I've gone through periods of months at a time when I don't leave my little Southeast Portland rectangle of house/grocery store/gym/coffeehouse. What, there's a river running through the middle of this town? There are streets full of office buildings, rehab clinics, boutiques and playgrounds? I've been traveling into the forgotten realm of downtown quite frequently over the last few weeks and finally remembered to bring my camera today. Next week I'll be down in the thick of it, the gentrification goo that puts the office of the homeless paper I'll be doing a writing workshop at along with a low-income housing apartment across the street from a Southeast Asian antiques shop and an expensive size 0-4 kind of clothing store. Oh, plus the leather bar next door and the Chinese Gardens and Port of Portland office building all within a block. Really, it's this moment I like best, the point where a swirl of different classes come together. Now if only this moment didn't come with the anxiety of knowing that rents will be soon be on the rise and the streets that were once home to the poor will soon become inhospitable, kicked out of their own little Old Town rectangle.