Almost everyone I know is currently traveling, is about to travel or has just returned from a trip. To deal with my envy, I thought I do something this week that reminds me of the fact that one’s own city is just as interesting as many others.

The plan is to walk different non-touristy neighborhoods every day and submit the photographs a day or two later, only occasionally augmenting with something archival from the very spots depicted. Running commentary will be included. That means you don’t get any of the usual links to something interesting since my time searching the net will be spent walking instead. But it also means you can see the city with fresh eyes, in real time. And you are witnessing what catches my eye, with no particular theme in mind.

 

We start with Saturday’s walk South of the Burnside Bridge. Portland is divided into 4 quadrants, with the Willamette river dividing the West/East areas and Burnside St marking the North/South axis. I walked a small industrial area in the SE quadrant, which has recently seen some gentrification, new condos and a marked upswing in posh restaurants, with parking now a problem during the week. (Shout out to Olympia Provisions, who have a restaurant/bar down there an serve the best cured meats in town!)

 

But the bones of the old district are still visible, homeless camps are everywhere in the shelter of the bridges, and the race between those applying graffiti and those removing it is accelerating. (Even five years ago you could barely see a plain wall from graffiti down there, now it is rare that you find spontaneous ones, not just the sanctioned large murals with signatures.)

Here are the images that caught my attention:

                                                                       

 

Nestled under the Burnside bridge is a skatepark for advanced skaters who are thrilling to watch. It is also a place where you can stand at 11am in the morning enveloped in second-hand clouds of marihuana smoke making it for a sweet smelling or perhaps enlightening adventure. The rest of the neighborhood is bustling at that time with hard work – there are meat packing plants, fruit distributors, large truck companies, a railroad track for freight trains, and now numerous start-ups that sell I don’t know what, mostly services, I guess. Sort of like NYC’s Chelsea’s transition from when I knew it in the late 70s to nowadays. A similar feel on a lilliputian scale.

 

Some of the old building details are still visible, 

mostly ignored by people who wait in line for the next table at a bar….

And music surrounds you, mostly blaring through open windows, no style left out.

It was a rainy day, a slight sense of decay enhanced by the grey light, and my heart went out to the homeless in their damp tents and sleeping bags. They were left behind by the Rose Parade (and the rest of us) that lit up the other parts of the city during our annual celebration of the city flower.