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INSIDE:
Celebrating 20 years of continuous Southwest news coverage!
Volume No. 21, Issue No. 2
www.swportlandpost.com
Portland, Oregon
Complimentary
Our annual
Holiday Guide
of local events
– Page 5
December 2012
Clyde Lewis goes ghost hunting in the basement of Fat City Café
By Don Snedecor
The Southwest Portland Post
It’s a Friday night in late October. It’s
a cold one so I throw on a warm jacket,
grab my camera, gather up my back-
pack, and head out the door.
When I get to Fat City Café in
Multnomah Village, it’s hard to miss
the fact that there is a hearse (that I first
thought was a limousine) parked out in
front of the restaurant’s canopy.
Inside, there’s a crowd of some 40 or
50 people jammed into the booths all
listening to Clyde Lewis broadcasting
his nightly talk show on the paranormal
called “Ground Zero.”
As I walk in the door, a caller named
Rick mentions that he knew Bob Symes,
who was dating the waitress Vivian
Robinson who was shot and killed in a
murder-suicide back in ’73 on the stairs
leading down to the basement of the
restaurant.
I spent one morning digging through the
files. It was Mother’s Day, May 14, 1973
when the place was called the Nu Café and
the owners were Art and Freda Felts.
In a 1996 interview with The Post, former
Nu Café owner Art Felts was quoted as
saying, “All the waitresses were playgirls
back then.”
“None of them went out with the same
guy twice, if you know what I mean. [Viv-
ian] had a little girl, and she was going out
with this guy Symes, her boyfriend.”
Helen Johnson, present owner of Fat
City Café, offers me a guided tour of
the crime scene. We walk behind the
counter through the kitchen and start
down the stairway past one of the bullet
holes (circled with the date) and down
to the basement where Bob killed Vivian
and then killed himself with a 22-caliber
pistol.
The story goes that 30-year-old Vivian
Robinson was separated but not divorced
from her husband, I.L. Robinson, while at
the same time she was dating 58-year-old
Bob Symes, who lived just a few blocks away.
Freda Felts discovered the bodies after
taking an hour break. According to a report
in The Oregonian newspaper the next day,
“Detectives said they knew of no reason for
the incident.” They said Mrs. Robinson and
Symes “were acquainted.”
I’m soon introduced to Dr. Jonathon
Burgess, who has built a box about the
size of the Ark of the Covenant in the
movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
The box is covered in gold-colored
Dr. Jonathon Burgess (right) and an associate prepare the Golden Box with a
metallic globe and flux capacitor in the basement of Fat City Cafe, October 26.
Photos of Vivian Robinson and Mayo Methot sit on an altar in the background.
(Post photo by Don Snedecor)
sheet metal. Burgess soon has it set
up with some kind of metallic globe
equipped with what he calls a “flux
capacitor,” which we all of us science
fiction junkies know was the gadget
that controlled the DeLorean sports
car/time machine in the movie “Back
(Continued on Page 7)
City finalizes latest construction project for Multnomah Village
By Erik Vidstrand
The Southwest Portland Post
City of Portland representatives
shared the final draft of what’s being
called the Multnomah Village Stormwa-
ter Project with the Multnomah Village
Business Association at its October 25
meeting.
After nearly four years of planning,
feedback and redesigns, the City’s
Southwest Capitol Highway at 35th Avenue, looking west. (Illustration courtesy
of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services)
Don’t forget to renew your subscription. Form on Page 2.
The Southwest Portland Post
4207 SE Woodstock Blvd #509
Portland, OR 97206
Bureau of Environmental Services will
begin construction in early March 2013.
It expected to last 90 days and will dis-
rupt business access at times.
The project entails the planting of
trees, demolition of sidewalks and ex-
panding them to nine feet along Capitol
Highway between 35th and 36th av-
enues in the heart of the Village.
Wider sidewalks on both sides of
the street will allow the placement
of benches, tables and café seating in
some places. Several bioswales will be
installed at either end of this section.
But aesthetics was not on the minds of
business owners at their recent meeting.
The main issues included disruption of
business access during construction,
lack of parking and less parking once
construction is over.
“This process started back in 2008,”
explained Stephen Sykes, project man-
ager for the Bureau of Environmental
Services. “Many years of meetings and
feedback were received during this time
and it was crucial that no parking would
be lost.”
In fact, parking will be a lot safer
according to landscape architect Ivy
Dunlap. The angle in parking will be
retained but placed on the opposite side
of the street thus allowing drivers to
back out in a safer fashion and bicyclists
to avoid collisions.
Jill Crecraft, owner of Sip d’Vine, had
concerns about vehicles smashing into
storefront windows, since the curb will
be the new barrier as cement wheel
stops will not be installed.
MVBA President and Village Beads
owner Michele Cassinelli half-jokingly
said she would be taking her vacation
during the construction but the City
assured merchants that business would
be disrupted as little as possible.
“Obviously merchants are con-
cerned,” responded Sykes, “but all
standard provisions will be provided
the entire time.”
This comes after years of sewer and
water construction on Multnomah Bou-
levard, in which merchants, residents
and shoppers alike became inpatient
and saw business decline.
Members at the MVBA meeting urged
the city to help promote business as
usual during the spring construction
time and requested all construction
workers to park away from main busi-
ness areas.
Work will take place from 7:00 a.m.
to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday
and possibly some Sunday work which
will need a special variance application.
When asked about the possibility
of moving utilities underground, the
response was that this was a very ex-
pensive endeavor and would be the re-
sponsibility of the business or property
owner to pay.
Medium-sized native trees will
provide shade and were selected on
beauty, fall foliage and whether or not
they would make a mess with fruit or
leaf droppings, said Dunlap. “Conifers
would be too large for the area and
crack the sidewalk,” she said.
“We are excited about the changes
and livability factor,” commented one
business owner who wished to remain
anonymous, “but the city needs to keep
to their timetable, enforce construction
worker parking, and get done by 90
days.”
For more information about the
Multnomah Village Stormwater Project,
please email ivy.dunlap@portlandoregon.
gov or visit www.portlandonline.com/bes.