Imagine making a beautifully intricate work of art by hand only to sweep it up and release it into the river once you're done. Over two days at Cargo this weekend (September 18 through 20) visiting Tibetan monks will do just that. First the monks will create a mandala at a large table inside Cargo, using small batches of sand mixed with vegetable dyes. Mandala, by the way, means "circle" in Sanskrit; the designs more...

It was always very late at night and raining. It reeked of overflowing ashtrays, old grease and Chop Suey. You'd take a sinking staircase up, go along the yellow walls of the restaurant and then into the inky black bar at Hung Far Low, a Chinese restaurant in Old Town Chinatown claimed by artists, rockers, and criminals. A fat gold Buddha shone in the corner. A cocktail waitress older than your grandma with a voice to make Tom more...

Where's the action in the Pearl? Major development in the Pearl District has stalled or stopped. Two of the most active Pearl District Neighborhood Association groups, Planning and Transportation, have scaled back their meetings to once a month because of the slowdown. But neighborhood leaders are taking advantage of the lull to do some housekeeping chores. And they're bracing for a brisk fall even amid news that more...

The Fields, the third and largest in a chain of parks planned for the River District, is as highly anticipated as it is delayed. This we know for sure: the park is intended to offer open space for play such as football, catch, or soccer. It will have a children's area, and a fenced off leash dog area. But the process has been on hold about 2 years now. The original delay was due to the nearby Centennial Mills more...

The Portland Development Commission's Steven Shain says the 3.5 acre Centennial Mills redevelopment project is on track with its original time line: construction will begin in 2011, with an opening date some time in 2012. "We're continuing to work with the Lab, and we're working on the same schedule," says Shain.   Some Background The PDC chose California-based development team Lab Holdings more...

Rich Newlands is a Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) project manager. He is overseeing the quiet zone planned for the River District. Plans call for intersections to be changed so that drivers can't drive around the crossing guard arms as the reckless currently do. Barriers will be added to prevent them from doing so. As a result of such changes, the train engineers won't need to blow their horns to warn vehicles more...

The Portland Tennis Center, located across the street from the Franz Bakery in Northeast Portland, is perhaps the only place where the sound of the thwack! of a struck tennis ball mingles with the aroma of baking bread.The tennis center unveiled its new outdoor courts last month. The improvements to the existing courts were paid for by a $50k Nike grant and a 20k grant from the United States Tennis Association's Pacific Northwest more...

Everyone has a perfect summer memory. Chances are good it involves a sunny day, ice cream and the ring-ring of a bike bell. Icicle Tricycles, a fleet of ice cream vendors on heavy-duty tricycles, brings childhood memories back in a flash. Choco-taco, anyone? Peddling on bright orange rigs made here in town, the scruffy drivers paint a hipper version of a Norman Rockwell painting, in a retro-historical kind of way. Icicle more...

Tanya March lives across the street from Couch Park and the Metropolitan Learning Center, where her oldest son, age 7, attends school. in the past, her son benefited from small, creative after school classes provided by the SUN program. He enjoyed activities like singing and photography in relaxed classes with kids of different ages. Now the SUN program, which began in 1978, has been cancelled for MLC. It was one of three such similar more...

When Meddle building owner Todd Cowing held a drawing to see which business would benefit from planned rooftop solar panels, it was Ben & Jerry's that won out. Maybe it was because sun and ice cream just go together. Other businesses located in the Meddle Building, which sits on the corner of NW Everett Street and 10th Avenue, include Teardrop Lounge, Cupcake Jones, and Bishop's Barber Shop.The panels, which won't be installed until more...