Portland Revelations – Historic Union Station
Decatur Metro | August 3, 2010 | 6:05 pm
Apparently Portland never got the memo that all beautiful, early 20th century train stations needed to be torn down by the mid-1970s.
One more pic from a different vantage point after the jump.
Can someone please build this man a decent public transit system before he dies of a broken heart???
Ha!
… and one that sells local food … (smile)
And it’s right by Powell’s Bookstore, one of the most wonderful bookstores in the world, kind of like the old Oxford bookstore here in Atlanta, but bigger and even more fascinating. It had its own satellite travel bookstore that covered every inch of the world. Or at least Powell’s used to be by the station; it might have moved.
It’s not the same as actually getting to browse the real thing, but don’t forget about Powells.com!
I can’t imagine what kind of city Atlanta would have been if all the white belt and shoes developer types hadn’t gotten hold of it in the 60′s and 70′s.
Big sigh….
Atlanta would be Birmingham.
Good point WinnonaMom.
There are pros and cons to nearly everything.
I still think, however, that Atlanta could have grown into a major city and moved forward economically and socially (unlike Birmingham), while not tearing down nearly everything that made it special.
Would Atlanta really have remained just like Birmingham if it had not torn down the old train station and built the Richard Russell Federal Building instead? Couldn’t that have been built elsewhere?
I’m skipping the usual Amsterdam trip this year so your photo’s from Portland will have to feed my need to see a city done right. After riding my bike down 10th street to work in the morning, it’s nice to think there’s an American town out there that actually gets “it”.
I used to ride down 10th too. Agree — not a good place to ride. I find it is better to go a bit out of your way to Los Angeles, then Elkmont, then through the park. It will likely add time to your route, but much safer.
As for Portland, it’s always seemed super cool to me. And the breweries — oh man. I’ve always thought Bridgeport in particular was under appreicated. great ESB and a damn fine IPA, too. Rogue, of course, is also pretty awesome.
You guys are just convincing me to move to Portland.
Portland is a great place if you like fir trees and white folks. Plenty of those, but not much of any other varieties. It’s about the least funky big city you will ever visit (with the possible exception of Minneapolis). But it’s got that whole Ecotopia thing down cold . . . clean, outdoorsy and oh-so earnest. I guess it’s just a little too Nordic for my taste.
Actually, there is a long-standing urban African-American community in what I believe is northeast Portland. I don’t know what the situation is like now but years ago the problem for that community was that it was big enough to attract gang violence up from California and down from Seattle but not big enough to have much political clout. There is also a sizeable Hispanic community, once mostly in the more agrarian outskirts of the Portland suburbs. It used to be mostly migratory and farmworker-based rather than urban-based like in Los Angeles or other California cities. I suspect the Hispanic community is more permanently settled now and probably growing like elsewhere out West. There are also some Indian reservations in the greater Portland area. And of course the Asian community has been there for a long while although it is not as large as that in Seattle.
But I completely agree that fir trees, white folks, and REI are the face of Oregon that it shows to the outside world. However, if you stay in Portland a while, get to know its neighborhoods, and eat in the local restaurants, you see a little more diversity. It feels monotone compared to California but is more diverse than, well, where in America is still homogenous….Vermont? (If you ignore those darn French-Canadians).