Today in Portland, homelessness around the edges

Maybe it's the state of the world.
With Britain detaching from the EU, with new terrorist attacks weekly, or more often.  With new projects piled on me, though my existing projects are still underway.  Or maybe it's being hit up for cash on every street corner.

The one area of respite, of peace in this crazy world, seemed to be Mt Tabor Park.  I've seen hummingbirds up there, I've eaten thimbleberries that I was certain were my own private supply (cause I mean, how many people even know what they are).

Today, a tent, with a person inside.  Really?  Here in Mt Tabor?  Under the massive tree near the 71st Ave stairs and the tennis court.   Looked like someone in a sleeping bag/hammock swing kind of thing, inside a tent.

It shatters my peace a bit.  Our city is out of control.  I don't think the powers that be know what to do.  Every other week is a new idea about how to combat homelessness.  Last week it was a bond measure, some hundreds of millions.  It equated to $200K per unit.  Craziness, and some develooer's plan to line his pockets while there is desperation on in the air.

Just would like a little peace, and apparently I have to look a little farther now than my Mt Tabor.

82nd Avenue of Roses

Not that I have ever seen any roses along this road, either living, or memorialized in plastic, but I guess it is a vision thing.

Vision for 82nd Ave - walkable, accessible, family friendly.  Purple alhambra flowers growing along a median strip, like in Silicon Valley.  Telephone poles that currently hover near the roadway within millimeters, are gone - power lines are underground, and no one needs actual phone lines since everyone wants a cell tower.

Maybe a book store, you know, an independent bookstore, one that doesn't sell anything but books (maybe an espresso machine), no toys no games no calendars (except by local artists).

Even in front of used car lots, and there are many, there are benches with planter boxes (alhambra, or maybe flowering dogwood - maybe donated by local nurseries).  Encouraging people to sit and watch the buses go by I guess, or maybe wait for connections to trek to that book shop.

I am waiting for this vision.  If you are too:  next stop 82nd Ave Town Hall - November 6, 2014: 6:30pm, Portland Community College, SE Campus (@ SE 82nd and Division).  Be there, aloha.

Unintended Side Effects

Or, pernicious policy?

My local Street Roots vendor, on the consequences of the President's "Dream Act".  Has young people now living in fear as their names are identified on public lists.  They are currently illegal.  Obama wants to give them a shot at in-state tuition and a plan for legal status.  But meanwhile, they are publicly identified as illegal.  A positive path, or the Power of the State clamping down ?

2 Hours Later

I swear, the price at Shell on Cornell Road was $4.09, then 2 hours later it shot up to $4.15. But that is very local. Perhaps some problems can be solved locally.

In Portland the rage is (was? so 2 hours ago?) chickens. People and their love for having chickens in their yard. I know that I don't wish to live in a neighborhood that doesn't allow chicken cages in the yard. Maybe chickens are easy to solve. Though not for some of my family members without good fences, not a pretty picture. Well, chickens have finite lives, so that problem eventually solves itself.

How nice! Some problems cycle over and over. As Ron Paul put it - our Congress fights about "who should pay for birth control pills". Indeed. Did that seem like a small enough problem that they could solve? In light of the massive budget debt problem that seems intractable. More likely it is just idealoguing, scoring points with their favorite political base.

The Supreme Court arguments this week were sure interesting. Well, after the first day, which took a while for me to get into the groove. Kind of like the spinning class I took tonight. The 5 minute warmup nearly killed me, but I kept going, and did get into the groove. Supreme Court arguments must be like watching a Shakespeare play - have to stick with it and learn the language.

I know that if I grow wheat for my own consumption this is illegal. Since wheat is a publicly traded commodity and hence the government can control its production, and pricing. Well, that is for professional farmers, not for me specifically. Since I am not registered as a farmer, I can go forth and grow all the wheat I want.

Tomorrow I hear that the Supreme Court will decide on this week's debate on the constitutionality of Obama's Health Care Reform (some people are offended by the term 'Obamacare'). But they won't announce the decision till June, after writing about it. True enough, writing something brings out what you really think.

Well after hearing all those arguments I am convinced that I don't want my government involved in an amazing scheme to force people to buy products from insurance companies. Its bad enough they've taken away "free TV" and force you to get a digital box or some type of service. Radio is still free. Growing my own wheat is still free. I am free to tell every person I run into what I think.

I am reminded that "freedom is not free", but something we have to keep fighting for. Time for a new direction America! This year, we are cursed, but eventually we will climb out of our complete gridlock, 3 month infrastructure spending bills, scoring political points, and growing chickens. On that day, we will set free to solve problems.

Some Things Change, Part 2

Today, the Macy's Holiday Parade. Yes, I know its the day *after* Thanksgiving and this is not New York City. Not *that* Macy's parade, this is the one that used to be affectionately known as the Meier and Frank Holiday Parade.

No giant balloons floating, this one is more about marching bands, and they do have giant floating things that are driven by inside people. Now that would be a fun job - driving a giant floating Christmas tree down the streets of Portland.

When big bad Macy's moved in (not my opinion, I actually *like* Macy's, but then, I'm from the East coast, so they didn't betray my memory or anything, in fact, they brought my home back to me here on the west coast. Long live bi-coastalism!). Well, when Macy's bought out Meier and Frank, they tried to subvert the local traditional post-holiday parade.

Tried to make it into some sort of competition to The Rose Parade or something - banned middle school bands from participating. A righteous hue and cry resulted. Myself among them. Did they think we would get on national TV or something?

Our way was more about having breakfast at the local tavern with the family, and standing out in the rain and snow or whatever, and cheering the bands. The 6th grade bands were the hope of future high school bands, of course, so they deserved a lot of cheering!

Skip ahead to today: I was happy to see many 6th grade bands participating. About half a dozen from various Oregon and Washington middle schools. Rah! Some of them sounded really good! So Macy's now really does have a clue!

On the high school level, mixed results in this endless recession.. Whereas in past years, Portland city high schools didn't have enough marching band kids unless they "pooled" them together into one mixed band. So they would dig up old uniforms and have a mottled group all in one band. OK. I felt a little sad that at their schools they didn't seem to have enough kids or interest to have their own band.

Different story this year - both Madison and Franklin had their very own bands. Uniforms, drumline, the works. Very cool! Rah Portland!

Across the great river however, up in Vancouver, where unemployment is higher than anyplace in Oregon, anyplace in Washington. The once very great and powerful Vancouver bands, that had the most amazing field shows you have ever seen in your life - very sophisticated (read: very expensive) and always it was Evergreen or one of the others that took top place. Well this year only a half dozen kids from Skyview - on a very long flatbed truck doing some sort of tropical marimba music. Fun, but these bands used to have like 100 or more kids - each.

Happy to report Camas, Century, Hilhi- at full strength. Go Century!

Portland in solidarity with the people of Libya

Sometimes, you're in the right place at the right time. How many Libyans, and those in solidarity with them, took to the streets today in protest of the atrocities in Libya:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpbfromhillsboro/sets/72157626148903250/
(a public flickr set)

The Darkness of Night, the Dawn of Morning

Egypt be free!

Tonight, Ambassador to the UN for the United States, Ms. Susan Rice, was in Portland.

The "welcoming committee" outside, about 3 or 4 protesters - saying no to the UN, to the IMF, to the World Bank. After listening to her talk, I wonder why they do not want world cooperation?

She framed our contribution to the UN as good payoff: for 1/10 of 1 percent of our federal budget we participate in the UN through country dues. If not for this, would we be shouldering the whole burden of UN missions on our own?

She quoted former UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold on the purpose of the UN - "not to bring humanity to heaven, but to save it from hell". Many things the UN has done - polio vaccines, bedneds for malaria, Millenium Development Goals to reduce poverty.

In credit to the open spirit of Portland, all you needed to do on entry to the church, which was packed to listen to her, was have them check your name off a list and head on in. No metal detectors or anything. And to her credit in response to questions both positive and confrontational, her tone was one of "The Obama administration believes...", or "I've answered your question". Somewhere inside of her is a Jersey girl, I sense.

Some questions - what about those Israli settlements in Palestine? There is a limit to what the UN can do. They can't force any countries to take action.

Influence is what its about. Consensus. If not for the UN where would we have a forum for world cooperation? Whatever its problems or dated structure, and she will admit its not perfect, we need the UN more than ever.

. Not a Jersey girl after all - she is a child of DC. Whose mentor was Madelaine Albright, one of the women I most respect on the planet.

21 years ago on February 11 was the day Nelson Mandela walked out of prison. And today of course will long be remembered..

Go Egypt - let us all hope and pray that they can pull it off.

The Fog Makes Everything Quiet..

Macy's is finally a local store, local to Portland. While we could lament the loss of Meier and Frank, it is the way the world is today - all industries trend toward consolidation. So Macy's has finally gotten a clue, more than one in fact. From the original dowdy clothes they thought we wore here in Oregon country (did they know we've been a state since 1859?), they finally have clothes that real people wear. And cute ceramic pots for cooking, someday, when I feel like spending that kind of money. And of course the ipod vending machine at Washington Square really makes me feel 1st World.

The parade can now be called Macy's holiday parade. At first they didn't understand how middle school bands could participate in this event. Did they think this was the Rose Parade or something? Do they want middle schoolers to become hoodlums and be deprived of one of the only events they can participate in at a community level? I was really really happy to see at least a couple middle school bands in this year's holiday parade. Rah!

And Franklin H.S. had their own band this year too! I seem to recall in past parades the various high schools from Portland had to grab a few people from each school - not sure where they got the different uniforms from, maybe from Portland's past days of high school glory. But this year standing on their own was Franklin H.S. Go for it! I hope to see you in the Rose Parade! And many other Portland high school marching bands too! Of course, Century will still outshine any of you, but competition is healthy.

If life can be measured in 12-hour increments, which I sometimes think, it didn't even take that long after the parade ended and the masses gathered at Pioneer Square for the tree lighting. Eighteen minutes before the tree lighting (or maybe 1 hour and 18 mins) a 19-year old kid was nabbed for an attempt to blow up the crowd.

Shouldn't terrorist attacks happen in foreign cities? But not the ones my kids go to. Or shouldn't they happen on east coast cities? But again, not the ones my kids go to. Or shouldn't we be "fighting the terrorists over there, so that we don't have to fight them here?"

Don't believe any of that. They are here among us. Two words come to mind:
"entrapment". This is what happens when the FBI give you the tools, encouragement, and opportunity to commit an act which will land you in jail forever. Or it could be the police. From my knowledge of this case, news stories, I don't see how this kid would have followed the garden path on his own. Granted he got the bomb making supplies from Radio Shack. Must be the one in Corvallis cause the one here in Hillsboro doesn't stock C-4. As a naturalized citizen he should have the same rights as me or any other citizen, right?

So he rails on Islamic sites exercising his free speech. But wait. He was advocating treason against the U.S., which blowing up the tree-goers at Pioneer Square certainly is. So you can draw that line. Which leads me to the next word:

"integration": I can't help wondering about why this kid didn't become integrated to: his community, his school, American society. Maybe this is white middle class guilt or something. But why didn't he go out for band and end up marching in the parade? Or why didn't he sign up for the chess club, or just find some friends to go party with? How has the community failed to integrate this child?

Last thought of the day - Safeway has it right. For a little over $6 you can buy a bag of groceries for people without, and I checked the label - this is staple stuff like beans and rice. Yes, you do not need to eat confined animal farm chickens to get protein, as 400 of the world's 436 countries have figured out, despite our propagating Western ways to the rest of the world. In a time of corporate strip malls looking the same from here to Tigard to Framingham, Mass, our local Safeway is there In the Community. This month it is a pitch to buy food bags along with your groceries. Last month it was a book sale to raise money. They have it right. Rah and aloha for the Aloha Safeway.

As darkness descends two days after the parade, after the tree lighting, the fog makes everything quiet..

Here is why I love Portland

Berries turning into raisins on the sidewalk. The smell of fresh basil, a bunch in my basket. Giant fig trees that have been here since the last millenium.

Maybe I will move here; maybe someone will buy my suburban home and turn it into a Montessori school - could happen..

Bought a video from the Hollywood Street Roots guy "Scott". So how did you get the production resources to make a video, I asked him. He met a video producer at the local Starbucks. Donation filmmaking. Another reason to love Portland. His video is titled "Homeless in PDX", so will check this out.

Snow Fences

In Hillsboro of old I had rabbits. Fluffy German Angora rabbits. The idea was to breed them, raise baby rabbits, sell each for $100 or so each, and actually derive income from this venture.

Alas, my experience with animal breeding, whether it be guinea pigs, Angoras, or later chinchillas, has taught me that that is not the path to fortune or even fame for me. The rabbits are gone (the chinchillas, living a very very very long life, remain :| )

But on to rabbit fences. To exercise them, I put up one of those plastic snow fences in the backyard, to keep them from running off into neighbor yards and getting chewed on by dogs, or from falling into the creek and floating downstream to frighten kids and city workers.

It was fun for them, they could frolic around. Now the only snow fences I see are at the perfect suburban health club I belong to. Sitting in the jacuzzi looking out on 100' tall fir trees, watching general aviation planes come in for a landing, light drizzly mist on my head, effervescent bubbles in the hot tub, its perfect! The faces around me have changed over the years, from the geeks at Intel to the new geeks from India at Intel, to the new geeks from Germany at SolarWorld (I think). Its always about SolarWorld these days it seems.

The snow fence surrounds the outdoor pool which is not yet open for the season. When it does open then the children of these tech workers will populate the sun-baked pool outside, which is actually warm enough (but too crowded) for swimming. But good for kids to throw in random objects and go diving for them, which has to be one of the best things to do in a pool like that.

Snow fences. Rabbit fences. My neighborhood has gone from one with rabbit snow fences, or, roosters that wake you at 4:30am, which is not a time you should be waking, or goats wandering on the driveway. Or, the time I saw one of my neighbors moving his horse from his house to his stable (something like that), with the lead for his horse out the window of his tiny crackerbox car clopping alongside. You just don't see that today.

Chickens are all the rage in North Portland, even gaining traction in Beaverton, where I hear they will hold a city forum on the topic (very progressive, those Beavertonites). Yet here in Hillsboro, it was an uphill struggle to preserve the last remaining "agricultural" properties. I am not aware of city zoning that would support an outdoor rabbit pen.

Which brings me to Portland, where I think this kind of thing is tolerated and even welcome. So maybe I will dig out those rabbit/snow fences from the garage, and not sell them at the yard sale commemorating our move, and save them for when we move, so we can once again watch rabbits frolic in Portland. Wonder what my husband will think?

Urban Renewal

Finally I get to see the "South Waterfront" urban renewal area in Portland, also known as the River District. So why is the cute public park surrounded by barbed wire? Not very publicly accessible..

Though you can find the trail along the river which is very cool.. That part is public.

I just wonder who this park is for - do residents have a special "get into barbed wire park" access code?