Comments

1
thank you.
2
Wrong. This is clearly the death knell of the entire Pacific Northwest.
3
What if all the carts literally joined together, forming Super Cartbot. And with its 12 long legs, Super Cartbot crawled up and down the streets (cars can drive under), occasionally plunking down in an empty parking lot for a few hours. And people could follow Super Cartbot on Twitter!!
4
"The culture is made up of people who want to do cool things and find ways to do them."

Yes, but part of that is the ability for people to find good, cheap-ish space to do cool things. Cartopia wouldn't have worked at 122nd and Stark because it was too far out. And it can't work with very large rents. Part of the reasons cart pods proliferated was because of excess cheap space in the city. And as Portland increases population/rents, inevitably these opportunities disappear.

Cities change, and I'm not shedding too many tears over the lot. But you shouldn't discount the idea that creative people need cheap spaces to live (rent is affordable when working part time, leaving lots of time for passion projects) and cool projects need cheap spaces to flourish (weird ideas can't afford large rents).

Inevitably, this sort of population growth will push the fringe spaces further out. Or to other cities. It was kinda magic that we could have spots like Cartopia less than a mile from downtown, and we all knew it couldn't last forever.
5
Could not agree more. It'll be sad to see it go, but the whole point of food carts is that it was a creative way to use ugly, empty space. Shit, there's a huge, ugly empty lot on E Burnside & 19th -- move there!
6
WHATEVER MAN THIS IS TOTALLY KILLING THAT TOTALLY RAD DIY HIPPIE TATTOO AWESOME INDIE VIBE THAT HAWTHORNE HASN'T HAD FOR 20 YEARS
7
"Cities change, and I'm not shedding too many tears over the lot. But you shouldn't discount the idea that creative people need cheap spaces to live (rent is affordable when working part time, leaving lots of time for passion projects) and cool projects need cheap spaces to flourish (weird ideas can't afford large rents)."

Move to Detroit. I hear it's pretty cheap there.
Here's the deal, Portland was a cheap blue collar city with mountains and cool stuff nearby. People were like "man that looks good, climate is mild and the politics are kind of liberal" and then they moved here. And then their friends, and then their family and then their family's friends and then property prices went up because Portland became desirable. This is what happens when a city is over-hyped and maybe like 20 years down the line it will be cheap again but it isn't happening any time soon. Because that mythology about Portland being all artsy and cool is false. It hasn't been that way for 20 years. Fuck, people were complaining about the direction Hawthorne was going in 1995.

One thing? Apartments and houses in NW and parts of Hawthorne already rent and sell for more than similar places around Capitol Hill in Seattle. We have made it. My friends are paying $400 less a month than we are.

Those artsy people are going to have to go make somewhere else their little secret now, until they make the next place shiny and overpriced. It's the circllleee, the circllee of life.
8
You don't get to write two long paragraphs and then start your third by saying "One thing." You've already said several things.
9
I'm gonna be all like, "Yeah. I was eating Whiffies back when it was in the ORIGINAL spot in Cartopia. Yeah. That was before you moved here. You wouldn't know what it was like."
10
Has the Merc talked to the cart owners about their future plans? I haven't seen anything yet.
11
Part of what keeps rent cheap is a good supply of housing. I like having an affordable place to live. Sure would be nice if other people could too. More housing helps keep this city affordable to the various weirdos that make it fun and infuriating. People need places to live. More people means we need to build more places for them to live too.
12
Dude naw, have you seen what the new apartments are going for? Some idiot actually rented a 1500 sq ft townhouse down the road for $3,300 a month. Any new builds are going to be $2 or more a sq ft the closer you get in and older buildings are going to catch up. From what I understand the City either can't implement or isn't interested in rent control.
13
Oh, hey, Alex Falcone, you are a bad writer.
14
The cheap space thing worked pretty well for pop-up businesses until recently, too. The Friends of the Multnomah County Library had an awesome used book store on NW 23rd until the owner decided the economy had turned around enuf to sell the space. But then, Music Millennium was still on 23rd at that time as well. Guess you gotta be a Pottery Barn, a Starbucks, or a condo developer to make it today. Still, the cart pods had a good run; it couldn't last. And I would not have wanted to be a restaurant owner, paying a lease and trying to compete with these guys.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.