Boston and started the Boston Bagel Company. Marsha had an older sister named Ronda.

Always the black sheep of the family, Marsha got married in her early twenties and moved as far away as she could to Los Angeles, where she began pursuing her education in art. Marsha initially studied ceramics, but one day wandered over to the metal-smithing classroom and never looked back.

She was a free spirit and after she finished school, left L.A. without her husband and headed north to Washington, settling in Duvall. There she continued to explore her creative expression and jewelry making, and generally refused to conform to the norms of society at the time. Some called Marsha a hippie, a title she wore proudly.

Her wanderlust soon took hold and she headed north once again to Fairbanks, Alaska, where her creative talents – and business – blossomed. She launched MJ Sandman Jewelry and by the early ’80s her fi ne silver and gold jewelry, inspired by the raw Alaskan landscape, was carried in galleries across the country. Fairbanks is where she met her second husband, Bill, and they had me. During her time in Alaska, Marsha worked on the Alaska pipeline and in real estate.

In 1989, Marsha left Alaska (without her husband again) and settled in Gleneden Beach, Oregon, to begin her most audacious adventure; raising me on her own. Imagine a 39-year-old single mother, loading up an ‘85 Toyota Tercel wagon with an 8-year old, camping gear and a dog, and driving the 1,700-mile gravel Alcan Highway from Fairbanks to a yet-to-be determined destination on the West Coast to start fresh. We settled on the Oregon Coast. I’m still in awe of how she managed, but manage she did.

We found a supportive community there and Marsha continued to build her jewelry business. To provide more steady income, Marsha pursued a career as a residential appraiser. She worked for the county assessor’s offi ce in Newport for a few years, then started Pride Appraisals – where she built a sterling reputation and a solid book of business.

Marsha loved to travel – frequently visiting friends in Hawaii, Mexico and adventuring off to the Dominican Republic, Argentina and South Korea. She was curious about people and culture, and was fearless in her pursuit of understanding.

In 2005, Marsha was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. She enjoyed many years without the need for intervention, and in 2013, underwent her first round of cancer treatment. In 2014 she retired from appraising and moved in with me and my family in the Concordia neighborhood.

Marsha quickly embraced her new Portland community, embedding herself in the Creative Metal Arts Guild, the Concordia News staff , and the neighborhood at large. She continued to make jewelry and had showings at the annual Gathering of the Guilds and craft fairs around the metro area. She adored the Beatles and made it a tradition to see the NowHere band cover the White Album at the Alberta Rose Theatre. She loved a good story and attended The Moth and Seven Deadly Sins – always recounting the bravery, skill and vulnerability of the storytellers.

She loved interviewing neighbors for Concordia News. She genuinely wanted to know your story. She listened with intent and empathy and if you stuck around, she’d tell you her adventures, like the time she hitchhiked a ride on a helicopter in the Alaska bush. Or the summer she lived in a teepee with a trumpet under her bed to ward off bears. Or how she earned the nickname Fireball working the Alaska pipeline catching her boots on fire.

My mom and I were a two-person team who always looked after one another. As she got older, I did more of the looking after. My family is grateful to have shared our Concordia home with her over the past decade. Thank you for being part of her story.

Marsha was a creative, curious and vibrant woman. She leaves behind her granddaughter, Ari, her daughter-in-law, Patience, her sister Ronda, and many close friends she collected in Farmingham, Fairbanks, the Oregon Coast, and Portland. She left all her loved ones with many memories of a life well lived.

Redbird Studio Celebrates 20 Years on Alberta

Posted on August 29, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Arts & Culture, Concordia News, Local Businesses

By Cynthia Coburn, Contributing Writer

Redbird Studio has been on Alberta Street since 2006. Photo by Cythia Coburn.

When Redbird studio owner Mel was in kindergarten, she loved to draw and was given the nickname Redbird. She started putting little red birds on the back of cards that she drew for her mom. In 2004, Mel turned her love of illustration into a line of greeting cards and on April 1st, 2006 Mel and her business partner Paul opened Redbird Studio. Located at 2927 NE Alberta St.next to Claudio Starzak Jewelry, Redbird has been in the neighborhood for nearly 20 years.

Originally at the Portland Saturday Market, they were lucky to move into part of the HiiH Gallery space by having connections in the art community. In 2020, Paul decided to focus on his music career and family. Mel was ready to take on the studio as a solopreneur.

Since then, Mel has expanded the business from her original greeting card line to include stationery, baby onesies, bags and screen prints and she manages illustration, painting, silk screening and hand making each piece. She also fulfills online orders from her Etsy shop.

While it has had its challenges running the shop by herself, she says it has been gratifying and she has enjoyed bringing her vision to fruition. She may run the studio by herself, but she is surrounded by many talented artists on Alberta Street.

“We help each other and I am thankful for the support and friendships I’ve made over the years,” she says.

Mel grew up on the edge of Lewis and Thurston county in Washington. She went to school and spent time in Centralia, Washington. She shared a memory of her dad, saying he was a mechanic and opened up his own shop in Rochester, WA on April Fool’s Day, just like Redbird Studio, although she didn’t know about the coincidence until after she opened Redbird.

If you’ve had the pleasure of shopping at Redbird Studio, you know how special her cards and gifts are. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and say “hi” or you can find her online at etsy.com/shop/redbirdstudiopdx.

Cynthia Coburn is a retired graphic designer who has lived in the Concordia neighborhood for over 20 years. You can find her and Daisy, her dog, walking in the neighborhood or working in her yard and garden. Favorite motto: Life is good in the neighborhood!

When Nature is a Nuisance Blackberries – Bane and Beneficence

Posted on August 21, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News

By Megan Cecil-Gobble and Patrick Cecil | Contributing Writers

Blackberries are blooming all over Portland this August. They are delicious, but they can take over your yard.

Taking a walk through our bountiful neighborhood and through unique semi-rural alleyways, you will find naturalized plants bearing edible fruits or herbs. But some, like the Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus), are both sustenance and nuisance. How can they be tamed to make room for both walking paths and berry picking?

We, Patrick and Megan, have been growing berries ever since we relocated to Portland in 1995. In our first year, we planted marionberries, raspberries, and gooseberries. We also tamed a Hima- layan blackberry that had rooted in our backyard. With these yummy plants, we learned the “cycles” of the berry plants.

Blackberries are a biannual berry producer. The first year, a primocane grows, reaching 10 to 20 feet long by the end of the summer / early fall. It has no branches growing from it, although it can bifurcate (split). The second year, floricanes grow from the primocane leaf junctions. These grow about one to three feet long, and end with fl owers and fi nally berries (after the local bees visit) from mid July to September. During the second winter, the cane dies. If it reaches the ground before dying, it can grow another plant at the terminus and spreads into big patches.

To clear blackberries from your yard or alley, you can hire a herd of goats (look online). Or you can cut out the new primo- canes to reduce the number of canes the following year. Patrick has been doing this in our alley for many years now, and the patches are small enough for cars and people to pass through. You may have to take time to remove older dead growth, but eventually you will see light through the bramble patch. Concordia alleys are part of our public access, and helping to keep them open is a public service. We walkers thank you.

If you want to tame berries, string up the primocanes against a fence or wall as they grow. By the middle of autumn you will have 10-20 feet of cane at shoulder to above-head height. These will retain their leaves through the winter. Cut out the dying second year primocanes to keep the patch from spreading out. When spring comes, you will have a profusion of flowers at waist and head height, perfect for picking in the late summer.

If you have a choice, plant thornless blackberries. We have several Triple- Crowns trained in our small backyard, and pick quarts of berries each week from Mid-July through August. They are phenomenal and like Curad bandages, ouch-less.

Megan and Patrick Cecil-Gobble have lived in Portland for 30 years. They continue to hike, bike, and survive happily with grandkids nearby to keep them on their toes.

Poetry Corner – Superbloom

Posted on August 18, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News

By Joshua Lickteig | Contributing Writer

All that is lush and nourishing in nature

Sacred recitatives in the evening’s chorales,

Attention in a journey of life.

The ordinary speech of some memory offers in its

Patterns different choices, careful where order itself

Is an entanglement. May we really guess

How its rhythm is being expected?

The red breasted finch quizzes an aphid:

On a plinth this tenor sings each day mythic glory,

Arrives as if opening the twelve minute tune to Sunny

Rollins’ “What’s New?” – And mid

Any passion’s ghost reconstructing yesterday

With spirit plumb, also this day examines in glimpses

The neighborhood newspaper’s flaps in breezy gusts

From the open doors south and west in the garage,

On a found trapezium that will become a table, or desk.

Our narrator whose responsibility may also be as audient,

Before planning an additional central chorus for later in the day

Recalls last night in another part of town a harpsichord’s string,

Just before the concert, snapped with an edgeless twang.

Of sudden blur many purple lupines beside the road, mullein reaching skyward

And transport to a rumination weeks earlier on Mount Rainier

Adjacent the trail to Panorama Point over a glacial stream. By its waterfall

Quite windy. Marmots scurrying, collecting, and grazing.

There are painted paper cylinder lampshades inside the old park lodge below

Of 64 alpine flowers. A steeply pitched roof with exposed Alaska cedar

Log framing red huckleberry and salal above the fifty foot fireplace of

The building’s west. From avalanche lily to marsh marigold,

Shrubby cinquefoil, trillium, mountain ash . . .

Resuming the aria, flute and oboes seem to join the finch

Just as Bach might have borrowed

In gospel settings from other composers. Nearby

Mending of clothespins mid-wire in the gleam

Of August, a handkerchief flies away, finds respite

Draped over jade. Our attention selects what kind of light

In the undulations of the mind?

At times it commends pathways with

Fullness to harmony and balance

As if all at once seen

On a slow morning, opening timeworn books.

Some slide like a juniper wood barn door

And bow to the heat.

It’s Me, Your Neighborhood Squirrel 

Posted on August 15, 2025 by Web Manager Posted in Concordia News

By Greg Bishop | Contributing Writer

Greetings neighbor! Allow me to introduce myself, I am one of the squirrels from the park across the street. Don’t worry about which one–I know you can’t tell us apart anyway. 

But for the record, I’m an eastern fox squirrel, with the scientific name, Sciurus niger. It’s funny to me because it sounds like “scurry-us”, and we are always scurrying–you have to scurry if you want to survive in the wild! 

That’s right, even though to you I’m just an adorable rodent in your peaceful local greenspace, I’m actually out here every day fighting for survival! 

I’ve got no complaints–how could I? This is the only life I know, and squirrels aren’t much for deep contemplation about alternative universes anyway. But I will say this, I don’t much care for your dog. Boy, I wish this park had stricter leash laws. Like, you’d have to clean up dog poop for a month if you get caught! Surviving in the wild is slightly harder with an obnoxious breedadoodle constantly chasing you up a tree!

Not that dogs are serious predators–they rarely catch one of us. But still! Every time some doofus corgi (that’d get its butt kicked by a raccoon) runs after me, it interrupts my foraging time! 

And foraging time, although it’s my favorite activity in all of squirreldom, is a lot of hard work!

But yeah, I guess other than foraging and avoiding real predators (like Cooper’s hawks), the rest of our time is spent… well—you know there’s only so many things we wild animals do with our time. 

Ahem– 

In regards to squirrel reproduction, we aren’t necessarily a species to admire. At least the males, who don’t really do jack squat for the kids. Squirrel moms do their best, but growing up in the wild can be dangerous!

It sounds kinda funny to think of your local park as the wild, doesn’t it? 

Well—all that word means is the place where animals live. Technically, this is both your neighborhood and your habitat. But it’s not just yours, or just mine either. In fact, there’s all sorts of different organisms that live here: birds, beetles, worms, ants, and slugs. Plus all the plant and fungal and protozoal and bacterial (+/- viral) life that you can’t even see! 

Believe it or not, I’m actually on the larger size for animals in this park. It wasn’t always that way, but a population of bears just isn’t sustainable in most suburbs. Most of the animals here are tiny and inconspicuous. I have to admit it, I’m guilty of ignoring the little guys and tend to just focus on the animals that are most obvious during the day, when I’m active. 

Which pretty much means crows.

We’ve got a collegial relationship, us squirrels and crows. Sure, if a squirrel gets run over (it’s so hard to decide which way to go!), crows’ll help themselves to our flattened carcass. But we rarely fight, even though we use a lot of the same resources. 

And that’s just fine with me. 

I like it here–I’m happy to be alive. I don’t want to fight anybody (except, sometimes during breeding season, I do get unusually angry at most other squirrels I come across). So thank you for leashing up your dog, driving carefully, and sparing us the peanuts (it seems counterintuitive, I know, but it’s actually not the best for us long-term. Seriously, thank you for your kind intentions but please stop!). 

It’s lovely to have you as neighbors, and I appreciate you keeping this nice park here for us to live and die and undertake our greatest purpose in life: being a squirrel 

This wild life is precious.

Greg Bishop is a lifelong animal lover, veterinarian, and part time cartoonist. He works at various veterinary practices in the Portland area, teaches, writes and illustrates things, too. He lives near Wilshire Park with his family, but mostly he stares at the squirrels and wonders what they’re thinking. 

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