Vancouver parking meter = Brilliance!

Posted by random olio

Vancouver has inspired me. The first one hit not even thirty minutes after we set foot on Canadian soil. We were starving, and so stopped off for some brunch before embarking on our list of adventures. We parallel park the car (well Chris does) and get out to pay the meter before looking at each other and realizing we do not have any Canadian change. Crap, what are we going to do? I say maybe we can ask the restaurant to give us some change and they can then charge it to our bill. We stand there for a bit and wonder if that is going to work.

Then we realize that the meter says pay by phone. Huh. How does that work? I have to pee though, so I leave Chris to get us a table and relieve myself of hours of sips of sparkling water. I find us a table, and wait for Chris to join me. When he comes in to meet me he states that all you have to do is create an account over the phone, give them your credit card and the number of the meter, and enter the amount of time you want to charge to your card.

Brilliant. Really, why do more cities not handle parking in this way? We find out later that once you have set up your account, then subsequent times you park, you just call the number and enter the meter number. It will recognize you by your phone number. I think of how many times I have stood in the pouring rain in Portland and would have gladly gone to the meter taken note of the meter number and then found my way to a dry spot to feed my meter.

The plot thickens and only gets better.

Yes. After ingesting eggs and coffee, Chris received a text message alerting him that his meter was about to expire and he could call or go to their website to add more time to his meter. That is service! To know that I would not have to go back to my car to put more time on the meter. I could stay at the salon, show, store, wherever I was and pull out my phone to pay for more time. I wonder what I have to do to get Portland on board with this clever way to pay for parking.

Does anyone know of any other cities that have this type of parking system?

A makeover for him, a change of thought for me

Posted by random olio

Life is always full of surprises. At times there are moments that catch us off guard, and a shift happens in our thought. That happened to me after watching this video. A bit of background and some honest transparency. Portland has a high volume of homeless people. Over time it is very easy to be desensitized. After seeing individuals or families asking for money at many intersections you begin to stop seeing them, and honestly you begin to stop trusting that they really are homeless.

I remember living in a neighborhood in downtown Portland a few years ago. An elderly woman would always stand outside of Whole Foods and beg for money. She did not really look that homeless, more just old. She was persistent, and I began to wonder if she was really homeless. A long time later (after we moved to the burbs) I was talking with friends about that neighborhood, and this woman was discussed. A friend said they knew the older woman’s family, and she was not at all homeless. Does that explain the trust issue?

So when I saw this video transformation it brought tears to my eyes. It reminded me that regardless of trust, honesty, or our lot in life we are all still just people. We all still want to be loved, feel like we belong, and have a purpose. It has opened my thought to remember that regardless of what we have each been through, we all deserve to be treated with respect. We do not always know another’s story. While we do not always have to respond with money, we can respond with kindness, prayer, and maybe sometimes bring them food. I hope his transformation impacts you as much as it did me.

Apply to college to graduate high school

Posted by random olio

One day last week, not long after I arrived at work, a story came on the television that airs the news or sports game in my team’s workspace. They mentioned a high school in Oregon that requires students to apply to college in order to graduate from high school. A few of us that were working away look up to the screen and want to more about the story. Why? Because the school was near us in Portland. I was intrigued. A high school in the Columbia River Gorge (about and hour east of Portland) in the Corbett School District may mandate this ruling for graduation. They want to make sure that students have options for their future. It made me wonder, do some students not know how, or have the support to apply to college, so they just do not even try?

I can remember in high school struggling to figure out the matrix of applying to colleges. For a few reasons. My mom had passed on 1.5 years before and she would have most likely helped me (or so I think). My dad was not really involved in my life at that time. I also did not have the money to send away to a bunch of colleges and universities in the form of an application fee. I had no idea what I wanted to do after college, or what type of school I wanted to go to. So what did I do? I applied to a few local colleges that had no application fee, and I applied to a university affiliated with my high school (again no application fee) to see if I would get in and potentially they could help me with financial aid. Did I really look at my options? No. Did anyone really help me? No. It was in my high school’s best interest for me to get into the affiliated college. They did next to nothing to help me find a school based on my interests. I am not sure the career office even checked in with us to see if we had applied anywhere.

What happened to me? I went to the college affiliated with my high school. I was actually fortunate to receive a large financial aid package based on my family situation. Do I regret it? Yes, and no. I received a good education, but half way through college I wondered what direction my life would have taken if someone had helped me to select a college that was just right for me. Even if it was in the middle of Montana. I worked hard, got good grades, learned a lot, but I often wonder what might life could have looked like with just a bit of guidance.

Oh and in case you are wondering. The Corbett School District indicates that this new requirement would mean that students have to get into a secondary school, however, just because they are accepted, does not mean that they actually have to go. The school will also help to pay for any application fees incurred. So students would learn about themselves along the way, and who knows maybe there are millions of individuals out there that never went to college because there was no one to help them navigate the landscape. Maybe this requirement will set expectations for students to work hard and try to get into college, and maybe their life will be changed because of it. Oh, and by the way, this high school was ranked the fifth best in the nation by Newsweek in 2010, so maybe they are on the right path.

Further reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/12/corbett-graduation-requirement_n_4088775.html

PDX: my art home

Posted by random olio

Portland has my heart. Other than the small Indiana town I grew up in, Portland is the only other place I have lived for at least a decade of my life. From the ages of 15 to 25 I lived in a few different states while living away from home in high school, college, and my first few professional years. I never had a gut instinct of where I wanted to live my life, there was no city or town that captivated me. I can remember friends in college that could not wait to move to Seattle, LA, or New York. Not me, there was no place that I knew I would call home.

Portland is home now. Every time Chris and I travel, we exhale and breathe ahhh when we arrive back on NW soil. We are endeared by the creative food (not that we always partake, ahem, bone marrow on toast, elk tongue with beetroot, blue rabbit with acorn dumplings), the interesting people, the weather. Yes, we even do not mind the nine months of rain. One of our favorite things about Portland is the art. Last week I learned about a cool event called: Forest for the Trees, which is coming to PDX August 19 – 25, and includes artists from all over the world. It is a public mural project, allowing artists to collaborate for a week via outdoor murals. I am all for it. I can think of quite a few buildings that could use some lovin!

Be sure to check out the blog on their website. The artists have teamed up with a variety of companies to showcase their art. You’ll see videos from the artists mentioning creative sustainability, energy in old wood, and being conscious of your social environment. Another check mark on my list of all the things I love about Portland. I am looking forward to checking out the work that comes out of this week!

How much would you pay for a parking space?

Posted by random olio

Chris and I used to live in Boston, where parking spaces would sell for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Renting an apartment was expensive enough, not to mention finding a parking space when you did not own one. Now that I live in the Pacific Northwest, even the process of renting an apartment is different. Ten years ago when we lived in Boston, you would have to give a landlord the first month of rent, last month, sometimes a security deposit, and a realtor fee. If the apartment was $1000 a month (which was definitely on the low side) that would mean $4000. A lot of money just to move into a place. Yes, $3000 was investing in your future, but the $1000 to the realtor was lost.

All cities are different. No rental process is alike in each city. Portland has nothing on Boston. Which I appreciate. When we moved to Portland, we thought, oh we just need to have the cash to move in, instead Portland is very particular in a different way. Landlords in Portland want to ensure that you have a job and you can prove your monthly income. It makes sense due to the high homeless population. Landlords want to know you will continue to be able to pay your rent. I understand that completely, but it is just so different from Boston.

Portlanders complain about finding parking spaces, just like any other city, but I know Portland does not have quite the market on parking spaces that Boston or New York have. I recently read an article that discusses the IRS auctioning off two parking spaces in Boston for a man who owed back taxes. The parking spaces sold for $560,000. It is shocking to think how much someone paid for a parking space, especially since it is much, much more than many pay for their homes.

How much would you pay to own a parking space?