Doors of 53rd Ave

▷Portland. We explore the doors of 53rd Avenue, the street I live on.

Most of the homes were built before the war, what we call World War I but others refer to as the "Great War", a time when cars were just beginning to be driven but few owned them – a place where there are still rings in the curbs to tie up horses.

The homes were built with porches facing the street, where relationship on the street were to be encouraged. Many of these houses did not have garages.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Even if current owners have color schemes that were not expected when the homes were constructed, they still maintain a connection to the street, where people are connected to each other.

Across the street from my home was a home that covered three lots. Somewhere, now in distant memory, it burned down. No one remembers the event, something that must have been tragic at the time. In its place, three homes were built in the 1970's, asserting a new cultural aesthetic, one defined by the car.

There are no front porches, the front doors are hidden away – encouraging us all to hide away, hide away from each other in private worlds – alone in private worlds that might be more easily manipulated by others.

This short journey down my street has me wondering about other stories we might tell, The Stories We Tell – the power of stories that Christopher Alexender explored in the final pattern of his pattern language, Pattern 253.

Sensing the Eddies inside of us.