the hell strip

I'm going to deviate from the NW Portland-centric theme of this blog for a moment to show you some examples of an urban place that is something of an obsession for me: the hell strip. The hell strip is a name I use to designate the planting strip and all that lives between the sidewalk and the street. My longtime obsession with this spot arises out of a strongly held view that it doesn't need to be hellish. These urban spaces are technically in the publically-owned right-of-way, and are home to many a tree. The homeowner who lives adjacent can implement all manner of landscaping weirdness here, but a common choice is to do nothing, as in the photo above.

Even worse is the idea that the planting strip is a messy place, and needs tidying up. Instead of planting anything, a homeowner will decide on the low-maintenance option: paving or bricks, like this:



Other landscaping decisions about this spot are beyond my understanding, like this fake plastic planter.


It's true the planting strip doesn't necessarily lend itself to a tree; they come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes the spot is just too constrained for anything with a root system. But there are nice little touches you come across, even in constrained spots.


Even if the spot doesn't have trees and contribute ecologically to the city, it can have a meaningful impact aesthetically. One tasteful design choice is to echo the landscaping decisions of the private property. This tunnel of red foliage in NE Portland is a favorite example of this.


Ecologically, planting trees in these somewhat marginal spaces has a significant impact. Trees are important contributors to air quality, act as giant filters for stormwater runoff, and are the places where birds and other urban animals do a good portion of their living. What's more, the design decisions you make here can improve the walking experience for your everyday pedestrian, like me. Whatever your motivation, the message is simple: plant more trees.

Get to know your heritage.

I've been away from the blog for a bit, but haven't stopped thinking about trees. It's like a daily meditation for me now that I need to get up so early to walk the dog for my new job. I've also had some formal classroom introduction to the subject in the Urban Forestry class I'm taking at PSU summer term, so there's lots brewing in terms of my understanding of urban trees.

But back to the heritage trees. I knew there were a lot on my street, but I had no idea until I saw this map that there are actually 3 kinds of elm tree on my street- Dutch, English, American. That's not including this Bigleaf Linden nestled just at the foot of the west hills - one of my favorites. Do you know where your heritage trees are?

gone!

After searching around on flickr for "red furry tree", it turned up my missing tree: Sumac. More searching on Wikipedia reveals it's the class Magnioliopsida, which is why I'll say I guessed Magnolia. Some species are poisonous, but not this one. Native Americans used to roll it up with tobacco and smoke it; you can drink the juice of some species' berries or use it to treat leather. I liked it because its wintertime blooms really did cheer up this barren parking lot and give me something to look at while walking a certain pokey dog.

fenceline forest

It's hard to tell sometimes what's missing from a picture until you spend a lot of time looking at a picture. Can you tell what's missing here? I'll give a clue: it has lantern shaped blooms with red fuzzy fur-like stuff covering them. The photo below with the red house in the background was taken back in March. The photo on the bottom was taken two days ago. As you can (maybe) see, there is no more Magnolia leaning over the fence into the parking lot. At least I think it's a Magnolia--if anyone else can identify it, please do. I'll put a better photo in the next post that shows a close up so you can see what I mean by what's missing.

forest park

"Great woodland areas are the great life-giving elements of the city."
-City Planner E.H. Bennett, Greater Portland Plan

I've been heading up to my old haunts in Forest Park much as I can justify the time away from job applications and studying. Being away from the park for a while and then coming back to it always astonishes me. There is just so much green here, in so many different layers; coarse like hair here, soft and tendrilly there.

This inscription is on the back of a park bench up on Cumberland trail in the upper park. The first time I came upon this I remember being scandalized and delighted at once. I wish I knew who commissioned it.

focus

I've been struggling with my photography skills lately. I read a quote recently on a photography site about how it is easy to capture what you see in a photo, but harder to capture what you feel. Photographing trees and shrubs and bushes in neighborhood settings is not always easy. I find that I often need a building or some hardscape to enhance the subject--to place it somehow. But sometimes it gets old always trying to frame trees with a distinctive building corner or street sign. I realize that looking closer is sometimes the right answer.

pee tree

I'm really hoping this message wasn't directed at me or my furry loved ones, but it is a good reminder that young trees are sensitive to lots of stresses. Other common threats include car doors and vandalism. That said, I do think that tree planters should have planted a bigger tree here anyway, since this one replaced a giant old tree that recently was removed from in front of the Drug Store Cowboy historic condos at NW 21st and NW Irving.

Green Mansions

Part of what I love about NW Portland are the many places like this. From so many different vantage points in the neighborhood, there are distant leafy framed vistas and green hallways created by the street trees. Trees create a new space, adding reflections and shimmer and moving patches of light. This is 24th and Lovejoy.

Mt. Fuji Cherry

Spring is here, and I'm kicking myself that I've missed out on weeks of prime opportunities to take pictures of trees...when they're blooming. I have two good excuses: a dead camera battery and grad school. I did manage to snap the lovely pale white upside-down blossoms of the Mt. Fuji Flowering Cherry a couple weeks back before my battery died.

I like lichen

I recently learned that lichens are an indicator species of sorts. Apparently they don't hold up well in polluted air. It was nice to learn this because it adds a new meaning to the variety of patterns and colors I see on my daily walks. Fuzzy, soft, organic, form-fitting: Lichen. This specimen, in Couch Park on NW Glisan, reminds me of a couture dress.

Respect

Private Pavement

For some weird reason I have been looking at this tree on the southwest corner of N.W. 23rd and N.W. Johnson a lot. It's just north of the Thrift Store pictured in my previous post. It's a pretty moss-covered tree with a bike permanently hitched to it, as if they were an old married couple.

When I was trying to make sure I had the cross streets right, I came across this document from the Portland Office of Transportation:

NW 23RD AVENUE RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT
Existing Conditions and Proposed Improvements
Sheet 3 - NW Johnson to NW Lovejoy

http://www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=127179

This document shows the existing conditions of many different corners near this tree, and if you look carefully, a new curb ramp is drawn in right on top about a third of the current treewell area. I had to look closely to see what this document was trying to communicate, because in Office of Transportation lingo, tree wells are called "Private Pavement." (take a look at the legend, you'll see what I mean). Hum. I thought that trees planted in treewells were Public, and they are certainly not Pavement. This will be my homework assignment: to find out more about these reconstruction projects.

Blank Canvas

I love this ugly little building on the corner of N.W. Johnson and N.W. 23rd Avenue. It's weird how bad architecture can make you see the green architecture a little better.

Stumped

I went for a little jog around the neighborhood this morning, with the goal of seeing something that I hadn't seen before. What I found were condos, condos, everywhere. And where there are condos, there are stumps. I took picture of stumps at two of them, one near, Savier Gardens, at 2555 NW Savier St., and the other in front of Rainier Park Condominiums, at 2445 NW Lovejoy. There are a couple of things that these two different projects have in common: 1) both are redevelopment projects that add onto/remodel an existing building; 2) both have trees in their front planter strip that have been cut down; and 3) both have fire hydrants just a few feet away. I believe the urban forester requires that newly planted trees be sited at least 5 feet away from fire hydrants, so these trees may have been improperly sited in the first place.

The Savier condos have replanted the front planter strip nicely, except the stump still hanging out in front of their parking lot advertises to people like me what once was. A little sleuthing on PortlandMaps.com turned up an aerial photo from 2005 that showed several fully leafed-out street trees, and one very large tree in the courtyard.

The Rainier Park Condos are still under construction so the planter strip was a big mess. But I'm sure their permit requires them to replant at some point.

This got me thinking about the purpose of this blog. Capturing all pre- and post- development plantings seems somewhat nutty, especially for a one-person outfit like me. But it is no accident that there are stumps all around these development sites--and these are redevelopments, mind you, not scrape-and-clean new construction, a la The Vaux (More to come on this development at 24th and Savier). I can get pretty fired up about trees and especially disappearing trees, but it also occurs to me that policing whether developers/contractors are abiding by their permit requirements is more than I can take on.

So, after a bit of mulling, I think that a more simple goal of this blog is simply to document what has been lost, when I perceive it. And to document what is here today. I still am conjuring on the best way to be systematic about what I see.

Faux Spring

This week I have looked for and found plenty of REAL cherry blossoms as I walk around the neighborhood. So I was sort of surprised and amused by this fake flower lei hung up in a cherry tree on NW Johnson.

Irving Street Parking Garage Voted down

I walked out of my apartment building on NW Irving Street on Tuesday morning and discovered a flyer had been taped to the front door about a City Council hearing on the proposed Irving Street garage. This 3-story garage would demolish an old building at 2311 N.W. Irving Street. Well, the news this week is that City Council voted against the garage. One of the approval criteria related to pedestrian safety was a deciding factor. Here is a picture I took of the proposed site (which is located just West of Papa Haydn restaurant) this morning on my dog walk.

My favorite quote from the Oregonian article covering the City Council vote came from Vera Katz, who sent her testimony on a disk: "I have to smile when I hear people say we need garages to reduce traffic," said Katz. "That's not the Portland way." Some good background on the dispute in a Mercury article appears here:

http://portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=55918&category=22101

I'm curious to see the actual testimony presented. The City of Portland's website publishes archives of City Council meetings on City Net 30. The meeting on Wednesday night (2/21/07) hasn't been posted yet but check back later here:

http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=28259

As you can see from the photo, there are no street trees on this site to speak of, but what you can't see from this picture are the three old Portland homes just to the West of the pale blue low-pro structure. Also, just steps from the proposed site there is a Bigleaf Linden Historic Register tree, which I snapped a photo of.

I have to say, I'm feeling sort of conflicted about what's worse: the impact of lots of new cars (and benzene release) in the neighborhood, or the continued impact of careless street parking on trees large (and small).

Perspective

I have been wanting to take this photo for a while. I don't think you get the opportunity to make a big truck feel small every day.