Portland

Portland: ‘Rip City’ for winners, the jungle for the losers
This homeless encampment is underneath Interstate 405, next to the city’s affluent and trendy Pearl District. Portlanders of all income levels literally walk by these mini shantytowns daily, and their number is growing citywide this year as rents continue to rise dramatically–more than any other city in the nation.
This row of old Portland homes is about three blocks from areas where the city’s homeless encamp daily, underneath Interstate 405.

(Photos taken three blocks apart. Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Last week I attended an event where participants discussed the regional crisis around homelessness. The City of Portland has already declared a housing crisis, to confront rents that are climbing fastest here than any city in the country. The average rent has climbed more than 40 percent since 2010 (data from 2015, and only worse since). The Guardian newspaper in February reported “shelter for the homeless has become anything but discrete.” The Guardian reported: “Portland saw rents appreciate nearly 15% in 2015 – the highest increase in the nation – with an average rent of $1,689 per month, according to real estate company Zillow. Five years ago, it was around $980.” A person I heard at the forum I attended described the tent communities positively, even one downtown at the entrance to Chinatown, for being self-run. Others I know have described such shantytowns as frightening, particularly for single women walking by. The person who shared their concerns with me about the Chinatown situation travels by that shantytown everyday (and, yes, I will call them shantytowns).

Tents encampments are widely visible under most overpasses, under bridges, in rights of way like the Springwater corridor, and in public parks. There is nothing sanitary about them. Trash is strewn all around them, and it is doubtful the residents of these tent encampments are using sanitary systems to dispose of human waste. Many of these residents also have drug and mental health issues. And the situation has grown dramatically more visible since I first arrived in September 2014.

Some places once that had green spaces on state right of ways now have a tent encampment of at least 15 units, all over the city. In February, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales legalized camping by homeless residents. Portland and Multnomah County claim they will spend up to $30 million to fight homelessness and offer more affordable housing. But that will not happen til July this summer. We will see what happens.

Seattle’s Mayor, Ed Murray, has taken on tent cities as failures, and his hired expert claims tent cities prolong the homeless problem without solving it. This came after a shooting at Seattle’s notorious “jungle,” which attracted national attention. In that attack in January this year, two were shot dead, and three badly wounded. One known encampment for homeless residents on the Springwater Corridor trail, in nearby Gresham, was the scene of a reported sexual assault by a recently released ex-convict, who was apprehended the same day, on March 25, about a half mile from my house. As someone who once passed homeless encampments every day for two years in Seattle and who sees homeless encampments every week in Portland, I do not have a magic solution. The housing bubble is certainly a root cause to the crisis, along with national economic issues and income inequality, plus regional market forces. So long as rents continue climbing in cities like Portland and more Americans cannot find stable housing with low paying jobs, they will flock to the Northwest, and its many mini-jungles, along with the more brutal Skid Row in Los Angeles, home to an estimated 40,000 to 60,000 homeless.

The look that is love
An Alaska malamute puppy just made my day. What a good girl.

Every now and then some research pops into the news cycle that tells us something we know: puppies make us feel good. One of the latest studies, whose rigor I cannot verity, found that gazing into a a dog’s or puppy’s eyes releases the hormone oxytocin, which makes us humans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I think I already knew that. Hi there, cute girl. Thanks for making me feel that magic only puppies can create.

 

Cherry blossom special, Portland style

It is March, and spring, and that means the cherry trees are blossoming like mad in Portland. They are so ephemeral, easily tossed in the wind, and incredibly seductive when they explode on the branch. They are everywhere near my home. I happened to stop at a place where I know they look pretty good, on the campus of Reed College. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Good morning, and hello spring!
Spring in bloom at Concordia University

All around me in Portland, magnolias and cherry trees are blossoming, and daffodils are in full color. It is pouring rain, but it does not matter amid the color and sounds of songbirds. I wanted to share a picture that captures the feeling of this time of year. It is the same feeling I get from the clip from Singing in the Rain, where Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Debbie Reynolds look out the window and see pouring rain, smile, and break into heavenly tap and sing, “Good Morning.”

So, good morning every one, and hello spring! (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

Brewing a Winter Porter, Portland Style

I have made a few batches of porters the past couple years. I just finished my latest. I used a Black Butte style porter recipe from the Deschutes Brewery in Bend (their porter is among my favorite beers). I prepared the wort and bottled the fermented final keg, all at Portland U-Brew in January and February 2016. I enjoyed getting to work with the team there and meeting fellow brewers. The U-Brew crew did a nice job educating new brewers like me on the chemistry and techniques to ensure a tasty, properly fermented beer. Overall, it is pretty durn good, though I think they could have upped the carbonation. Skol!

A warm winter walk in Forest Park
Spring is looming in the wings, but it sure felt like it arrived on Feb . 7, 2016.

On most weekends, I can be found running or walking the Wildwood Trail of Forest Park, the best public park in a major city on the West Coast, if you ask me. On Sunday, it was freakishly warm, which brought out everyone and their dogs. You could hear the sound of spring in the bird calls echoing in the forest. You cannot have a bad day in this park, even in the rain. But it can be totally awesome when the sun comes out.

Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.

Before the armed militants came to Oregon, there was the Portland pioneer statue
The statue is the prominent piece of art in Chapman Square, in downtown Portland.

Before the meteoric rise to fame–and then collapse–of a small group of well-armed militants professing to be on a mission from “god,” there were others who came to Oregon more than 170 years ago on a not-so-different quest. Oddly, they too were looking for land to farm and ranch as well, and they carried guns and brought their bibles. We call them the Oregon pioneers, and they are celebrated with the Promised Land statue in Chapman Square, in downtown Portland.

The one chapter missing from this statue is what happened to the Native Americans who were living here when these settlers arrived. At the time the American pioneers began pouring into the region by wagon train, Native tribes were experiencing large-scale public health disasters, from malaria, smallpox, measles, and tuberculosis and other diseases that destroyed entire villages and decimated the original inhabitants of the region. Nine out of 10 lower Columbian River inhabitants lost their lives to disease between 1830 and 1834 alone. When many settlers arrived, they truly found land emptied because of these radical changes brought about by these diseases.

The more recent group who wanted to “reclaim” federal land also seemed to have forgotten that the land once belonged to others, before it was lost in the very painful chapter of history in the region. Yet the legacy that we see is the family, with a bible, a gun, and a wagon wheel.

A snowy day in Portland as the new year begins
Westmoreland Park, Snow Storm, 2016

(Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

What a glorious day. When I looked out my window I was greeted with a lovely dusting of snow outside my home and all around the neighborhood. I was not expecting this, and because I had no plans to drive today, it was a blessing.

I grabbed my point and shoot Canon and did a run through the Westmoreland and Eastmoreland neighborhoods, taking a detour to the campus of my old alma mater, Reed College. The campus projects that regal and expensive air of high-priced academia when covered in snow, like its sister private schools across the country. Regardless of the very high cost to attend Reed, I still think it looks great dusted in snow.  My Sellwood neighborhood and Westmoreland Park also looked stunning. The park conjured an image of a Japanese woodcut painting of winter in Japan.

I hope others are enjoying snow as much I have today. Happy new year.

Urban critters: here, there, every where

Earlier this week near my home I saw a coyote leap out in front of me from its hiding place. We both did a “whoa, what was that” jump. It dashed back to the shadows, on a bluff above a nature reserve near the Willamette River, where they are known to congregate in numbers and howl. So, in honor of the urban wildlife I see in the Oregon, here are two random and not really connected shots. In Alaska, the critters might be moose, eagles, and perhaps a bear if you’re lucky. Here, you settle for lesser critters in our pantheon of majestic animals we idolize.

(Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

A final burst of color as the storms brew darkly

Today was one of those days when the weather prediction for showers not only proved 100 percent accurate, it forgot to include the hail. But in the Northwest in November, you can stay indoors, or just get wet and enjoy this transition period from fall to winter. Most of the leaves in Forest Park, in my home town of Portland, Oregon, have fallen. They covered the forest floor in a mosaic of brown, yellow, and red. It was too wet for me to try to use my tripod. So I just held my FujiPro camera as steady as I could and clicked the shutter. I got a couple of OK shots. It was fun to see the colors and the many smiling people outdoors enjoying the rain, hail, rain again, and breaks of calm.