Authorship

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Repeating Images: The Mayors of Portland

Combing through old photographs as I prepared to pack up my current abode, I came across this old picture of me and one of Portland's greatest mayors, Bud Clark. Mayor Clark, Whoop Whoop, was the mayor of my youth, from 1985 until 1992, shaping how I viewed this city.




While being photographed with a local politician/celebrity as a kid was pretty cool, something about this picture stood out. It was the book I held under my arm. 


Did anyone else notice this at the time? Certainly someone had to have made a comment, but of course, that is probably lost to the ages. Put a tall red cone on Mayor Clark's head and he looks just like David the Gnome! And to this day, I bet he could outfox any troll out there. 

But after Bud Clark, we hit the dark ages of Portland politics. The age of Vera Katz. 




Why she got a statue, and Bud Clark didn't, I will never know. I think Vera Katz can best be summed up by this piece of poster art that popped up around the city in the early part of her reign. An accompanying graffiti stencil soon followed.


As a side note, while I often like to crawl upon bronze statues, the Vera Katz statue creeps me out so much that I have a firm belief scares away herons from the Esplanade. It's that disturbing looking. 



If given the choice between gnomes and jokers, I would take a gnome any time. 

1 comment:

  1. I am sure this is not the comment you wanted, but here goes:

    "Awww Patrick! You are so cute! This is the kid I used to look after when school got out!"

    (I told you it wasn't the comment you wanted. However, it is true.)

    ReplyDelete