Tryon Creek

Lately, I've been spending more of my time on sidewalks and asphalt, but perhaps the most vital aspect of Portland which made me long to return during my intermittent years on the East Coast was the easy access to wilderness--not necessarily in the literal definition, but the psychological one. It's hard to explain to someone from here what it is like to have to drive three to four hours to get into a decent stand of woods, or to live in a state where the only public beaches are tiny, trash-strewn, and riddled with used needles.

It's been a while now since I've gone to hike the mountains or sleep in the real wilderness. The thing is, although I do miss that experience, in this town I never feel the same separation from that part of my life as I have in other areas. We manage a balance here: through it all, through the growing pains and the land use debates and the urban design, Portland keeps it all in perspective better than any place I've ever known. Tryon Creek is an important part of that. Portlanders know this, and non-Portlanders mythologize the way we live in the world. Maybe a little mythmaking isn't a bad thing.

First Church Christ Scientist

The building is now occupied by the Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center and the Northwest Children's Theatre. Like a kind grandmother struggling against her dotage, the structure is visibly slipping into urban decay; the broken crown was what caught my eye.

Jacobberger strikes again

St. Mary's Cathedral in NW Portland is perhaps one of the best known of Jacobberger's public buildings. It's as serene and balanced as one would expect from a Jacobberger construction. The trees which have grown up since the foundations were laid give a sense of shelter and welcome, dappling the brick and mortar arches with shadows. As someone who thinks of sprawling gothic spires of stone when I hear the word "cathedral," I was surprisingly pleased by this site's soothing qualities. Granted, I visited on a Tuesday morning when there was precious little foot or auto traffic--just one other woman, also snapping a photo or two, passed me by.

In what must have been a splendid moment of generations coming full circle, Jacobberger's grandson (and namesake) became a noted pastor here in the last years of the 20th century.

I only strolled around two sides of the cathedral, but here are two links which allows you a virtual tour of some of the artwork and spaces inside.

Old meets new (Firefighters' Park/The Civic)

And a very amusing conspiracy-theory spin on the odd iconography of the park in this blog post.

"The most celebrated Skidroad in Oregon or on Earth"?

Well, so says the shiny cube (which, rumor has it, actually opens up into a hot dog stand) in TriMet's Civic Plaza. More precisely, so says one breathless sketch of Portland history as it wraps in staggered paragraphs around the four visible sides of the cube.

But in the familiar westward view there's not a salacious boarding house to be seen. And, lest you out-of-towners think I'm trying to be clever by looking away from this den of iniquity, let me just mention that there is a Jaguar dealership about the same distance in the other direction as the Volvo dealership is in this one.

Ah, sweet gentrification. You do measure the waxings and wanings of a city.

On a nearly unrelated note: one of my favorite business names ever belonged to a now-departed antique store on antique row in Sellwood. It was, yes, the Den of Antiquity.

Commodore Hotel, SW 16th & Morrison

Built in 1927, this Art deco beauty once housed one of Portland's earliest radio stations in a four room suite.

To see the difference forty or so years and a thoughtful paint job can make, take a look here.

PGE Park

There are two terrific tidbits about the ball park in City Walks: first, that two giant tanning vats left over from the 19th century are still buried beneath the field, and second, that the owners employ a battalion of feral cats as their first front against a vermin problem. The cats played ninja yesterday, but I'm sure they were watching my every move around the perimeter.