Surreptitious Agriculture

MJfarmWay back when, a friend would occasionally stop by our apartment near the University of Oregon campus. He’d pull some marijuana out of his pocket, roll up a joint and share it with us. Everyone feeling relaxed, we’d make the purchase: twenty dollars for a baggie. It was all very friendly.

Continue reading “Surreptitious Agriculture”

Robert Moses and the Mt. Hood Freeway

I have recently written about urban renewal and the consequences for those in its way. Here is twelve-minute film celebrating the never-built freeway through a southeast Portland neighborhood and the subsequent change of direction in the city’s planning. It’s from 2006, so you won’t see the homeless who have since set up camp in Waterfront Park.

A Hundred Years of Hot Dogs

I was not quite nineteen years old when I first visited New York City. I rode a bus from the Port Authority terminal to Staten Island, where my father’s WWII buddy lived. He put me up for the night before I met up with my friend who was to arrive the next day. My father’s friend and his teen-aged son took me on a brief tour of the city that evening. The highlight was Nathan’s Famous on Coney Island. He bought me a hot dog and a glass of beer. (The legal drinking age in New York at the time was eighteen.) I stood at an outside counter with my hot dog and beer. I felt pretty cool.

The story of Nathan Handwerker is pretty cool, too.

nathans

Urban Relocation in L.A.

chavez-ravine-to-dodger-stadium
Dodger Stadium – 1960

Dodger Stadium opened in 1962. Even today, more than fifty years later, there are still people who will not set foot inside the ballpark at Chavez Ravine – and not because they are Giants fans.

Continue reading “Urban Relocation in L.A.”

Urban Driving

A Picture Story

IMG_1896Traffic coming towards you becomes one-way. Traffic going away from you is two-way. Traffic entering intersection from your right can go straight or turn left.

IMG_1899When I navigate this intersection, I am in the right lane, as I am usually traveling straight ahead.

The left lane can go straight or turn left.

Turning left with red light onto a one-way street is legal.

IMG_1900It appears one driver wanting to turn has become annoyed waiting behind drivers who won’t turn until the light is green.

IMG_1901Annoyed enough post instructions on the back of a street sign.