The PDX Pop-Up Shop program—part of the Downtown Marketing Initiative—has claimed another victory in its quest to fill the empty storefronts in Portland's city center. Trillium Artisans, the non-profit aimed at supporting low-income artists in their development of sustainable small business plans, has kept a storefront on SE Foster since 1999, but as one of four holiday pop-ups in the 2011 edition of the program, they've tasted the success that visibility and foot traffic can bring and have reopened permanently at 318 SW Taylor after having gone dark with the others after the close of the season on December 31. Trillium celebrates its grand re-opening today, so stop in from 4-5:30 these evening to browse around with some wine and cheese, and take 10% off all items today through the 11th.

While Trillium wasn't my favorite of the four 2011 pop-ups—that would have been Boys' Fort—its eclectic brand of environmentally minded (all products must be at least 50% recycled/reclaimed materials) adds a nice counterpoint to other recent, more corporate additions like Sephora, the new Nike store, and... the new Target store moving into the Galleria, which has been openly discussed for months but has today gotten final confirmation.

The city has something of a reputation for fending off big box stores whose politics aren't up to Portland's liberal snuff, but the push to revitalize downtown overrides such concerns. The fact that confirmation of this comes on the very same day as Trillium's celebration seems like a healthy indicator that downtown can handle both ends of the commercial scale. Target's not slated to open until 2013, though, so fair warning to downtown boutiques and shoppers alike. Oh, and Wieden + Kennedy too; living close to an ex can be so awkward.

• Comin' ta getcha!

Look, I promise I'm not trying to troll you guys when I post stuff like this, or that Brokelandia video from yesterday—which got at least one of you really buttsore (you know who you are), and inspired this quote from The Frisky: "After all, Portlandia spawned an awful Brooklyn parody called Brokelandia (don’t watch it, it’s truly appalling)." Anyway, speaking of The Frisky, they came up with the following Venn Diagram which pretty much sums up the differences between ourselves and Brooklyn.

...okay, kind of a funny asshole.

Translation for the non-Twitter enabled: If it snows, Portlanders on twitter will use the hashtag #pdxtst to talk about the weather in deliberately hyperbolic terms—the hashtag stands for Twitter! Storm! Team!, and it originated as a joke about the media's breathless coverage of Portland weather, though it's since seeped into more serious mainstream usage as well; backstory here—while Portlandia fans across the country follow along and think we're serious and laugh and laaaaaugh. Well played, Portlandia Twitter account.

Green Dragon Brewery in Southeast Portland used to face an ugly surface parking lot ringed by a barbed wire fence. No more! Now it faces a jail.

• Portland's Santa Phil: Displaced, displeased.

The Portland Santa company has been contracted to do the whole elf, snow, wish list rigamarole at Portland's downtown department store for 28 years, according to owner Joe Hawes. But this summer, the team got a call that Macy's across the country would be switching to an East Coast vendor to run and staff their Santalands. Sorry, Portland Santas, y'all are booted.

Worse, says Hawes, the other vendor is hiring Santas with costume beards.

"The style they do is a charicature of Santa," says Hawes, whose company's two bearded Santas have been working Christmas in Portland for 12 and eight years, respectively. "We’ve always had naturally bearded santas who play the role of Santa for year after year. The experience is dramatically different. The children come in and identify with an indivudual rather than a costumed character."

Instead of giving up Santaland, though, Portland's veteran Santas are setting up shop right around the corner at a their own rival Santaland in Pioneer Square. They're relocating all the parts of their traditional Macy's display to the Square starting December 14th.

I left a message with Macy's spokesperson seeking comment. The response on Portland Santa's Facebook page, meanwhile, has been one of shock and horror.

In the comments to my whiny rain post this morning, commenter Super Chundy mentioned a Susan Orlean New Yorker article about umbrella design:

Hollinger's umbrella project [....] was set in motion in november of 2004, on a particularly lousy, wet day in Boston. Hollinger was walking through downtown on his way to the Chase Gallery to install his sculptures for a solo show. Ahead of him on the sidewalk was a man fighting with a tattered umbrella, which was funnelling rain onto the man's back rather than shearing it away from him. The futility and anguish of humankind's relationship with the umbrella stuck in Hollinger's mind. Later that afternoon, at the gallery, he watched as the wind punched umbrellas sideways and then bounced them off cars parked along Newbury Street. He had always liked umbrellas, and often sketched them, because he found them aesthetically interesting, but this was the first time that he considered them as dysfunctional objects that might benefit from being reinvented. Stephanie Walker, who was then the director of the gallery, was watching the umbrella massacre with him. Knowing the way Hollinger's mind works, she wasn't surprised when he emerged a month later with a new vision for an umbrella and a patent application covering dozens of mechanical improvements.

It's about the history of the umbrella and an inventor attempting to improve its design, which sort of makes it the quintessential Susan Orlean article. Read it. And now I want one of these.

I want to start an Oregonians-with-umbrellas meme, who's with me? (Also, if anyone has any tips on sturdy umbrella brands, I could use 'em—this happened on the Burnside Bridge this morning and for 20 minutes it was like I was the protagonist in a movie about a high school nerd who eventually gets the girl but I was stuck in an early establishing shot of just how pathetic his life is.)

Obviously, everything about Portland is terrible at this moment. It is raining super hard and windy and my cat was in a super bad mood this morning and kept biting me on the foot and suicide actually seemed like a viable alternative to getting out of bed. So I looked to the internet for encouragement (never a bad idea) and found this Lifehacker article about ways to "make waking up comfortable and pleasurable (instead of punishing)," which encouraged me to:

1. Stretch.
2. Consider a "scented oil diffuser (perhaps put on a timer) with oils that are supposed to be energizing, like citrus" (?? do I live in a Turkish harem? I do not.)
3. Make a sunrise simulator.

Fuck that. I need a new umbrella.

At least once a week, I meet a Portlander from a different state. Granted, I fall within that category, but it's always wild how many folks come from so far away to be a part of the Portland experience. How many, you ask? Lucky for us, Forbes has made a fun interactive map showing how many people migrate to and out of a specific county and where they originate from or end up.

Since 2006, Multnomah County's inbound migration has outnumbered its outbounders — with transplants arriving from all 50 states (mostly the Northeast and, strangely, a large portion of Arizona). Not a big surprise.

The more interesting info is where Portland natives flee to. Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina (and, again Arizona...what's with this trade route?) appear to be the reigning magnets for Portland locals who escape. What does this mean? I expect you to provide the answers.

Check out the entire map, split up by year, here.

• Internal Revenue Service Tax Stats & Forbes

Now that this year's downtown holiday pop-up projects (in which unleased storefronts downtown are "activated" by temporary shops during the big shopping season thanks to a concert of private and government agencies, at minimal cost to the shops) are up and running, I'm already thinking about next year, and maybe you should be too. Curious, I asked Downtown Retail Development Manager Lisa Frisch about the process for initiating such a shop. Peep her explanations below, and get those wheels turning. 2012 will be here before we know it.

MERCURY: Should people should contact you directly with proposals, or go through someone
else? What is the preferred contact route?

LISA FRISCH: Yes, interested parties should send the questions my way, either by phone or email. I then collect and present to the group, which includes Cori Jacobs, Downtown Retail Advocate, Katherine Krajnak from PDC, Courtney Ries from the Downtown Marketing Initiative. We have monthly meetings, but also are in contact almost daily.

When should people come forward with proposals? What is too early, what is too late?
People can come forward with proposals anytime during the year. We do have available space other times of the year besides the holidays. We recommend beginning the process in July for a Pop Up that begins in
November—this will give time for artisans and designers to create stock in time for shop opening. The actual lease signing occurs in October, with access to the space given two to three weeks before the shop opens.

How fully formed do the ideas need to be? Do you require a formal business plan or do you work with people to flesh out revenue models, etc.?
The initial proposal can be verbal and we do like the operator to describe the concept to us via direct conversation. After that, werequire a one page proposal along with details about the merchandise the
shop will carry, including product pictures. We do work with some pop-ups to refine business plans and P&Ls [profit and loss statements], especially those who are interested in becoming a permanent retail shop. We have many business support resources to call upon.

Are you open to other types of pop-ups besides retail, for instance pop-up restaurants? Or do you prefer that every pop-up at least have a retail element?
Our PDX Pop up shop program focuses on apparel, gifts items, and some art. Food and beverage tends to be difficult to support through a pop up shop because it may set off additional permitting needs (ie bathrooms) and make the process more complex and costly for both the property owner and the shop operator.

Additional info from Frisch is after the cut!

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