This building sits at the corner of NW 23rd and West Burnside. It used to be the offices of Barbara Sue Seal Properties. I have memories of it from an early age, when we used to come to the Alphabet District when vising at Spring Break/Christmas/Summer
This article says that Barbara Sue Seal started this business in 1983 and was immediately successful. She sold her business in 1997, but still loves doing deals.
Hopefully the next tenant will leave the seal be!
There are some great trees near the office that explode into my favorite color every autumn. And then there are the trees that are still solidly green.
Not completely solidly as it turns out.
The Alder Street Food Cart Pod is famous! It takes up an entire city block. Yes! People can walk the perimeter and find a large variety of choices for their meals.
It’s also going away at the end of the month. A luxury hotel and condominium will be built on the block instead.
These pictures were taken from the streetcar, hence the blurry glare.
There has been talk of relocating some of the food carts to a different area of town, maybe the North Park Blocks, or the underused park on Ankeny and Burnside. But nothing has been firmed up. So in a few days, these carts will be gone.
Doing some shopping in the Pearl.
I love them so much. There are so many Summer 2019 in Portland things about them. They are both wearing pants, because it’s not really hot. The silhouette is about the same for both the man and the woman, though the man gets a bit of breathing room in his clothing. Both of their shoes are great—stylish and walkable. The woman has got some great shoulders on her, and that phone is so big it peeks out of her back picket. Plus: I spy a tattoo.
Also, they are both wearing watches, neither of which look like smart watches.
Now I’m starting to think they are perhaps from Europe.
Today while waiting for the train, I watched this gentleman use a blanket to sweep the detritus from the trees onto the sidewalk. It wasn’t the most efficient way to clear the sidewalk, but it was pretty inventive for someone who didn’t have a broom, and it also looked like a good meditative practice.
You can see the difference. To the left of the couple, the sidewalk is covered with the green stuff from the tree.
Thanks, sir, for making the downtown Portland sidewalks look nicer.
Work is doing a survey that involves mailing to many Portland residences. A lot of them come back to us as vacant. On this one someone helpfully added “demolished.” It’s not surprising.
Here’s my best guess as to what 3951 N. Vancouver looks like. It’s been absorbed on PortlandMaps.com into 3535 N. Vancouver, which is currently the Brass Tacks restaurant.
This building could have been torn down in the past few years, or it could have been torn down as part of the “improvement plan” in the 1960s that gutted a historically Black neighborhood and resulted in empty lots for decades.
Something will appear here though, and probably sooner rather than later as this area is hip, happening and nearly fully gentrified. We can’t have weedy, empty lots in that kind of neighborhood.
It’s just past seven o’clock a.m. and I can tell that I’m the third person to walk to the train this morning.
It wasn’t enough snow to be a bother, and not nearly the amount of snow that was predicted. This is the snowstorm that has reminded me why I never let myself get excited about Portland snow forecasts. Often they are much ado about nothing.
At the corner of North Denver Avenue and North Lombard street in Portland Oregon, there’s a run-down building which until recently housed The Barn, a local bar.
On the sign with the full name of the bar (The Farmer’s Barn) we see the reason for the demise: Pat has died.
I didn’t fully realize until this moment that it was called the Farmer’s Barn. This is because until that sign was changed to Pat’s memorial information, it said, “Do not need a farm to enjoy the barn”
Both Yelp and Facebook have confirmed the closing of this bar. I learned from the Yelp reviews that they only served beer and wine, accepted no credit cards and had a happy hour from 7-11am. I usually saw people heading in around seven on the days when I rode my bike to work and took Denver. That explains that.
I will be interested to see if this building is replaced. My guess is yes.
R.I.P. Pat, and your Farmer’s Barn.
A.K.A not long for this world.
I love this little house, one of three on this block. It’s 756 square feet and was built in 1926. The last time it was sold was in 2006 for $160,000. It’s a rental, the owners live in Vancouver.
The woman who lives (lived?) here has yard sales multiple times per year. There is a new four-story apartment complex next door, and since this is zoned CM3, this lot could hold something up to six stories. (Although then you might also need to buy the two houses next door.)
Here’s the asking price: $349,900. If the sellers get that, they will have doubled their money in 12 years. It’s been for sale for some time, so I’m guessing the price will drop a little.
I include the picture of the sign so you can see someone has crossed out with a big “NO!” the words “with development potential.” Since the MLS listing doesn’t include any pictures of the interior of the house, I would be very surprised if this becomes someone’s home.
When a former strip club and front for a prostitution ring is torn down in order to build affordable housing, it’s a very good day for the neighborhood.
Even better? When a bunch of small organizations were the ones who bought the property in the first place, because they knew that good piece of land would be better served by a different sort of building.
