As we continue our search for new places to bike to for our Sunday morning discussions, we find ourselves – after visiting 180 different locations – having to stretch beyond traditional coffee shops, and that’s the case with the PDX Exchange which is attached to the new Porter Hotel on SW 2nd and Jefferson.    We believe it meets our base criteria in that here we order at a counter rather than ordering with a waiter or waitress, and we have the access to sip/eat/discuss within the hotel lobby where there are a couple of interesting sections that are comfortable for hanging out.  Also, even though the Exchange has an all day/night menu, its morning house-made pastries, coffee and teas are all quite good.  (Full disclosure: we learned today that the Exchange is owned by the Hilton conglomerate, and definitely not locally owned.)

Today’s hot topic was the “whistleblower” who issued the complaint re our president’s phone call to Ukraine’s president while withholding congressionally approved financial aid.  We wondered whether this could this be the first stone in an upcoming national controversy like Daniel Ellsberg’s circulation of the Pentagon Papers?  And might this start peeling Republican support away from the President?  Democrat candidate-wise, we queried if there aren’t too many candidates older than us and isn’t it time for a new generation of candidates to have the spotlight??   If so, then hopefully Biden or Bernie should bow out soon.  And climate change protest-wise, there’s a fascinating march occurring today at 11 where the immigrant and environmental communities in butterfly costumes are starting at opposite ends of the Hawthorne Bridge and meeting in the center.  

1355 SW 2nd Ave.