Yule Heibel's Library tagged portland →  View Popular, Search in Google

This quote/observation is just crazy. My observations of Portland drivers are that they are overwhelmingly deferential to bicyclists, and to call Williams "too dangerous" for cyclists strikes me as just plain weird. (Full disclosure: I'm currently living in an apartment that overlooks this bike corridor.) It makes me wonder what people actually want. I've noticed that many people here (including younger ones) really fear density (Portland overall is very low density, population-wise), and resist changes that would densify the city. They like the suburban-y feel of these eastside neighborhoods, but want all the goodies that gentrification also would bring. Meanwhile, the racial question in Portland is IMNSHO huge. Every time I'm out and just chat casually with strangers who happen to be African-American, I get the impression they think it's weird that a white person (female) is talking to them. Why would that be the case, if not for the fact that is *is* unusual? Neighborhood sports games (at Unthank Park, of all places) are observably segregated, as I've seen: white adults playing some version of softball, while black kids hang out dribbling a basketball in a separate play lot a few yards away. So much bs. For example, this:
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"I'm not selling my property, so I don't give a shit," says Goldsmith. But while the city help for new businesses has been great, in the hubbub of bikes, cars, and buses, Goldsmith no longer feels safe biking down its main business street. "I love living here, I love being here... but I don't bike with my kids on Williams anymore—it's too dangerous."
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portland race bicycles cities density gentrification

2009 article about Ziba's (then-new) HQ, which I visited recently when I attended GOOD Ideas for Cities. It's a knock-out space and building, very beautiful. I found the following passage intriguing, given the interest in 'pinning'...
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The workstations are situated amid an interlocking sequence of podlike meeting rooms connected by sliding doors. It’s in these rooms that teams spend most of the workday, pinning their inspirations and ideas to the walls. “At first they were looking at one big room for everything,” says Jeff Stuhr, one of Holst’s two founders. “But we suggested a sequence of intimate spaces that you could journey through.”
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pinning ziba metropolis_magazine brian_libby portland architecture design

Interesting Jan.2012 op-ed by Jeff Jahn in the Portland Tribune. Jahn is an independent curator and critic.
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Since the mid-’90s, artists and designers have emigrated to or stayed in Portland for very specific and often moral reasons. In a nutshell, it is because Portland is the first U.S. city to grow out of the adolescent attitudes of America in the second half of the 20th century. The laundry list: non-car-reliant transportation, green thinking, proximity to nature, a very non-1 percent-centric civic attitude, high-tech savvy and a permissive attitude that was essentially humanistic rather than purely capitalistic.

In other words, the original Occupy Portland started around the mid-’90s by artists and has only gathered steam since. Think of artists as canaries in the coal mine of civilization — it is a tough job, but it’s very important to watch what they do. Artists bring immense cultural cache, even jobs. Ultimately, they redirect our attention, giving us a new aesthetic and conceptual compass. Then they export those ideas in distilled, compact creative endeavors.

No city owns its artists, but a city can choose to (either) support or take its artists for granted.

To be overly simplistic, Portland became a 21st-century leader because it rejected both of the 20th century’s main models: Manhattan’s top-down corporate verticality and LA’s car-driven suburban sprawl. Instead, as a more 19th century-style city of shopkeepers and artists (defined by our citizens more than institutions), we should own the title and take care to not become complacent.
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portland jeff_jahn artculture socialcritique

Introduction to Jarrett Walker's book, Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking About Public Transit Can Enrich Our Communities and Our Lives. Excellent points. Eg.:
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Transit debates also suffer from the fact that today, in most of our cities, most of our decision makers are motorists. No matter how much you support transit, driving a car every day can shape your thinking in powerful subconscious ways. For example, in most debates about proposed rapid transit lines, the speed of the proposed service gets more political attention than how frequently it runs, even though frequency, which determines waiting time, often matters more than vehicle speed in determining the total time a transit trip will require. Your commuter train system will advertise that it can whisk you into the city in thirty-nine minutes, but if the train comes only once every two hours and you’ve just missed one, your travel time will be two hours and thirty-nine minutes, so it may be faster to drive or even walk.
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human_transit jarrett_walker transportation planning portland

Great interview with Brad Cloepfil. On Portland:
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I don't know why Nike for instance doesn't spawn innovation in architecture. Ziba has played its role -- it hired John (Holmes, a principal at Holst). It's really about how a company sees themselves.

What I like is that people are so critical. That's the thing. Everyone is so hard on the Pearl. It's because we care so deeply. We want more and want the best.

Another way of looking at it is that the people who do those kinds of buildings and residences are people who care about culture deeply. And they care that their company participates in that level of dialogue. That's rare. Here or anywhere else.

Q: How would you tell the next mayor of Portland how to improve design in this city?

A: (...)
...a mayor and government has to feel the cultural expression of their city is important. And I just don't think we have that here. It would be wonderful.
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brad_cloepfil architecture portland

This sounds like a great initiative:
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Portland City Art is a public charity 501(c)(3) non-profit, whose mission is to serve the art community of Portland, by building upon the aspirations, vision and mission of the greater Portland art community and the businesses, organizations and individuals who support them, through organizing, creating and implementing solo and group art shows, art events, art forums and community art venues for the advancement of the arts and art community here in Portland.

The vision of Portland City Art is to bring together a diverse array of both local emerging and professional artists, in an environment and dynamic which positively facilitates their individual career paths and goals through art display, art sales and a community supported social function. Portland City Art will create an environment for which artists may successfully and easily connect with one another, share ideas, pursue collaboration and merge resources for which to sell their art and further their art career.

With the support of local businesses, charities, corporations, organizations and individuals who sponsor and contribute to Portland City Art events, we will successfully implement tangible, sustainable and comprehensive art shows, art sales and art careers for artists and the Portland art community at large, while also advancing, securing and investing in the future operations of Portland City Art as a charitable and resourceful non-profit organization.
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Something to model...

portland art arts_development reference

Very moving commencement speech by Paul Hawken at University of Portland, May 3, 2009.
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There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn't afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
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paul_hawken charityfocus inspiration commencement_speech portland