The Multnomah Villager

So I noticed a little piece in the Southwest Community Connection this month about their new website.
Here’s the link Southwest Community Connection.

It appears to have a selection of the stories from the paper, not the full content, so unfortunately you miss out on what I consider to be the must-read of each issue, the (usually entertaining) Police Blotter.

Front page story of the online and the print edition is the selection of Gabriel Park to be a future skatepark site, which has got people all over the neighborhood throwing a bit of a NIMBY fit. I may post on this subject at some point, although the rate things move through the city - I don’t expect any skateboarders rippin’ it up at Gabriel anytime soon….

This might explain the partial demise of The Rocks Area, though.

Massage time on Saturday morning! I dropped into Multnomah Village Massage for a rub from Pam Alexander. I’ve been going to see Pam for more than four years now, back before she was Pam Alexander, in fact. Both Mrs. V and I try to drop in on a semi-regular basis, as funds allow.

She’s got a nice two-room office suite on the main floor of that office building next to the (recently remodeled) bento place just as you’re coming into the village on Capitol (from the NE). In the past, and during the week - there can be some sounds from other people walking around on the second floor, so if that sort of thing annoys you, consider yourself warned. This saturday’s session was blissfully quiet, however.

One of the cool things about going to Pam for massages is that she has this motorized massage table, which can be raised and lowered as needed. I can’t even tell you how mnay massages I and Mrs. V have gotten, all over the US and beyond, and I have never seen another table like this one. It’s cool. Oh another thing - Pam uses lotion I think, instead of oil - which seems to leave a person somewhat less “lubed up” after the rub.

Multnomah Village has something like 900 massage therapists, we’ve been to a few, but Pam’s our regular date. She’s pretty popular, so make an appointment well in advance.

Pam’s website, with prices and phone number

The pumpkins are growing! Taken at the corner outside the Multnomah Center. Another welcome sign that fall is on the way.

That subject line kind of sounds like it should be preceded by the phrase “Harry Potter and….”
But seriously, folks…

We received our copy of the 2005 Citizen Survey from the Office of the City Auditor last week or so. After the thrill of being “randomly selected” wore off (feel free to burst our bubble of exclusivity by waving your own copies around), Mrs. V set out to fill it in.

There are 28 questions, and the ubiquitouos “optional” gender/age/ethnicity section. it starts off with crime, asking about general safety, break-ins, whether we know our neighborhoos police officer (no), and runs to utilities, parks, traffic. Our answers are generally positive. I should make a few notes though:

1. If I could “write in” an answer I’d make a comment about the speed of traffic down 35th, especially on weekends and after the bars close. I’d lobby for an additional speed bump, except for the fear of some idiot catching air and putting a bus in my yard.
2. I read the “police blotter” in the Community Connection with much amusement. However I have noticed that in the last month or so the calls have been less of hte cat-in-a-tree variety, and there have been some shots fired calls. Some of this is due to summer - all the police officers I’ve ever known say that summer brings an escalation of crime - but hopefully our neighborhood will remain as safe-feeling as it is now

A few notes about the survey. Last year there were six neighborhoods (including Multnomah) selected. This year, the survey states that they are collecting answers from ALL neighborhoods in the city. Results will be posted on the City Auditors website at some point in November 2005 (link above).

Results from the 2004 Survey are here (2.7 MB PDF)

Ok, rhetorical question. My family came to Oregon on one of the first wagon trains (to Molalla), so I’ve been aware of at least the history of the name. However, when doing some reading on the Red Electric Trail Study (available for public comment until Sept. 12th), I stumbled across this link:

The Red Electrics @ pdxhistory dot com

This is a fascinating site, with not only information, but lots of great pictures (even ticket stubs) from all the old railcars and streetcars whose dormant tracks continue to surface through the asphalt all over town. If you like learning about Portland, visit that link.

So over in Gabriel Park there’s this fitness area. You know the type. They were all the rage about 20 years ago, a small enclosure of timber and steel bars, along with a diagram of the proper exercises and how they are best performed. So the one in Gabriel Park is down by the tennis courts, right next to the sand volleyball courts. Jr. V refers to it as “the rocks area” since the ground under the pull-up bars, rings, parallel bars and balance beams is thickly covered with rather large pebbles.

Perfect for falling.

Anyway - 20 years in the Oregon weather has no exactly treated this area well. A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that many of the bars and one set of rings (the highest ones)had disappeared. A week later, the angled “sit-up” boards were gone.

Anyone got a line into the parks department? Are these items coming back? Or is the rocks area on the way out?

I’ve posted a gallery of all my images from the parade at this link:

2005 Parade Image Gallery on Multnomahvillager.com

I am not a photographer, they’re just snapshots. Email if you see yourself (or more likely, your dog).

Well, about 9:20 or so on Saturday, we trekked up the hill to the Village, in order to secure a good spot for parade-watching. There were already a good amount of cars parked all around the side streets, and when we approached the post office, to drop some outoing letters in the box, parade preparation was in full swing.The band was practicing, and we discovered an antique fire-truck that now that I think about it, actually didn’t appear in the parade.

We listened to the big band (the Get a Life Marching Band) rehearse for a bit, and then headed up to the main drag to find a place to sit. Jr. V was thrilled to discover that the inflatable bounce houses and slides were in place again.

We found a great place to sit right on the edge of the curb against the bus shelter outside Acapulco’s and waited for the parade to begin. Soon, the first fire trucks and police cars came down the street.
The parade begins!

Followed by all manner of dogs, decorated cars, more pre-schools than I ever even dreamed existed in one neighborhood, and the marching band. All throwing candy. At some point in the last 20 years, parades have pretty much become a long procession of people throwing candy at the audience. Often quite hard. One must take care not to get clocked by a handful of tootsie rolls. Jr. V returned home with a heaping serving dish of candy. And superballs. There seemed to be a lot of superball throwing on the part of parade participants this year. This is good, since really, how many tubes of “smarties” does one household need, a scant two months or so before Halloween.

I’ll post some more pictures later, when I have time to whip out a quick gallery. Let me know if you see yourself. There will be cars, there will be more of the band, there will be inflatable slides, urban chickens and a person who may have actually been Jeff Parker in a Batman costume!
Really, where else are you gonna see this kind of thing on a Saturday morning?

Multnomah Days was fun as usual. BIG crowd this year. I’ve got a good assortment of pictures (note that this may not be the same as an assortment of good pictures), which I’ll post later tonight!

If you came out - hope you had a good time!

I found this reference to this site on Metroblogging: Portland

The Multnomah Villager. Run by the Villager, who is married to Mrs. Villager and father to Villager Junior. Gag-inducing cute factor aside (yes, I respect your need for privacy but it’s so saccharine!) the Villager produces some quality content on a fairly regular basis. Interesting snapshots of local (and by local I mean confined to his set of hilltops) politics and land-use.

I know, I know, it is cheesy… But seriously the single initial thing is so overdone.
Thanks for the mention, I appreciate it!