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SURRENDER CELEBRATION FOR GIVING UP

Surrender celebration starts after you’re done. Whatever it was you were working on, when it’s done, you’re done. You’re not going to make anything better at some point. That’s when you need to know how to walk away.

PORTLAND SURVEY ASKS: SO WHAT?

This Portland survey asks one question: Who is moving to Portland? More important, who is staying? People have opinions, none very favorable. I’m here to work on it.

DIVISION STREET, NOT DIVIDED PORTLAND

Division Street is not some hotbed of urban problems with people taking sides. In the southeast 30’s it’s a home stretch for Portland people moving to Oregon. Even better, it’s been a neighborhood, a changing neighborhood, for people who put down roots decades ago.

DEFECTIVE OFFSPRING PRAISE SHOW OFF DADDIES

There is a family of defective offspring that keeps growing. Not all are blood related, but more intent related. They want what daddy wants. Or mommy. But mostly daddy. Why daddy?

DOWNSIZING GUIDE: FROM A PASSED PORTLAND GENERATION

They didn’t have a downsizing guide when they decided to move. All they knew was that 12,000 square feet over four floors was a little large for two people. Their house was a museum of their lives together. Now all the books, dishes, and furniture, enough for three households, were moving. It had been a […]

OLD PORTLAND BECAME NEW PORTLAND RIGHT AFTER I MOVED THERE

The term Old Portland usually applies to the city with pictures of a flood, like the flood of 1861, or the floods of 1894, 1948, 1996. By the way, it rains in Oregon, sometimes a lot. Will that ever change? No, but attitudes will change, have changed. But that’s not the Old Portland on boomerpdx.

PORTLAND PLANNING VIEW FROM SOUTH WATERFRONT

    Does the top pic look anything like a Portland planning Christmas card? Stacked apartments dot the SW Portland landscape like a vision of Chicago from the Sears Tower.   That’s not the welcome mat Portland planning rolls out for new pioneers. Where’s that world famous food cart court next to a tap room? […]

COLLECTING EARLY PORTLAND CAR: THE BENSON

    Things don’t get much earlier when it’s called The First of anything, like the first car built in Portland.   That’s it in the picture. Nice car. Getting it from the donor to the museum was the job.   My job. Listening to an older man cuss about everything was part of the […]

PORTLAND BORN, PORTLAND WED, PORTLAND WORLD pt 2

Every marriage has a beginning. This is one of them. Portland Born, Portland Wed. I met my wife in early 80’s NW Portland. She was a new professional starting her first practice next to my apartment building. I should say my studio apartment, a sort of mini-pad that’s all the rage with the kids these […]