Portland, OR

This series of pictures are used to provide discussion on gentrification/infill in the neighborhood areas of Portland. Moving a block north, a view of a block of homes just past the older commercial establishment in the introductory picture; these homes appeared to be typical of the history of the neighborhood. The first two homes here look like they might be relatively new, but they were designed and built to fit in with the historic housing style of the neighborhood. The homes in this block appear, from the street, to be large single-family homes, though based on what happens in most cities many of these are probably subdivided into small, relatively easily affordable, apartments.

This series of pictures are used to provide discussion on gentrification/infill in the neighborhood areas of Portland. Just east of the homes in photo #475, an example of how businesses were historically integrated in with the housing.

This series of pictures are used to provide discussion on gentrification/infill in the neighborhood areas of Portland. Just north of the area in the previous pictures, a modern 6-story complex. While the design here is, at least in my opinion, attractive, the complex clearly creates a dramatic increase in the density of housing as well as dramatically decreasing the amount of green space in the same block.

This series of pictures are used to provide discussion on gentrification/infill in the neighborhood areas of Portland. With the building in photo #476 on my left, a taller new housing complex under construction in the distance. Adjacent to it is another vacant lot with some sort of construction and past it are other new complexes on both sides of the street. ….. I have mixed feelings about gentrification and infill. The ever-increasing traffic, the environmental destruction, and the racial ghettoization of post-war suburbanization have always been a concern for me from both my environmentalist and social justice perspectives – I’d much rather see people on bikes, walking, or on transit having at least some possibility of interacting with others (even if they have their faces stuck on a phone). Just in my week in Portland I had surprisingly high level of interaction with strangers on the street, on transit, and in shops. AND, the cafes and stores in these new buildings provided access to better food and heath products than in the older stores in the same neighborhoods. But, I have concerns about the negative consequences of housing costs and loss of green space. Re housing costs, I’ve no data on the costs in this particular neighborhood, but similar development in urban centers around the country is resulting in the replacement of affordable, older housing with significantly more expensive housing in these newer buildings. We thus have the driving out of much of the age/economic/racial diversity (older people, poorer individuals, working families) that makes urban living a model for diversity, replacing that with an unfortunate new age/class/race ghettoization. Particularly evident in these pictures is the loss of green space. How do kids (and adults) get to just walk out the door into an environment of diverse flowers and trees, of the wild bird, insect, and animal life that is part of that? It’s much less tangible than the affordability issues, but I’m concerned about the increase in time spent in built environments. Maybe Portland is doing better than other cities, but I saw nothing that indicated that dramatic increases in housing density were being met with some sort of proportional increase in public parks.

The gorgeous St Johns River Bridge suspension bridge over the Williamette on the north side of Portland, built in 1931. See: www.pdxhistory.com/html/st_johns.html

Just about a mile upriver (closer to downtown) from the St Johns bridge, a railroad bridge owned by BNSF and officially named Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 but also referred to as the St Johns Railroad bridge. The bridge was completed in 1908 for the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway. It was originally a swing bridge but was hit by ships many times and so in 1989 was converted to vertical-lift bridge. Due to the bridge being a mix of old (1908) which is painted silver and much newer (1989) which is allowed to rust, the bridge is an unusual combination of colors. It is currently used by freight trains and Amtrak. See the Wikipedia page for some interesting pictures: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington_Northern_Railroad_Bridge_5.1

The park under the bridge is named Cathedral Park after the cathedral-like design of the towers of the bridge.

Bulk carrier heading downstream, passing under the St Johns bridge.

Port facilities of some sort on the west side of the Williamette.

Man out fishing in a kayak, near the St. Johns bridge. Barely visible in the distance is a row of tugboats.

There was an unusually high amount of rain in the Portland area this year, which may have overloaded the storm drain/sewerage system. The man fishing from the kayak (earlier picture) was parked near this sign, so he must have known about the contamination.

Hollywood theater in Hollywood district of Portland. Opened in 1926 as a vaudeville theater, in 1997 purchased by a foundation for preservation. See: cinematreasures.org/theaters/336

Thanks to an Ipernity photographer for introducting me to this park on the eastern edge of Portland. The park seems to have two names -- "Joseph Wood Hill" as seen on the sign, but "Rocky Butte" seems to be the most common way to refer to it. The park is atop a lava cone and was first identified by the City of Portland as potential park land in 1903, but became accessible when an access road and this viewing platform were built by the WPA in 1934-39. See: livingnewdeal.org/projects/rocky-butte-scenic-drive-portland-or

Some mountain that keeps jutting itself into every view in the Portland area :) Mt Hood from the vista point at the top of Rocky Butte.

The vista point was quite busy, probably because it was a Sunday AND the first day without any rain for the week...

I was surprised at the amount of trash in the areas just away from the main part of the park -- this is just off the road around the vista point.

Unfortunately not good light for capturing the quality of the WPA design and construction...

Linnton is a neighborhood in the city of Portland on the Williamette river that seemed to have a number of older port facilities, including this abandoned warehouse. In the distance, some of the very many oil tank cars I saw on the rail lines along the OR/WA border towns.