Pictures of Portland, Part 2

[mapsandlegends]

Skulking around the Burnside area of downtown PDX. I forgot to bring my tripod with me so some of these are blurrier than I'd like, but eh. Maths Night photos are hard without good equipment.

Part 1 - Buildings and Bridges
Part 3 - Exterior Decorating
Part 4 - The Book Carts of St. Powell's
Part 5 - The Shelves Have Eyes

Comments

[mapsandlegends]

No, not kidding you at all. We speculate that the parking lot Saturday Market currently uses will become permanent paid parking, but we aren't sure.

I should clarify a little (this is going to be long-winded, sorry): There are actually two markets at Skidmore Fountain. There's the official Saturday Market, then there's the "Skidmore Weekend Market" or something similarly named. So all those guys across the street have nothing to do with Saturday Market, aren't run by or controlled by Saturday Market, and in a shitty twist of irony, they don't have to go anywhere.

There will still be a small amount of booths in Ankeny Park (the paved area between the soon-to-be-demolished Skidmore building and the firehouse). But the majority of vendors will be across the Parkway in Waterfront Park, under and around that section of the Burnside bridge (right next to the Historic Pump House, which smells like sewers and ass at the moment, mmmm).

The main group will be cut off from the group near the Max stop, and there will need to be special crossing guards or traffic lights set up so that people can get to the other part of the Market in the park, assuming anyone even knows that it's there.

The city is apparently spending millions of dollars to build a "site" in Waterfront Park to "support" Saturday Market, ultimately building an unnecessary park within a park, complete with fountains and crap that isn't useful - no shelters or windbreaks. And it all needs to be built and done by March 2009 (though the Market has already been informed that the bathrooms won't be ready in time), because that's when the move is supposed to take place. But they haven't even started building it yet - the paperwork has purportedly either not even been signed by the city yet or is just now to the point of being signed.

My favorite part is that the two water fountains in the middle of the site will get turned off during weekends so vendors can house their booths ON TOP OF THEM, booths which will be left there all day Saturday and Sunday. No one can see or play in or enjoy these foot level fountains because they'll be covered up and turned off when most people are off work and free to enjoy such things. Seriously, what is the point of building Monday-Friday water fountains? And let's hope that the fountains don't accidentally go off while the booths are there, ruining merchandise or electrocuting people. I don't even want to think about drainage problems - what fun pools of stagnant water can be!

It's a monumental cluster fuck at this point. It may work out eventually, and I hope it does. But between the people in charge of Saturday Market, the city, the Parks department and the Portland Development Commission, there doesn't seem to be any clear plan in place and/or very little communication, and no goal besides getting rich off of leasing this new space and redeveloping/repurposing the old spaces.