Stag or drag
It's a nice gesture, which provides a semblance of order to that part of town. But what surrounds the elk is pretty bleak. Downtown is still dead and showing no signs of coming back anywhere near its former self.
The dumpster-burning youngsters are off the downtown streets these days – they're more focused on the ICE jail in the SoWhat District – but that doesn't mean the statue is safe. I wonder how long it will take for the first spray-paint psycho to show up and tag the thing. A week?
You're probably right, but I'm delighted about it anyway and will show up on Sunday for the dedication. Portland is good at stuff like this.
ReplyDeleteAnd it looks like they've restored the original fountain, as well-? Part of what took so long to get the statue put back up in that spot, was that PBOT wanted to use it as an opportunity to change the street through there, which would have eliminated the fountain. Lots of back & forth about it, at the time, but apparently the arts-&-historic preservation folks won-out, yay (too-much of our history has already been demolished & dumped in landfills. It's nice to see a preservation-win once in a while).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
If PBOT had had their way, they would have paved over the fountain, made one car lane, and built six bike lanes through there.
DeleteAlways like the Elk. Didn’t like the crap that huddled around it a decade ago.
ReplyDeleteThey should have modified it so it could piss on anybody trying to mess with it. I'd pay to see that...
ReplyDelete