The Crotch of The City

So it was bound to happen. I had my first real bad experience in Portland, Actually its kind of good, now I know its a normal city just like anywhere else in America, just weirder. We we over by VooDoo Donuts. Jenni didn’t have her Sunday donuts so she wanted to go there before we headed down to Eugene. We heard a lot about this place so we looked forward to going there. The first time we went it was on Saturday afternoon when we arrived here. The line was out the door and half way down the block (it actually jutted out into the street before turning back onto the sidewalk.) So Jen decided that she would rather go on Monday before we took the train south. After we checked out of The Jupiter we headed over to Amtrak to get rid of our bags. Then it was over to VooDoo. Smaller line than Saturday and we joined the queue. I wasn’t going to have any (no offense against VooDoo but I’m trying to eliminate that type of food from my diet.) so I sat on a bench outside the shop.

Before I go on I need to explain for those who have never been to Portland. There are a lot of homeless people here and many of them are not mentally sound. The state has no public facilities for the mentally ill. The state is broke. This area we were in is a habitat for them. What makes this even stranger is this part of town is littered with strip clubs and porno theaters. And a bunch of soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless. Its bizarre to walk past tittie bar and then Catholic Charities next door, but hey its Portland. Someone told me (or maybe I read it somewhere) that there are more strip clubs in Portland than any where else in America. Supposedly, its protected in the state constitution (I really need to check that out.) OK, you now can see what kind of place this area of the city is. Think Times Square in the 70s but not as dangerous, although just short of a war zone I don’t know any place as dangerous as New York in the 70s.
Back to Monday morning. So, we’re all on line waiting and we begin to hear this guy screaming. Across the street is this bald guy, I’d say late 20s maybe early 30s, topless carrying his shirt and what appeared to be his coat(?) running up and down the street. He’s screaming and cursing almost like he’s fighting with someone. He runs up the street then shows up next to us by a porno theatre, which by the way specializes in Japanese Anime Porn. He’s screaming and banging on garbage cans. Every now and then he squats down and pounds on his head. He looks to me like he’s crashing off of something, like meth. He’s obviously in a lot of pain. I feel really bad for him but at the same time this is a really scary moment here. He’s probably capable of anything violent. He walks through the line and back again. People are beginning to look frightened. He runs across the street (which by the way is a very wide street) a continues is screaming. I begin to notice that NO ONE makes an effort to pick up their phones and call the police. In fact the police are no where to be seen. Now he runs back toward the store. Right at me. I’m sitting on a bench with my back to the wall. I have my camera bag around my shoulder resting on the bench, Jennifer’s back is at my feet and I have my camera in my hands resting on my lap. I begin to panic thinking, great I’m going to spend the rest of my vacation in a hospital with a broken face or at the very least in jail for smashing his head in with my camera (this is also where I began to think, oh why did I rent a $2000 lens?) He stops about three feet in front of me and does his squat thing, still screaming. About that time the owner, or an employee, of VooDoo comes out and begins to guard us. As Screaming Bald Man comes closer he walks out toward him, warding him off. He has a cell phone in his hand. Obviously he’s protecting his interests: his business and customers. Screaming Bald Man runs off and around the corner. VooDoo Guy walks back toward the door and says: “There is a reason why they call this the crotch of Portland.” Of course he comes back screaming and cursing again and VooDoo Guy protects his turf once again (yeah, this is beginning to sound like a National Geographic Story.) Finally, Jenni comes out with a bag of donuts and walks up to me realizing that I’m upset. She was inside during the charging incedent. So I explain that I just had a really unsettling experience that had left me confused and some what frightened. By the time we get the corner a cop shows up and VooDoo Guy flags him down. I think he might have called him because the cop drove around several times looking intently out of his car. We managed to get out of there, walking about two blocks out of the way to avoid the screaming guy.

I think what disturbed me is no one seemed to lift a finger, myself included, to get help. It was as if we all just hoped he would just go away. Go have your meltdown somewhere else but not here, we’re trying to buy donuts. The owner (or employee) was concerned about the safety of his customers and rightfully so. Which is my point. How did, or does a city, get to the stage where this is an everyday occurrence? A norm that results in one’s business being located in “the crotch” of the city. It was a scary moment for me as I wasn’t prepared for that kind of behavior, even though we’ve seen homeless all over Portland all weekend (they’re not like the bums in New York that harass you at every moment. You might get a few asking for change but generally they leave you alone.) I know we’re in a really bad recession right now, The Great Recession, but there is no excuse for a city or a state to allow people to live on the streets. They, especially the mentally ill, need to taken care of. Thats what you pay taxes for, the ones that fall into the deep cracks of our economy. At the same time when a city is trying to remake itself into a better, more productive and efficient place to work and live this is a recipe for a social disaster. My biggest fear for Portland is that one election cycle they will elect a “Giuliani” that will clean up the city with devastating consequences for those that are really just victims of our economy.
Well thats just my fucking two cents, take it for what its worth. Please, feel free to comment.

Day One: Portland Again. Cool.

Well we finally got here. Its been a long fucking day, though. The two of us never went to bed last night. As we live a ridiculous distance from Indy airport we have to leave really early in the morning because our flight was at 7:00 am. By the time we got to Salt Lake City (there are no no stops out of Indy) we both were exhausted. We had about a three hour lay over so we managed to ingest some Starbucks and threw some food down our throats. God forbid Delta should feed anyone. Well they did but it was snacks and a few bucks a pop at that (they charged us $15 a bag to check in.) They also charged two bucks for headphones too. Fortunately, most people have iPods and such so they don’t need them. Anyways, the connecting flight out of Salt Lake was delayed for what I don’t know (and he’s on third.) So we left about 25 minutes late. I slept the entire flight only to wake up with a headache. When we arrived we got our bags and took the MAX to downtown. One bus transfer got us three blocks from our hotel. We’re staying at this place called The Jupiter. Cool place but definably ranks high on the weird scale. Its like out of a John Waters film. Really. Our original reason for staying here was because our favorite industrial club, Dementia was at a nearby club. But by the time we got here (actually a few months ago) they switched to another place, which is about 20 blocks east of here. To make matters worse they only run it the first and third Saturday now. So no Dementia this year (we will be doing Hive, Shadowplay and Embers. Portland is a hotbed for the Goth/Industrial scene. One of the reasons we like it.)

So today we just roamed around, ate then went shopping. Hit the Apple store for new headphones for my iPhone. Let me say that this device is the most handy thing to have when you’re in an unfamiliar city. The GPS, compass, and always on internet is a godsend. I found an App that tells you the bus schedule, so you know how long you gotta wait. I even used the camera today, exclusively. Actually I was way too tired to carry my Nikon around. I rented two lenses, a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S and a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G AF-S ED for my D60. The wide angle is really cool and I can’t wait to use it I fucked around with at home with the kitties. Fun stuff. The normal lens is one of the best lenses I’ve ever used. It’s extremely useful in low light with its wide aperture. Anyways, I was way to tired to lug the camera around today. Tomorrow will be different. I got a new bag to play with a Temba Messenger Bag. Its about the size of a Timbuk2 laptop messenger but its designed to carry camera equipment. It has a sleeve for a laptop (my 15” PowerBook fits fine) plus a billion pockets. One really cool feature is a zipper on top that accesses the camera, you don’t have open the flap. Stay tuned for more in the coming days.

Oh, this is for Holly. Doc Martin sandals. Really.

For more on these images click on Tony's Eyeview on the left.

Yard Work

When Jenni and I first bought our house we were excited about having an actual yard. Behind the house we had a somewhat large wooded area. It was real nice as many bunnies, squirrels and birds lived there. It also acted as a buffer from our neighbors behind us. Unfortunately, the woods were loaded with poison ivy which Jenni happens to very allergic to. So we made the decision to get rid of half the woods leaving the other half as a bunny preserve. Actually that half is thicker with trees and is nestled nicely in the corner between our yard and two other yards behind us. The big problem wasn’t getting rid of the trees but the fuckn’ vines on the ground. We have no idea what the hell kind of vines these are but they might as well be friggin cables. No way puling them out by hand is going to the job. After trying to peel the vines at the edge of the woods back, like a carpet, Jen got blasted with poison ivy. It was all over but covered by the other vines (hence the term ground cover for all you city folks.) This had to be the worst case of poison ivy I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to get into the details of it but lets just say she was miserable for couple of weeks (at one point we really thought she was going to permanently scarred.) So long story short we hired someone to tear out that half of the woods. Many thanks to Casey Schrock, my landscaper (I’m way to lazy to mow my lawn, besides I’m contributing to the local economy) for taking on the job. We’re very satisfied with the job. Oh yeah, does anyone need any wood?? Just help yourself.

The Image on top is from June of '08. Note how lush it is. The area off to the left where the really tall weeds are where we tried to clear out but gave up. Below is what it looks like now after three days of real work. There's more pictures here at my photo gallery or you can click on the Tony's Eye View link on the left.