9:17:15 The Other Portland

A major thoroughfare in Portland, Oregon, 82nd Avenue runs from the Columbia River/Portland International Airport south on Portland's east side. A dividing line in more ways than one. To the west of 82nd, you see a Portland much more gentrified, white, with a look and feel of what people expect from Portlandia. The other side, the east side of 82nd, one finds the Other Portland.

Other Portland does not appear to live up to the hype of the City's quality-of-life reputation. All the cheap, indifferent rental complexes you'll ever want to see; smallish ranch houses with dandelion front lawns, and most of Portland's unbelievable 59 miles of unpaved streets [the comparable cities of San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, Atlanta, Sacramento, Denver, and Nashville have a total of zero unpaved streets!] Other Portland's population tends to be refugees from Portland's gentrification or refugees from other countries [Russian, Hispanic, Asian transplants].

[unpaved street]

Other Portland used to be called unincorporated Mid-County.

Beginning in the 80s, the City of Portland began annexing parts of mid-Multnomah County that helped bring population from the roughly 300,000 it had been for decades to a sizey 600,000 plus now.

In some respects, given the differing socio-economic profiles, it was similar to West Germany annnexing its poor cousin, East Germany.

Several observers have argued the City of Portland is taking more in the way of taxes from Mid-County than it puts back in services and capital improvements. If Mid-County was hillbilly have-nots before annexation, the City, by not adding services and more amenities like sidewalks, isn't rushing to close the obvious gap with the west side of 82nd.

So for now, Other Portland keeps it character, offering shelter to the multi-cultural stew of emigrés, while at the same time being a haven for the more nefarious denizens of Portland. Felony Flats aka Lents in Other Portland was a childhood home to Portland's own headline grabber, Tonya Harding and her ex-boyfriend, the guy formerly known as Jeff Gilhooley.

Having said all this about Other Portland--no model for all Portland pretends to be--I rather like the part of town. I shop for groceries on 122nd, finding the customers there more interesting for their honest struggle to get by. Less pretension. Not a one of the Trustifarian habitues of gentrified Portland.

I'd conclude Other Portland humanizes my home town. Somewhat like the twin aspects of Janus. Half the face has a happy, if de rigueur smile; the other, a suffering, but honest frown.

Image credit: google images: portlandtribune.com


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The Cat at Light's End

Read Charlie Dickinson's story collection, The Cat at Light's End, as an ebook in these downloadable formats:

.mobi (Kindle)
.epub (most other readers)
.pdf (for PCs)

Also, a flash fiction, "Ylena Thinks Nyet," is at Cigale Literary Magazine.



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