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**This is a public service announcement about a health hazard plaguing the streets of Portland.**

It might have been early training navigating around the copious amounts of merde on the streets of Paris, France, but I tend to look down when walking the streets and sidewalks of Portland. Usually what I see is fairly innocuous: lots of empty Newport cigarette packs, crumpled potato chip bags, a sad used condom or so, badly written love letters, a lost earring or the occasional nickel, dime or quarter seem to be typical sidewalk findings. I once even found a roll of bills that added up close to fifty dollars.

Recently however, I’ve been noticing lots of hypodermic needles, especially in downtown and around the fringes of Northwest Portland. Yesterday I spotted one next to the dumpster behind the Panda Express on W. Burnside where I park my car in the morning while getting coffee at Coffeehouse Northwest. Last week I spotted two used needles on SW 4th and Stark at the bus stop. Today, this lone capped specimen was seen on the busy sidewalk at the corner of SW Washington and Park.

Any ideas if there is an increase in intravenous drug use happening, or am I just noticing it more?
Also, what should I do when I find these needles? Should I pick them up and throw them away, or is there a standard way I am supposed to dispose of them?

Last night, Portland filmmaker Ivy Lin showed her documentary Pig Roast and a Tank of Fish at the Someday Lounge on NW 5th and Couch. The film looks at the rich history of Portland’s Chinatown. From rough and tumble beginnings, through an era of thriving business and a large ethnic residential district, to the present day of surface parking lots, empty storefronts and the shift of the Chinese and other Asian communities to more far flung neighborhoods like outer SE Portland and Beaverton, the film’s main focus is to look at where Chinatown has been and why this area remains important to the city.

“Pig Roast & Tank of Fish” trailer from Ivy Lin on Vimeo.

It is a timely film. Portland’s beleaguered Chinatown could be headed for a rapid revitalization in the next few years. Recently, Japanese supermarket giant Uwajimaya announced they are looking to potentially develop a large mixed use grocery, mixed income housing and food court complex on the block between 4th and 5th/Couch and Davis. This month, Andy Ricker of Pok-Pok eatery fame announced he was opening a new Asian restaurant in the former dive-bar space of Hung Far Low on NW 4th. But there is also the continuing flight of the Chinese community out of the area - with more restaurants closing than opening and many formerly Chinese owned buildings being sold to white dudes in suits. Also, let us not forget the beheaded dragon statue debacle as well as the conflicts of the homeless access center and the 4th Ave. Caesar Chavez rename proposal that caused many in the Chinese community to say, in essence, “no way.” (more…)

At first I thought it might just be my bad transit luck (or karma). Is it me, or are the clunky ticket machines along the MAX Line — especially the ones downtown and near Lloyd Center — broken more often than not? Turns out other people have noticed as well, including the always observant Jack Bogdanski. Jack was so ticked he even wrote the TriMet Board of Directors. And Alan Cordle had a similar experiences last week and wrote about it on his blog.

It’s becoming a regular annoyance for many of us.

My recent ticket machine sob story is this: I usually buy a monthly pass, but have been traveling a lot this summer so purchasing one doesn’t make sense right now. But one evening last week I didn’t have any change and was out of bus tickets. I had to walk from SW 10th all the way to SW 3rd to find a ticket machine that would work. And I still couldn’t find one that would take my bank card. The legions of frustrated and confused riders, and especially tourists, desperately trying to get a ticket before the MAX trains took off was amusing, but I felt their pain. I missed two trains in the time it took me to get mine.

I really hope this isn’t a trend among TriMet, or a whiff of budget cut ramifications to come. Come on TriMet, this is the “city that works” and is the envy of the country with our well regarded transit system. Broken ticket machines in heavily used and visited areas is certainly not how we want visitors to our city to experience Portland, not to mention daily riders who just want to do the right thing by paying and getting where they need to go. TriMet, if you want to discourage people not paying on MAX I would suggest you replace those machines, pronto. You can do it. If you can create one of the most useful and user friendly online transit trackers in the nation (my iPhone+transit tracker = love), then you can certainly replace a bunch of old broken machines.

And what’s up with all the dollar coin change in return? I feel like a gypsy tambourine player jingling jangling up and down the street with the $17.00+ worth of coins spit back out at me after I purchased my two-zone, two-hour pass.