Multnomah County Library - Northwest — Attraction in Portland

Until recently, I hadn’t been to the library since middle school (about 15 years ago). I finally found a genre of books that wrangles my ADHD enough to keep me focused enough to read a whole novel, so I’ve been stopping into the library more often.

The staff—from the librarians to the (handsome lol) security guard—are all incredibly patient, compassionate people. I’ve overheard security perform a restroom check in a calm, collected manner (followed by a very gentle and respectfully-delivered reminder about the time limit on the restroom). I’ve overheard a librarian, armed with a soothing tone and patience in spades, take a considerable amount of time assisting a frustrated neurodivergent person as they tried to save their progress on their computer game. When a man without access to a charger port was plugging his cable into a computer tower to charge his phone, a librarian informed him that they have phone chargers he could use (without an ounce of judgement in their voice). When I first opened my library card, the librarian that assisted me was visibly excited to be able to share all of the wonderful resources that the library provides for free. Their excitement made ME excited.

In a world that is so unkind and impatient with the homeless, the neurodivergent, the marginalized, those who generally need more time and understanding—it’s extremely comforting and genuinely makes me a little emotional to see that everyone can feel safe and secure at the library, even if that feeling starts and stops at the exit for some of us. Librarians are heroes and we’re beyond lucky to have the entire staff that we do at the NW Library. I’m glad I’ve started going back after so long—thank you all for all that...

DO NOT COME HERE! As a black male I was racially profiled tremendously and was racial harassed and threatened by the manager Nicole. I was the only black person in the entire library and she proceeded to come up to me and told me to move out of the chair I was sitting in and reframe me from working because she wanted a homeless man to sit in my seat. I was not bothering anyone and was just simply working.

Rather than simply coming to me with respect and politeness she proceeded to use her authority to kick me out of the library when I was not bothering anyone or anybody and proceeded to tell me to no come back due to my kind.

Mind you there were numerous homeless people in the library and out of all people she decided to start a conflict with me, a black man simply just studying.

If you wish to have peace of mind and a community library that does not racially harass people and not have numerous homeless people bothering you, PLEASE DO NOT COME HERE!

I will be following up with some sort of legal action around this because I WAS RACIALLY HARASSED FOR SIMPLY DOING MY WORK AWAY FROM PEOPLE IN THE LIBRARY.

I hate that is 2025 and we as people of color still have to deal with this in Portland but please do not come to this library that is under the current management of Nicole. Go...

I was happy when I arrived and the gentlemen that helped me when I told him I was there to finish employment stuff and needed a plugin for my laptop to do it. He was great and let me use the meeting room where I was alone.

As soon as I took my mask down to take my badge photo a real nag came in and proceeded to make it impossible for me to take the photo and after having to turn it into an argument she said fine I will leave for a minute and when I come back in you better have it on.

This woman has no understanding of a person getting a job. Being new to Portland if there are a lot more like her here. I can easily see why the homeless population is so large.

I recommend using the Central Library location where they have understanding and...