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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2007)
JANUARY 19, 2007 justputjza Everyone in the triangle has an opinion by Julie Sabatier he official word is all well and good, but comfortable there,” she said this reporter puts no lesser merit on the quickly before grabbing her proverbial word on the street. I coaxed a friend’s hand and pulling him out friend, Dallas Oliver, a 24-year-old the door, reminding him that she Portland artist with a dazzling smile who hadn’t had a drink all night. describes himself as “sexually free,” into hitting the As I sipped my second gin and bars with me on a recent Wednesday night for tonic, a lit Dallas lit up a cigarette and tle bait-and-switch. He was the bait. I was the switch. we relaxed a little with a few inter As we headed over to Stark Street, which views under our collective belt. Dallas lovingly refers to as “Vaseline Alley,” I asked That’s when a tall, tan guy with my traveling companion what he thought about stringy blond hair approached, the changes going on there. “Sometimes you just asking Dallas if he could bum a want to go where there’s lots of homy gay men, and cigarette. We said he could have that’s what Stark Street is, but I think some one in exchange for an interview, changes could be really positive," he answered in and I think we got the short end of his Georgia drawl. (Dallas moved to Portland from that deal. Atlanta just over a year ago.) “This is not where we need to Dallas Oliver, a “sexually free“ Stark Street dweller, sees Our first stop was Scandals’ new location at be. We need to be more located,” changes coming for the gay district. 1125 S.W. Stark Street, where we met Porter, 30, said the blond dude, who identi who told us he loves the new digs and comes in fied only as Leroy. He explained that he moved “Less trolling, more hipsters!” shouted someone nearly evety night when he gets off work. from Malibu, Calif., a year ago and recently at the table. There seemed to be a consensus all “{Scandals] is the only good gay bar on the strip,” purchased a condo in the Pearl. Leroy quickly got around that this was a good thing. he said, but he had some harsh words for nearby a little too friendly with Dallas, and we decided it “I definitely agree with the whole less-trashy Silverado. “I can’t wait ’til they leave Stark Street was time to down our drinks and move on. thing,” said Jody Buckelew, 26, who described because it’s the scummiest bar here.” We made our way east on Stark Street, stop herself as “bisexual or what you might call When we asked our new friend what he ping into the Red Cap Garage. While Dallas flirt confused.” She went on to say: “I want to go to a thought was happening to the whole area, he said: ed with the bartender, I introduced myself to James bar. 1 love the gay environment, but I don’t want “It’s going to be Pearl-ized, and that’s OK. That’s Larson, who was perched on a nearby bar stool. to be seeing pom on the TVs. That’s why 1 like just fine. {Scandals] won’t go anywhere." When I asked him if he thought Stark Street [the Red Cap Garage].” Just as 1 was finishing my conversation with was becoming less queer, the gay 25-year-old said: Though it’s not exactly on Stark Street, Dallas Porter, Dallas pulled Benjamin Oaks in with his “1 actually was asking myself that question. I’m and I felt no visit to the Burnside Triangle would be tractor beam. Oaks, donning his coat and hat, starting to see, in the gay bars, a lot of straight peo complete without stopping in to Spartacus, the adult announced he and his friend were leaving Scandals ple coming out more, and I kind of feel like I need toy store that’s open late, even on Wednesdays. for the Eagle, which will remain open at 1300 W. to now ask everyone, ‘Are you gay or are you “1 wouldn’t say it’s getting less gay. I’d say it’s Burnside St. until mid-February. straight.7’ It gets annoying after a while.” getting a different kind of gay," said Anya Keyes, “I kind of feel like, especially with the Eagle Larson’s candid comments were practically 23, an assistant manager at Spartacus who says going out really soon, it’s both a disappointment drowned out by a raucous table of three guys and she’s “technically bisexual.” and not that the gay scene is kind of splintering off a woman, whooping it up on a Wednesday night. “I’m feeling like the crowd is more upscale, like right now," said Oaks, 26, who was born and raised 1 approached and asked them what they thought the Pearl District crowd,” Keyes continued. “I’d say in Portland. “[Being gay] is very accepted in this about the changes happening on Stark Street. it’s gocxl because it’s giving a little bit more diver city, and so of course it’s going to splinter off, and “I think Stark Street is totally gay and it will sity to the store." yet it’s really easy for me to go to all the places that always be gay,” offered John Linneman, 28, who Dallas and 1 did a little shopping before ulti are here in one place.” identifies as “straight-ish.” (It was hard to tell what mately deciding it was rime to wrap up our report When asked why he was leaving Scandals for he meant by this, as he said things like “1 like pussy” ing for the night. On the way home, I asked him if the Eagle, Oaks said his female companion, Leslie, and in the same breath told Dallas how adorable he his feelings about Stark Street had changed at all. who is straight—“Actually, I’m bisexual," she is.) “The Pearl’s moving in here, and Stark Street is “Well, I really feel like I need to come down countered—well, anyway, she’s not a gay man, and becoming gentrified as far as sexual orientation.” here more often because I feel like it’s going to be she prefers the Eagle, Oaks explained. Asked what a “straight” guy was doing in a gay gone a lot sixmer than I thought it would be," he “I like dingy bars," Leslie said. “And they have bar, Linneman said he enjoys the drink specials and said. “It feels more imminent now than it did prior to coming out witf^you tonight.” © pinball. And they’re cheaper. And I just feel more “guys will buy me drinks more than girls.” T the move. “We really didn’t move that far, hut the physical space is really nice compared to what it used to be, and it just sort of upped the ante a little hit,” he explained. If the decision to keep Scandals on Stark is a barometer for the surrounding area, it appears that the future holds a slicker look, aimed at milking customers for more dough to make up for rising rents. This mighteventually mean that the gayness of the triangle will diminish as more and more bars leave the area, but for now, Scandals’ owners are making a powerful social and economic statement by choosing to stay on Stark. If you ask them, they’re here, they’re queer, and they’re in it for the long haul. © JULIE S abatier is a Portland writer and radio producer. Her half-hour show DIY, Portland airs on KBOO-FM and is available as an iTunes podcast. You can e-mail her at julie.sabatier@gmail.com . . fi'T c Dear Valued Customers. 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