We all see different Portlands. The buildings look about the same to everyone, but each of us has a unique insight into what’s inside them or what they mean to us based on past experience. The busy plumber gets a mind’s eyeful of all the grungy kitchens and bathrooms of the apartments she passes driving down a Parkside street. The cop, the firefighter, the EMT — their visions are something else. As are those of a young single woman like Emma Chance, who vividly described this phenomenon in a column this fall (“Mattress Surfing,” Sept. 2025).
So it is that one reporter can see apartments on Chestnut Street in downtown Portland and write an article about city officials’ concerns that they’re too dumpy to house families seeking asylum, as has been the city’s practice for many years. Another reporter, this one, recognizes those properties immediately as being owned by notorious local gambling kingpin (Ret.) Steve Mardigan, whom we once dubbed The Donald Trump of Portland.
That was in the summer of 2017, when a That’s My Dump! special investigation revealed the longtime bookie and underground casino proprietor was under federal investigation for his illicit activities (“The Donald Trump of Portland Goes Down,” July 2017). Mardigan had acquired over a dozen commercial buildings along Forest Avenue between Woodfords and Morrill’s corners and left many of them empty and in decay for years. His manse on Baxter Boulevard was immaculate, visitors say, but not the four multi-units at 54, 55, 56 and 58 Chestnut that Steve inherited from his father, Ed Mardigan, who’d run Amergian Brothers Market nearby (a notable early Armenian-American business in Bayside).
In January of 2019, Mardigan was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison and much of his dumpy real-estate empire was seized and sold by the government, but not the Chestnut Street properties. He bounced back soon after his release and is living on the Boulevard again (in a different manse) and buying back some buildings he once owned, like the former home of Ernie’s Pool & Darts on Forest, now a fuckin’ Papa John’s.
One wonders through what eyes city officials see those apartments. Is there anyone at City Hall or on the Council with the institutional memory or street knowledge to recognize that one of Portland history’s most criminal and negligent landlords owns the properties they’re using to shelter families in crisis?
I’ll bet Mayor Mark Dion, an ex-Portland beat cop and sheriff who knew about the local gambling underworld of old, knew those were Mardigan properties, but he and most city councilors didn’t respond when I queried them about this. Councilor Kate Sykes has been the most outspoken about conditions on Chestnut Street. “I was shocked when I walked in and saw the state of accommodations there,” she told the Press Herald in September, quoted in the aforementioned article about closed-door talks to relocate those families (“Portland officials weighing future of city’s family shelter,” Sept. 11, 2025).
In an e-mail to us, Sykes said she realized Mardigan owned the shelter units last year, when a different dump he owns crossed her radar: 835 Forest Ave., a two-story, brick-fronted office building. “That property was brought to the City’s attention by General Assistance in June 2024,” Sykes wrote, “and City inspectors found serious life safety and housing code violations: illegal dwelling units, disabled fire alarm systems, blocked exits, missing smoke detectors, and unsanitary conditions. The property was posted unfit for human habitation on June 28, 2024, and ordered vacated.” (It’s since been cleaned up and is on the market for $1,150,000).
The Chestnut units have lead paint, there’s no space for kids to play outside and, Sykes added, “families are dealing with limited storage for personal belongings, inconsistent access to working appliances, and a general lack of dignity and privacy in the physical setup.
“While service providers on-site are doing their best,” she added, “the building itself is clearly not equipped to function as long-term housing for asylum-seeking families. While I do believe that City staff have worked hard to address shortcomings at the site, it remains a deeply problematic environment for families.”
Portland’s been paying Mardigan over $27,500 every month to rent these “deeply problematic” apartments. While it’s doubtful that Mardigan, who did not respond to a request for comment, is in charge of how many families are placed here, is appears his long history of neglecting his properties continues to make Portland a shittier place to live, at least for those with no other choice.
