It's All Eyes on 162nd

4129

There's much murally goodness at 162nd and Stark. Those adventurous enough to venture round back of the 76 Station at the corner can also have a look at a community-oriented mural.

The mural is titled The Eyes of All, and is credited to ATS and "Rosewood", which is the name of the community improvement non-profit centered in the neighborhood. It was created in 2012, making it 12 years old, and it's in splendid shape for being out there as long as that.

It's a colorful, cheerful tableau of a vibrant community that just happens to also be populated by a whole bunch of one-eyed creatures as well. 

So, magical realism? 

Whatever it is, they got their eyes on you. Don't try anything funny.

The Sign at the Village Square

4128

Village Square is a shopping center at the corner of SE 162nd and Stark, where Portland meets Gresham. It was probably built some time in the 1960s, judging by the architecture; the original tenants, whomever they were, have moved on, the current tenants being somewhat typical of the area: the centerpiece is a Latino supermercado, Su Casa; there's a church on one end, and the other end has a smoke shop, a social-service non-profit, and a tavern.

The sign is still vintage and proud of it. 

It does kind of show its age though. This is the side facing east, which I chose because it still has all the vintage letterforms. Several are missing from the western face.

Perhaps, a Memorial

4116

This face, giving off vibes of manga, are on the door side of the storage container that has Barney Rubble on:

This face is enigmatic and somewhat forlorn. It floats in a cloudy sky. The look on the face is passing a vague despair. The ear gauge is peace sign; the caption forever speaks of wishes and memory. And there's a halo up there in the upper right corner.

A memorial, perhaps? A forlorn wish for a better world? Both ... or some other deeper meaning? 

This Is Not The Barney You're Looking For

4115

Stark Street is a great source of street art. You have to know where to find it though.

The intersection of 162nd and SE Stark St sits at the place where Portland leaves off and Gresham picks up. There's a shopping center there, Village Square, which is a vintage edge-of-town suburban shopping center built back when this was the edge of town and suburban.

At the corner is a 76 Station, and alongside that station is a container used as storage. It has be gloriously decorated with joie de vivre. And a Flintstone character.

It's a little bit of a surprise, actually. You think Barney and what comes to mind is a purple dinosaur which used to be ubiqutious on public television, not the second banana to Fred Flintstone.

So, for letting ol' Barney Rubble be the star of the show/ Nothing but respect here from me. Actually, I liked the character of Barney better than Fred. He seemed to be a little bit smarter, in his way. 

The Height of the Eastside Street Art Renaissance, feat. Suspish

4112

Last August, the brief renaissance of outer east Portlandia street art hit something of a zenith, most of it on the west wall of the building that the Portland Police Bureau's Sunshine Division - which is the PPB's charity public engagement arm - which is located just east of SE 122nd Ave on Stark St.

The west wall has no windows and faces onto the north parking lot of what was once was the Fabric Depot store, and is without a doubt, a honeypot no tagger can resist for long. So, when Suspish showed up on the east side again (the second appearance by the Eugene artist) it was plain that something was going to happen.

So: dateline, east of 122nd on Stark, August, 2023. We have this:

Now, I'm not necessarily a fan of graffiti either, and if you do it in Portland, in some areas, you take your life into your hands. So, if you're going to bring it, bring it memorably. Make it good, make it skillful, make it art. And our various artists who gave us this gallery-in-passing did just that.

First thing, we have on the far left here, is this:

... a big ol' blue-white-black tag, something of a signature, with FOE, East, and '23 and 2023 in various places. This took a little care and design forethought and engages the eye nicely.

Next we have ...

... another appearance from our friend Suspish. The Suspish fish is obvious; the abstract Cylopean face colored in a dusky mustard yellow is also Suspish's work, I believe. 

The mouse is some other artist's work, a johnny-come-lately to the gallery and while inspired and whimsical doesn't quite show the skill that Suspish and this next artist shows.

Speaking of the next artist, here we are:

The original work in this gallery, which I think I've posted about when it first showed up. These two were the first on the building a few months before, and the creativity and artistic skill here still delight my eye. To the credit of the Sunshine Division, they let this stand for a number of months before covering it over, and a lot of us eastbound Stark Street drivers got to enjoy them. 

I particularly adore the intensity of the dude with the spray cans. Chef's kiss here for that.

Again, the signature EAST FOE can be seen by the ear of the figure with the spray cans, so I think it was the same artist that did the big tag on the far left.

To close our gallery tour, this:

SWOOP. Another boi with a hat, and signed again, apparently, by FOE. 

The building has since been painted, and the west wall of the Sunshine Division's building hs returned to that industrial vaguely-oatmealy color. Graffiti - street art - has an expiration date. No matter how skillful it is, it's designed to leave us, as the property owner always has the last word.

Most of it is just lazy marks, but some of it, sometimes, gets really elevated. I hope Suspish comes up this way again eventually, and another visit or two from F.O.E. would not be amiss. 

They brought their A game here, and I was, curiously, happy to see it. 

Fujii Farms Ramping Up For The Season

4098

This is a thing I also see on my commute.

At one time, of course, there were farms all along the long streets east of Portland and going through the area we once commonly (thought inaccurately) called East County, interrupted only by Gresham and Troutdale and Fairview, which were just small burgs at that time. 

Eastern Multnomah County ... small-town Oregon. Now, of course, it's a totally different planet. 

There are at least a couple of working farms still surviving. One I've visited to take a bunch of Wy'east pictures, as anyone who's followed this knows, Rossi Farms, on NE 122nd and Shaver, between Fremont and Sandy, adjacent to Parkrose High. This is a corner of a similar working farm: Fujii Farms, a farm mostly specializing in berries.

This is the northwest corner of SE Stark and S Troutdale Road, and this is where Fujii Farms has a seasonal fruit and produce stand operating from approximately June through the summer. They have more than one.

The fields behind that stand are predominantly berries but there are also grapes. There have been school buses and porta-commodes during the summer; echoes of my going out and picking strawberries out around Silverton when I was a kid are ringing most strongly.

For those of you who like this sort of thing, they have the fresh produce and berries coming. 

Stark Stuck Truck

4096

I'm quite frankly surprised this doesn't happen more often.

The Stark Street Bridge over the Sandy River is a narrow truss. The modern breed of large consumer pickup feels like they challenge it. 

The day before yesterday, I'm coming down the hill from Troutdale past SE Kerslake Rd toward the bridge, and right as the road bottoms out, right by the Riverview Restaurant and the Yoshida estate, there's this harried guy in the street flagging people down ... which seems portentious ... but when I come abreast, he's going on about how we have to turn around because a truck has blocked the bridge. 

I have to see this, so I inch forward. Yep. It's the truth, and here's what that looks like:

It's a fact. That bridge is closed right now.

I had to backtrack through Troutdale via Troutdale Road and Historic Columbia River Hwy and cross the river there (My destination is in Springdale, where I work now. I've not said much about that due to my erratic posting style of late). 

I didn't have a chance to pict from the other side, but there was MCSO advertising a blue-light special. The truck wasn't so much stuck itself, as, when turning from HCRH eastbound right onto the bridge, the driver turned wide to account for the length of the trailer but maybe underestimated or maybe it was all wishful thinking, and the box fetched up against the end of the truss and the low wall on that corner of the intersection.

I had a pretty good day at work; most days at my new job are quite satisfying. But if I'd have had a bad day, I could think of this poor guy, and feel better about things. 

Dreamland East of 257th On Stark

4082

In the intervening time since the last times I regularly posted, I've changed places of employ. I used to work near the Portland International Airport; now I work in an area called Springdale, which is about three miles east of the south end of Troutdale via Stark Street and Historic Columbia River Highway.

It's a longer commute, but I love it; I use all of Stark Street east of SE 122nd, out to its veriest end. This pleases me as I know I follow not only a rather historic road for this area but also the Willamette Base Line. I've become much more familiar with areas of Gresham I formerly rarely visited. 

There's some nice stuff there. I've missed out.

The road climbs from about 205th and Stark to 223rd, a rise I call Twelvemile Hill (after the historic name of Twelvemile Corner which is 223rd and Stark). It then levels a bit, descends gently from Hogan to 257th, then just east of 257th, drops more precipitously. This allows for some lovely views, if the morning clouds and mist are just right. Like this, here:

Stark Street is a very broad-shouldered, muscular boulevard all the way out to 257th. After that, it drops down to a 2-lane local road and descends this hill along the north side of Mt Hood Community College. Just beyond his, the first traffic signal is Troutdale Road, and beyond that, in the distance, is the signal at SE Evans Avenue in Troutdale, which is the veriest and lastest signal on all of Stark. 

Today, hanging over the gulch that the Sandy River flows down, was that bank of cloud. Most dreamy. 

The Far End of SE Stark Street - The Stark Street Bridge

4071

Here, in the woods just a minute east of Troutdale, at the brow of the bank of the Sandy River, is where SE Stark Street, in its long traverse, comes to a rather abrupt end.

The end of Stark curves around the top of a bluff above the Sandy River like a crooked finger, dropping as you go east. At this point, I'm actually facing northwest which somewhat disorients if you're familiar with Stark on the east-west gridiron. 

The far end of the bridge is a t-intersection with Historic Columbia River Hwy on its way out to Springdale, Corbett, Vista House, and points east in the Columbia Gorge. I am on the end of the Gorge here; that bluff on the other end of the bridge is one of its ramparts. This is as far east as SE Stark Street goes; there is no more after this.

The Bridge is rather narrow. Doing what I do now, I have to occasionally drive a truck over this bridge. That makes me hyper-aware of how narrow this bridge is. But nothing amiss as long as you take it slow and easy. 

Sunlight Downpour, Rockwood, 181st and SE Stark

4066

Just more shafts of sunlight I saw coming back home from work today. 

Rockwood, 181st and SE Stark. 

It's been like this the past couple of days, with the clouds and air the way it's been. 

Yoshida's Haven at the Other End Of Stark

4065

Oblique Coffee is at the 'lower' end of Stark Street. This is at the bitter end of the road.

From the river in the middle of Portland to the end that crosses Sandy in nearly sixteen miles. Stark has a great deal of history to it, and a lot of that history has to do with the automobile and city-to-city transport. An artifact of that is located on the south side of Stark, just before it crosses the Sandy River. 

Stark Street begun to evolve into its current form at about the time the automobile became popular. Back then, not long after the first years of the Twentieth Century passed by, roads existed but were poor; various car-ownership societies formed something of a national movement (the "Good Roads" movment) to promote the building of suitable facilities that would let them go out and enjoy thier newfangled 'cars' in the forests and wilderness. 

The utmost end of Stark Street is, then, the way it is because of an organization called the Portland Auto Club. They wanted a nice place to drive to and that urge eventually became an auto campgrounds and a destination picnic spot for car owners of the day.

Down the years it eventually came into the hands of Junki Yoshida of Yoshida's Sauces fame, and I understand he lived there for a while. More latterly the property has been donated to the Mt. Hood Community College Foundation. It's an event venue now: weddings and things of that nature. Across from that is a fine-dining spot, Junki's Riverview Restaurant. 

The view is still free. 

More Oblique Art On Stark

4064

The A-Frame sign in front of Oblique Coffee is delightful enough it deserves its own entry. It totally echoes the decor ethic of the shop.

Constructed of doors and paint and creativity and hand work. In the place where the old hours were, it even sports a palimpsest. 

Oblique Art On Stark

4063

I do not know if anyone at Oblique Coffee was responsible for nailing this to the 'phone pole outside their shop, but it is an apt depiction of what some days feel like without the coffee.

We can call it The Decaffienated Scream. 

Just A Bit Of SE Stark Near 30th

4062

No agenda here, no message, no intended subtext.

Just an angle on SE Stark St from just east of SE 30th Avenue up to about 28th (that's where that little crest is). It's a particularly cozy corner of the universe with an atmosphere that Portland progress still hasn't completely covered over. 

There's a real antique of a building on the SE corner of 28th and Stark that used to be a old-school service station, back in the day when cars were new, you can tell it by the architecture. The Goodfoot lounge is still there; there's a pizza joint next to that and, in a small tin-sided building, an art gallery and a place that used to be the home of an ultra-left alt-media operation called The Portland Alliance, though I understand that has a Beaverton address now, which is ironic. 

Well, clearly I need to get some shots of that corner, if I'm going to rhapsodize so.

I'll never fall out of love with this town.

The View from Twelve Mile Hill

4049

One of the changes I've hinted at is a change that came out of nowhere: the job I'd held for thirty years dissolved out from under me.

At least I didn't get fired, hey? And I wasn't kicked to the curb so much as I was let off gently. But it was still jarring. And here I am, doing a whole new thing and taking a whole new way to work. 

I use a lot of Stark Street, which is something of a joy. 

There is a name for the intersection of SE 223rd and Stark that not many people know and wouldn't be known if it weren't for a veterinary hospital near that intersection: Twelve Mile Corner. It's named as such because it's about twelve miles out from Portland city center. No more complicated than that. Now, as I travel eastbound in the morning to my new employ, it's not hard to notice that from the 21000 block (a sign at the entry to the Microchip plant helpfully explains 21000 BLOCK) to 223rd, Stark climbs a long, gentle slope.

I call this slop Twelve Mile Hill. And going out it's charming, but coming back one gets quite a view:

It's not the highest of heights, but it seems to stretch Stark out to infinity. 

Stark Street, Montavilla

3944

Another one of those tight zoom shots I love doing so much because they make me think telephoto. 

This is looking down SE Stark Street into downtown Montavilla. The hillside ahead is the north shoulder of Mount Tabor.

There's an interesting thing I found out about Mount Tabor recently. Apparently there's a standard for height below which a peak will not be named "Mount" by whatever geographic nomenclature authority applies (a board under the aegis of the USGS, I think) and Mount Tabor does not meet that standard. However, since generations of Oregonians have called in Mount Tabor, the history of the name establishes the right. 

The name Montavilla was inspired by Mount Tabor, but in an indirect way according to the book Portland's Streetcar Lines, published in 2010 by Richard Thompson. The community was named Mount Tabor Village, originally, but signage of the first streetcar lines abbreviated this Mt. Ta. Villa. Over time this evolved into Montavilla as the coinage grew popular. 

The streetcar line died long ago. Its cultural rubric child, however, has never been stronger. 

Also, at 76th and SE Stark, you'll find Mr. Plywood. Best urban lumber store ever. Just take my word for that.

The Shabby Quick Shop At Stark Firs

3880

There's this throwback of a trailer court on the south side of SE Stark Street, just east of the entrance to Floyd Light Middle School* at approximately 108th Avenue. 

It's called Stark Firs, and the old structures and manufactured homes are vintage and arranged like dominoes, at fairly close quarters. It is prole as hell and I love it. I've lived temporarily in places like it and have known people who've grown up in such places. It has a piece of my heart.

No actual firs seem to be in it, but a great deal of asphalt.

There is a shabby quick-shop at the front of it. Here it is, as taken through the just-washed windshield of Olivia earlier today:

Save for rearranging of the fractal confetti of beer ads and various retail poster ads on the outside, it's looked more or less like this ever since we moved out this was some 15-more years ago. It's seen a lot of life, there's been a gun crime or two over the years, no more than you'd expect for a big town, but still it soldiers on, too stubborn to die.

And that is one reason I love it so. It's beautiful, not shi-shi enough for the region of Portland east of I-205, but perfectly at home out here, where the people are still quite real.

It is adorable. I love this.

Montavilla Sunday Morning

3878

Nothing much here, just Stark Street looking west from SE 80th taking advantage of the deserted Sunday morning streets and a scrunchy viewing angle to get a really cool picture of storefronts that could be in any town ... large or small, Portland or elsewhere.

Yes, we still have pandemic going on, new CDC guidance notwithstanding, but for being the big town it is, parts of Portland can be surprisingly deserted on any given Sunday morning because that, too, is how we are here.

Red January Sunrise, Stark and 122nd, 2018

3875

Found this looking through older photos to play with. If I haven't posted this already, I fail to understand why.

The intruding roof line is from the Astro Gas Station at the corner of 122nd and Stark on on the NE side. The view is generally southeast and the car was probably about fifty feet north of the intersection.

The cloudbank is, of course, inimitable.

A Scene From The Elephant's Graveyard, 146th and SE Stark

3871

By elephants, of course, I mean trucks. 

There is a boneyard of sorts behind a large yellow building just west of the Franz Bread Thrift Store at SE 146th and Stark. It wasn't always that way; better part of a decade ago, that building was a Hotel/Motel furniture clearance store, and the lot on the left and behind of it were just blacktop.

That store has been closed a long time, and the lot behind and to its right now collects orphaned and wrecked trucks. It's not chaotic; they're stored back there neatly, with some care. Presumably it's a way station enroute to whatever alphabet heaven these spent pachyderms-of-the-road are bound. 

But a truck graveyard it indeed seems to be. 

A month ago we stopped by for our supply of baked, sliced, and wrapped carbohydrates and I spotted this retiree eking out its twilight days. The name caught my eye especially. Peter Corvallis Productions is a event planning and production service that's been powering trade shows, weddings, and just about anything you'll find on a fairground around Portland since 1959. There really was a man named Peter Corvallis, which I enjoy because twice in my life I've lived in a city called Corvallis and it makes a last name which scans, I think, rather pleasantly. A visit to the PCP website tells us what Mr. Corvallis passed away, however, in 2016, and also however, the company soldiers on, helmed by his daughters Maria, Athena, and Demetria.

I don't know from their service, but the Corvallis family has some of the coolest names I think I've ever heard. 

For the sake of curiosity: Here's Peter Corvallis Productions.