Darkest Suburbia...and Beyond!

The city of Portland has chopped a chunk out of the center left turn lane on my street, and appears to be in the process of building a pedestrian island/crosswalk smack in front of my small apartment complex.

You would think this was utterly logical; the road is extremely busy, and the nearest safe pedestrian crossings are some distance away (over 1/4 mile east, around twice that to the west) .  And as a non-driver, I very much approve of making it safer to cross the road to get to the bus stop.  However....

The island is being sited with surgical precision at the worst possible spot for the residents of my apartment complex and the one next door.  It's going to be difficult to impossible for drivers coming into my parking lot from the west to turn in, and equally challenging for drivers coming out of the (much larger) complex next door to turn left across traffic.

Amusingly, there is a side street coming into the main road just west of my complex (almost straight across from the driveway of the complex next door).  You'd think that the logical thing to do would be to put a traffic light at that intersection -- which is, as it happens, about half way between the two nearest traffic lights.  This logic, however, seems to have eluded the Powers That Be.

Clearly it's too late to mount a protest, but I think I'll be making some more calls anyway.  (I phoned two different city offices yesterday afternoon trying to get someone to confirm what the construction project was; so far, no one's phoned back.)

Placard spotted at the coffee counter at Rose's Restaurant & Bakery in Hillsboro, Oregon:


Unattended Children Will Be Given
An Espresso And A Free Puppy

Portland, for those not in the area, has a large river running right through downtown.  And even as I type, the noon news reports that we have pirate ships sailing upriver, preparing to fire cannon (at 2pm PDT or thereabouts) and send troops of pirates scurrying through the streets hunting for booty.

(One of the ships is the Lady Washington, last seen by many in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film; the other is apparently called the Hawaii Chieftain.  This is part of the local Rose Festival summer festival....)