by Geon, Bryan
Yamhill County Dog Control, Yamhill County Fairgrounds, 2070 Lafayette Ave, McMinnville, 503-434-7538, www.co.yamhill.or.us/dog-control
Veterinary Care
Satisfied friends and neighbors are the best sources of veterinarian referrals. If you can’t get a personal recommendation, look in the Yellow Pages, do an Internet search, or contact the Oregon Veterinary Medical Association (503-399-0311, 800-235-3502, www.oregonvma.org), which offers a “find a vet” service. (In Washington, contact the Washington State Veterinary Medical Association, 425-396-3191, 800-399-7862, www.wsvma.org.)
Pet Hospitals
Banfield, The Pet Hospital (866-894-7927, www.banfield.com) is a national chain that started in Portland and is still headquartered here; they have 20 locations in the metro area.
VCA Animal Hospitals (800-VCA-PETS, vcahospitals.com) has ten area hospitals.
Veterinary Emergency Care
Dove Lewis (www.dovelewis.org) operates a 24-hour emergency animal hospital at 1945 NW Pettygrove St (emergency line 503-228-7281).
Other area emergency veterinary clinics that are open nights and weekends include:
Columbia River VetERinary Specialists, 6607 NE 84th St, Ste 109, Vancouver, 360-694-3007, www.columbiarivervetspecialists.com
Emergency Veterinary Clinic of Tualatin, 19314 SW Mohave Ct, Tualatin, 503-691-7922, www.evcot.com
Salem Veterinary Emergency Clinic, 3215 Market St NE, Salem, 503-588-8082, www.salemervet.net
St. Francis 24 Hour Pet Hospital, 12010 NE 65th St, Vancouver, 360-253-5446, www.stfrancis24hr.com
Tanasbourne Veterinary Emergency, 2338 NW Amberbrook Dr, Beaverton, 503-629-5800, www.tanasbourneveter.com
VCA Northwest Veterinary Specialists, 16756 SE 82nd Dr, Clackamas, 503-656-3999, www.northwestvetspecialists.com
VCA Southeast Portland Animal Hospital, 13830 SE Stark St, 503-255-8139, www.vcahospitals.com/southeast-portland
Pet Adoption
If you want to adopt a pet, a local animal shelter is a good place to begin. Cats and dogs will come with their first vaccinations and a discount coupon to have them spayed or neutered. Area shelters include:
Animal Aid, 5335 SW 42nd Ave, 503-292-6628, www.animalaidpdx.org
Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter, 1901 SE 24th Ave, Hillsboro, 503-846-7041, www.co.washington.or.us/hhs/AnimalServices/AnimalShelter/
Cat Adoption Team, 14175 SW Galbreath Dr, Sherwood, 503-925-8903, www.catadoptionteam.org
Clackamas County Dog Services, 13141 SE Hwy 212, Clackamas, 503-655-8628, www.clackamas.us/dogs
Columbia Humane Society, 2084 Oregon St., St. Helens, 503-397-4353, www.columbiahumane.org
Family Dogs New Life Shelter, 9101 SE Stanley Ave, 503-771-5596, www.familydogsnewlife.org
Homeward Bound Pets, 10605 SE Loop Rd, McMinnville, 971-237-1604, www.hbpets.org
Humane Society for Southwest Washington, 1100 NE 192nd Ave, Vancouver, 360-693-4746, southwesthumane.org
Marion County Animal Shelter, 3550 Aumsville Hwy SE, Salem, 503-566-6966, www.mcdogs.net
Multnomah County Animal Shelter, 1700 W Historic Columbia River Hwy, Troutdale, 503-988-7387, www.multcopets.org
Oregon Humane Society, 1067 NE Columbia Blvd, 503-285-7722, www.oregonhumane.com
PAWS Animal Shelter, 1741 Willamette Falls Dr, West Linn, 503-650-0855, www.facebook.com/PAWSOregon
Pixie Project, 510 NE MLK Jr Blvd, 503-542-3433, www.pixieproject.org
Willamette Humane Society, 4246 Turner Rd SE, Salem, 503-585-5900, www.whs4pets.org
You can also try such online resources as Petfinder (www.petfinder.com) and Adoptapet.com.
Other Resources for Pet Owners
Several publications and websites focus on pet-related service providers, upcoming events, and news of interest to Portland-area pet owners. Check out Portland Pooch (www.portlandpooch.com), the Oregon Humane Society’s Services directory (www.oregonhumane.org/services/overview.asp), and the Oregonian’s Oregon Pets section (www.oregonlive.com/pets/) or pick up a copy of Spot (www.spotmagazine.net) at your local library or pet supply store. You might just learn about some new, indispensable service. (Pet psychics? Who knew?)
Pet Sitters, Doggie Day Care, and Kennels
Not counting in-home doggie day care centers, the city of Portland harbors dozens of doggie day care and canine “social clubs,” most of which seem to have pun-based names. (Example: Virginia Woof Dog Daycare Center, 1520 E Burnside Street, 503-224-5455, www.virginiawoof.com.) The suburbs have several dozen more, and new facilities open seemingly every month. As with most services, it’s best to get a personal recommendation for a pet sitter, doggie day care provider, or kennel. The Oregon Humane Society publishes a useful list of “Questions to Ask When Considering a Dog Day Care,” available at www.oregonhumane.org/services/documents/Daycare_s_000.pdf.
For up-to-date listings of doggie day care centers and pet sitters, check out Portland Pooch’s online list at http://www.portlandpooch.com/directory/daycare/listings.htm. Pet Sitters International (www.petsit.com) and Portland Petsitters (www.portlandpetsitters.com) also offer online listings of pet sitters. Ads for in-home or private doggie day care are sometimes posted in the community/pets forum of craigslist.com, although as with any Craigslist ad, caveat emptor. For kennels (including cat-only boarding facilities), search www.findpetcare.com (which also has daycare listings), or check the Yellow Pages under “Pet Boarding” or “Dog and Cat Kennels.” Portland Pooch’s online list of dog kennels is at www.portlandpooch.com/directory/boarding.htm. If you need to board your pet because you’re leaving the city by air, the unique Airpet Hotel (6212 NE 78th Ct, Suite B, 503-255-1388, www.airpethotel.com) allows you to “park, board your pet, and board your plane.”
Dog Parks
Portland has more public off-leash areas per capita than any other city in the country—33 as of 2014, up from only 4 in 2000. (Sadly, the explosive growth of off-leash areas in Portland was partly the result of increasing conflict between dog-owning and non–dog-owning park users; this conflict culminated most visibly and tragically with the fatal poisonings of more than a dozen dogs in Laurelhurst Park in 2003.) Nine of these areas are fully fenced, dedicated off-leash areas, eight are unfenced areas that are open during most park hours, and the remaining 16 are open for off-leash use during specific hours only. The Portland Parks and Recreation off-leash program website (www.portlandoregon.gov/parks/38287) lists off-leash areas, hours, and regulations, and provides links to maps of each specific park and the off-leash area within each park.
Outside Portland, off-leash areas have been established in Beaverton, Happy Valley, Hillsboro, Milwaukie, Tigard, Lake Oswego, Wilsonville, Vancouver, and several other suburbs, as well as in some area state parks. PortlandPooch.com has created an up-to-date, comprehensive online map of dog parks in the Portland region; visit www.portlandpooch.com/dogparks/map.htm, and click on any location marker to find the name and location of the dog park, with a description of the off-leash area. A companion comparison chart, which includes user ratings for each park, is located at www.portlandpooch.com/dogparks/comparison.htm.
Cultural Life
The average transplant to Portland is unlikely to name “cultural life” as his or her primary motivation for moving here. But Portland has an incredibly vibrant arts and entertainment scene—in some respects, arguably the best in the country for a city of its size—and it’s filled with big and small arts venues that offer high-caliber and occasionally world-class performances in practically any artistic genre you could name. It also tends to attract enough young artists of all kinds to give the local arts scene a surprisingly avant-garde flavor.
This chapter also covers Museums, Literary Life, and Culture for Kids.
What’s Going On?
The Willamette Week and the A&E insert in the Friday Oregonian, available weekly in paper form or online at www.wweek.com and oregonlive.com/entertainment respectively, offer the most complete listings of upcoming performing arts events, exhi
bit openings and closings, film screenings, dance clubs, and the like. The weekly Portland Mercury (www.portlandmercury.com) is a runner-up.
Tickets
As in most US cities, tickets to the majority of cultural events in Portland can (or must) be bought through ticket leviathan Ticketmaster (866-448-7849, online at www.ticketmaster.com, or at retail outlets, including many area Fred Meyer stores). For especially popular events, such as major rock concerts, you may have no choice but to buy from Ticketmaster. However, for many events and performances you can avoid paying the hefty extra Ticketmaster service fees by purchasing tickets directly at the box office of the event venue.
Several local venues use the ticket service TicketsWest (800-992-8499, www.ticketswest.com), which has retail outlets at most Safeway supermarkets, as well as Music Millennium.
Events at the Moda Center, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and several other performing arts venues are sold through ComcastTix (www.ComcastTIX.com). You may occasionally encounter one of several other online ticket services, including TicketWeb (www.ticketweb.com) and the “fair trade” ticket service Brown Paper Tickets (800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com).
If you have your heart set on going to a sold-out performance, a ticket broker can usually accommodate you, but expect to pay a significant premium for the privilege. Look in the Yellow Pages under “Ticket Sales—Entertainment & Sports,” or check out online sites like craigslist.org, eBay (www.ebay.com), www.ticketsnow.com, or www.stubhub.com.
Concert Halls and Theaters
Most of Portland’s “high” cultural events—major theatrical productions, dance and classical music performances, and the like—take place at the five venues listed below, collectively the “Portland’5 Centers for the Arts.” Portland also has an impressive range of high-quality alternative performance spaces, and many events are held in the city’s churches and synagogues, in high school and college campus theaters and auditoriums, at neighborhood community or cultural centers, or in cafés and rock clubs. Some smaller theater companies have their own dedicated performance spaces.
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, www.portland5.com/arlene-schnitzer-concert-hall; the “Schnitz” is part of the downtown Portland Center for the Performing Arts complex on Broadway. This ornate, formal concert hall, decorated in rococo finery, hosts Oregon Symphony performances; lectures; various classical, dance, and theatrical productions; and the occasional rock concert.
Brunish Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, www.portland5.com/brunish-theater; this small, flexible space in the downtown Portland Center for the Performing Arts complex sees a diverse set of small-scale performances, primarily plays.
Dolores Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, www.portland5.com/winningstad-theatre; another star in the Portland Center for the Performing Arts constellation, this small Elizabethan-style theatre hosts a variety of theatrical productions, and is an especially popular venue for Shakespeare plays.
Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St, 503-248-4335, www.portland5.com/keller-auditorium; formerly the Civic Auditorium, the Keller Auditorium provides a home for the Portland Opera, the Oregon Ballet Theatre, and most touring Broadway shows that come through Portland.
Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, www.portland5.com/newmark-theatre, is an intimate, Edwardian-style theater.
Performing Arts
While the lists below include almost all the city’s professional performing arts companies, and many of its major nonprofessional organizations, they are by no means exhaustive.
Dance
Bobery (www.bobery.com), formerly Hot Little Hands, is a small dance company that gives infrequent but highly regarded performances, including presentations of original works.
BodyVox, 1201 NW 17th Ave, 503-229-0627, www.bodyvox.com, is a dynamic, innovative modern dance company that is based in Portland but frequently tours around the country.
Oregon Ballet Theatre, 818 SE 6th Ave, 503-222-5538, www.obt.org; this nationally recognized professional ballet company performs a series of shows every two to three months. The OBT’s Christmastime Nutcracker performances are wildly popular. The OBT also operates a ballet school.
Polaris Dance Theatre, 1501 SW Taylor St, 503-380-5472, www.polarisdance.org, is a contemporary dance company that also offers classes at its dance center in downtown Portland.
White Bird, 503-245-1600, www.whitebird.org, brings regional, national, and international contemporary dance companies to Portland.
Music
Symphonic, Opera, Chamber Music
Portland’s classical music resources are surprisingly good, and some of its professional performers are of national or international caliber. Besides offering many options for traditional classical fare, Portland is a center of the burgeoning alt-classical scene. Moreover, Portland attracts more musicians and singers than it can support professionally, so even nonprofessional groups put on performances of surprisingly high quality.
Beaverton Symphony Orchestra, 503-819-4664, www.beavertonsymphony.org; this amateur orchestra focuses on the “great works” of classical music.
Chamber Music Northwest, 503-294-6400, www.cmnw.org; CMNW is not a performance group, but rather an organization devoted to bringing high-caliber chamber music artists to Portland to perform. It arranges events throughout the year, but the culmination of its efforts is a summer chamber music festival held at Reed College and the Catlin Gabel School.
Classical Revolution, www.classicalrevolutionpdx.org; with a rallying cry of “chamber music for everyone,” Classical Revolution is one of the best known of several alt-classical or underground classical ensembles in Portland. They give frequent non-stuffy performances.
Friends of Chamber Music, 503-224-9842, www.focm.org, brings several world-class chamber ensembles to Portland each year.
Opera Theater Oregon, www.operatheateror.wordpress.com, is a local alternative opera company that gives frequently rollicking and always unconventional performances, such as Das Rheingold rescripted as a Baywatch episode.
Oregon Symphony, 503-228-1353, www.orsymphony.org; the Oregon Symphony, now more than a century old, is one of the largest and most highly regarded orchestras in the country. In addition to its performances of classical standards and the occasional contemporary piece, the Symphony presents a yearly pops series with guest non-classical performers. Most performances take place at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Portland Baroque Orchestra, 503-222-6000, www.pbo.org; one of the best orchestras of its kind in the world, the Portland Baroque Orchestra indeed plays Baroque music, including some obscure pieces. PBO uses only original period instruments or reproductions.
Portland Cello Project, www.portlandcelloproject.com, is another alt-classical group. PCP performs around the country and collaborates frequently with non-classical artists. Plenty of cellos? Yes. Talented musicians? Yes. Traditional performances? No.
Portland Chamber Orchestra, 503-771-3250, www.portlandchamberorchestra.org, is the oldest professional-amateur chamber orchestra in the United States.
Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, 503-234-4077, www.columbiasymphony.org, composed of both professional and semiprofessional musicians, performs several concerts from autumn through spring of each year.
Portland Opera, 503-241-1802, www.portlandopera.org; based in the Keller Auditorium, the Portland Opera is regarded as one of the top opera companies in the United States. While most of its productions are time-tested works, it also stages some innovative and contemporary productions, such as Nixon in China and Philip Glass’s Galileo Galilei.
Portland Piano International, 503-228-1388, www.portlandpiano.org, brings world-class pianists to Portland for recitals.
Portland Taiko, 503-288-2456, www.portlandtaiko.org; neither purely music nor wholly dance, this group’s performances incorporate elements from multiple disciplines based around the taiko, a traditional Japanese drum.
Third Angle New Music En
semble, 503-331-0301, www.thirdangle.org, presents new chamber music.
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, 360-735-7278, www.vancouversymphony.org; billing itself as “America’s Vancouver Symphony” (to avoid confusion with the organization of the same in Vancouver, British Columbia), the Vancouver Symphony is the leading orchestral group in Southwest Washington.
Choral
Portland is rich in vocal music groups of all ages and abilities. The following list provides a glimpse of some of the city’s choral groups that offer public performances.
Cappella Romana, 503-236-8202, www.cappellaromana.org, performs works of Byzantine complexity—literally. The group’s focus is music of the Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox traditions, and most of their singing is in Greek or Russian.
Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, 503-488-3834, www.caeportland.com, performs a diverse range of choral music.
In Mulieribus, www.inmulieribus.org, is a female vocal ensemble that primarily performs pre-1750 works.
Oregon Repertory Singers, 503-230-0652, www.orsingers.org; both the quality and the sheer volume of this 60-voice choir will knock your socks off.
Portland Gay Men’s Chorus, 503-226-2588, www.pdxgmc.org, gives an eclectic series of performances each year.
Portland’s Singing Christmas Tree, 503-244-1344, www.singingchristmastree.org; a seasonal phenomenon, Portland’s Singing Christmas Tree is actually a group of human singers arranged in the shape of a conifer and not a caroling evergreen.
Portland Symphonic Choir, 503-223-1217, www.pschoir.org; this accomplished and well-respected choir offers a full program of choral performances each year. (The group’s annual Wintersong! celebration is a particular highlight.)
Contemporary
For all the diversity of the city’s arts community as a whole, Portland’s contemporary music scene gets the most national press. Portland is currently an alternative music hotbed; the city groans under the collective weight of scores of talented indie bands virtually no one has heard of. Some locally based bands like the Shins, the Decemberists, and the now-disbanded Sleater-Kinney have achieved international success, and plenty of up-and-coming acts like Blitzen Trapper, Blind Pilot, and Portugal. The Man are getting there, and the city’s alternative music pedigree stretches from proto-garage band The Kingsmen (immortalized by their one hit, “Louie Louie”) through Elliott Smith and Everclear. However, Portland is also one of the jazz, blues, and acoustic music hotspots of western North America, and the area boasts accomplished contemporary musicians working in almost every genre (or blending them—Pink Martini, which has legions of fans as far away as France, mixes classical, pop, and Latin influences, among others).
