About Portland
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” ― Animal Farm
Last week I presented at a conference in Portland. My presentation was about a project made at Studio for Social Justice for Time Out Youth organization in Charlotte, NC. Time Out Youth is helping LGBTQ homeless youth: they educate, support and try to provide them with temporary housing. After interviews and participatory charrets, we found out that LGBTQ young people, rejected by their families, facing inequality every day, mostly lack safe, comfortable and modern outdoor space in the city, where they would feel free and equal. In the end, even though several projects were focused on outdoor spaces design, they were asking to protect these space, surround them with fences - make only theirs, make it safe. Their experience with the families, society attitude, urban environment in Charlotte etc made them feel that they are excluded and most important - they are targets surrounded by the unsafe environment.
At the conference, I had an interesting discussion with the researches from Los Angeles. They are working with homeless people and various city organization to help them, to understand why some existing public instruments are not effective. Different institutions/organizations in Los Angeles have a long history and extensive experience working with urban inequalities themes. After I worked and lived there I have no doubts why. Specifically, because this is the most non-humanistic, uncomfortable, problematic and unsafe cities I have been so far. Anyone would heal a spot which hurts most.
Ironically we were discussing these themes of urban/social inequalities in Charlotte and in LA while being in Portland. I did not know much about it - information from a couple of friends in the city and the show “Portlandia”. But I appreciate that I spent 1 week there. I do not care about “dream of the 90s” or local breed chicken on my plate, but I care about my experience of the city. It is safe, even though it is relatively big and very active: cultural life, nightlife, street life. It is very tolerant - all services are open for everyone - “Keep Portland weird”. This is a walkable city with a developed and convenient system of public transportation and bike lanes, which are used by everyone. Not just by low-income jobless people who use the so-called public transportation system in LA - worst in my life so far (no surprise - you cannot imagine such bad public transportation system in New York or in Moscow as there it is used by everyone, not just by marginalized groups of people).
I also had a chance to speak with a couple of architectural companies based in Portland. One of them, having its experience and approaches to design formed in/by Portland, started a process of change of urban design codes in LA (they were making big redevelopment in the downtown area in LA and faced a problem that the codes of the city did not allow to make anything for people, only for cars).
This is great that Portland just by its existence shows how an environment could work, how a city should serve as a service. It does not mean that it is perfect - there are ongoing problems - but it is definitely better and “weirder”.
Last week I presented at a conference in Portland. My presentation was about a project made at Studio for Social Justice for Time Out Youth organization in Charlotte, NC. Time Out Youth is helping LGBTQ homeless youth: they educate, support and try to provide them with temporary housing. After interviews and participatory charrets, we found out that LGBTQ young people, rejected by their families, facing inequality every day, mostly lack safe, comfortable and modern outdoor space in the city, where they would feel free and equal. In the end, even though several projects were focused on outdoor spaces design, they were asking to protect these space, surround them with fences - make only theirs, make it safe. Their experience with the families, society attitude, urban environment in Charlotte etc made them feel that they are excluded and most important - they are targets surrounded by the unsafe environment.
At the conference, I had an interesting discussion with the researches from Los Angeles. They are working with homeless people and various city organization to help them, to understand why some existing public instruments are not effective. Different institutions/organizations in Los Angeles have a long history and extensive experience working with urban inequalities themes. After I worked and lived there I have no doubts why. Specifically, because this is the most non-humanistic, uncomfortable, problematic and unsafe cities I have been so far. Anyone would heal a spot which hurts most.
Ironically we were discussing these themes of urban/social inequalities in Charlotte and in LA while being in Portland. I did not know much about it - information from a couple of friends in the city and the show “Portlandia”. But I appreciate that I spent 1 week there. I do not care about “dream of the 90s” or local breed chicken on my plate, but I care about my experience of the city. It is safe, even though it is relatively big and very active: cultural life, nightlife, street life. It is very tolerant - all services are open for everyone - “Keep Portland weird”. This is a walkable city with a developed and convenient system of public transportation and bike lanes, which are used by everyone. Not just by low-income jobless people who use the so-called public transportation system in LA - worst in my life so far (no surprise - you cannot imagine such bad public transportation system in New York or in Moscow as there it is used by everyone, not just by marginalized groups of people).
I also had a chance to speak with a couple of architectural companies based in Portland. One of them, having its experience and approaches to design formed in/by Portland, started a process of change of urban design codes in LA (they were making big redevelopment in the downtown area in LA and faced a problem that the codes of the city did not allow to make anything for people, only for cars).
This is great that Portland just by its existence shows how an environment could work, how a city should serve as a service. It does not mean that it is perfect - there are ongoing problems - but it is definitely better and “weirder”.
I believe that Portland has made it a point to make it pat of their culture that riding public transit or taking your bike is part of being a Portlander. One of the biggest ways this is done is by intentionally designing these spaces for these activities to happen. This ties back to our project in Charlotte. The biggest theme with everyone's project was to give the Youth dignity through design. Similarly, Portland gives riding your bike dignity through the design of their bikeways.
ReplyDeleteYes, agree.
DeleteI agree with Bert. Portland has been successful with their public transit, spaces, and bike lanes because they took the time to make these amenities nice. They weren't an afterthought, but instead a design goal. By making these things a priority, they were well designed and people are more likely to use them.
ReplyDelete