[pdx] … And A Transit Bridge Runs Through It: An Editorial Comment

3013.

TriMet has, this week, released the list of the finalists for the name they’ll be sticking on the new landmark Portland-Milwaukie Transit Bridge. They are:

1. Wy’East
2. Duniway
3. Cascadia Crossing
4. Tillicum Crossing

The four names stand pretty large in the history of the  Salish lands and the history of the American Pacific Northwest. Wy’East is, of course, the name the original locals gave Mount Hood. Duniway is for Abigail Scott Duniway, the suffragette (who already stands tall with a legacy of a park and a school), tillicum is Chinuk wawa for us folks, our people, our tribe, and Cascadia is the emerging name for our regional identity latterly.

A few problems come to mind with these names. All of them are fairly unoffensive, The first two still manage some inspiration, the last two sound like suburban shopping malls. Very historical, very important, very expected.

The real sad part, personally, for me, is who didn’t even make the short list:

Kirk Reeves. To most Portlanders, he should need no introduction, but to those who arrived late in the game, here’s a Working Kirk primer for you. Kirk Reeves, the white-suited man at the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge (and betimes other places, busking for a living, making bad comedy shows on local access, appearing as himself every OryCon, and basically making the world better by just being. Kirk Reeves, whose struggle with keeping the wolves at bay grew to be so wearing that he gave in, just a few months over a year ago.

TriMet has published the list of suggestions. I haven’t the inclination to count myself, but a subjective peruse of the 202-page list of suggestions seems to indicate a sheer preponderance of Kirk (in some variant spellings). Joseph Rose at Soylent News™remarks that a page count comes up with Kirk’s name on about 11 pages of the document; by contrast, Duniway got about four, and Wy’East, two.

So, clearly, this wasn’t a popularity contest. 

It does make TriMet seem a little out-of-touch with its constituency though. Wouldn’t be the first time that has happened over the last few years, we bittersweetly note, not at all.

It has been pointed out to me that perhaps a sort of wide-screen personality could really only support the idea of a bridge name. As far as that goes, Wy’East or Duniway goes just fine with me. And, as T.A. Barnhart pointed out to me, Kirk’s name would fit perhaps a little better as a park name or a place where performers could come out to play. I’d picture that as a Oregonized sort of Speaker’s Corner, something we really could rock, in a Portland way. Picture people debating in one part, someone playing a public tune in another, and not one of our local over-promoted, over priced you-have-to-pay-to-get-into-Tom McCall-Waterfront-Park dos, either. 

A people’s space? Working Kirk Reeves People’s Park? I could get behind that.

But, in the meantime, if TriMet wasn’t interested in what the people really wanted, why did it bother to ask at all? If there was no possibility of Kirk’s name going on the bridge, at least it could have thrown us a bone by putting it on the short list.

And, in my opinion? I think Kirk was big-screen enough for his name to go on that bridge.

I wonder, would his story have turned out any differently if he’d have known how much affection the community had for him?

I know people might disagree with that, and I’m down with it.

You can download the pdf list here, if you wanna.

[pdx] Address Nerd™ Mystery Theatre: The Case of the Henry Thiele Waffle Club

2822.Got sent something that was a real stumper, folks, in a good way … but still inscrutable.

Got an email a couple of days ago from one David Buettner, who had stumbled upon this chronicle in aid of trying to untangle a mystery.

Everyone with a smattering of Portland history (especially of the culinary kind) has probably heard of Henry Thiele. Henry’s was a restaurant that was lodged in the point at the five-cornered intersection that was where NW Westover Road met up with West Burnside Street, NW 23rd Avenue, and SW Vista Avenue. It was a landmark in architecture (see this picture) as well as in food (the German-style pancakes were reportedly legend). But the history of Portland has it writ large that Henry’s was at NW Westover and West Burnside.

But then David throws me a curveball, looking like this:

photo courtesy David Buettner

This, I’m told by David, is the back of a small mirror, advertising (rather scrumptiously) the Henry Thiele Waffle Club of all things. The history of Henry Thiele is, sadly, something not much written, if at all; the part that says he had a location on SW 10th Avenue or SW 11th Avenue is pretty much invisible.

My particular task was to help David figure out where those address might have been. Remember the old Portland address pattern, on which I’ve commented oft perforce &c &c, and you’ll remember that any numbered street without a directional is south of Ankeny/Burnside/Washington; this would therefore put this in what we would say is the downtown core today; SW 10th Avenue was ’10th Street’ and SW 11th Avenue was ’11th Street’ prior to the Great Renaming of 1930.

Moreover, the building numbers amounted to 20-to-the-block, instead of today’s 100-to-the-block. So 107 – 10th Street actually winds up, most likely, being between Alder and Washington or between Stark and Washington. So, we have an idea of where that address might lie, down to about a 1-block possibility.

But again, the real thing that’s making us grind our teeth here is that we simply cannot find any trace, so far, of the existence of anything called the Henry Thiele Waffle Club. Particularly intriguing is the dual address on adjacent streets which could suggest a business which fronted on two downtown streets.

Anyhow, this is a call for any history-addicted Portlander or Address Nerd to come to the aid of his … country … or something. Does anyone who might stop by here know anything about Henry Thiele Waffle Club? Any information would be gratitudinous, and is meant to be shared. Here’s a chance for us to explore a corner of Portland history heretofore unexplored.

Into Henry Thiele With Gun and Camera, as ’twere.

Leave your exploratory notes in the comments, bitte sehr.

[pdx] PDX Street Sign Shop, Ca. 1916

2240.Fellow street sign blogger Eric Fischer, whose San Francisco work I’ve praised, has done me a definite solid and dropped a very beautiful thing my way.

As I may have alluded to in another post somewhere, Portland’s street  blades have looked different. From, I’d estmate, around 1900 through the middle third of the 20th Century, PDX Street blades where these indesctructable iron things, with white and enamel paint, which looked like this:

As you can see, it’s very utilitarian. Blocky, almost-military letterforms – not graceful, but very very readable.

In a recent comment to the Cyclotram’s P13 Stark Street Milestone, fellow street sign blogger from San Francisco (whose work I enjoy) Eric Fischer pointed me to a most amazing publication, in the public domain and available in its entirety on Google Books. It was in this book, Municpal Engineering Practice, by A. Prescott Folwell and published in 1916 by Wiley and Sons (a book generally about designing and laying out cities), that I found the following view – the inside of Portland’s sign shop, ca. 1915 or so:

You have to embiggen this to see it in its full glory, to do this, go to Posterous here and click on the photo (which you can also download) or click on the photo above.

Lined up along the bottom there are signs for E. 70th ST. N (today’s NE 70th Avenue), E. 72nd ST. N., 50th AVE. SE (today’s SE Raymond Street), and 41st AVE SE (today’s SE Gladstone Street). I also see a rather big blade, reading (on two lines) PATTON ROAD/COUNTY ROAD, and there are signs for CRYSTAL SPRINGS BLVD, WISTARIA AVE, and possibly a deprecated style for WASHINGTON ST.

To go over it real quick again, before the Great Renaming of 1933, numbered streets east of the Willamette and north of Burnside not only carried the East prefix because of that but also the North suffix to extend west-side naming practice east in a uniform way; therefore 11th Street east of the Willamette and north of Burnside would be EAST 11TH STREET NORTH. The avenues suffixed SE were in the area south of Powell and east of E. 39th Avenue which, for reasons even not yet clear, had number congruent to today’s street blocks going out in both directions, though avenues ran east-west and streets north-south: therefore, 1916’s 50th Avenue SE would be today’s SE Raymond Street, which is the 5000 block (50th standard street name south of East Burnside) and 41st Avenue SE would be SE Gladstone Street – today’s 4100 block (41st standard street name south of East Burnside).

The viewer can no doubt find some things that I’ve missed, and it’s all interesting and good.

Thanks Eric … you definitely da man!

To view the page directly and download your own PDF of this book, surf to the following:

http://books.google.com/books?id=7AJLAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22street%20name%20signs%22&pg=PA295#v=onepage&q=%22street%20name%20signs%22&f=false

Technorati Tags: sign design, street sign design, vintage PDX, PDX Geography, PDX Street Blades, Portland Oregon, Portland history

[pdx] Stark Street Milepost P13 …

2237.… atul666 can haz it, in Gresham:

… it’s that little obelisk by the sign post. Probably knocked down by a road crew; lovingly replaced by the Gresham Historical Society.

The picture above is small and hotlinked (with apology to atul) to make you go and read his entry, which is highly skookum.

Cleveland Avenue (historically SE 235th Avenue) and Stark Street.

Check it.

Technorati Tags: Stark Street Milestones, Stark Street, Willamette Base Line, Gresham

[pdx] More Proof That PDX Is Unicorn City, USA

2234.Via Twitterer BlazersEdge, we find even more evidence of Portland’s privileged position as being built atop an ancient Unicorn burial ground: we attract bball players who are actual Unicorns. Here is a picture of forward Jawan Howard, recouperating from a successful horn removal:

Now, as righteous as it is that Portland is on the site of the Unicorn burial ground, it’d be positively awesome to say that you actually were a Unicorn.

But we can see how that’d get in the way on the court. It’s best this way.

They grow back, anyway.

At least, I think they do.

That’s what I hear.

Good luck on the season, Jawan.

Technorati Tags: PDX, Portland, Portland Trail Blazers, Juwan Howard, PDX Unicorns, PDX Unicorn Burial Ground

[pdx] The Interstate Bridges From See Level

2213.Take a walk with Cyclotram’s atul666:

And read all about it here. A very close and needful look at a very historic structure.

It’s easy to forget how important to the mid-20th Century Portland-Vancouver population a way to get across the river was.

Technorati Tags: Interstate Bridge, Portland, Vancouver, Interstate Bridges, I-5, Oregon, Washington

[pdx] A Preview Ride On The MAX Green Line

2193.On Monday, me and The Wife™ and hundreds of our closest friends got a taste of what using the new Gateway to Clackamas segment of the new MAX Green Line would be like. It’s a fifteen-minute trip to and from Gateway to the Town Center, and the ride is sweet, interesting, and smooooth.

NB: All the following photos can be viewed in embiggened state at my Posterous stream.

The signage and the type design on this are really, really sweet. Prominent signage and a type which reminds one of Myriad Pro are just pleasant for this typophile to look at. To get invited,  you had to be on the TriMet mailing list for announcements and press releases. See what happens when you don’t sign up for these things, Hmmm?

Anyway, the shelters are part of the new design regime at TriMet facilities, which include glass, metal, and etched art on the glass. Really sweet.

Public art is as plentiful as ever on the MAX Stations, and the glittering tile around the shelter supports is very pretty and visually neat. There’s that excellent signage again. Seriously, I like this type a lot!

As our appointed time to ride came, the new cars came up from the south …

… went onto a middle-siding just north of the Main Street Station, and reversed back …

… and we were ready to load. I’ll admit something here – I’m silly in love with these rail cars. They’re beautiful. the streamlined look of the operators cabin remind me of some good SF (and a great deal of bad SF – but SF with style) movies that I saw growing up. Maybe we don’t have our flying cars, but we do have some devastatingly good-looking transit rail. These are excellent cars.

Graphics on the side of the car reinforced the “GREEN MEANS GO” campaign that has some of the most charming art I’ve seen on transit collateral in a long time:

And so we boarded. Once on, a nice lady from TriMet gave us a ton of statistics: Eight stations, six in Portland, two in Clackamas County, the synthetic sound barriers that were made from 6,000 recycled tires, the long transit overpass over the Johnson Creek Blvd exit at I-205, the round trip time.

As one can see, the cabin is built for wide shoulders and the seats look very comfortable indeed. A beaming young woman gave out apples:

Green, of course. (I think the “PAA” refers to Portland Adventist Academy, the little private church-run school just down by SE 96th Avenue and Market Street)

And, so, on a beautiful, warm-but-not-too hot August day in 2009:

We boarded a new Green Line train and got a look at I-205 from the MAX. It was a good thing.

Technorati Tags: PDX, PDX Transit, TriMet, MAX Green Line, MAX

[pdx] Rod Hill’s Forecast Check Has Gone Live!

2190.Just about our favorite weathercaster who’s off the air, Rod Hill, late of KATU-2, has finally gone live with his website, Rod Hill’s Forecast Check.

Begin your free trial and see Rod’s daily videos guiding you through today’s weather and the up coming weekend. You will see complete forecast information for the Northwest and have the ability to contact your private meteorologist. Your days of looking up weather information are over! Whatever you need, simply contact your weatherman and he will deliver.

It’s a subscription service, which means the access will cost ya a little. As online services go, Rod’s service is very reasonably priced – $4.00/month, $40.00/month (that’s 12 months for the price of 10). And all this with personal service – what’s not to like about this, yes?

And you can pay by the month or by the year. And you get a two week free trial.

I’d suggest that everyone get on board with this. Here’s the link straight to Rod’s subscription page.

Technorati Tags: Rod Hill, Rod Hill Forecast Check, PDX Media, PDX Meteorologists, Weather

[pdx] Why Is Portland OR Better Than Vancouver BC?

2182.Dave knows.

A half-megabuck for a liquor license in Canadiddia? Who knew?

Also: Unicorns? We haz them!

I’ll stack whatever VanBC has to PDX’s Unicorn Force any day of the friggn’ week!

Technorati Tags: Portland, Vancouver, Cascadia, Unicorns, Portland Unicorn Burial Ground

[pdx] The Way Burgerville Rolls, Part 2

2163.Leave it to Burgerville USA to realize the potential of the so-called “roach coach”[1]. Via The Columbian:

On Thursday, the 24-foot-long Burgerville Nomad will take its maiden voyage, pulling away from parent company The Holland Inc.’s downtown headquarters and heading south to Portland’s Waterfront Park. The decked-out kitchen will be used for community events and as a stand-in facility during restaurant remodels.

City of foodcarts, get ready for the mother of all food carts!

According to the article, if the Nomad works out (and I think it will) they’ll move out more of them.

And while I am happy that BV is going to be scouting downtown Portland for a location, they really have to put one back down in Salem. They had one at the I-5/Market Street exit, but they took it out when the interchange was remodeled back in the 90s.

It would be a welcome bit of culture down there.

[1] Roach coach is only a term of artifice. There will be no actual roaches – of any kind.

Technorati Tags: Burgerville, Burgerville USA, The Holland, PNW Favorites