A few shots taken from my recent trip that captures of bit of the place.
The first thing I saw when boarding MAX, the light-rail line that runs from PDX into the city, literally a few steps from the baggage carousels. Something I crave on the Canada Line.
A ped-friendly PDX streetscape: well-maintained brick sidewalks, streets trees, attractive benches, and, oh yes, something to eat.
Was PDX was demolishing the Portland Building – a City office building from a famed competition won by Robert Venturi, considered to have launched ‘post-modernism’ in architecture. (It made the cover of Time).
But of course it’s not coming down; it’s being upgraded. It was pretty cheap to begin with, and was never liked that much by the employees inside. But the statue of Portlandia over the front entrance guaranteed its affection by PDXers.
Portland, like us, is struggling with trying to shelter people. Past mayors have committed both real and political capital to the issue, and come up short. People believe homelessness is worse.
I didn’t see as much sign of rough sleeping as I expected, except for this encampment, under I-5 in North Portland.
I visited Portland for the first time a couple of years ago and was charmed as hell. There’s so much stuff within easy reach. Hope you enjoy the rest of the trip.