Will Get Fooled Again

Willamette Week, May 19, 2016.

I take Uber home a lot, but most mornings I commute to work by walking and public transit. Part of the payment for an Uber ride is an attempt to be sociable to the driver. I'm fine with that at the end of the work day, but in the morning I'm usually into my own thoughts, preparing the agenda of the day's work in my mind.

Sometimes in the morning I walk the entire way from East Burnside to Albina. Other times I take the bus part of the way down to the foot of Burnside by the river, and then I either catch the Portland Streetcar north, or more typically I just walk the rest of the way, or even catch the light rail to cobble together a very diverse transit experience. My walking route near the river often takes me right over the grounds of the Moda Center, to which I'm come to have a special affinity this spring.


The Moda Center (formerly the Rose Garden---probably it will be called that again some day)  is specifically about the overthrow of dynasties, in an explicit sense that is very Portland. I say this because out front is a huge metalwork sculpture of a fallen crown.  

This is where kings are deposed.