December 2025 - Pac/West Lobby Group

“‘Twas the morning before Christmas and no time to settle

There was work to be done with my paddle and kettle”

Christmas Eve is nigh! A time where the fond memories of Christmas past re-emerge as present-day gifts. Each of us has our own memories seared into our minds, bringing warmth to the heart. Those tree cutting expeditions through the forest as a child. Your dad, carefully orchestrating the strings of multicolored lights to shine with brilliance from the eaves of your home, or perhaps the year that snowflakes appeared right on cue.

For me, one of the most memorable was the holiday magic that enveloped Portland’s Lloyd Center during those crowded, bustling days before Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos swarmed in as the Grinches that stole big mall Christmas.

A large Christmas tree adorns the ice skating rink at Portland’s Lloyd Center Mall.

The Lloyd Center Mall was still young in the late 1960s. Christmas there was magical. Holiday décor cascaded throughout the mall. Choirs would sing, ice skaters would skate, Santa would hold court, and stockings were being filled with treasurers gleaned from cheerful merchants.

The highlight of it all was Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn, a small vault of savory sweetness anchored at the west end of the skating rink.

Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn has been a Portland icon and mainstay of the Lloyd Center Mall.

“Children in holiday sweaters, scarfs and mittens would be worn

As they eagerly awaited a bite of that fresh caramel corn.”

My friend Patrick Donaldson and I worked there for a time as high school students. Over time, we convinced ourselves we must have made enough carmel corn to fill that ice rink. I still have my kettle paddle from those days, a holiday reminder of those joyful moments stirring up batches of smiles, laughter, and savory caramel.

It was a special blend of brown sugar, corn syrup, soda, real butter, salt, and then the secret ingredient — a ribbon of lecithin laced over the bubbly brew which would smooth the caramel and help keep the kernels from sticking together as it cooled.

Owner Betty Brown Kalk, daughter of the shop’s founder, was firm, disciplined, and sharp as a No. 2 pencil as she worked the books in the back. Grandmotherly Marie was in the corner whipping up the best cheese corn west of wherever, while Patrick and I would have our hearts go into tachycardia whenever we were slated to share a shift with the lovely Miss Marianne Peale.

What teenager could ask for anything more? A workplace filled with carmel corn, chocolate, and a buck and a quarter an hour to boot.

“And I heard children exclaim as they took their first bite

Merry Christmas to all, it tastes just right!”

Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn is a Portland icon. It has been there since the beginning when Lloyd Center first opened its doors in 1960. Generations of Oregonians have succumbed to the allure of that sweet aroma wafting through the mall.

Last week, for one last Christmas, Patrick and I returned to relive the memory. The mall has been slowly dying as major retailers have left and others, one by one, surrender to the changing times. However, Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn — the mall original — remains at its post.

Rick Metsger, left, and friend Patrick Donaldson returned for a symbolic shift at Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn.

Local artisans and small businesses have kept the mall on life support, occupying some of the vacated spaces until the wrecking ball closes the final chapter of its storied history sometime after this Christmas season. This is likely the last remnant of the Lloyd Center Christmas.

Out of the rubble, new development is planned. Hopefully, there will still be a place for this iconic piece of Lloyd Center lore.

For now, it is an opportunity to remember and reflect. The winter solstice has come. A time when the darkness slowly ebbs and the light expands its reach, when we recognize that there is much more that binds us than divides us, and the hope for a better tomorrow.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

Political parties strive to project a signature issue — one that defines their candidates differently from the opposing party and is validated by strong voter support. Oregon’s legislative Democrats have found their signature issue all right. Boy, have they? All 160,000-plus of them.

Performing a feat rarely accomplished in modern Oregon electoral history, opponents of the legislature’s high-profile transportation tax bill have successfully used primarily volunteers to gather the necessary signatures to refer the action to the voters.

The group, called “No Tax Oregon,” was organized and energized. Voters didn’t lack enthusiasm either. One labor union business manager told us their surprise that so many of the union’s members were talking about signing the referral petition.

Interestingly, Democrats successfully cited their focus on affordability as the key to recent election victories in New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. In Oregon, Republicans flipped the script, using affordability to upend the Democrats’ tax plan.

According to referendum leaders, recent polling suggests the tax increases have less than 20% support among all voters. Political strategists like to see 58-60% support ahead of a campaign to forecast a reasonable chance for success on election day.

SEIU, the labor union representing hundreds of ODOT workers facing layoffs, was instrumental in pressuring Democratic lawmakers to support the tax package. Now that those legislators find themselves in foxholes on the front lines, does anyone believe the union will be there to sufficiently arm them to defend their bill with millions of dollars in campaign cash at the ballot box? Seriously! Anybody?

As a shocked and stunned Robert Redford asked at the end of the movie, “The Candidate”:

Democrats have three alternatives, none pleasant, but with varying degrees of pain.

DAMN THE TORPEDOES, FULL STEAM AHEAD:Once certified, the tax bill is slated for the General Election ballot next November — long after the 500 ODOT workers have been laid off due to a lack of immediate funding as testified by ODOT officials citing the impending calamity. It will be a General Election with the Governor and most legislative Democrats sharing the same ballot as their tax bill. Republicans would be salivating.Not going to happen. Democrats can’t risk the potential collateral damage to their candidates from the shrapnel when the bill explodes. Besides, it means an entire year of an understaffed agency citizens depend on to keep them safe on the highway.
EXPEDITE THE VERDICT:The most likely scenario is that Democratic leadership will do what they should have done in the Emergency Session and pass a companion bill to move the referendum up to the May primary. It is likely to get crushed, but it would give candidates time to heal from the sting and re-focus the debate on different issues in the fall. The financial woes at ODOT, however, will remain unresolved.
REPEAL & RESET:Take the bitter pill and swallow hard. It won’t be fun, but discretion, as William Shakespeare wrote, is the better part of valor. Legislators could consider repealing the articles in the Referendum at the very top of the February session, thereby making an election moot, and embrace a reset. Next step is to re-examine every major expenditure and take steps in the short session to reallocate those funds to mission critical functions. May even require assistance from the Emergency Board.

The next step, as we wrote in September, an even number of Republicans and Democrats should get into a room, commit to compromise, and develop a long-term transportation plan to bring to their colleagues and the public.

Fill in and smooth the partisan potholes, prep the surface for a fresh layer of collaboration in the 2027 session. It’s time to start paving the way to the future of Oregon’s transportation system.

Newsroom

A Fond Farewell to an Iconic Lloyd Center Christmas

Democrats Discover Their ‘Signature’ Issue

Western Oregon Office

Eastern Oregon Office