Tag: Portland

Wrath.

“Public Employees Get Free Ride” is the supposedly clever headline in the Metro section today, and the rest of the article isn’t much better. The gist: taxpayers are paying for some downtown public employees transit passes.

You know what? Taxpayers pay not only for that, but the public employee’s dental insurance, medical insurance and I would guess, life insurance and disability policies. Taxpayers are paying for public employees entire salaries! You know why? They are public employees.

I happen to be one taxpayer happy to contribute my probably three cents per year towards Joe Public Employee’s All-Zone Trimet pass. As far as I’m concerned, 80% of the people working downtown should have their employers subsidize the full price of their TriMet passes. Our downtown was purposely designed to be gotten to easily by public transportation. Why shouldn’t government lead the way by adding the benefit of a bus pass to the benefits available to the average public employee?

What gets me about articles like this, is that you never see its obverse about the business world. How about this sample headline: “WalMart customers subsidize WalMart executives’ five billion dollar fleet of corporate jets.” Businesses waste all kinds of money on things that I find unnecessary. The redecoration of executive offices being right up there with the inability by said executives to take commercial flights. But when business spends money wantonly, it is okay, because they need to spend the money to run their businesses efficiently, and besides, it is none of “the public’s” business because we don’t subsidize it.

But we do. We buy their product. You can’t tell me that some amount of pennies per item at WalMart doesn’t go to support WalMart executives’ travel habits. And you can’t tell me that business doesn’t receive public money. They do. From tax breaks, to zoning changes to build their business, to out-and-out bailouts for failing “essential” companies, we all pay.

The view in the US seems to be the following: taxes are squandered on superfluous items requested by overpaid employees who do nothing for their bloated salaries and taxpayer subsidized medical insurance. There is a huge disconnect, it is as if no one can see that the minuscule amount they pay in taxes actually gives them back amazing things, like infrastructure, social services police and fire departments and yes, transit.

A few years ago, unable to find a job, I took a “public employee” position in Washington County. I made just over $9.00 per hour and took transit an hour each way to get to my job. I paid for my transit pass myself, which was just over 5% of my monthly budget. My office was less than a mile from the Max line, serviced by three buses and I was the only employee in my sixteen person office who took public transportation to work. Every morning and evening I walked across a vast expanse of empty parking lot that was available for free to all employees, but cost visitors to park. Often, I wondered how much of a benefit this free parking cost, and why no one was throwing me any money for not taking up a space. I know why, of course, but it still made me mad.

Including TriMet passes in downtown public employees benefits package is a good deal for the employees and a good deal for the taxpayers. It’s not a free ride.

Sunday Parkways.

This happened in June, but somehow got missed in the blogging queue.

Sunday parkways which took place on one Sunday last year, expanded to three Sundays in three locations this year. I volunteered at the North Portland one, for which I got to spend a lovely morning moving barriers for cars to go by, waving at people walking and on bikes and taking pictures.

Mid-shift, these two crazy runners came by.

As they got closer, I could see that they were Matt and Jeff, clowning around.

The day started a bit cold and overcast, but then the sun came out.

Kenton Park had food and some fun activities such as this bike obstacle course.

Discovery while errand running

Today I went to the Whole 9 Yards to pick up the material for the curtains in the bedroom.

The bus route is not it’s normal route and so I ended up taking a short detour. This was a great detour because I tripped across this space:

Some depaving becomes stairs.

A sign asking for appropriate behavior.

A shady place to rest.

A not-good picture of a tire swing.

A lovely garden.
This little paradise was carved out of a boring empty lot. Thanks unknown person who did that.

A few surprises

I had errands to run after work today. I hate running errands after work. At the end of the day, even a short three hour workday like today, I only want to quickly get myself from work to home. But this day’s errands brought some fun surprises.

I had to stop by Kaiser to pick up a prescription. On the way to the pharmacy I was waylaid by this display case. It was filled with the wood turning work of Mr. Agne Pearson.
The sign with the works explains that Mr. Pearson was born in 1922 in Sweden and brought to the US by his parents when he was an infant. He has lived in his house, where he has a wood shop, for 57 years. He likes to cut down the trees and cure them himself and then creates things.

His work was beautiful and I loved his handmade sign.
Buoyed by the beauty of unexpected art, I picked up my prescription and continued on my way. I took a winding route to my next stop, the Goodwill, and ended up crossing over my favorite pedestrian overpass in Portland.
I love how secret this overpass feels. Today though, I happened to glance up.
Locks! Many locks! They were in various stages of rust, and so many styles. This was almost as much fun as Mr. Pearson’s works.
Goodwill didn’t have what I needed, but my two surprises on the way home were good enough finds.

Respite.

Friday night activities are hard on me. I’m usually tired from the work week and want nothing more than to collapse on the couch and read. Also, I’m done with work at the super early hour of 4:30 pm and this makes it inconvenient for me to attend gatherings which usually start at six or seven pm. Do I go home and come back? Do I hang out downtown for a few hours? It seems to much to figure. Every once in awhile, I do venture out on Friday night. Here is how one such adventure of filling time turned out.

Today, we were meeting at 7 pm. It is the end of the school year (yet school goes on and on!) and I was exhausted. I headed to the library to pick up some holds, read there until close to six and then wandered down to Pioneer Square to hang out on the steps until seven.

I had no idea what an amazing pick-me-up this would be. Each year Pioneer Courthouse Square is decorated during the Rose Festival for a Festival of Flowers. The display has a theme each year, this year’s was “Parterre.” After the event is over the general public can purchase the flowers and shrubbery at greatly discounted prices. The displays are usually visually striking, but this year I was in love with the Adirondack chairs. As were many other people. I sat and read and people watched and drank in the city until I felt much, much better.
I eventually switched chairs so I could have a footrest and had this view. The clouds didn’t even deter me. When it started to sprinkle, I got out my umbrella and kept reading.


The view from my second seat.

As a bonus, on the way to the restaurant, I came across this great old-timey band.

Ahh. Much better.

Grand Floral Parade

My mother and my Aunt Pat joined me for the Grand Floral Parade. We had great seats right at the beginning and enjoyed not being rained on, despite the ominous look of the clouds. We did not enjoy the many, many delays even though we were about 300 yards from the beginning of the parade. The picture theme for this parade was “find the girl drummers” and there weren’t very many. So there are other pictures too.

I loved these Mummers. Reading about them on Wikipedia, it seems that “String Band” is one of the four categories for the Mummer’s Parade.

Not only are their costumes fabulous, they also have accordions marching with them.

Sunset High School!

Look! A girl drummer!

Westview. Will it have a girl drummer?

One of our favorite games to play is “spot the band director.” This gentleman makes it easy by sporting a tux. Sometimes they are a bit more stealthy.

Westview does have girl drummers, but they are bass drummers which don’t count because the girl drummers are often relegated to bass drums.

Civil War reenactors.

And a Civil War fellow who managed to time travel to a period where 4X4s exist.

As I say during every parade, “Back when I was in marching band, we had no parents toting water for us to drink. We just sucked it up and marched!” Also, I miss the flared cheerleader skirts. The whole fun part of the cheerleader costume is that flaired skirt. Kids today!

Lincoln has girl drummers, but once again they are relegated to the bass drums.

The Marine Band did not have girl drummers, but they sounded fabulous!

I love the Royal Rosarians and their simultaneous hat tipping. Their cream wool suits and capes are nifty too. I hope to someday be a Royal Rosarian.

The really old ones get to ride in old cars.

When this school from Japan walked by I finally hit the girl drummer jackpot. EVERY drummer was a girl. How could this be? Because it is a girls school!
I love their uniforms, even though purple isn’t my favorite color. They have flippy skirts AND knee socks.

How about the Canadians? Has their socialized medicine led to more girl drummers?

Indeed! There is one right there.

And the pipers. They need drummers. Do they have girl drummers?

They do! And not a few!

Pictures of the Grand Floral Parade wouldn’t be complete without some rodeo queens.

Waiting for the Starlight Parade

I don’t mind being the one to go down to the parade hours before it begins to hold a space for everyone else. I have my book and a comfortable chair and a good amount of people watching. It is a fun way for me to spend my time.

Then when people show up I get to chat with them.
Or take pictures of their very cute baby.

Why are there no pictures of the actual parade? Because right before it began, my camera battery died.