Downtown Portland is a thriving hub of livability, environmentalism, and the arts. It has light rail, bicycles, and signs that say “Keep Portland weird”.
Gloria and I took a fun tour with Portland Walking Tours and Gary was our guide. One of our first stops was a trash can--a solar-powered Big Belly trash compactor. By reducing the trash to 1/5 its size, fewer pickups and garbage trucks are required.
Portlandia is a monolithic statue atop the Portland Building. Like the Statue of Liberty, it's made of copper sheet supported by a steel armature. Unlike the Statue of Liberty it is waxed periodically to keep its copper color. A more controversial statue officially entitled “The Quest” is more popularly known as “Three Groins in the Fountain”.
Portland has lots of wonderful parks, with trees and statues and roses. Dick Fagan, a reporter for the Oregon Journal, saw a hole dug in a median. He published an article saying that leprichauns had dug the hole. Portlanders loved the idea and it was designated a park--the smallest in the world--31” in diameter.
Powell's is a Portland institution, an amazing bookstore that covers more than a city block. We especially enjoyed Voodoo Doughnut, which is celebrated for specialties such as voodoo donuts and maple bacon donuts. Fun place, Portland!
