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]](unpaved.gif)
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
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.
more posts
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8:19:15 Oregon's Most Obscure Traffic Law
7:31:15 A Small Death
7:23:15 China Shakes the World, a book review
7:16:15 Out Damn Spot!
5:31:15 My New Library Card
5:21:15 Let Me Be Frank With You, a book review
5:08:15 Portland's Rabbit Hutches
4:21:15 The Sea Lions at Astoria
3:26:15 Sacrificing for a Lower Water Bill
3:10:15 The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, a Book Review
2:5:15 Pinhead Books aka e-books
1:15:15 Good Riddance to Old-School Shaving!
12:20:14 Three Whys I Quit Reading a Book
12.12.14 the life-changing magic of tidying up, a book review
11.12.14 Oil Changes
10.29:14 Grapefruit
10.17:14 Doomsday Preppers, a TV series review
9.30:14 The Trigger, a book review
9:10:14 Clipboard People
8:23:14 Ukraine Diaries, a book review
8:21:14 My Home Darkroom on a Shoestring
7:29:14 Right Speech
6:28:14 Pacific Power's Wily Ways
6:20:14 My New Clarks Sandals
5:31:14 Portland's Water Woes, Again
5:10:14 Faster Dial-Up
4:11:14 Update on Stockpiling Light Bulbs
4:10:14 The Next 100 Years, a book review
3:15:14 A Cruel and Shocking Act, a book review
3:8:14 Ukraine: Another Revolution Gone Awry
2:9:14 The Flight (and Fight) of the Hummingbird
1:25:14 My Frugal Byways
1:20:14 Walden on Wheels, a book review
1:2:14 Growing Up Amish: A Memoir, a book review
12:27:13 Micro-Apartments
11:28:13 The Moneyless Man, a book review
11:23:13 The Lost Art of Walking, a book review
11:10:13 The Cultural Revolution Cookbook, a book review
10:23:13 The Biker Angel
10:11:13 No Self-Serve Gas in Oregon
9:28:13 A Street Cat Named Bob, a book review
9:23:13 The Life & Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, a book review
9:18:13 Autumn Leaves
8:19:13 The Worst Car Driver & Why
8:12:13 The Gardener from Ochakov, a book review
7:25:13 Le Havre by Kaurismaki
7:20:13 This Ain't California
6:27:13 The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, a book review
5:29:13 My Linux (Mis)Adventures
5:25:13 Southern Cross the Dog, a book review
5:5:13 Russian Tumbleweed
4:16:13 "The Machine Stops" by E. M.
Forster
3:26:13 Camera-rama
3:25:13 Moore's Law
3:13:13 Grocery Shopping
2:28:13 Razor Blade in Moonlight
1:27:13 Made in Russia: Unsung
Icons of Soviet Design, a book review
1:6:13 Alleys
12:9:12 White Bread, a book
review
12:4:12 Update on Old-School Shaving
11:12:12 Ten Great Buys at Dollar Tree
11:6:12 My New Russian Camera
10:29:12 Leaf Day
10:2:12 The Russian Navy in New York?
9:21:12 The Righteous Mind, a
book review
9:14:12 Revolution, 1989, a book review
8:23:12 Train Whistles in the Night
8:2:12 Why I've Stockpiled Light Bulbs
7:22:12 Old-School Shaving
7:16:12 Злектроника МК-52, computer de minimus
7:4:12 Ivan's Childhood by Tarkovsky
6:21:12 The Unabomber, a modern Thoreau?
6:12:12 Do the gods exist?
6:7:12 My "Retail Therapy"
5:28:12 On Taxes, We Should Go Green
5:17:12 Portland's Trash
5:6:12 The Toaster Project, a
book review
4:24:12 No Seconds
4:12:12 Portland's Runaway Utility Bill
4:8:12 The Repossession, a book review
3:30:12 How I Got Published in Mississippi Review
3:18:12 Rothko
3:9:12 The End of Money, a
book review
3:1:12 gutenberg.org
2:18:12 Beauty Plus Pity, a
book review
2:5:12 Kirk's Castile Soap
1:29:12 Confessions of a Fallen
Standard-Bearer, a book review
1:22:12 Thirst, a book review
1:17:12 My IBM ThinkPad 1999-2012
1:11:12 String Beans
12:22:11 Spiritual TMJ
12:16:11 1Q84, a book review
12:11:11 How Portland Became Portlandia
12:1:11 The Fixie
11:20:11 Camus' Insight
11:13:11 Old & Worthy
11:7:11 Life Is Tragic
10:31:11 A Matter of Death and Life,
a book review
10:25:11 Dead Letter, Email Fatigue
10:18:11 Reinventing Collapse,
a book review
10:11:11 Rereading Pirsig
10:1:11 The Sisters Brothers, a book review
9:26:11 The Great Stagnation, a book review
9:16:11 Coffee, The Affordable Luxury
9:12:11 The Genius of Value
9:5:11 Death
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