Too ugly and too big

Here is another atrocity the city allowed to be built.  They tore down a bungalow and put up this.  I bet it doesn't have any more people living in it than the bungalows around it.  The trees have been removed to make way for this ugly monstrosity.  It is taking light from the neighbors.  Nobody made out except the greedy developer and the tasteless folks who live there.  The constructions looks cheap, cheap, cheap.

Take back our city.

This isn't as big but it sure is ugly.  I've seen better looking chicken coops.  But this is a HOUSE.  John says it gives even snout houses a bad name.

Not so pretty stuff

This is a homeless person sleeping in the bus stop on the way to  the farmer's market.... still there when we walked back as well.   I don't think I can go for a walk without seeing homeless people (they are that prevalent).  The mayor claims they are all local but I've been asking them and hardly anyone I talk to is from Portland. The city also claims that many homeless in Portland are families.  Those are not the ones I see.  I see mostly young people in their 20's and 30's. 

Note the portable toilet in the background.  I think that is one of the toilets they have placed around Portland in hopes the homeless will stop pooping and peeing all over the place.   

So if you are from out of town and are thinking of visiting lovely Portland, expect this kind of thing and much worse.

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The city government has a 30 year plan.  I hate the plan.  I can't believe they think they can plan for the future when they can't take care of the present.

One of the ugliest and most dangerous areas of Portland is the Springwater Corridor, which is a path they built for walking and bicycling and is now heavily used by homeless campers.   They can't even fix that.  The trail is not safe.  There is lots of violence.  It's very trashy and ugly.  The people who live near the trail are also having many issues with the homeless.  I  read that the city is getting 300-400 complaints per day about the Springwater.  And now there are two lawsuits against the city about their mismanagement of the trail.

This map is from an Oregonian news item (says Google).  The map is now missing from the story, which is about this incident some time ago.  

source- Google photos, back source gone

Bike Portland has a lot to say about the state of the Springwater Corridor.    Here are some other links.

Springwater corridor safety

Dangers on Springwater prompt summer camp to cancel

And it is not just the Springwater corridor.... it is everywhere except in the very wealthiest neighborhoods.  Somehow they are protected.  For example, the mayor lives across the street from a place that never sees any homeless problem.  Looks like a great place to camp to me.  I think it is a golf course.  We could buy it and give it to the homeless.  They can use Charlie's bathroom.

Tent city near Hawthorne Bridge cleared.... needles and garbage left behind.

79 homeless camp fires in last two months

Google image search on Portland homeless

I could go on and on.....

So, if you are thinking of visiting or moving, expect this ugliness.  And soon the Travelers will be arriving in large numbers.  Those are the young homeless by choice people who travel up and down the west coast and like to summer in Portland.  Some are very aggressive and scary, much like feral animals.   The city is making some attempt to hide them from tourists, which means pushing them into neighborhoods.

Outdoor store worker assaulted

Travelers

Why young homeless unwelcome in tourist areas

Still want to come?

When I say ugly, this is what I mean

I know the people who live near it are unhappy.  Who can blame them?  Their space and light have been intruded on.  There was no parking allowance made for this building either.  And that is also taking its toll on the neighborhood.  I think the building is really inappropriate for its site.

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And here is another one.  No yard.  Light taken away from neighbors.  And so very ugly.

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It used to look like this before they put up those monstrosities on its site.  You can see that it had a yard and trees and fit with the neighborhood.  They divided the lot and put up two houses on hormones.  I think there should be a rule: a new house cannot be more than 10% larger than the average size of a house in that immediate neighborhood (excluding outliers).   And what happened to valuing trees and green space!

Some time ago (a year?) we went for a walk in this neighborhood, which is south of Division.  It's my favorite kind of neighborhood with modest comfortable old houses from the first half of the 20th century... lots of styles and fun things to see.  There were these new houses on hormones stuck in the middle of this neighborhood of much smaller homes.  Those new houses were so out of place, dwarfing their existing neighbors.  It was so evidently richer people taking over the neighborhood of poorer people.  Not improving it.  Just taking it over.

There were signs up from some developer who was snatching up properties.   I wanted to deface those signs and tear them down.  And an old institutional building had been torn down and replaced with those awful houses that looked like they belonged in the suburbs (if you read the article, the developer intended that).  I meant to blog about walking in another great  Portland neighborhood but I was so horrified by what I saw that I didn't take a single photo.   Nor did I blog about it.  Butit left a hole in my heart.

So please, if you are thinking of moving to Portland, don't.  It's a bad time.  We are suffering terrible homelessness, not enough housing, sky high rents and real estate prices, unbridled growth, lots of gang violence and shootings, and conflict on the streets amongst bicycles, cars and pedestrians.     I'm with Tom McCall.... come and visit but don't move here.   More people are making our problems much worse.