Greener Grasses and Redder Leaves

In some kind of archetypal and universal urge to check out your neighbor’s lawn, I’ve spent a lot of time in my life visiting friends or walking through neighborhoods with one eye checking it all out and wondering, “What would it be like to live here?” Making pros and cons lists in my head and trying to imagine myself in this town or that house or close to that other park. You too?

 

I’ve had these thoughts every time I’ve visited Portland, which I believe I first passed through in the late 1970’s. Back then, I was impressed that a city would have so many detached houses with front and back yards, each one unique and so many with large billowing trees. It seemed like a nice blend of urban energy with a small- town feel. 

 

Now that my daughter has lived here for some 12 years, I often have similar thoughts each visit. And everything yet more appealing at the moment dressed in the vibrant reds and yellows of the Autumn trees. Still impressed by the Bike to School families as I walk Malik down Everett Street, the principal at the front door greeting each and every student— by name! The restaurants continue to impress, particularly the Paper Bridge Vietnamese one an old friend treated us to yesterday where I enjoyed morning-glory greens with tofu stuffed mushrooms. (It was recently reviewed favorably by the New York Times and probably doubled its prices because it could—I was happy to be treated!). 

I’ve enjoyed the local parks—Mt. Tabor and Laurelhurst the closest—and the more distant walks along the river. For more rugged nature, Multnomah Falls and Mt. Hood are in driving distance. 

Years back, I had the good fortune to stay at the delightful Kennedy School Hotel— a converted elementary school where each room has a blackboard and a cloakroom, the old auditorium is a movie theater, the lunchroom a restaurant. Powell’s Books remain one of the Human-made Wonders of the World, Salt and Straw Ice Cream has made a name for itself and movie theaters here are still alive and well and affordable. 

 

Then, of course, the people, who first made a name for themselves in the Black Lives Matter Resistance Marches and now has started a new style of Protest Rallies with inflatable frog (and other) costumes. I have some five college friends who have settled here, many folks who have taken the Orff trainings with me down in California and other friends who escaped from the Silicon Valley inflation of the Bay Area to re-locate up here. 

 

Am I thinking of joining them? Moving to the same town as my daughter and grandchildren and enjoying all the above full time? Not really. Those greener grasses I might envy? That comes from constant rain! And the beautiful Fall will soon turn to a much colder Winter than I prefer, followed two seasons later by a hotter summer than I currently enjoy. 

For all its up and down issues, I’ve become a loyal San Franciscan and no, we can’t compete with the Autumn splendor or affordable charming housing. But hey, we do have Golden Gate Park, Marin County, Yosemite, SF Jazz Center, Flower Piano, stairway walks, City Lights bookstore, my beloved San Francisco School and our own glorious history of artists and spiritual seekers and wacky eccentrics living out on the edge of the Pacific Rim. I’ll take it.

 

But meanwhile, enjoying the Portland glories to the fullest. Especially Autumn.