Lily Roby, Author at Sunnyside Neighborhood Association

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Ashley Doremire at Mix Tape

An Alaska native, Ashley Doremire moved to Sunnyside in 2012 to focus on her leatherwork business. A desire to expand her business and connect more deeply with the Sunnyside community led to her opening the consignment shop Mix Tape in 2018. (For those of you under 25, a “mix tape” was a compilation of favorite songs recorded on a cassette tape and usually given to a friend or lover.) Mix Tape has since grown to be a cornerstone of Sunnyside, offering art, vintage pieces, community resources and more.

How long have you run Mix Tape?

Six years.

Why did you choose Sunnyside for Mix Tape?

I always ended up in this area because it made me feel like it was a small town in a city. Even when you don’t know your neighbors, people still recognize you. If you don’t know their name, they still say hi. I just love this area and I always find myself coming back to it.

Could you tell me a little bit about Mix Tape and what you guys do?

We are a collective space; we have 168 vendors. Anything handmade, 70% goes back to the artist and the rest goes to keeping us up and running. For everything else, 60% goes back to the vendor unless I have to repair the item. I do leather work and repair; I fix leather jackets, zippers, purses, straps, etc., and it’s a great way to give back to the community. I started off being an artist in Portland and a lot of stores take half. I could never survive off that and I didn’t understand how other artists could either. You can’t invest in yourself when you’re struggling to pay your bills. So when I opened Mix Tape, I just really wanted to be able to give back as much as possible. We also host pop-ups, mostly on the weekends, and then the artist gets to keep their full profits for the day. We’re just really trying to change the way consignment is done in Portland.

What makes Mix Tape different from other stores or consignment shops in Portland?

We definitely try to be size-inclusive and help every person who comes in. We really pride ourselves on having something for everyone. From teenagers to older adults, we get a wide demographic, and I feel like it’s definitely a safe space. We also get a lot of people from the neighborhood who come to us when they are concerned with things in the neighborhood. Recently, a group of kids came in and they said this man was following them at the bus stop. They knew exactly where to go to feel safe; it made me really happy to be here for them. That being said, often times when houseless people need shoes or resources they’ll come to the store and they know that I’ll help them or point them in the right direction for, like, a cooling center or whatever their need may be.

So would you say that Mix Tape isn’t just a consignment shop but also a sort of community hub, or somewhere people in Sunnyside can go for resources or support?

Yes. All of our vendors come from the neighborhood except for two, and they’re both people who lived in the neighborhood and moved away.

Did you always have a dream of making a space like this?

It kind of came naturally. I was working at a restaurant and they were struggling to pay their employees. I was doing leather work at that point, just making stuff out of my house. Ihad a Craigslist ad, so people would come over (to buy leather), and my friend was just like,“This is nuts. You’re letting strangers in your house to do leatherwork? This is very dangerous. You’re a woman. You live alone.” We were walking down Belmont Street one day as we normally did and I passed this little store next to Belmont Books. (Belmont Books wasn’t even there yet – it was just a little empty space next to Hoda’s.) My friend called the number for me, and said, “You need to do this.” And it just kind of took off. I never envisioned Mix Tape to be what it is… I was thinking it would be more for leather at the time. I was like, ‘How cool would it be to have a little leather shop where it’s just, like, tons of different leather workers?’ and my friends were like, ‘Oh, kind of like a mix tape.’ and the name just stuck. But it’s really grown. When we first started, we had 12 vendors. Then we moved across the street and it allowed us to expand. Hopefully we just keep expanding and I can support more and more people.

What future plans do you have for Mix Tape?

I really want to grow into a bigger space where I can host classes and artists who want to teach classes. I’ve been doing leather work since 2010 and there’s so much that can be done with items that people think are ruined. I’m trying to help people figure out that kind of stuff, with sustainability and upcycling. A lot of times people bring stuff to donate to me and I’m able to fix it. We’re talking about something they’ve had in their closet that they thought was ruined. They’ll be like ‘Oh, this zipper’s just totaled,’ and I’ll be like, ‘Actually, it just needs a few teeth and a zipper pull.’ They thought they were going to have to replace the whole thing and it was going to be all of this money. I’m really wanting to teach classes where I can help people take care of the items they have for longevity, just to keep things well loved or recycled. I would also love to host other artists to do that. Our space now is great, and I love it, but we’ve definitely outgrown it. That’s exciting, but also a little scary because Sunnyside doesn’t have a lot of large spaces to rent. So I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can better serve the community where I’m at and with the vendors I have, because I love Sunnyside and I never want to leave.

What is your favorite part about Sunnyside?

I love that all of the local businesses are run by the people who own them. That’s very rare in Portland. Before I got my space a few years ago, I went over to Division and was looking at a space that was really lovely, and I just kept going to the block and hanging out and talking with different business owners, and I realized that no one there who owned their businesses worked in their stores. I think that’s something super special about Sunnyside. It’s definitely a neighborhood where people are looking out for each other, and checking in on each other. A couple weeks ago, I left town and went camping, and people thought I was sick or something. Everyone was like, “Where have you been? Are you okay?” I love that everyone noticed I was missing for a week. It’s a block where everyone’s kind of in tune with each other, looking out for each other.

What do you think could use some improvement in Sunnyside?

I think sometimes people are a little scared when they see someone who doesn’t want help. Sometimes there are houseless people or people in general who don’t want help, and it’s hard to know what to do in those situations because they have autonomy and they’re saying, “No, I don’t want any resources from you,” but you can see that they need help. This has been a hard thing even for me to handle. I’ll want to give someone shoes, but they’ll say they don’t want them from me. Sometimes I’ll just leave them outside and then they’ll be gone and I just hope they ended up with them. Besides that, I definitely feel that there’s a lot of empty buildings in this neighborhood that could be filled, but that’s happening all over Portland, not just Sunnyside. I think Sunnyside has a really good thing going right now.

Visit Mix Tape seven days a week at 3300 SE Belmont St.

Farmhouse Carts Offer Diverse Culinary Options in a Neighborhood-Friendly Space

For Reed Dow, the Farmhouse Carts site is more than just another cart pod: It is a “complement to the neighborhood” and provides a welcoming space for the community to enjoy good food from around the world.

Dow is the property owner of the Farmhouse Carts located at SE 35th Pl. and SE Division St., and has a long history with the space. In the early 1960s, Dow worked at Dow Columbia, his father’s rug and furniture-cleaning business, located at 3525 SE Division St. It later expanded into house cleaning, environmental restoration and art and antique restoration.

The business was sold in 2007 and Dow remodeled the building in 2011, turning it into a retail space. He saw the parking lot, tucked behind the building on SE 35th Pl., as an underused space that could become a vibrant neighborhood hub for people walking and biking in the area.
Dow said he chose the food vendors based on tasting food at a variety of carts in the city. “The cart business is a close-knit group; when I found someone I liked, they recommended another cart. It was good to get referrals,” he said.

The food vendors come “from all over the world and they represent different cultures and have different ways of running a business. This has been a learning experience for me,” Dow added.

Visitors to the cart pod will notice the handmade wooden tables and wooden decorative carvings hanging at the site—all made by Dow. Making them was “a labor of love,” he said, adding that his favorite part of going to the pod is “interacting with the tenants” and the community aspect of meeting customers.

Three months ago, Cody Galloway came on board to help with marketing for Farmhouse Carts and to increase visibility of the pod. Calling it a “hidden gem for food adventurers,” Galloway said the carts provide “a unique opportunity for residents; it is kid-friendly and dog-friendly and is a place people can come and hang out,” he said.

The food carts have an “international flair,” Galloway said noting that, at present, the carts include Mama Chow’s (Chinese), Sunrise Co. (breakfast sandwiches, coffee), Shera Indian Food, Narmpouh Thai, Gyro World (Middle Eastern), Papa’s Frita (Nicaraguan), The Bulgarian Job, Smash and Grab (sandwiches, burgers) and Migration Brewing.

Sunrise Co. serves breakfast sandwiches and is the only cart that opens at 8 am; it is closed on Tuesdays. All the other carts open at various times and some are closed several days a week; diners should check the website for availability.

For Galloway, Farmhouse Carts is a symbol of “reactivating” Portland. “When you see pockets like this, with local people bringing Portland back with their positive efforts, people feel good,” he said.

With that in mind, the cart pod hosts craft-beer tasting with Migration Brewing 5-7 pm every Thursday; local musicians entertain diners once a month; and a mini-festival is planned for July 27.
“We will have face painting and balloon artistry, possibly a chalk artist, music and additional activities 5-7 pm,” Galloway noted. He added that a TV has recently been installed so that diners can watch sporting events and travel shows.

The space also hosts groups for parties and meet-ups, he said, adding that there is no charge for the space, but groups need to sign up on the online form on the website.

Why should people visit Farmhouse Carts? “For the excellent food with flavors you don’t get elsewhere, and the welcoming vibe,” Galloway said.

Farmhouse Carts, 2415 SE 35th Place.
www.farmhousecarts.com

This article was originally published in July issue of the The Southeast Examiner.

Getting to Know Your Neighbors

Q&A with Nathan Broden

One of the most iconic and lovely places in Sunnyside is the garden-filled grounds at the Sunnyside school. During school hours, the gardens are packed with students of all ages—digging, seeding, pulling weeds and harvesting all through the year. The garden was installed at the school’s inception in 1994, and is an integral part of Sunnyside’s curricular focus on environmental and place-based education. Nathan Broden has been the garden coordinator since 2022. His daughters, Iris and Jada, are both Sunnyside students. One of Farmer Nathan’s favorite things about the neighborhood are all the community connections—how neighbors can also be students, and how local businesses connect to one another and to the school community.

What do you love most about your job and the garden?

The kids! I’ve owned three farms myself and I always wanted to have an educational farm, which is basically what our garden is. This is where it all starts. I want every kid to grow up feeling like they know where food comes from, what the food system is (like, food doesn’t just magically appear at the grocery store), as well as how hard and valuable growing food is. I want them to have the confidence that they can feed themselves and their neighbors if they want to. Having your hands in the soil with all those microbes counteracts some of what we have been seeing with kids and screen time, rising rates of depression and all that. Even if some kids don’t really participate and just dig up worms or daydream in the garden—that is actually great. You don’t have to be pulling weeds to experience the value of being in a garden.

For years we hoped to cook some of the harvest in our school kitchen, but we’ve never succeeded—the kids literally eat everything as soon as it’s ripe! In fact, that’s my favorite part. I just had a kindergartner come up to me who became obsessed with radishes after he tasted the ones we are growing, and now makes his mom buy them at New Seasons every week. This week I asked if he wanted to try kale, and he was like, “I hate kale from the grocery store, but WOW I love kale if it’s only two seconds old!”

How does the garden get incorporated into school curricula?

Every student in Sunnyside gets pulled out of class once a week and gets a half an hour in the garden, year-round, every year—kindergarten through eighth grade. The kids learn about our food system and how food is grown, participating in mulching, composting, seeding, and harvesting.

Tell us a bit about the garden—what is growing there?

We just built a “bean cave,” which is a fort made out of scarlet runner beans. They aren’t the best for eating but they’re really cool for making jewelry out of, so that will be a winter art project. We have a big strawberry patch, plus raspberries, salad greens, turnips, onions, green beans, sweet corn, potatoes, kale, collards, sprouting cauliflower, broccolini, blueberries, tons of cucumbers, zucchini, thornless blackberries, as well as three pumpkin patches, a beneficial insect garden, a native plant garden, a huge potato patch. We also have lots of fruit trees – a cherry tree, an apple tree, a plum tree, a kumquat tree, a pomegranate tree and five fig trees.

There are also some lovely historical parts of the garden. There is a giant pine tree in the front yard that the school’s original principal planted in 1994 – on the school’s first Earth Day. Now it’s the biggest tree ever! Our rose garden by the front entrance is a memorial garden honoring community members we have lost over the years.

What happened to the chickens?!

Yeah, the kids were devastated about the chickens being removed. PPS has been after our livestock projects for a long time—they have a rule that no livestock is allowed on public school property. We eventually lost that battle. But we actually used to have other animals too! About 10 years ago we had a pig and turkeys.

What future plans are you excited about?

I am working on a proposal to get a de-paving project approved by the district. The goal is to remove a section of the blacktop in the back of the school where we currently have a lot of drainage issues; it’s also a bit of a heat dome. We want to put in a miniature learning forest based on a Japanese design. It would have different canopy levels and an understory. It would be an awesome addition to the garden and would especially be used by middle schoolers during their “Year of the Forest” curriculum.

What happens to the garden in the summer when school isn’t in session?

Obviously, a lot of the harvest comes when kids aren’t there. I’m super excited because we are planning to open a produce stand in the Belmont Market (at the corner of 34th and Belmont), hopefully this summer when their renovations are finished, but next summer if they’re not. The owner, Nick, has been super supportive. The goal is that we can harvest and put some of the produce up for sale all summer long. The income would go back into the garden program.* We might also propagate and sell houseplants. Once the produce stand opens, we would be so excited to have neighbors support the garden by buying some of the food the kids got started during the school year.

Can neighbors help out during the summer months?

We absolutely want neighbors to be involved, even if you don’t have kids at the school. You can find me in the garden two hours a day, three days a week during the summer. We have middle school students come help out and earn service hours. It’s also an opportunity for the community to come and be a part of the garden! Neighbors can sign up to help with watering, weeding, harvesting, etc.

Anyone who is interested can email me: [email protected]. We will have a booth at the Belmont Street Fair in September so people can stop by to meet me and some kids and find out how to get involved.

* Sunnyside’s garden program relies on parent and community fundraising; it is not funded by PPS. To make a donation, go to sesptsa.square.site/product/sesgarden/51