BEAVERTON, PORTLAND’S EASTSIDE FOR ADULTS

Portland skyline from WF Park

Beaverton sees Portland as a necessity of suburban life. They need a city nearby

But it doesn’t work the other way around.

Portland sees Beaverton in the same lot as Tigard, Lake Oswego, Gresham, even Vancouver. Suburbs feeding off the urban tube.

You can defend any town, but a suburb takes more thought.

Start with downtowns.

Downtown Portland:

It runs from Front to Broadway, Burnside to Jefferson.

Not Old Town, SE, not NW or NE. Just good old SW.

That’s where you’ll find modern works wrapped in wide metal bands and dark glass.

The architectural term is ‘contrasty.’

There’s the police station/jail called Justice Center, the pink Big Pink, Park Avenue West which is on SW Park Ave.

The bus mall, light rail, trolly, street car, taxi, uber, lyft, and bikes. Especially the bikes.

Bikes make inner SE Portland superior

Not so much downtown when they’re as bad as drivers who can’t hold their lane, signal, and swear at you in passing.

A real rider keeps up traffic on uphill Broadway. They stand on their pedals and push their legs down against the pedals, pulling their hands up on the handlebars.

That’s how I explained riding a bike to my kids. They crashed. A lot. But that’s how you ride a bike up Broadway. Everybody knows this.

Except SE vegan convinced he’s breathing dinosaur fart fumes from each passing gas hog.

The answer to ‘Why are single speed bike riders so angry’ yells at drivers too close to him, and every car is too close unless it’s parked.

He’ll bang on your hood, kick your door, while he rides between lanes.

Back home on 12th and Lincoln he’s the model of calm with wife and kid, just a terror on two wheels.

Downtown Beaverton Historic District

From oregonlive.com:

If there is a “heart of Beaverton,” it’s the two blocks anchored by the library and adjacent park.

Central Park, Beaverton City Park, same thing. You know a cities intent by the number of parks and where they sit.

I’ve been to both. Beaverton City Park is just right. For the same people-to-outdoor-space ratio, Central Park would be the size of New Jersey.

Like good cities, Beaverton has a past.

How many residents have eaten cakes or pastries from Beaverton Bakery but have never read the plaque detailing the building’s history? The former Beaver Theater was built in 1925 for stage shows and silent movies. Premium Picture Productions of Beaverton produced some of those moves using local residents as cast members.

Get some Hollywood to go along with a BB pastry.

No matter how the city defines it or tries to dress it up, downtown never will be the best part of the city.

Who doesn’t say the same thing about Portland?

“Let’s go downtown. I miss that rancid piss aroma.”

But that’s not the point. Light rail brings everyone with a ticket to town.

Beaverton has big buildings, long instead of tall. Stack a few malls and you’ve got fifty stories.

And parking. It’s still the simple drive, park, get out and go instead of the Take Your Ticket With You garage with the six story spinner exit.

Millennials will complain until they start dragging kids around.

It’s a place full of good surprises when another bad surprise could be one too many.

Then you read about the baby boomer couple who just left for a condo in The Pearl and think, what if?