Stevenson & The Urban Night

Today I visited the wonderful town of Stevenson, WA. It is a little village on the Columbia River on the Washington side. I went for a meeting, but the Columbia River Gorge really took hold of my trip.

I went back into the Cascades where the river carves a steep but massive gorge through the amazing mountain range.

Cape Horn

After having some dinner once I arrived back in Vancouver, I decided to get back in touch with my urban side, and drove some highways around Portland. There really was no nice logical reason to do this, I simply just started out from my apartment onto the freeway.

I decided to do the I-5, I-405 loop around the city center. This doesn't take long, but the views you can get of the city are amazing... So I did it twice:

It really is hard to describe the feeling I got from driving my car around the city center on the freeways. At first it was a revolt against how anti-car the city is. I was thinking to myself "Ha! I am driving your roads, and not commuting to or from work, and not using public transit! Take that Portland! I'm burning gas for recreation!".

This then quickly turned to "Ha, I'm using roads... That people commute on every day... That you still fund better than Washington to keep your drivers appeased..."

Which led to "Wait. Portland really isn't that much different than other cities I've been to..."

And then I thought about the fact that driving is one of America's most popular recreational activities. And that most people in and around Portland most likely drive many places for recreation (National Forests, other cities, other tourist towns like Seaside and Tillamook).

Portland has a very strange relationship with Clark County and Vancouver. I've been discussing it with some of my friends at work, and the way they describe the relationship is "Portland shadows Vancouver in almost every way. Economics, popularity, accessibility, population, and... political." The local politics are strained because Vancouver has been integrated with Portland as part of its metropolitan area designation. Therefore, as a whole, Vancouver proper is supposed to get part of federal funds for Portland that are designated as "federal funds". This obviously does not happen very well because Portland's population takes up the demand for most funds on their side of the river. (One prime example of this is that the 211 system in Vancouver is... Portland's 211 system. And they barely have Clark County resources listed or compiled.)

Another huge issue here is the commuter traffic. A lot of people who live in Vancouver work in Portland. But there is no integrated public transit system that runs between the two cities. You must take a C-Tran bus through the horrific traffic to get to the MAX light rail station on the other side of the river. And because there are only two crossings into Portland across the Columbia, those crossings get very, very congested...
But the road funds are... Managed by each state. Washington road funds mostly go to Seattle-Tacoma area, while most of Oregon's funds go to... Portland. So this leads an impass in the sense that a new system needs to be developed to cross the river (see "Columbia River Crossing" project) But... Washington state funds have not been approved/created for their side of the project. (Remember Seattle-Tacoma?)

So where do we go now? An aging (but beautiful in the sense of ruined industry) I-5 bridge cannot deal with the traffic, and Washington can't/won't approve funding for a new crossing. Also it doesn't help that if a large earthquake hits the area, the I-5 bridge is pretty much gone. Oh, and the I-5 bridge is a drawbridge. One of the last remaining interstates (as far as I know) that has a necessary impediment to driving located on it.

All of this aside, (along with the fact that I prefer Vancouver over Portland) Portland is a really beautiful city at night:

And driving around in a not so different city than the others I have been in is... Kind of comforting.

Electronic Bank Transfer & Other Ramblings

On Friday I got by EBT card. It was strange, walking into an office and waiting among other people who are applying for the same if not more benefits than you are. There was also the event in which the man out front had a table advertising free phones, and when he caught my attention he went through his speech, and then he said "and there is a booth inside with information about work opportunities if you are interested." To which I simply replied "Thanks, but I am already gainfully employed."

I was kind of offended by that. Just assuming someone doesn't have a job because they are coming to the assistance center for the city. But then again, maybe he was just trying to be helpful?

There have been many thoughts around poverty that I have had recently. It is amazing simply being in the position of having to use those social services, and being in that position of need. I didn't think I would need to be so far, but it is amazing how expenses come up, and circumstances change. It really gave me a new perspective to the "situation-based poverty" instead of "perpetual poverty"

After getting my EBT card, I went shopping today (Sunday) with it. That was also a strange experience because... I unintentionally felt ashamed asking of the place accepted EBT. I put it off until I had my basket full of groceries, and finally I asked someone quietly at the bakery counter "Do you guys accept EBT?" and she said yes, they accept all forms of payment. It was a large relief, because I had all of my groceries by that point, but I still felt shy about asking it. I still felt ashamed to have to use it. The same happened with the check-out counter when I asked. I did not know it would automatically detect it was an EBT card and not a regular credit card. A lot of lack of knowledge and strange unintentional feelings of shame came with the whole experience.

This leads me to my second point, which is the entire perception of poverty.

It seems as though the perception of poverty has been built up over so many years, by so many powerful people, that it has ingrained itself as the popular majority. The same could be said with any kind of identity/condition, but it seems as though poverty, or in other words assumptions based upon class, is one of the most prevalent and visible out there today.

Such a history has been made about racism and sexism  throughout the ages, that it has popularly been pushed back and labeled as "being taken care of". (Although we know that there are still many "outed" and "closeted" societal norms based around racism and sexism prevalent to this day.) But it seems as though assumptions and stereotypes about class (positive and negative) are still "open" and very kosher in today's society. There are still many criticisms, public statements, and prejudices of one's class that it doesn't take very long to identify. There are still many destructive discriminatory actions based on class in today's society, carried out by today's people. (I say destructive because I do believe that constructive actions are beneficial, and help to come to equality and equity.)

I would be incorrect in saying that I did not fall to these destructive discriminatory thoughts and actions. I too have been raised in this society which still openly degrades people in different classes, and I have too held these thoughts about people in different classes. I do have destructive thoughts (but not so many actions) about people in classes that are higher than me. I do have destructive thoughts about people in classes lower than me (albeit less now then before I started college.) I am now just realizing that I even have these thoughts which are deep seeded in me. I also harbor those same unintentional societal thoughts within race and gender, I have just simply tried to combat them more via college & my coming into adulthood. But class... Not so much.

The world today says class is okay to discriminate against. Society says it is okay to look down upon, and degrade those who are lesser or greater than you in wealth, because... Well why because? That is something I am still trying to figure out. It is still something I am trying to combat in my own circumstance. I am trying to get rid of my hatred towards those who hold higher economic status than I do. I am trying to include them into my world and my feelings, because I believe it is not okay to degrade anybody to less than a human being based on any of their values and mindsets. At the core of it, we are all still human.

But alas, it is very difficult.

That is why I think that in this field we need to constructively discriminate against those who are different from us. We need not degrade them, but empower them to use their positions of power, or powerlessness, to help those who want to elevate themselves to a higher status and higher equality. This is not to say I do not judge or assess people. I believe it is inherent to judge based on actions of those people, and not their status in the world.

This ties back into a conversation I had once upon a time ago with an animal rights/ethics professor who was very radical in his teachings. He asked me (in context of a conversation) if I believed that Hitler had the same standing on being a human being as Gandhi. I hesitated for a moment, contemplating the ultimate silly ethics question, and replied "Yes, I do believe on the core level of their being that Hitler and Gandhi are respectable human beings who are fundamentally the same." This question relates to the fact that on the core level of humanity, I believe that all humans are the same, and their actions determine their judgement & rights on my level. Regardless of class, race, gender, sex, identity, or ethnicity.

But I don't want to focus too much on the deeper levels of that. It was simply to reference my beliefs on the standing of others. Its their actions, not their labels.

So get your heads out of the sand society. Who says its okay to degrade rich/middle class/poor people because they have more or less than you? Who says its okay to degrade them at all?  Try to think about that next time you are angry at a person who has EBT but uses a smart phone. For all you know they have the phone through their parents plan, and the EBT card helps them to try to get off of their parents plan and form a life for themselves.

Portland Palooza

Over the weekend (Saturday in particular) I traveled across the river into Oregon to Portland for an excursion to the Saturday Market. To begin with: I can still not believe that they hold this event every Saturday. To begin describing what it looks like: Picture a street festival, with its many food vendors, craft shops, and entertainment acts. Now multiply that by an entire park and two side streets. Then schedule that for every Saturday. Woah. That's a lot of festival. But maybe I should back up for when I left:

I drove my car with a friend to the Vancouver downtown, and began the process of validating an all day/all zone pass. The deal for this was it needed to be validated in Vancouver, because... Well the pass was supposed to be for downtown Vancouver. Well I can get to downtown Vancouver pretty well by my own bus pass. What I was after was the "All-Zone" pass so I could use the MAX line in Portland. So I parked my car, and we ran out to catch the next bus. When on the bus, we validated it for an all day all zone pass. We rode for about two blocks then got off at the next stop. Yeah, kind of silly, but it got the pass validated for that day.

We then proceeded back to my car, and drove and parked in Northwest Portland in a residential neighborhood. From there we took the Yellow Line MAX into town, ultimate destination: The Saturday Market. Here is where things get tricky.

When we arrived in Northwest Portland and parked my car, I saw many old single family homes. There were some lawns that haven't been mowed for a while, and some boarded up houses. The main drag, where the MAX line was, had a couple of seedy looking businesses with the rest of the buildings being boarded up. It was kind of dirty, and some trash could be seen in some corners.

As soon as we boarded the packed MAX line, the train took off, and within 3 minutes the scenery changed. All of a sudden there were new posh apartment buildings, clean streets, and a nice green pathway for bikes and roads with no potholes. This lead to the Rose Quarter stadium, and the "gateway" to downtown across one of the many bridges spanning the Willamette River. We transferred stations, and the MAX crossed the river, giving a very good view of the downtown.

Downtown was a mixture of older buildings (but not old by east coast standards) and new skyscraper/hi-rises. The general feel of a developing downtown area. The Saturday Market was filled to the brim with food vendors, craft vendors, workshops, and music. It was like a yearly festival, that apparently happens every Saturday. The downtown area was such a mismatch of different cultures and feelings. It was truly where it seemed like the whole city came together in one huge mesh.

After the downtown excursion I traveled to Northeast Portland, around Alberta Street.  Driving past the houses we came to the main drag... Wait. There was a main drag? There were cute independent shops and small grocery stores, with the basic necessities of life in non-chain mall stores. This seemed like it should be its own separate small city, and not incorporated with Portland, but the kind that people would drive to and from to get to Portland everyday, with some local flavor mixed in. But that position is reserved for Vancouver which is large and has the chain stores to accommodate the many people who live here.

Needless to say, the area, and the ice cream shop we went to (The Salt & Straw) had many strange flavors. One ice cream was olive oil flavored, and another was sea urchin and mint. There was also PB&J flavored ice cream, but what I got was the shaved woodblock chocolate with the bourbon & coffee flavor. The woodblock consisted of a chocolaty malt with shavings of dark chocolate and smoked sea salt, giving it a smokey flavor. Combined with the coffee and bourbon it was a Northwest timber flavor combined with the elegance of a strange mix of Southern and European flavor.

What a beautiful country we live in. One could spend a lifetime simply trying to get to know one region of this place.

Lady Saint Helens

When talking with rangers, they always referenced to the mountain as a "her". I will let you gender studies majors out there do with that what you will. (You know who you are :) ) Needless to say, I went to Mount Saint Helens over the weekend.

I went with a new VISTA friend, who was great company along the way. We first started at Ape Cave.

Ape Cave is an old lava tube made from when the mountain erupted many years ago. (They really don't know when.) But that is not the point. The point is, that two forest rangers rented us a propane lamp, and just let us descend into the cave by ourselves. No guidance. No assistance. Just descend into a dark cave by yourself and your lamp. Sweet. (They don't do this in the East, just for reference.)

We then checked out the "Trail of Two Forests". Yeah. Cheesy name, I know. But it was amazing because of the fact there was old growth beside new growth from the explosion of the mountain in 1980. One really cool feature were these holes in the ground where lava surrounded trees, and the trees burned to charcoal, and then rotted away, leaving just the hardened lava hole where the tree was.

We then drove onto the next hike, to a lake created from debris blocking a river. On the way up, we saw the mountain herself:

June Lake was a really pretty site. It had a waterfall flowing into it from a cliff above, and was stock still and clear. The lake was also located in the path of a debris flow from the 1980 explosion, which was really cool to see the ash and pumice covering the ground around the new vegetation. It was amazing thinking that this area as a huge active volcanic site when everything seems so calm and peaceful.

Finally, the last stop was Lava Canyon. The name pretty much described it all. Once upon a time, not 1980 explosion, lava cascaded down the mountain and created this huge ravine of solid rock when it cooled. Water has slowly eroded this area from a small stream to a gushing waterfall.

Apparently there was a suspension bridge loop which crossed the canyon. We set out in search of adventure, and eventually found it. Here is what I mean a stream to a waterfall.

And here is what I mean by suspension bridge.

It was literally one person wide, and swung when you walked across it. It was pretty much the most thrilling experience I have had to date. (Yeah, my life isn't that exciting and perilous.)

Climbing up the other side of the canyon, we got great views of the side we had just hiked up and over. There is so much perspective when one looks at the canyon. The huge rock walls, the sheer drop to the stream/waterfall below, just the massiveness of the mountain itself. And the best part of this was not only the scenery and the magnificence of it all, but that I have started to make friends, and hopefully my social life will start to settle in. 

Maybe as a little birthday present.

The City of Airplanes

Running around in Vancouver, and subsequently taking the bus many places, leads me to always notice the impact of Portland International Airport. I have come to the conclusion that these planes are not really an annoyance, but rather a very nice background noise to the area. It symbolizes the coming and going the area has had for many a year now. Everything from the early fur traders, the Columbia River barge and trading network, to the modern day interstates and airports. It seems like it is a highly mobile city.

I find it funny how Portland formed south of the Columbia, on the Willamette River. You would think the port town would form closer to the Columbia, where there was a larger river for barges. But now it serves as the cosmopolitan urban center in Northwestern Oregon. It is amazing that every day I take the bus and see planes taking off from Portland International Airport. I've gotten use to the noise, and I kind of realized this must have been the fate of Vancouver ever since Portland began to excel the small fort/port town in growth.

But that is okay. I am proud to be in an offshoot suburb of Portland. I was never one for being directly in the middle of the action and the dense urban culture. I have always had a fascination on how the core affects the periphery, and Vancouver & Portland are no exception. This side of the river is a little less weird. A little more unique. And will have the legal marijuana shops. Ha! Take that Portland.

-Nick

Plus. Our river is so much cooler than yours. Just sayin.

Seaside, Astoria, and the Magical Fairyland of the Pacific Northwest

So this past weekend I traveled to Seaside Oregon. The Coastal Range of mountains leading to the Pacific Ocean was completely marvelous, rarely a deciduous tree in sight. The hills reminded me of the foothills of the Appalachians, except without the same species of trees and without the constant "ELK" signs. The coastal range is one helluva mountain range, never getting too elevated, but always yielding a surprise around each corner.

I drove into Seaside, and saw a glimpse of my ultimate destination. The Pacific Ocean. Mountains surrounded the tiny hamlet. "You are now entering a tsunami danger zone. If you feel rumbling or shaking, please seek higher ground immediately." That sounded grave. But I enjoyed the ocean none the less. Even if the water temperature was freezing cold.

The town of seaside was a nice surfing tourist destination. One seemed out by urbanites to the east. There was no exception for the labor day weekend. I battled through the throngs of cars, and finally found parking directly beside the dunes.

After wading in a bit, and watching the crowds, I headed onto the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park. The visitors center was a great place to see, and I watched the film on the entire journey of the Corps of Discovery. I then saw a replica of Fort Clatsop (believed to be on the original site off by a couple hundred of yards), and heard many a tale of the days of the explorers from a park reenacting guide. The winter sounded miserable, but being on the spot where the journey met the Pacific was very sounding and empowering.

Here I also had reached the end of a long journey out west to the Columbia. I drove onward to Astoria, and cresting over the hill, I saw the huge and magnificent Astoria Bridge.

Here was a bridge that spanned the Columbia River at the mouth of the Pacific Ocean. It was so huge, it required a spiral ramp to reach the top from the town. Such a feat of engineering and design. A huge truss and a remaining span that stretched over 4 miles of water. And then the massive Columbia flowing from the distance, a huge waterway that sliced through the Pacific Northwest.

I found myself once again as I had been on much of my journey thus far: Gawking and awestruck by the landscape. The sun began to set and reflect off the Columbia, and illuminated the Cascades in front of me. It was as though I was headed back from the western edge of our continental nation, only if it was for 50 miles.

My journey began to close, as the sun set, and I drew ever closer to Vancouver. I did manage to snap this shot though before it became dark. That large mountain off in the distance is Mt. Saint Helens, over 80 miles away.

What a magnificent and wonderful place this is. Massiveness abounds in scales I have never even imagined.