On Porltand’s MLK In Motion

Earlier this summer, the Oregonian published this interesting article about Alan Silver, who runs a great blog called MLK In Motion focused on Portland’s MLK:

Silver, a 38-year-old blogger and amateur historian, is perhaps the least likely tour guide for what used to be the heart of first immigrant and then black Portland. He’s a burly, sweet-natured white guy from Southern New Jersey with no background in planning or research, just an instinct for storytelling and an unusual interest in his adopted hometown’s backstory.

“I tell people it’s my hobby,” he says. “Really, if I’m honest, I’m kind of in love with the place.”

Read the whole thing — lots of pictures, even video — here.

Portland blur

A blur of MLK + Burnside, originally uploaded by brandedbyhuys.

Portland

Crossing MLK, originally uploaded by bnc-free.

Portland scene

MLK In Motion (mentioned here and here before), documenting changes on Portland’s MLK, always has a steady stream of interesting photos and context. Here’s one recent example of a particularly cool shot.

Two from Portland

Call it, friend-o!, originally uploaded by allaboutgeorge.

Above from allaboutgeorge. Below from skomra.

.6430, originally uploaded by skomra.

Close reading in Portland

.defaced, originally uploaded by skomra.

skomra explains: “A poster posts up these photos of people and then defaces them, a fairly straightforward message of erasure. The interesting part, though, is the use of tags or keywords at the bottom of the photo. Some of that erasure is aimed at keyword based image retrieval.”

Click through to read the Flickr hover-note that details the tags. Interesting!

Fairly Honest in Portland

AdPulp writes: “Fairly Honest Bill’s is a used furniture place on MLK and Burnside in Portland. Bill wants to let you know where he’s coming from before you enter his environment.”

[Thanks, David.]

Double J Tire Center

A nice sign at 6841 MLK in Portland, from MLK In Motion.

“Good in the Neighborhood”

Corner Nine, originally uploaded by pleasant streets.

This image (from Portland, OR’s MLK) also appears in a very cool pleasant streets set title “Expired Film.”

The caption:

“A great day in the NE towards the end of June 08′. Cars were bouncin, grills were burning, and temps were in the 90’s. It was ‘Good in the Neighborhood’ and my first time experiencing the festivities. You have to love summer in NE PDX. Smiles were abundant with every passing car.

“After this it was bbq ribs and potato salad while sipping ice cold lemonade under a shade tree, and echoes of funk reverberating through the school yard. A great day!”

A bit more on Portland

Taking a closer look at MLK In Motion, it’s definitely a site to keep an eye on. This post quotes Mayor Tom Potter: “My personal goal is to make Portland’s Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard the best Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the United States.” Presumably that goal is something that would take some change to achieve, and with change often comes conflict and uncertainty, as well as hope.

So MLK In Motion has a great subject to zero in on — the street does seem to be in motion, and will be that way for a while.

A couple of recent posts of interests give a sense of the approach.

This post notes that The Miracles Club, “a center for drug rehabilitation and addiction treatment,” and plans for it to move from MLK location to another.

And here’s a post documenting one brief stretch of MLK, beetween Beech and Failing. (Amazing that there’s a street called Failing, by the by.) Two snaps from that post below, see the full post for details.