Archive for June, 2014

June 26, 2014

21 Reasons Portland’s Director Park is One of the Most Successful Public Spaces in the World

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Director Park, located between Yamhill and Taylor on Park, is one of the Park Blocks, a series of consecutive parks in downtown Portland that originated in 1848. The Park Blocks ended up being divided into the South Park Blocks and the North Park Blocks. Director Park is a way to connect the two sets. Believe it or not, Director Park narrowly escaped the fate of becoming a 12-story parking garage in 1995. Thankfully, more visionary leaders, like then mayor Neil Goldschmidt and developer Tom Moyer, interceded and the block became a public park instead. And what a good thing…

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June 24, 2014

Reaction Against the Possible Kevin Rose Demolition of Historic Northwest Portland Home Goes Overboard

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Emotions have been running high regarding the purchase and now possible demolition of an 1892 historic home in the Willamette Heights neighborhood in Northwest Portland. Neighbors and concerned Portlanders are enraged that someone could buy this historically significant house merely to demolish it and build something new on the site. Kevin Rose, a Google executive and millionaire, and his wife bought the house on February 28th for $1.3 million. The house was one of the first in the neighborhood, built in 1892 by the Montague family, which was prominent in early 20th century legal circles. The house clearly has historic…

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June 19, 2014

How the Built Environment can Help Build or Destroy Social Capital

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Yesterday, I watched a movie called The Human Scale by Danish director Andreas Dalsgaard chronicling several cities and the way they respond to people. The movie was based on Danish architect Jan Gehl’s principles about people-oriented cities. A cautionary thread in the movie revolved around the rapid urbanization of China and how Chinese cities are dealing with the population boom by building more highways and high-rises. On a hopeful note, the movie also featured cities, like Copenhagen, New York and Melbourne, that are re-orienting their urban planning to accommodate human beings and that have transformed formerly car-oriented spaces into people-oriented…

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June 17, 2014

What is Social Capital?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of powerful private interests, such as greedy developers and large corporations who seem to have a direct line to the decision makers in the government. Here in Portland, events like developers demolishing existing homes and displacing residents to put 4-6 story condo developments, disappearing local businesses that can’t afford rising rents and community amenities like food cart pods that are being kicked out of the lots they helped revitalized are just some of the injustices people are feeling. Do people who don’t happen to have millions of dollars or a big…

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June 16, 2014

Sustainability According to the Haves and the Have Nots

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last night I finally watched the movie Elysium by South African director Neill Blomkamp. Besides falling back on typical meaningless violence and starting plot lines that were never fully explored, the sci-fi movie had a great premise. It posed a world where the “have nots”, mostly composed of hispanics and black people, lived in the detritus of blighted urban landscapes wracked by air pollution, poverty and little access to medical care and the “haves” lived on a space station that was mostly made up of resorts and golf courses and every home was equipped by a miraculous healing machine that…

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June 12, 2014

What We Lose When We Lose a Food Cart Pod

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Portland is the birthplace of the food cart pod,  a cluster of food carts on an empty lot, usually a parking lot. Food cart pods have become a fixture in the city and new ones seem to be popping up all the time. But more and more, as the development craze is taking over neighborhoods, old and established food cart pods are disappearing too. It’s true that the whole premise of food carts is that they are temporary. Food carts are often used to revitalize a barren empty lot. In a way, they are a victim of their own…

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June 09, 2014

Subversive Transportation: A History of Women Cyclists and How Women Cyclists Can Save the Planet Today

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Not unlike women in Saudi Arabia that are banned from riding their bikes in public today, at one time women in the US faced the same kind of resistance to biking as well. The first drop frame bicycles to make it easier for women in skirts to ride came about in the 1890s. But at the same time, male doctors decried the overexertion to delicate female constitutions that was caused by bicycling. And women who rode bikes were often depicted as a little bit crazy and wild. Bicycles were even accused of deflowering younger women, causing spontaneous orgasms, encouraging…

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June 05, 2014

10 Fun Facts About the Beginnings of the Steel Bridge

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet The Steel Bridge is my favorite bridge in Portland. Did you know that it was built to make it easier for the railroad to get across the Willamette River? Did you know there was a first version of the Steel Bridge built about 20 years before the one we see today? Did you know that the original bridge was the first on the West Coast to use steel for its primary structure? Here are 10 fun facts about the making of the Steel Bridge we know and love today: 1. Before the Steel Bridge was constructed, crossing the Willamette…

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June 04, 2014

Why Fake Vintage Buildings are a Blow to Architecture, Historic Neighborhoods, and the Character of a City

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Imagine a fake Mona Lisa hanging at the Louvre next to authentic masterpieces. People with an untrained eye (that would be most people) would have no idea that it was fake, they would think it was real. And what if it was painted by a company standing to profit from making you believe that what you’re seeing is the real thing? What is wrong with this situation? What is wrong is that it is a lie. It is a deception. It is making people believe something that is not true, that they are gazing upon the real, authentic masterpiece,…

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June 03, 2014

Gentrification: Original residents vs newcomers – is it all out war or are we all in this together?

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet According to some of the comments I received on my article yesterday, Gentrification Hits Home: My Rent Goes Up and the $8 Sundae at Salt & Straw, I AM the problem that I am facing – being priced out of my cute studio near Hawthorne. Because I chose to move to Portland seeking a walkable lifestyle, I am displacing native Oregonians. I guess I should have just stayed in the apartment building in Maputo, Mozambique, the place where my family lived when I was born to avoid displacing other people. But if you go further back than that, I…

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