Revised
4/2021
Dear
Polite Traveler,
My
husband and I chose to spend a few days in this land of weird—our first visit
and decidedly, not our last. We began our first day with a city tour. In
this tour, our guide Kat taught us quite a bit about Portland’s history and
the city’s values, such as environmental sustainability plans and publicly-funded art. I wholeheartedly recommend a city tour, as it gives the
tourist a better understanding of the city. (Please read my post
on Portland)
During this tour, we found that Portland has a deep devotion
to renovating downtown historical buildings. Many of the older
buildings have a European flair, in fact, much of the city does. The
city founders were straight from various European countries, so it makes
perfect sense. We also learned about Portland’s, er... most interesting mayor:
former pub owner Bud Clark (in office 1985-1992).
Note:
Follow CDC and county guidelines when visiting.
Always wear your face mask when in public. Also, during the pandemic, some amenities
may not be available. Please remember,
this is only temporary.
 | |
Not long before becoming mayor, he began
the “Expose Yourself to Art” movement in Portland with a poster of him posing
as a “flasher” opening his raincoat and “exposing” himself to
statue of a naked lady—a bronze statue named Kvinneakt by Norman J.
Taylor. He also created the 12-Point Homeless Plan, grew mass transit and
many other large projects, all with a limited budget due to the previous mayor
nearly bankrupting the city. In fact, he grew the city’s till from a
couple thousand dollars to $20 million in reserves at the end of his
term. One
of the many stories Kat shared
sticks with me, not just because it was a tiny slice of interesting history,
but because it was downright hilarious—at least to me. In
the early day of Portland, the disparity between men and women grew as quickly
as the city grew. Women were sorely
outnumbered. As such, the city proclaimed a lovely park as “Women Only”.
Great idea, huh? Perhaps. Except that this park was directly across
the street from a “male-only” jail. Just
imagine scads of hungover men being released early each morning from an
overnight stay with all those women just out of reach across the street, it
must have been quite a contrast. Due to my odd sense of humor, this story
caused me to laugh so much our entire tour group stared in my direction.
I suppose they didn’t get the irony. Please
share your experiences! Please Read |
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