By Samuel John Klein of Portland, Oregon - Graphic Designer without Portfolio, aspiring artist who dawdled too long.
1793.
Among the photos me and The Wife™ snapped on a walk around the Portland Center area yesterday is one which will go up there amongst my personal favorites ... because the Wells Fargo Tower is just that cool to me:
The Portland Center Apartments (that building on the left that looks like it came out of Logan's Run) is pretty funky too.
I love SW 4th Avenue.
Tags: Portland OR, Portland Photos, PDX Pictures, PDX Cityscapes, Wells Fargo Tower, Portland Center Apts
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1209. After turning the Portland Downtown Streets Mnemonic (PDSM) around in my head (provided thanks to commenter JD, as per the last posting, I wanted to analyze it a little more.
The mnemonic, provided to us, was as follows:
All Across Portland Our Streets Wind Around Mossy Yards. Traffic Snarls May Mean Jammed Cars, Cranky Motorists Making Minimal Headway. Harried Commuters Just Love Going Slow.
This maps to the following street sequence (from north to south, not including Burnside):
Ankeny, Ash, Pine, Oak, Stark, Washington, Alder, Morrison, Yamhill, Taylor, Salmon, Main, Madison, Jefferson, Columbia, Clay, Market, Mill, Montgomery, Harrison, Hall, College, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant, and Sheridan.
JD had actually extended our sequence to just south of the I-405 in the 4th/5th/6th Avenues area (though there is a slight error; after Grant comes Sherman, and Caruthers and then Sheridan. But someone can tack on the extra C and S; JD did a fantastic job and has given us all a toy to play with.
Now, the key to using a mnemonic like this is to think of it as giving you an easy way to remember the first letter of each street. Once you have that, it's half the battle done. The mnemonic also make it a hell of a lot easier to keep everything in order. It doesn't give you the whole game though – you still have to get familiar with your streets' names (the famed Seattle mnemonic, for example, doesn't tell you the names of the streets or the fact that each initial represents two streets, not one, and which one of each pair comes first – this is all stuff you have to find out)
Once you are familiar with the basics, however, this mnemonic will provide ready-made 'sites' for the information to bind to, making it more easily rememberable. And that's the magic of the mnemonic.
So say it loud, say it proud, and spread it 'round:
All Across Portland Our Streets Wind Around Mossy Yards. Traffic Snarls May Mean Jammed Cars, Cranky Motorists Making Minimal Headway. Harried Commuters Just Love Going Slow.
Now, you've got it!
(PS: will someone BoingBoing this? The fame, I craves it!)
Tags: pdx, Portland downtown streets, mnemonic devices, meme
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The City of Portland has good information available at the city's website, Portland Online, specifically, going to this page will take you directly to the page that not only has Portland cycling maps but also maps for surrounding cities.
They are free for downloading but, if you look in the middle of the page you'll find a link where you can put in a mail request. They'll gather up a handful of the maps you want, throw in a couple of pamphlets and a cool bumpersitcker or two, and send it off to you just for the asking.
That's right, basic good biking info for the asking. The above photo shows you what you'll get if you ask for the whole banana. And I suggest it; what with fuel prices being what they are, I think that people will more and more be taking to people power in the next few years to get round this town.
1140. What was amazing about is that it all fell down like a house of cards. According to Witigonen and the Merc:
The discussion has been rebooted, if we care to have it. The only things we aren't getting back are the time and energy expended in arguing over it (and we still can't tell if the lesson was learned that processes are there for a good reason, and taking shortcuts only breaks people's hearts in the end).
Personally, the lesson I think we've all learned here is: There's a Commissioner Saltzman here? That dude's so quiet, I forgot about him.
1116. The most notable thing about Portland politics is that, sometimes, it isn't over even if it's over, as witness the strange turn in the "let's name something after Cesar Chavez" slo-mo train wreck
It's by now old news that Commissioner Randy Leonard not only sprang on us all the prospect of renaming the street City Hall is on SW Cesar E Chavez Blvd in favor of doing it to N Interstate Avenue. It's kind of become a game that the board gets changed out randomly. At first, it was some sort of strange cross between poker and "I've Got a Secret". Now, it's suddenly chess.
In suggesting not only a major downtown Avenue but the one that City Hall is located on, Commish Randy has not only changed the gameboard but, somewhat, the terms of the conversation. In this chess game, he's put the city's King on SW 4th in a way that the rename-Interstate advocates have to answer. And, in having the support of four out of five of the City Commission (save, of course, Mayor Tom), he's positioned his pieces well to support his move.
Quoted by The Big O:
It's the address of City Hall. There's a lot of symbolic value, and I think it reflects the pride the council has in wanting to honor Cesar Chavez
So he not only has the support of an overwhelming majority on Council, he's also putting the City's prestige on the line as well, which, politically speaking, is a master stroke. While all this is a surprising turn, this is perhaps the logical ultimate expression of the realipolitik involved in the quest to rename Interstate Avenue embodied in ramrodding through the process with no regard to existing policy and, at best, disdain for the feelings of the neighborhood involved.
I'm not in favor of renaming any of our streets any more, actually. It's not out of any fear of a name like "North Cesar E Chavez Blvd" (or "SW Cesar E Chavez Blvd" if it come to that), and, actually, ultimately, it wouldn't bother me much if one of them were renamed. I have no fear of a brown planet (or black, or what have you; our policy is to be as nice as possible to other people, in as much as other people outnumber us over 6 Billion to one).
I'm not in favor of renaming any of our streets in favor of anyone right now because, after the MLK renaming, the City devised a careful, methodical process that does its best to make sure that if a street does get renamed, it doesn't happen unless a majority of the people involved are on board with it, but latterly, if someone in City government gets the proverbial wild hair, it gets utterly and completely ignored, rendering the lessons we all learned about uniting community in the wake of the MLK renaming irrelevant.
If Mayor Tom promised renaming advocates that they could have thier way without going through the process, then that was a promise he never should have made.
That this and the last few renamings (Naito Blvd, Rosa Parks Way) were to honor people who were all about community (Naito about building the physical community, and Rosa Parks about the fact that we've all got to be respectful of each other – a lesson we probably haven't learnt after all), are in honor of people whose lives were about building and reinforcing the things that make us a human community just adds a great deal of irony to the whole thing.
1095. Out and about on Tuesday afternoon. Dateline: SE 82nd Ave and Foster Road. View: End of An Era–Tom Peterson's old building is a-coming down:
As we understand it, the little LaRog's building hard by the corner is coming down next. We forget when they're winding things up there, however.
Ladmarks do have a way of changing. And change is a constant.
