How to Get Free Drinks at PDX, Longview Paper Mill Disaster’s Local Impact, Surprising Data on SNAP Recipients

The Water Lantern Festival is returning to Portland's Laurelhurst Park the weekend of June 13th and 14th at 6 p.m. Tickets are available now at Waterlanternf Festival.com. You can also find the link in our show notes. And if right now you're wondering what the heck is a Water Lantern Festival, stick around after the show. Citicast Content Director Andrea Salenzie and Tess Rouser, the festival's marketing manager, will be telling you all about it. Today on CityCast Portland, we're talking about a new business at PDX that's offering a pretty cool perk to investors, the local impact of the Longview Chemical Plant Explosion, and surprising new data about who's actually receiving Snap Food Assistance. Joining me today, our Kibu News Director, Althea Billings, and our very own senior producer, Julia Fioyoni. Welcome you to you to you. Thanks so much for being here. Hey, Claudia. Hello. Last Friday, Althea Julia and I were able to celebrate. the Human Access Project via a Portland Spirit River Cruise, which was super fun. And then we took Althea to Clyde's prime rib for the first time. She'd never been. Can you believe it? Yeah. It was awesome. Yeah, you liked it? Oh, cool. You gonna go back? Yeah, I'll go back. You can get the prime rib? This time I might have to try the prime rib. It's on the sign. It's on everything. Everybody's talking about it. It's so good. It's so good. Now, before we get into the news, I usually ask an opening question. So our listeners can get to know our guests a little better. And today's is based on a KGW8 report that Freeland Spirits has opened up a tasting room at PDX Airport. Now, the woman-owned distillery already has been around for about a decade. And they have a tasting room at their flagship location on Northwest Vaughn Street. They have a... A lovely patio area if you've not been. It's patio time. You should go check it out. But here's the really interesting news about their PDX outpost. So they had a crowdfunding campaign to finance that specific location because it's not just like a little tasting kiosk. It's a full-on bar and retail store. It's pretty large. And they raised nearly $700,000 of their $1.5 million. And now anyone who had invested... 500 bucks or more in that campaign, and I think you still can, will receive a complimentary drink each time they pass through the airport, which is pretty cool. So my question to you both is like, what other local business would you want to see open up a location at PDX? And if they were to crowd fund and all that, like what would you want that freebie to be? So this idea probably wouldn't even need any sort of crowdfunding element to it because Everybody can get in on this. I really want a library at the airport because how cool would it be to go to the airport? Check out a book for your trip and on your way back, return it. It seems so intuitive to me because I'm always looking for a new book to bring on a trip. And it would be so convenient to just pick it up and leave it in the place that you're guaranteed to go. Julia, maybe a little bit of planning there. No one's bringing back. No one's bringing back. Some responsible travelers. But how cool would that be? Very cool. In a world where we're all Japan, I think that would work. But we live in the United States of America. And I do believe.

that none of us could be responsible for a book outside of whatever we're living in for like longer than two days. We're going to lose that shit. I mean, yes, I agree. Maybe that's where the crowdfunding comes in to replace the books. I mean, you could do it in like free little library style where there just is free book box. And yeah, they're the castoffs. Yeah, it's only like vacation reads or something that your great aunt left you and, you know, you can't. Uh-huh. She was really into this person's cookbooks. I guess, yeah, cookbooks not a great thing to travel with now that I'm thinking about it. But at least that way, there's not like an expectation that people are going to return it. More free stuff. I guess I'm pro that. Can we pause? The thought of just. PDX being littered with free boxes is also very Portland. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No trash. Just a box of like, do you want this? It's like, you know. Some candles, a mug. One sandal. Okay, sorry. Well, okay, now I'm getting another idea with off of the free boxes idea. There should be a place that you can craft in the airport. Maybe that's scrap. Maybe that's collage. I'm into that. Also kind of related to my real gripe, which is they don't let you print your damn boarding pass anymore. So I think there should be a print shop in there if the airlines won't let you do it anymore. I was thwarted by this recently. I'm aggravated. United Airlines has a lot of things to answer for. But this is cheap among them, the fact that they were so hassled. They didn't want to print my boarding pass. They said, go stand in the line with the people who have to check bags. I said, I'm not like those people. I stuffed everything down. And I don't want to get my phone out at security. And I don't want them to see. scan my face. I'm trying to be responsible here with my piece of paper. And they said, you really should have done that at home. Man, I feel like I asked you a question that was very specific. And all you did was like, I'm so glad you asked me about the airport because I have this random rant that I have nowhere to go to. But okay. Is that not what this podcast is for? So you want like a local kinko's or something to open up and then you want to invest in it and then just get free, just a free. print out of your boarding pass. I'm done with library rules, five, ten cents a page even. Okay. I'm okay with that. Could be in the library. Have they thought about... I'm not asking for much. Putting an internet cafe in the airport, that would draw people in. Man, all these ideas just... Internet cafes, just a printing machine for some reason. Three boxes. Go back to my art, my craft idea. I think that that's a good one. We're going back in time. I love the craft idea. I think that's great. Yes, that's a really good idea. You know, sometimes you sign up for a long flight and you're like, maybe I'll learn to crochet. That could be good for us. You can make gifts for your family members that you're visiting. Little necklaces. Yeah, they're going to love it. You should bring seed beads on the plane. That's what they need. I know that the sports bra very recently started a crowdfunding campaign as well to help their franchise expansion. And I was just thinking that a location at the PDX airport would actually be awesome.

I mean, not sure if it would financially make a lot of sense for them right now, but I just think it's like a great, like, representation of what Portlanders love, which is women's sports and bars. And if for some reason they did open their like crowd funding to open up a location specifically at PDX, I would want a free sports bra. Not like every visit, but like every quarter. Like I can always use a new sports bra or a beer. Like one or the other. I would be so stoked. You know what I mean? It's a great idea. Oh, yeah. It doesn't have to be fancy. No. I just wanted to say sports bra. That's like, yeah. Sportsbride literally branded. Yeah. I want one too. With a little beer with like, you know, like two little beers where your boobs are supposed to be. That's so cute. Yes. Do you see the vision? Wow. I do. You're given these $500. I mean. I know. Community service right here. Oh, man. Well, thank you both for your answers. Let's take a quick break here when we come back. The Local Impact of the Longview Paper Mill Disaster.

Julia, you looked into the latest news from the Nippon Dino Wave Industrial Accident in Longview and the possible contamination it might have caused. I keep hearing it be called Washington State's deadliest workplace incident in nearly a century. Like, how worried should we be down here in Portland? Yeah, you're correct about that, it being the deadliest workplace incident in the last century. The last one was a mining incident. Dang, that's so old. Yes, it really does stand out. So my segment comes from some reporting by OPB and the Seattle Times. Today marks a week since the incident. What happened was a 900,000 gallon capacity tank ruptured at this paper mill in Longview, Washington, and it spilled a highly caustic chemical used in paper making. And a lot of folks have been concerned about the ramifications of this incident. on the local communities because this paper mail is right on the Columbia River. Just a reminder that Longview is about an hour north of downtown Portland and tens of thousands of gallons of the chemical escaped during the disaster, some directly into a storm drain that leads into the Columbia River. But state officials have been monitoring with tests and potentially contaminated water is being pumped away from rivers and drinking water. And as a Friday, local officials say that that the surrounding neighborhoods drinking water and air quality are unaffected. So we are completely fine here in Portland. Ideally, this continues to stay the case for the local neighborhoods around the paper mill. But the situation is... Really tough. As of this weekend, it was announced that 11 workers on site during the incident were killed. Eight were injured. Many of them still in recovery. Some of the victims were as young as 26 years old. There were two young brothers in their 20s that both died in the incident. Multiple grandfathers. All of the victims were men. So... I looked into what they know about why this happened as of right now. Important distinction, it was an implosion, not an explosion, which are notably more rare. And experts looking into it believe that it could have been a mix of things all at once. The tank itself having some sort of an issue with it. The chemical involved, again, which is this highly cost of chemical, there could have been potential issues with the vents, a dramatic change and pressure that can lead to this type of incident. And the thing that is so, so tough about it is that it happened right during a morning shift change. So there usually aren't as many folks on site as there was in that moment. There were people in the break room directly next to the tank that imploded. There were multiple walls surrounding the tank that were brought down during the incident, which led to more people being exposed to the chemical. So this is the situation.

as it is right now. There are so many folks looking into this because of how rare it is. And the thing I really want to highlight is that this pulp and paper making process. is historically extremely dangerous. The way that they are going about this is a practice that's been in motion for the last 100 years, and it's never changed. It's really always been like this. And chemical spills at paper mills across the U.S. are relatively rare. There's only been eight spills in the past 10 years across the country. None of them resulting in. in injuries, but really this situation of an implosion is especially rare. They spoke to one expert that said that they can think of so many different incidences of spills and explosions with tanks, but implosions they can only count on their hands the amount of times that they've heard of them in the last few decades. But before I continue, I do want to hear your guys' thoughts on this one. What was your initial reactions to this last week? Horrified. horrified. I actually, Julia, didn't know about all of the rarity of the type of implosion that they saw, which is very interesting. And it makes me wonder if the safety protocols that are in place are not necessarily set up for such a rare occurrence. But if this kind of thing happens, obviously it can have such devastating impacts. Yeah, I was just so sad that it took this long. for there to be confirmation of bodies. I understand that it was a very difficult process because it was an implosion. But just seeing all those families, especially that family who, it was the two brothers. Yeah. You know, and it was the father just being like, I have two sons in there. I want to know about my two sons. It's just, it was so heartbreaking. I will also say that from. the coverage and also the OPB article. There were two regional leaders in particular that stood out to me. There was Washington State Senator Jeff Wilson and also Nippon Dino Wave Packaging Support Services Director, Brian Wood, who also happens to be a counselor in Kelso. So he is like a city leader. They both appear to downplay not the severity, but almost like the... Just like, well, you know, this stuff. These things happen. These things happen. And like the only reason this was so crazy was because of the shift change. And it's like, sirs, this should have never happened. An implosion is an implosion. And the fact that you stated, like, yeah, it took a while for it to finally come out, which there's no way that it was like, oops, yes, there is a leakage. There was always a leakage. Right. And you were trying to find a way to not have to report it. That's what I'm like immediately assuming. And some listeners might remember that Washington State Senator Jeff Wilson, this is just neither here nor there, but just like, like, holy, when I saw his name, I was like, wait, is this the

dude, he flew out of PDX with an unlicensed firearm into Hong Kong. Oh my gosh. Back in 2023. That was him? That was him. That is such a, I cannot believe you made that connection. I would have never remembered that. I remember because it was like Longview. And I was like, wait, is this? And whenever anyone acts the fool, I'm always, is that the same fool? Who acting the fool? Do you know what I mean? I'm just like, it's got to be the same fool. And it was the same fool. So baggage screeners at PDX did not catch the gun. It was a big deal. This was like during the height of like PDX just getting dinged over and over again for like safety issues. But yeah. See, Claudia, you're pointing at something that I think is really interesting. And OPB did some great reporting and talking to a bunch of experts that could have a sense of what. what happened here. And there are a lot of mixed takes on it where some folks are saying, yeah, this is just extremely unlucky. Some folks are pointing at a few incidences where the company was fine for not following certain protocols. But some of those things, including like workers not wearing masks during COVID while they're on site. So like it really, again, low fines too. Yes, you have to take it with a grain of salt. But they did have a chemical spill at Nippon Dinawave in 2021. There was 3,000 gallons of chemicals leaked from an open valve. Nobody was injured. And that's really one of a handful of things that they're looking at to see, okay, is there a history here of them not being responsible with these kinds of things, putting themselves and their workers at risks? But you're also pointing to just how many folks involved in this incident, the leaders and the experts. that are directly connected to the community. Keeping in mind, Longview, Washington is a town of under 40,000 residents. So it's pretty small. And the saddest thing about it, this detail from this OPB article that stood out to me was that many of the first responders have direct ties to the paper mill. So emotions were really running high going into that space. It was extremely risky for folks to go in there to even recover the bodies of the workers that they found. So this is a huge community effort. And another thing that's being pointed to, too, is because of the paper mill being mostly shut down for now, local leaders are concerned about the economic future because it's such an insane employment hub for that area. And of course, like. Now is it time for mourning. Now is a time to get answers to the families. But thinking about the future for folks that are still working at that bill and how devastating of a blow long term this is for that community, it's really, really hard to wrap your head around at this point. Yeah. But the whole like financial side of stuff, I mean, that was something that state Senator Jeff Wilson was talking about. He was just like, I hate saying business as usual, but. We got to keep business going. And that's when I was like, you could also just not talk. There's also that option. I got to be the first guy on the record to say business as usual. We got to start melting wood chips with caustic chemicals right away. Yeah. Well, let's take a quick break here. And when we return an interesting demographic on who is using SNAP benefits.

And then they're also getting federal money that are the taxpayers' money fed back into them through SNAP. I remember, gosh, maybe like 20-something years ago, there was that whole investigation into Walmart and they found out that almost all of their employees were on some sort of welfare because they were paying them so little. And it just felt wrong, you know, like. They're being subsidized by the government, Walmart, to essentially pay their workers so little so they're able to keep their prices that low. And it just felt really weird and it didn't make any sense. And this feels the same way where I just feel like if minimum wage means that you need welfare of any sort, then that's not a suitable minimum wage. Minimum wage. in our country should mean that you can afford to eat and you can afford your rent. And if that's not going to be cutting it, then like we need to raise the minimum wage. And at that point, it's like, well, if these companies can't do business within the capitalistic structure that has been created by them, then to me, that's socialism. Like, they're trying to get the best of both words. Well, they're just like, no, no, no. You as an employee can't have socialism, but we as these businesses can have, we can have corporate socialism, but you cannot. Corporations tend to basically only exist because of corporate socialism. And all it does is perpetuate this, this lie that this is sustainable. Sorry, I just, oh my God, Althea, I just did that thing that you did in the opening question where, like, you asked something. And I'm like, I've had had a rant in me. No, I love it. I was going to start giving snaps. Yeah, no, we'll keep going. I also have my own personal rant on this one. Okay, Julia's turn. I got to jump in here and say, got to remind folks, grocery store workers do not get tips. It is a very specific type of job that, like, almost mirrors. working as a barista or a bartender in terms of pay, but you do not get the padding of tips, which makes it so much tougher. They try to trade that out for health benefits some of the time, but it really does not add up. And the thing that I'm reminded of right now, zooming in a little bit more local, this was the most frustrating thing for me when I worked at a local high-end grocery store. I'm sure you can put the pieces together of who I'm talking about. I can't say it's fine. Consistently. So they would give this like measly 25% discount to their workers. Again, I know this because I worked there to have them buy things in the store like groceries. And that was supposed to supplement their very low hourly wage. But the thing that's tough, when your items are priced up sometimes five, ten times, it makes it completely unaffordable. So consistently every single day, the one item that would be sold out would be the top ramen. And that's what employees were having for dinner every night. And that, like, it's not even just Walmart. It's not even just Albertsons. It also dives into local grocery industries that don't have the best intentions in mind for their employees. And it's crazy how low grocery store workers wages are, period. Yeah. Absolutely. Some other industries that were coming up.

more frequently in the research that Alex over at Capital Chronicle did was the Oregon Department of Human Services, which is interesting because they're basically the conduit for paying home care workers. So technically home care workers are paid... by the people that they're serving, but they're also showing up a lot on SNAP income verification forms. You also see public school systems, university systems showing up a lot. Their explanation of that is that these are a lot of seasonal workers. Students. Some of our students are capped at how many hours they're even really allowed to work. So that's kind of where that's factoring in as well. They also looked at how frequently fast food workers were showing up as well. McDonald's had the most incidents of the data that they looked at. A lot of retailers, a lot of places you might notice if you check out this article, they have some good data visualizations of, you know, who's showing up the most here. Anyone surprise you? I was surprised by the Department of Human Services one, but I mean, I think the thing that you kind of see cross-cuttingly is that like, I don't know, you remember the pandemic, home care workers, grocery workers, they were, they were frontline. You know, we know how much our system, our society relies on their labor and showing up to do what they do every day. It's a frustrating statistic to hear about. I mean, some of these are also, like, influenced by the fact that these are large employers in Oregon. These are where a lot of people work, so they show up more often. So I want to note that as well. But, yeah, if we're not going to raise the minimum wage, also worth noting, you know, Oregon's minimum wage is double the national. It's 725 across the U.S. Yeah. And so there's a quote in this article where I believe someone from Amazon is bragging that their company average pay is among the best in the industry because it's double the federal minimum wage. That's just Oregon's minimum wage. And that the federal one hasn't moved is a huge goddamn problem. You shouldn't be proud of that. I think of living wage now we're coming up on $25 an hour. And you know they're not going to get there. Yeah. Well, thanks for looking into that, Althea. Sure. I'm curious like what it's going to, because, you know, usually when they do studies like this, it's because there's a larger story that is developing or there's, you know, legislation around something. So I'm just curious what this is going to lead to. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, kind of a bummer to end on, but I'm really appreciate you two hanging out with me going through some of these headlines. It was so nice to see you both like outside of this reality because we just sort of see each other through the internets. And I was just thinking, I was like, you know what, we should do that? On Fridays, I think I'm just going to start bothering people. I mean, like, do you want to go for a happy hour? Like, why not? Let's go to Clydes. It's got to Clydes. Everybody. And if you haven't been to Clydes, you're a listener and you, whatever, you need to go to Clyde's Prime Rib.

You got to go. But yeah, thank you so much for hanging out with me. Appreciate you both. Thanks, Claudia. Thanks, Claudia. Thanks, Claudia. Hey, CityCast Content Director, Andrea Salenzie here. There are some things we do outside that I look forward to all year long, picking apples in the fall, winter light shows, food festivals on a really hot summer night. And I'm here to suggest a new tradition you're going to have to experience for yourself. Releasing a glowing lantern into the water at sunset, right in the middle of your beautiful city, surrounded by hundreds of your neighbors doing the exact same thing. That's what I'm talking about today with Tess Rouser, the marketing manager for the Water Lantern Festival. Hey, Tess. Hi, Andrea. How are you? I'm so excited for folks to picture what this festival really looks like. So the Water Lantern Festival happens in cities all over the country. If you're hearing this, it's coming to your city soon. So for someone who's never been, what does it actually like to be there? The Water Lantern Festival isn't your typical festival. Yes, when you arrive, there are food trucks and local vendors. There's family activities, games going on, a scavenger hunt. It's very lively, fun, upbeat music going on. But the event definitely turns inward and more reflective as the night goes on. It really like pivot and the music changes and the whole vibe changes. So it's almost the best of both worlds. Guests are encouraged to... right on their lanterns and everyone gathers by the water at sunset to release their lanterns. That's definitely the peak of the event. Watching hundreds or even sometimes thousands of lanterns on the water is incredibly peaceful and emotional. People often tell us that it's a moment that stays with them long after the night ends. So everyone who attends gets to personalize their own lantern before releasing it in the water. What have you seen people write or draw on their lanterns? Yes. So each ticket comes with a lantern that comes with everything you'll need for the evening. Your markers, the biodegradable paper that you can write on or design. And that's one of the most important parts of the event. People write, gosh, all kinds of things. Messages of love or hope or remembrance or gratitude or sometimes people are setting intentions or goals for what they want. to do that year more of a personal story for me i lost my nephew three years ago and there was a lantern festival near me um on his angelversary two years after and it was the most incredible and meaningful experience that i was able to have with my family where we came and remembered him and honored him and shared stories about him and released it onto the water in a glowing just moment of a remembrance But honestly, we see so many things. We see lots of proposals. There's nothing like seeing someone down on one knee proposing in front of just thousands of lanterns on the water. So it's fun because every lantern tells a personal story. But when they're released together, it becomes a meaningful and powerful shared moment. So it's shared grief or shared celebration. It's kind of all of it.

It is. It's all of it. You'll see names. You'll see dates, hearts, drawings, but even sometimes just a single word that holds a lot of meaning. So when you look out of the crowd at one of these festivals, what do you see? Is this families, couples? Who's the attendee? It's really a diverse crowd, which is something we absolutely love. You'll see the families with kids, couples, friends groups, lots of girls' nights with their charcutory boards and blankets and pillows that they've brought to set up camp for the night. There isn't one type of attendee, and that's something we absolutely love. So it definitely brings together people from all walks of life. Can you get me the scale of Water Lantern Festival? Like, how long has this been going on? How many cities have you been to? How many people have released a lantern into the water? Yes, we actually just surpassed our two million. lanterns being released into the water. So the largest lantern festival of its kind. We've been in business for nine years. So it started as just a small community gathering. It's expanded and grown to over 175 different cities, you know, nationwide and now worldwide expanding into Australia, Canada, the UK, Mexico here in a few weeks. So it's really fun to be able to bring this experience of love and hope and connection to the world. Is there anything else someone should know before they get their ticket? Any tips for attending? I encourage people to come with an open heart and to give themselves time to enjoy the experience from start to finish. It's not meant to be a fast-paced event. It's meant to slow you down and create space for that reflection and connection. So it's always a good idea to come early so you can still hit the food trucks, the music, the vendors, the booths, the scavenger hunt. but then still have time to sit and personalize your lantern and just take everything in and turn more inward. Tess, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me, Andrea. If you want to find a Water Lantern Festival near you and grab tickets, just head to Waterlanternfestable.com. You can search for your city there and it's a good idea to get your tickets in advance since many events do sell out. And for the latest updates, you can follow them on social media at Water Lantern Festival. Thanks for listening.

I'm That's all for today here on CityCast Portland. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this show, please share it with a friend, rate it. Leave us an amazing review. It really does help us out. And don't forget, you can support this show and get awesome perks like at free listening and invites to member-only events by becoming a citycast Portland neighbor. Just visit membership.com.com. We'll be back tomorrow morning with more from around the city. Until then, see you at Slims or possibly Clydes at a booth. Dirty Martini. Yes. Right? Oh, yeah.