PART 4: In this installment, discover what each of your outer East Portland City Council District 1 members had to say about grocery stores closing and the impending ‘food desert’ …
In Part 4 of this series, before a live audience – and telecast live – Councilor Candace Avalos, Councilor Loretta Smith, and Council President Jamie Dunphy talk about grocery stores closing, and their opinions about what can be done about it here in outer East Portland.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Wrapping up this series this week, we continue with information gleaned from the Portland City Council District 1 Councilors who spoke on March 10 at the “Meet Portland City Councilors Series” presented by the City Club of Portland at IRCO.
See “Part 1: The Summary” CLICK HERE.
See Part 2: “Housing and Homelessness” CLICK HERE.
See Part 3: “City Budget and Infrastructure” CLICK HERE.
Part 4: Elected officials confront grocery store closures and growing ‘food desert’
Moderated by Willamette Week reporter Sophie Peel, Portland’s District 1 Councilor Candace Avalos, Councilor Loretta Smith, and Council President Jamie Dunphy commented on the cluster of recent and impending grocery store closures in outer East Portland that has raised urgent concerns about food access, and neighborhood stability.
The trio of councilors spoke before a live audience in the room; the forum was also live-streamed throughout the area.
Providing background and context to this part of the forum’s discussion, is our article, “Violence and thievery on the verge of triggering major store shutdowns in Parkrose” published in October 10, 2026: CLICK HERE.
Council President Jamie Dunphy: “They don’t live here, they don’t owe anything to us”
Portland City Council District 1 Councilor Jamie Dunphy talks about the challenges of running a grocery store in northern Outer East Portland.
Council President Jamie Dunphy, who said he lives a short walk from both Parkrose Grocery Outlet and the former Gateway Fred Meyer, framed the closures as the product of years of neglect, followed by distant corporate decision-making.
Speaking about Parkrose, he emphasized both the danger store staff had faced, and the city’s previous failure to respond: “I actually live two blocks away from the Grocery Outlet in Parkrose, so I feel particularly hurt by this, and I live, you know, just a little bit away from the… [now closed Gateway] Fred Meyer…
“[Grocery Outlet owner Don McKeever’s] son got hit in the face with a wine bottle,” Dunphy continued. “The number of scary incidents that happened in that location is unacceptable, and the number of times that they called the police and no one came was really unacceptable. But now they do come. Actually, more broadly, I don’t think that police alone are the answer, but the police do come when they call now.”
Dunphy said he and his City Hall colleagues have spent the last year trying to show both local managers and national chains that “it’s a new day in Portland” – but the final say still rests with corporate leaders who are far from East Portland.
“Since we got into office, we have met with the corporate owners of WinCo… we’ve met with leadership from Fred Meyer. We’ve met the [corporate] leadership of Grocery Outlet. We have brought an enormous amount of resources specifically to try and save the Grocery Outlet. But… part of the problem is that these corporate businesses… they don’t live here, they don’t owe anything to us, and so then they just leave, and they don’t care what jobs they leave behind, what… distress they leave behind in our community.”
For Parkrose, Dunphy said the goal is to preserve a grocery store on the site, even if the Grocery Outlet brand leaves: “We’re going to actually work with Don [McKeever] and Prosper Portland to see if maybe there’s another alternative. Maybe it’s not a Grocery Outlet anymore, but it’s still a grocery location.”
Ideas to reinvigorate Gateway Shopping Center
Regarding the once-bustling, but now deserted, Gateway Shopping Center, once anchored by a Fred Meyer superstore. Dunphy described a three‑phase approach to prevent the area from becoming a long‑term dead zone: “Just very briefly, I think about it as being in three phases.
“Short term… we wanted to make sure that these parking lots do not sit fallow. If you haven’t heard, for the sort of gated-off vacant field [south of the Fred Meyer property, across NE Pacific Street]: We are actively working right now between Prosper Portland and the David Douglas School District… to create soccer fields that will be active, working with our local community groups.
“We’re in active conversation with… the Portland Farmers Market Association, about possibly getting a new farmers market on the Gateway Fred Meyer parking lot. And we… want to make sure that whatever happens for this facility, it does not sit fallow, and that whoever does buy it understands the opportunity that is there. We need groceries, we need housing. We need jobs.”
Councilor Candace Avalos: “Let’s Grow Our Own”
Councilor Candace Avalos she places the looming food desert within a bigger pattern of underinvestment and dependence on out‑of‑town corporations.
On this topic, Councilor Candace Avalos recalled what she described as “a packed town hall” at IRCO, just after the Gateway Fred Meyer closed, where residents were clear that they wanted the area kept active, so it would not become a magnet for nuisance activity.
“The main thing that we heard [at that meeting] is that people want activation right now. With that Fred Meyer gone, people are concerned about nuisance activities taking over, and a lot of the way that you address that is just to get people there – boots on the ground, eyes on the street, and have activities for people to do. And also that’s just what East Portlanders want.”
Avalos asserted that outer East Portland has the most children in the city, and said any response to store closures must create family‑friendly spaces alongside restoring food access: “East Portlanders are just craving community space to bring their children. We have the most children in the city, but we have the least activities for children in our part of the city.”
Like Dunphy, she criticized the reliance on national chains: “Part of the problem is that these corporate businesses… they don’t live here, they don’t owe anything to us, and so then they just leave, and they don’t care what jobs they leave behind, what… distress they leave behind in our community. So I think this: Let’s grow our own.
“I would love for Don [McKeever] to reopen as his own [independent] grocery store, and that’s what we’re working towards,” Avalos put forward.
Councilor Loretta Smith: “It’s going to be a food desert in this area”
Councilor Loretta Smith delivers the bluntest warning about East Portland’s food future, tying corporate exits directly to rising poverty and hunger.
Councilor Loretta Smith told the audience she had just learned from Parkrose Grocery Outlet “manager” [as she put it] Don [McKeever], saying, “I hope it is a grocery, because I found out last week from Don who manages the Grocery Outlet over in Parkrose, that they will be leaving. They’re not ‘reupping’ on their lease. And so that’s devastating for us in terms of losing all these… it’s going to be a food desert in this area, and we need to make sure that we have a grocer here that can stay, and that can be sustained.”
Says theft driven by ‘unmet basic needs’
Smith argued that theft at neighborhood grocers is being driven by unmet basic needs, not opportunism: “The reason why it can’t be sustained [as a business] is because people, they’re stealing, and it’s because they don’t have food and we don’t have places for our people who are underserved and not housed.
“Where do they get food from, and where do they stay? How do we keep that up? How do they get jobs?” Smith asked rhetorically. “And so it’s a whole thing. It’s a whole ecosystem, but we need to be able to change our trajectory out here in East Portland…”
She linked the looming loss of Parkrose Grocery Outlet to the already-closed Gateway Fred Meyer and the adjacent Kohl’s, saying that unless a new, stable grocer comes in, East Portland will be left without any essential full‑service food options.
No official news about Parkrose Grocery Outlet’s closure
The topic of this, the only grocery store in Parkrose, likely closing continues to be brought up on social media.
For example, on the Parkrose Heights Neighborhood Association website:
“Bad news:
Emma from Councilor Dunphy’s office tells us that Grocery Outlet corporate is closing the Grocery Outlet on Sandy in the Parkrose neighborhood. Following the closure of Fred Meyer this could be a big blow to the neighborhood. However, Dunphy’s office is working with the local franchise owner to try to keep the store open as a grocery store, just maybe not a Grocery Outlet.”
Parkrose Grocery Outlet Owner/Operator Don McKeever let East Portland News know that he would not comment on the operations of his store at this time, due to contractual obligations.
We’ll update this story when more information becomes available.
To learn more about the City Club of Portland, see their official website: CLICK HERE.
© 2026 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
