OT Readers Respond: Portland Is Too Dangerous

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barfo said:
I delivered them both.

barfo
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Same here. I deliver the Oregon Journal on a horse in early mid 60's. Down Outfield, up Thiesen, down Hill rd back to Oatfield and up View Acres and Risley.
 
ABM said:
@Lanny ... OK, I have a very serious question for you: Did you ever walk across the train trestle between L.O. and Milwaukie? (North end of town near Terwilliger & State St.) ) I did many times as I had a girlfriend in Milwaukie. It was before I got my DL at age 17. Heh, I used to smoke pot with my buddies underneath the tracks about halfway across. Walking across was rather bold, as a train could come at any time. Jump or get hit.
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Me and my buds in early-mid sixties crossed that trestle many times on occasion letting the train go over us as you could get down underneath the tracks in the middle and be safe. You were looking for them good looking Oswego chicks and ones with money if we were lucky. It was easy to score with them Oswego chicks back in the day. Id have to say them West Linn gals were a cut above!
I would water ski from that trestle up to OC and back fully dressed in long pants and dress shirt, after work. Beach start and stop.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Like ANTIFA
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in my book it doesn't matter if its rapid blazers fans, any kind supremacist, antifa or boy scouts if they are threatening people and wreaking property, come down hard on em.
Hell, in my day if you were hanging around town doing nothing they had vagrancy laws. And if you broke the law or they through your butt in the clink.
 
Hoopguru said:
Me and my buds in early-mid sixties crossed that trestle many times on occasion letting the train go over us as you could get down underneath the tracks in the middle and be safe. You were looking for them good looking Oswego chicks and ones with money if we were lucky. It was easy to score with them Oswego chicks back in the day. Id have to say them West Linn gals were a cut above!
I would water ski from that trestle up to OC and back fully dressed in long pants and dress shirt, after work. Beach start and stop.
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As an Oswego boy, there was nothing quite like those farm girls from the OC. (Oregon City). The Drive-In theater up there was unbeatable.
 
ABM said:
As an Oswego boy, there was nothing quite like those farm girls from the OC. (Oregon City). The Drive-In theater up there was unbeatable.
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I married one of those OC “farm girls” (though I was from Southeast Portland). And yes, there’s nothing quite like them (even after 43 years)......but hey, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and again.......
 
UncleCliffy'sDaddy said:
I married one of those OC “farm girls” (though I was from Southeast Portland). And yes, there’s nothing quite like them (even after 43 years)......but hey, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and again.......
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I loved playing the OC golf course in the summer time. The fairways were so hard the ball would travel another 5o yrds easily on a drive.
 
Me and my friends used to ride tri-met all over the place as early as 5th or 6th grade. I can’t imagine they let kids that young on the bus unsupervised anymore. In high school we’d ride the bus downtown with our skateboards, find a bum to buy us beer and tear up the town. Go from spot to spot skating until we got kicked out. Hit the head shops and smoke weed in the bushes or in parking garages. Never ran into any serious problems. Never got mugged or beat up. Met a lot of cool and interesting people. I’m sure it’s not much worse now days as long as you steer clear of downtown when the dipshits are congregating. Portland is a great town. I’ve been to nearly every major city in the western US and there are A LOT worse places than Portland.
 
Hoopguru said:
I loved playing the OC golf course in the summer time. The fairways were so hard the ball would travel another 5o yrds easily on a drive.
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But the greens were almost perfect. It’s like they said “fuck the fairways” and put all the time and effort into the greens. Cuz yes, those fairways were almost comically brutal.
 
jonnyboy said:
Me and my friends used to ride tri-met all over the place as early as 5th or 6th grade. I can’t imagine they let kids that young on the bus unsupervised anymore. In high school we’d ride the bus downtown with our skateboards, find a bum to buy us beer and tear up the town. Go from spot to spot skating until we got kicked out. Hit the head shops and smoke weed in the bushes or in parking garages. Never ran into any serious problems. Never got mugged or beat up. Met a lot of cool and interesting people. I’m sure it’s not much worse now days as long as you steer clear of downtown when the dipshits are congregating. Portland is a great town. I’ve been to nearly every major city in the western US and there are A LOT worse places than Portland.
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And I'll bet that someone, having seen you and your friends downtown, wrote a letter to the editor that said something like "Portland is already known as a dangerous place to visit, but this incident is all it takes to stop my visits. I will miss the symphony, the Trail Blazers and some great places to eat, but Portland has shown it is no longer a safe and pleasant place to visit."

barfo
 
barfo said:
And I'll bet that someone, having seen you and your friends downtown, wrote a letter to the editor that said something like "Portland is already known as a dangerous place to visit, but this incident is all it takes to stop my visits. I will miss the symphony, the Trail Blazers and some great places to eat, but Portland has shown it is no longer a safe and pleasant place to visit."

barfo
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I bet it was the guy doing heroin under the Burnside bridge. Nobody said Portland was lacking in snobbery.
 
ABM said:
https://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/2019/09/readers-respond-portland-is-too-dangerous.html

(Letters to the Editor:) If going downtown wearing a MAGA hat can get one attacked or beat up (“MAGA hat led to assault outside Portland bar, police say,” Aug. 26), then I for one will have made my last trip to Portland. Portland is already known as a dangerous place to visit, but this incident and the weirdness of it is all it takes to stop my visits. I will miss the symphony, the Trail Blazers and some great places to eat, but Portland has shown it is no longer a safe and pleasant place to visit. (...and other responses..)
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Pretty sure the MAGA hat guy is being charged for inciting violence.
 
UncleCliffy'sDaddy said:
But the greens were almost perfect. It’s like they said “fuck the fairways” and put all the time and effort into the greens. Cuz yes, those fairways were almost comically brutal.
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and they were inexpensive! Compared to others
 
jonnyboy said:
Me and my friends used to ride tri-met all over the place as early as 5th or 6th grade. I can’t imagine they let kids that young on the bus unsupervised anymore. In high school we’d ride the bus downtown with our skateboards, find a bum to buy us beer and tear up the town. Go from spot to spot skating until we got kicked out. Hit the head shops and smoke weed in the bushes or in parking garages. Never ran into any serious problems. Never got mugged or beat up. Met a lot of cool and interesting people. I’m sure it’s not much worse now days as long as you steer clear of downtown when the dipshits are congregating. Portland is a great town. I’ve been to nearly every major city in the western US and there are A LOT worse places than Portland.
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There was no Tri Met when I was a kid. We had Rose City Transit. You could ride anywhere for 15¢, 25¢ if you were over 12.
 
Portland has some shit to figure out, no doubt about it.
Not sure its any more violent here though.
I don't generally feel threatened when I'm out and about, but I'm a big guy.
 
Lanny said:
No, but I spent a good part of my life fishing and harassing critters in the Tryon Creek area. That was before Tryon Creek was a state park. Followed the creek down from a a trail head at 4th and about E down to the creek and then sloshed through the creek down until I went under State street and almost but not quite to the Willamette River. Also fished in Sucker Creek and Oswego Lake back when the lake was cleaner than it is today. Caught a lot of fresh water perch in the lake. Caught very little in either Tryon Creek or Sucker Creek. I'd rate Sucker Creek as slightly more productive than Tryon Creek. Caught a blue gill somewhere in one of those three places and a catfish behind the Dairy Maid. The Dairy Maid and the Pinafore were owned by my friend's father who was once the mayor of Oswego, Mr. Needham.

I used to go in and out of bars and taverns along State Street selling newspapers, these included the Pinafore, the Beachcomber, the Cove and directly outside of the Piggly Wiggly on the sidewalk. I also serviced the paper machines. I mostly sold the Oregonian blue streak but I recall a green streak and a red streak and have a foggy memory of a yellow streak although I could very well be wrong about the yellow. The streaks indicated the time of day that the paper was issued. The blue streak was the late afternoon one.

My favorite pass time was swimming in the lake at the Oswego public pool. At that time there was also a pay pool very near the public pool and that was where our Olympic champion spent his time honing his swimming skills. He set a record for the most gold medals in the Olympics at the time. His mom was a substitute teacher at Oswego high school. She used to buy him "Tigers Milk" at the health food store between A and B on first street.

I know a lot of history about Oswego throughout the 50s. My mom was socially active helping start both the annual water festival and the civic theater which opened with Harvey which I went to see. Boring as hell for a little boy. She also thought up an advertising scheme which she named "Pennies From Heaven". She had a girlfriend who owned a small plane. She got coupons from most of the merchants and weighted down small paper parachutes containing the coupons with pennies. Us kids ran all over town grabbing the pennies and leaving the coupons on the ground. Great idea but she didn't plan on that snag.

My aunt and uncle and their two children, my cousins, lived in a house on the corner of 4th and C. Today there is a park there.

I had a best friend who moved to Palisades in about 1957 or 58 and left me heart broken. His parents were bad alcoholics although wealthy and he was very embarrassed by them. I came from a poor family so we had black spots that were difficult to accept and it made it possible for us to support each other. I'd love to look him up today. He's the one that tutored me in mathematics which became my primary interest for the rest of my life. I've had more mathematics than almost anyone you know. Got a 154 on my math IQ and I owe it all to Billy. Last I heard he was a tennis pro. Very athletic but small kid. Great swimmer too.

After Billy, I took up with Jerry. Jerry wasn't a good student but very athletic and larger than average size. Jerry eventually went into the Navy and became his fleet boxing champion in his weight class which must have been somewhere near heavy weight.
I miss those guys.
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@Lanny I was talking with someone the other day and I swear there used to be a little ice cream shop near the Lake Theater - like you could walk up to a window and order. Not the Creamery nearby, but right on State Street. Am I making that up?
 
jonnyboy said:
I’m sure it’s not much worse now days as long as you steer clear of downtown when the dipshits are congregating. Portland is a great town. I’ve been to nearly every major city in the western US and there are A LOT worse places than Portland.
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Of course there are. But it is sure as $hit not the same. The wild things are way different these days, it's like mad Max out there. Trust me I'm downtown every day. My buddy from Seattle is like wow the people of the streets down here are on a different level.
 
calvin natt said:
@Lanny I was talking with someone the other day and I swear there used to be a little ice cream shop near the Lake Theater - like you could walk up to a window and order. Not the Creamery nearby, but right on State Street. Am I making that up?
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No, all you say is true. It was called the Dairy Maid and it was owned by my friend's father who also owned the nearby Pinafore restaurant and was a one time mayor of Oswego. I've stopped by many times. I never had the 25¢ that you needed for a hot dog but you could get the hot dog without the bun for 15¢. Use to fish and swim occasionally right behind it.
 
HailBlazers said:
Of course there are. But it is sure as $hit not the same. The wild things are way different these days, it's like mad Max out there. Trust me I'm downtown every day. My buddy from Seattle is like wow the people of the streets down here are on a different level.
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Damn. Yeah I wouldn’t know I haven’t been down there in awhile.
 
calvin natt said:
@Lanny I was talking with someone the other day and I swear there used to be a little ice cream shop near the Lake Theater - like you could walk up to a window and order. Not the Creamery nearby, but right on State Street. Am I making that up?
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The Dairy Maid, right where Millennial Park is now.
 
Lanny said:
No, all you say is true. It was called the Dairy Maid and it was owned by my friend's father who also owned the nearby Pinafore restaurant and was a one time mayor of Oswego. I've stopped by many times. I never had the 25¢ that you needed for a hot dog but you could get the hot dog without the bun for 15¢. Use to fish and swim occasionally right behind it.
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Damn I knew I wasn’t crazy. I was about 11 when I moved from LO to California. Now I’m back.
 
HailBlazers said:
Of course there are. But it is sure as $hit not the same. The wild things are way different these days, it's like mad Max out there. Trust me I'm downtown every day. My buddy from Seattle is like wow the people of the streets down here are on a different level.
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Maybe its because I grew up spending a lotnof time in down town, but Downtown portland seems a lot less weird to me than Downtown seattle. Downtown Seattle at night is a weird place to be...
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
Maybe its because I grew up spending a lotnof time in down town, but Downtown portland seems a lot less weird to me than Downtown seattle. Downtown Seattle at night is a weird place to be...
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The crazy thing is... Portland is scarier during the day than at night. Go figure.
 
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