Best Day Ever: Downtown Portland's biggest fan Linda McKim-Bell
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Linda McKim-Bell at her alma mater, Portland State University, where she still studies and volunteers. Photo: Emily Harris/Axios
Linda McKim-Bell loves downtown Portland, and the third-generation Portlander is waging a full-on campaign to get you to love it too.
- She has printed up hundreds of "I ♥️ Downtown PDX" buttons and hands them out to anyone she can.
- After the New York Times called the city's homeless crisis a "struggle to save Portland," she shot back with a letter saying the story was a "slap in the face to a great city that is actually having a renaissance."
- She told members of her downtown church they have the power to revive downtown simply by showing up.
So, of course, McKim-Bell's best day ever is spent doing something that might not seem very popular right now — hanging around downtown.
🚊 From her home in NW Portland, she'll catch the streetcar downtown to "walk and walk and walk."
- Cafe Umbria on the South Park Blocks is a favorite stop for coffee.
- She might duck into ArtReach, a little gallery inside the First Congregational Church, kitty corner from the Portland Art Museum.
- Next up could be checking out what's new in the gift shop of the Oregon Historical Society.
👋🏼 She'll stop to chat with the owner of Park Avenue Market, a convenience store full of Middle Eastern groceries that has suffered repeated robberies.
- "My husband grew up in the Middle East and we cook a lot of Middle Eastern foods."
🍢 For lunch, McKim-Bell loves Habibi — also Middle Eastern food — a block north of the Central Library.
- The owner keeps one of her "I ♥️ Downtown PDX" buttons near the register.
📚 All her best days include time at Portland State — her alma mater — where she still studies Spanish and volunteers with a program to help people over 65 take advantage of the university's resources.
💡 She is always looking out for ideas to enhance downtown.
- "My newest project is reaching out to the new downtown task force to promote the idea of building on the Portland Winter Light Festival … make it larger, make it an all-winter event."
🌓 Evenings, she's back home, writing letters to newspapers, sending buttons to local officials, studying Spanish or boning up on various public policy proposals.
🍽️ On her favorite days, friends or neighbors come over for dinner. It's another McKim-Bell effort to fight another civic battle — the one against loneliness.
- "I try to have people over for dinner three times a week, even if I have to buy it from Trader Joe's."
- "Because this is what people are really craving. And I'm just finding that that makes me happy."