So long Softipper, hello Bread & Roses Market.

Maybe.

Softipper is definitely gone. What replaces it, though, is still a thing of intrigue. But a new business listing with the same address should give us some insight. According the City’s registry of new businesses, the rumored market to open at 6360 SE Foster may be named Bread & Roses. The all-informative Bizapedia corroborates that with the same name listed on their page for the address.

NWIPA may soon have a new neighbor. And Foster may have a new market.

City of Portland Revenue Bureau

What kind of market remains to be seen. If we know anything, though, this corner of the neighborhood seems to really like convenience stores—Plaid Pantry, Foster Market, and 7-11 are all within a two-block radius. And Foster definitely likes to do things in multiples of two, three, and four—Mexican food, nudie joints, and tattoo shops to name a few.

So will this be more of the same?

Not a chance, right? No, because we have this poem for hope (cue cheesy poem insert):

     As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
     A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
     Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
     For the people hear us singing: “Bread and roses! Bread and roses!”

     As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
     For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
     Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
     Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

     As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
     Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
     Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
     Yes, it is bread we fight for—but we fight for roses, too!

     As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
     The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
     No more the drudge and idler—ten that toil where one reposes,
     But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

                                                                  – James Oppenheim

Ok, so it is, Bread & Roses becomes a thing before it’s ever a thing. We’ll cross our fingers it really is a thing. And more importantly, not another convenience store.