Portland

Under the off-ramp, eastside Portland
Home sweet underpass in Portland’s eastside industrial area.

This is the underside to one of the Interstate 5 off-ramps on the eastside of Portland. Many homeless residents stake out spaces here to escape the rain and camp, like you see in the distance here. Warehouse businesses are found here, along with produce distributors and other enterprises that need cheap land for rent. This is also known as the Central Eastside Industrial District. I have known this place for decades. Today many services for the homeless and mentally ill can be found just of Highway 99 and Martin Luther King Drive. There is now talk about how this section of town may be redeveloped. Change is inevitable, and Portland is seeing this all along its riverfront. (Click on the photo to see a larger photograph on a separate picture page.)

Belmont Street, old meets new and with a bit of art thrown in
Taken with a GoPro.
Taken with a GoPro.
Taken with a GoPro.
Taken with a GoPro.

Belmont Street is one of those quintessential streets in Portland that fuses “weird Portland” and gentrifying Portland. Off the main drag one can find the old Portland wooden Victorian homes, painted in lovely colors. Sunnyside Plaza is quite boisterous, with an entire intersection painted, and I would like to see more of this. The upscale food store Zupan’s has an entire city block of Belmont, surrounded by businesses like the Anasasi Beat African drum and crafts store and Stumptown Roasters coffee shop. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

What half-million dollar and more Sellwood homes look like
Taken with a GoPro.
Taken with a GoPro.
These are the old beauties, with view of Downtown Portland and Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge.

I live in the Sellwood neighborhood of Portland. It is a lovely, walkable area. There are cool little cafes, a nice bakery where I buy fresh bread, a wine bar, an Italian restaurant, several Asian-themed restaurants, an art space, yoga studios, a library, a high-end grocery store, a spice shop, a tea shop, a bike shope, and more. And this is all within seven blocks. I live within a half mile of two nice parks, too. So you bet that walkability score is going through the roof. And with that, and nice old homes, comes hefty home prices. I did a quick scan on Zillow, and houses near me, not much different than the two smaller ones you see here, range from $500,000 to $800,000. These larger homes I have captured too would be well over $1 million.

One reason I left Seattle was because of out of control price escalation and the influx of flippers who had in several years literally priced out anyone lower class from my old neighborhood. Guess I have landed in the middle of that again in Portland. (Read and listen to this nice story by Marketplace on gentrification.) The problem is, I like walkable neighborhoods. I just will not ever be able to afford a home in one. So, I continue to rent, which is my choice, and I’m fine with that.

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

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Portland
A black and white study of some the scenes on the bluff above Oaks Bottom.
A trail takes visitors down to the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge.

Oaks Bottom Widlife Refuge is a beautiful wetlands and nature preserve near my house, along the Willamette River in Southeast Portland. I cannot believe I live so close to it. Coyotes hang out here, and signs are up warning people their cats will be coyote nibblins if they do not pay attention and bring them indoors. People live down here too in tents. Next time I publish pictures of this place I will show you what it looks like up close, perhaps with the many resident waterfowl.

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

Sellwood Park, that one with enormous Douglas firs
I call this place the grove of giants.
The building, which I am pretty sure is or was a concession stand, looks like it has a new forest growing on its moss.
This shot is taken looking north toward the Oaks Bottom Refuge, over which the park sits. I took this with a GoPro.

I live a short walk from beautiful Sellwood Park. It has a grove of Douglas firs that stand like large creatures, towering over picnic tables, a mowed law, and a concession stand that is slowly going ot seed. It’s a real nice place, right above the Willamette River. I cannot wait to go swimming here at the pool here, outdoors, on a hot day. In fact I dream of doing laps in an outdoor pool.

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

A few more churches, it is Sunday afterall
Taken with a GoPro.
Taken with a GoPro.

While exploring a part of Northeast Portland, i spotted two churches that needed some photographic attention. The light was just setting as I pulled up to St. Stephen’s Catholic Church on a cold day last weekend, and then minutes later, the sun dipped, and the entire look and feel of the church changed.

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

Providence Portland, a gilded palace of American high-cost health care
In the United States, the health care system favors profitable, high-cost, and disease-focussed interventions, as opposed to a system that is based on population health models that attempt to deliver basic care to all residents.
Taken with a GoPro.
Providence Portland Medical Center is among the Providence system’s largest facilities, occupying a piece of prime real estate in Portland’s Laurelhurst neighborhood.

The United States, according to extensive research, has among the most expensive health care costs in the world, yet our national public health rankings on everything from life longevity to maternal health outcomes to access to oral health, continually fall far behind our developed country neighbors. The United States offers a hybrid approach, including a bizarre, monopolistic, and hybrid non-market health care system that provides products and services (“health care”) without allowing consumers to know the price of a service or product before they make a purchase.

This is a result of more than a century of battles to block the country from adopting universal health care models now used by Canada, England, France, Australia, and Scandinavian Countries, among other developed nations.

One has to look no further than major medical centers in your community to identify some of the major culprits behind the unsustainable growth of health care costs.

In my home city, Portland, one of the major gilded palaces is Providence Portland Medical Center. The Catholic-run system operates in six states and is among the country’s largest non-profits. For its Oregon operations in 2011, the system reported a hefty $2.44 billion in revenue, up 7.4 percent from a year before, according to the respected health care newsletter the Lund Report. The Lund Report noted that profits reached $1.98 billion in 2011 for Oregon operations, up 8.1 percent year-over-year.

Remember, this is a not-for-profit system, and offers what is called “charity care.” Some communities like Tacoma, Wash., in 2012, have stripped some tax exemptions of these so-called non-profits by claiming these health providers acted as for-profit companies while also benefiting from tax exemptions.

Here is another fact to keep in mind. According to the Lund Report, in 2011, Gregory Van Pelt, CEO of Providence Oregon, had a total compensation package of $4.26 million.

Meanwhile, millions of Americans still cannot access basic care. According to a study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in October 2014, the cost of health care and the reliance on insurance-based care tied to jobs prevent Americans from getting health care.

The foundation notes: “The high cost of insurance has been the main reason why people go without coverage. In 2013, 61% of uninsured adults said the main reason they were uninsured was because the cost was too high or because they had lost their job. Many people do not have access to coverage through a job, and gaps in eligibility for public coverage in the past have left many without an affordable option.”

Old Laurelhurst Church, Portland, Ore.
Shot with a GoPro.
Shot with a GoPro.

Today, I was exploring a few areas around the Hollywood and Laurelhurst neighborhoods. Laurelhurst is one of Portland’s very tony, planned upscale communities that dates from the early 1900s. Portland is full of these high-end places, along with areas that are extremely low-income. One of the landmarks in this posh hood is the Old Laurelhurst Church. It is non-denominational and available for rent for events like weddings. Standing out front I would have thought I was back in sunny San Diego today, except it was below freezing. This town is just full of interesting churches.  (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

A few more scenes from a trip to Alberta Street
Earl’s Barber Shop is plastered with images highlighting prominent African American leaders and opposition figures.
Taken with a GoPro.
Taken with a GoPro.

Yesterday I published a video highlighting NE Alberta Street. Here are a few more pictures from that outing, as stills.

Alberta Street, that oh-so popular place in NE Portland

A colleague I know who grew up in Portland described the Alberta Street of his youth as a place his mom told him not to visit. It was not that friendly. It was in an area that used to be defined by low-wage earning residents, clear social and crime problems, and inattention by the City of Portland. The story is a long one, involving the building of a nearby interstate, the demolition of  African American residences nearby, a great flood in 1948, and the emergence of the new Portland in the late 1990s.

Today the street is a local if not national darling of Portland’s vaunted urban revitalization. There are plenty of restaurants, small business, and cafes. I tried to go to a boulangerie last weekend, when I filmed this video, but it was packed. Northeast Portland also use to have a lot more African American residents. That is no longer the case. There remains plenty of buzz about this place. I say, take a look for yourself. Do not let the hype or even this video sway your mind. Decide for yourself. It is most defnitely a shining star of the Portland I know, as Portland would define things.