Crazy corner

Big Pink from Burnside & Broadway, skid row central in downtown Portland.

Eureka! I was straightening this photo when my hand slipped and a crazy tilt was the result.

The resulting image expresses the off-balance feeling I have whenever I cross the street here on my way to mass, surrounded by people talking to themselves, people shouting obscenities, people stinking of alcohol and unwashed clothes and bodies, people panhandling, people pushing carts laden with what looks like garbage. It's not a comfortable place for an older woman by herself, just trying to get to church.

This corner is a few blocks from a homeless camp that is threatening to move quite near my home. I'm opposed to this, concerned for my safety and the loss of the freedom I now enjoy in the streets and parks of my neighborhood, which is the reason I moved there.

Allen Classen, editor and publisher of the NW Examiner, a free monthly newspaper of excellent quality, wrote an editorial that expresses my thought well. He said:

"Because a person is homeless, we have accepted the claim that he or she is entitled to be anywhere in the public domain, whether sleeping on a park bench, camping on the sidewalk, or panhandling at store entries. A shopping cart piled high with 'possessions' on the sidewalk is virtually sacrosanct.

As a result, something dear to society is lost: the safety and vitality of the public commons. When citizens feel too threatened or uncomfortable to walk about the central city, when women are afraid to shop or sit alone on a public bench, and when businesses lose large numbers of customers who choose not to put up with the hassle, our city ceases to function as it should or as we need it to.

Insisting that the destitute have the right to camp at the steps of our treasured landmarks and public buildings and accost shoppers on downtown streets has made our city so much less than it can be. It has also worn thin our sympathy for the homeless."

You can see from the street trees, the view of Big Pink (one of Portland's most successful examples of modern architecture), and the antique street lamps that this corner could be a beautiful place to wait for the light to change. But as it is, it makes me wary.

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NaNoWriMo report: It's half over! And I am making significant progress. 17,000 words altogether. I began in stuckness and skepticism, but the story is starting to flow and I'm having fun. Hugely grateful for your support!!!

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SPOON(S) is today's DDW challenge topic.

I wrote 2,200 words today! Therefore I cannot be held respoonsible for straying from the topic. A little spoontaneity was needed. Is that so kookie? Remember that a spoonful of sugar makes the challenge respoonse go down. Or does it have to be spoon-fed?