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BEST INNER-CITY PARK TO BE ALONE IN
Sure, Forest Park is scenic. With its verdant canopy and myriad trails, it makes for an ideal escape from the city. But on weekends, the pacific wooded area in Northwest Portland turns into a 3-D version of ESPN's Extreme Sports. Why dodge the spandex-clad bicyclists whizzing around blind corners when there's a nearby spot that offers true solitude--the HENRY CARLSON PARK at Northwest 19th Avenue and Hoyt Street. Adjacent to the First Immanuel Lutheran Church, this 30-by-30-foot square parcel has no grass and three trees only slightly taller than the average midget. Yet you won't be running into Herve Villechaize here, not only because he's dead, but also because no one ever comes to sit on the brown benches that line a couple of shrub-filled plant boxes, nor does anyone frolic on the brick-laid surface. Aside from the occasional passerby using the trash can--a rare item in Portland parks these days--not a soul will disturb you in Henry Carlson Park, making it a great place to read or just sit and ponder your existence. BEST BUDDHA
So you got yourself a little temple, and it's got this parking lot, so what do you do? Paint lines and reserve spaces for compact cars? Or maybe you patch a call through to the gigantic statue factory in Ho Chi Minh City, order a 35-foot-long sleeping Buddha, get your parishioners to pony up for the few-thousand-pound concrete monolith and attending freight charges, and once it passes through customs, you spread it across most of the parking spaces, glue it together with cement and paint it glossy golden yellow. If they're really serious about worship, the devotees will find parking on the street. See the LINH SON TEMPLE at 2535 SE 118th Ave. BEST OTHER ROSE GARDEN
Not the effete Rose Garden up in the West Hills, nor the domineering Blazer complex next to the Broadway Bridge, this rose garden resides at AINSWORTH PARK (corner of Northeast Albina and Ainsworth streets). Featuring sunken, French-style grounds arranged around a clover-leaf reflecting pool, the garden's brick pathways follow low, well-tended hedges punctuated by mini-groves of catalpa trees and stiff, cement lampposts tipped with iron street lamps. Up above the rose garden, a homey gazebo overlooks an adjacent park, playground and, over the treetops, a sky full of planes lifting off from PDX. This rose garden is laid-back and mellow where the others are a little uptight. For frisbee or a barbecue, it's the best rose garden in town, period. BEST RESPONSE TO A BEST
Longtime Portland resident Stefana Young wrote the book on this category--literally. She got the idea for her just-published guide, PORTLAND'S LITTLE RED BOOK OF STAIRS, from the "Best Public Stairway" entry in WW's 1994 Best of Portland issue. Young, a self-described "free-lance PR flack," estimates that Portland has 9,000 public stair steps, and she set foot on all of them in the two years it took her to compile the book. Which Portland stairway was completed at the insistence of the late Bill Naito? Which was rescued from destruction in 1951 and relocated to a private house? Which is the most meandering? Young answers these questions and others, surveying more than 150 of the city's 165 public staircases. The book is embellished by a foreword from Moira Gunn of Oregon Public Radio's "Tech Nation," illustrations by Portland artists Barbara Stafford and Rhonda McHugh and photographs from the Oregon Historical Society's collection. Most of the modern photos (several featuring Young's black cocker spaniel, Buster) were taken by the author and her cousin, John Williams. Pressed to name her favorite staircase, Young makes a "drippingly sentimental" choice: the "Elevator Stairs" between Southwest Broadway Drive and Hoffman Avenue, located near her childhood home. BEST PLACE TO WATCH TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS
Nancy Stein couldn't have been more flattered. Stein works at Creative Paper Crafting (2000 SE Madison St.). When she heard that her intersection at SOUTHEAST MADISON STREET AND 20TH AVENUE had been nominated as the best place to watch traffic accidents, she told us agreeably, "It's kind of like a demolition derby out there." A block north of busy Hawthorne Boulevard, where a stoplight directs traffic for five different streets converging, the confusing intersection of 20th and Madison seems to cause drivers extreme frustration. Accidents and near-accidents happen every few days, and Stein says accident victims in various stages of crying, fighting and confusion come in to her store constantly to use her phone. There is nothing funny about traffic accidents, but Stein says the constant influx of accident victims keeps her office interesting. BEST FLOWER BOXES
What's your excuse for not beautifying your property? Aching back? Not enough spare income? Excuses sound lame after you drop by the home of nonagenariansELSIE AND ERNEST HAYES (7 NE 76th Ave.). Every year the couple plant and maintain a spectacular floral display in boxes and baskets that rim the perimeter of their yard, house and the front of their porch. They've got a row of healthy roses, whose fragrance is aided and abetted by up to $500 worth of pansies, petunias, zinnias, Gerber daisies and any other annuals they like or find on sale. Ernest has been buying the flowers for his wife's birthday since, oh, around '49 (Elsie admits her memory is not always perfect). Color is no object, and neither is the fact that they don't drive; though they're known to get a lift from daughter Lynn, they're just as likely to haul the flats home in a wagon. After a day of maintaining the garden's immaculate condition, the Hayeses relax in the shade of their verandah, enjoying the astonished looks, the waves of hello and the calls of thanks from Portlanders who drive, bike or walk past their brimming property. "We enjoy it," says Elsie. "It helps keep us young." The attention? "The flowers." BEST GARAGE DOORS
Never known for self-aggrandizement, RIMSKY-KORSAKOFFEE HOUSE (707 SE 12th Ave.) remains quietly signless, neonless but open to do business with those in the know. From the exterior, the building's sole flamboyance (besides a stream of visitors that might lead the unaware to wonder if it's a crack house or a brothel) is a double garage door that Rimsky waitress Pauline Dugas Tait has embellished with lavish paintings. On the left is a vibrant golden sunflower, on the right sprouts a seductive, familiar vermilion poppy. "It's copied from the Georgia O'Keeffe stamp," Rimsky-Korsakoffee owner Goody Cable confirms. "[Paulene] is a fabulous artist," says Cable, who exchanged a stay at her B&B, the Sylvia Beach Hotel, for the murals. BEST BUILDING RENOVATION
The improved quake-proof Central Library is a hit. The quake-inducing new Crystal Ballroom is a smash. But neither can top the WEST SHORE APARTMENTS as the best building renovation we've seen in the past year. Rising from the asbestos-laced shell of a Pietro Beluschi design that was never built out, the West Shore provides Portland with more than new affordable housing and a view of Mount Hood. The West Shore actually ushers in a new kind of urban structure. First the history: Originally designed in 1955 by Portland's most renowned architect, the building at 222 SW Pine St. was supposed to be a six-story structure containing offices and jail cells for the Portland Police Bureau. But the cash-strapped city only built the first two floors. Then it sold the gray concrete elephant in 1984. Many prospective developers eyed the butt-ugly boarded-up structure, but none could afford to redevelop it because of the asbestos that had to be removed. Along came Portland developer Brian McCarl with an ingenious plan: convert the first two floors to a parking garage; buy the "air rights" above the garage; and suddenly, the building's owners--local lawyers Robert Stoll and Gary Berne--would have enough money to remove the asbestos. Then things got really interesting. McCarl clad the old building shell in brick, introduced metal awnings and display windows, created a new lobby and added three stories containing 113 apartments. The studios rent for $405 (including utilities) and the one-bedroom apartments go for $434. McCarl says he's targeting downtown workers who earn $7 to $9 an hour. To make the West Shore--which opened July 1--more transit-friendly, McCarl is offering tenants a free three-month Tri-Met pass and a dozen bikes available to check out on a daily basis. "The whole idea is that to maintain the service economy we need good, solid, safe housing that is very transit-oriented," McCarl says. "This building reclaims unused density where infrastructure already exists, at the heart of the mass transit hub. It benefits the environment and the economy." BEST INTERSECTION
The pace of life slows grudgingly where streets meet only to comply with traffic signs or to play a maddening game of you-go-first; the city crossroads has ceased to be a place to encounter a fellow traveler or to reflect on the road less traveled--unless you happen to be at the intersection of SOUTHEAST 9TH AVENUE AND SHERRETT STREET in Sellwood. As you approach, signs announce a "Community Demonstration Project," a hodgepodge of structures and exhibits centered on patterns painted on the asphalt. One display features Sellwood history in text and photos; arts and crafts stations offer handmade items and space for passers-by to donate their own, and there's a hanging collection of mugs and a thermos called the T-station. You break your stride here, and there's a good chance you'll run into someone else who's done the same. That's the beauty of it--that neighbors have taken streets, which everywhere divide, and turned them into a meeting place. BEST PUBLIC SCULPTURE
In a breezeway between Northeast Weidler Street and Broadway, in what was once part of the Lloyd Center back before its open-air corridors were enclosed by cheap siding, right outside the last Newberry's in town, stands one of the weirdest sculptures in Portland, a city rotten with weird public art.IN THE TREETOPS, or The Radish People, as it's affectionately known, consists of two humanoid figures standing side by side, their red, semi-glossy skin innocently unadorned. On top of their bony, elongated bodies perch gentle, Modigliani-style heads that gaze down tenderly at a house-shaped stone cradled in their long, extraterrestrial fingers. Out of their downturned heads grow lobster-red branches sprouting bright green leaves, and both pairs of skinny legs end in a single, tangled rootball. Are they emissaries from an underground kingdom? Mascots of a vanished Oregon industry? Like some misbegotten gene-splice between Will Vinton and Giacometti, the radish people are at once crude and empathetic, cutesy and mysterious, adorable and horrifying. Mostly adorable, though. BEST PLACE FOR A MICHAEL JORDAN SIGHTING
Now keep this quiet. If too many people find out, he won't stay there anymore. But when Michael Jordan is in town to play the Blazers or to attend some Nike shindig, he stays at the HOTEL VINTAGE PLAZA (422 Broadway, 228-1212). This isn't really a complete secret, because about 150 people usually hang around the hotel when the Bulls are in town, hoping for a glimpse of the closest thing we have in America to Elvis. Jordan was spotted at the hotel the second week in June, when he and his family came for a Nike event. And get this--he was registered as M. Jordan. Pretty tricky, huh? "That never happens," our deep-cover reporter says. "He never goes under his own name. Nike didn't even know what name he was staying under. They sent a package over, and the delivery person said, 'We have a package for Mr. Smith.' Then he asked for Mr. Jones. Finally, he just said, 'You know who I'm looking for, wink, wink.'" Don't expect Jordan to be chatting in the lobby. "It's such heightened security when he's here that all you're likely to see is his red cap and gold stud earring floating through the lobby." BEST PLACE TO HAVE FUN UNDER ONE ROOF
For a few blissful weeks, Portlanders could purchase medicinal marijuana, go to a rave, visit a pirate radio station and dance at a gay teen nightclub (Evolution) all at once without ever getting into a car. Most of the MODISH BUILDING (333 SW Park Ave.), which also used to house the off again/on again bar Shango's, is divided into studios, usually used by artists, DJs and bands (the Dandy Warhols have practiced there). The inside walls are covered with artful graffiti, and drum and bass sounds vibrate through the floors, creating a festive, free-wheeling environment. No surprise--the owner of the Modish Building is rumored to be somewhere in Amsterdam. BEST NEW ROSE
Gertrude Stein obviously never met Harry Landers, for if she had, it's doubtful she'd ever have come to the conclusion that a "rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." Landers, the senior gardener at the Washington Park Rose Garden, knows that all roses are not created equal. In fact, roses (or at least the people who grow them) are highly competitive. The current Rose City champ is SECRET, a light pink hybrid tea rose bred in Europe. Along with another pink tea (the New Zealand), it received this year's gold medal from the Portland Rose Society. Landers, the group's membership chairman, says Secret was judged on a 15-point scale and selected for its beauty, fragrance and resistance to disease. "It's a classic exhibition tea," he says. To see for yourself, head to the Rose Garden, where a whole bed of Secrets are about to unfold. BEST FOREST ON A CITY LOT
Follow the spacing instructions in garden books and your city lot will end up a lot like most everyone else's: a couple of trees, a few shrubs and a handful of perennials bordering your lawn. Break the rules instead, and you'll start to discover the joys of maximum bio-mass--if you want to see just what that looks like, stroll over to Barry Sugret's garden at the corner of NORTHEAST 31ST AVENUE AND SKIDMORE STREET. What in the hands of less-inspired homeowners would be a diminutive patch of lawn has here been given over to at least four dozen trees of great variety, in a close association that most "expert" landscapers would deny is even possible, much less advisable. Throw in scads of shrubs--and everything else alive and green, for that matter--and watch the house disappear as spring progresses. It's comforting to think that we have the power to mitigate somewhat the prevailing denuding of our developed areas; a city full of yards like this would be as close to Eden as post-lapsarian man is likely to get. BEST GARDEN ORNAMENTS
Charis Palmer couldn't stand the idea of the ducks next door becoming her neighbors' Christmas dinner. So she bought them. That was five years ago, and since then, Palmer, a real-estate broker, has developed something of an aviary in her backyard. The garden in her Southeast Portland home holdsFOUR SOUTH AMERICAN MUSCOVY DUCKS, ONE PEKING DUCK, EIGHT PIGEONS AND YEAR-OLD MATILDA, "THE CHICKEN THAT DIDN'T WANT TO BE A FRYER." On any given day, there are also visiting sparrows, starlings, crows and other varieties of birds. Palmer estimates that she and her husband--both vegetarians--spend about $3,000 a year on food and medical care for their winged charges. Their compensation is seeing the birds live. "I just couldn't stand the idea of these sweet creatures getting eaten," Palmer says. |
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