Occupy the Bus Stop

On Tuesday, at the bus stop, someone had posted three large flyers/posters (approximate size 18"x24").  They were glued to the glass of the bus shelter.  I can't recall seeing this method of posting flyers in Portland.  They are usually stapled onto utility poles.

The three posters were very artistic and well-designed.  All three are from the Occupy movement and you may have seen them around your neck of the woods.

• Poster 1: Rainbow starburst on one side with the text 'General Strike' in the middle.  The other side was black and white with a floral patterned background, and 3 mask faces above the words 'Occupy Jakarta'.  Something like this one:

• Poster 2: Colors of gold and brown on both sides.  One side said, 'Decolonize Wall Street' with a picture of a Native American.  The other side had a large leaf/flower/flame design.  There was more text on both sides, but mostly picture.  Kind of like these:

• Poster 3: The Occupied Wall Street Journal.  I didn't have time to read any of it, but I really like the message on the back side which said, 'The Revolution will not be branded but it will be beautiful.' I like the sentiment.  Here's what it looked like:

On the first two posters, the light shining through blended the images beautifully.  All three were very well-conceived and stylish.  I imagine that you have seen them around your own city or town or on the interwebs.

Today they had been torn down.  Probably not by Trimet, our transit authority, because the glass walls of the bus shelter had not been washed and the ragged remains of the posters were still there.  Whoever tore them down threw the paper on the ground.  What had been beautiful was now simply a mess.  A bigger mess than just leaving them on the bus shelter.  

What prompts a person to do that?  A sanctimonious feeling of righteousness?  Or did they disagree with the message?  I've seen plenty of people who have made it their mission to tear down posters on poles and they do have an air of outrage and smugness about them.  But the people I have seen doing that regard the posters as trash and they put them in a trash bag.  They don't throw them on the ground.  They see themselves as a litter patrol, working on urban beautification.  I realize that not everyone will have the same taste in art and design.  But, if you don't like it and you tear it down, don't throw it on the ground.  Put it in a trash can, you heathen, and don't make our beautiful city trashy.  

You know it wasn't part of the 1% out there eradicating all evidence of the Occupy Movement.  Some maladjusted, hostile, disenfranchised hater who doesn't have anything better to do than rip down posters...  that's just sad.

Downtown views

So, it's dark out there before 7am.  You may not have noticed that, since few people get up as early as I do.  Oh, I'm not complaining (much).  At least, not about your habit of sleeping later than me.  My point, and I do have one, is that it's hard to observe a lot of the changes that happen in our fair city when you can't see it because it's too dark.  Or too rainy.

However!  Traveling up the newly reformatted transit mall on the old Number 8, I can make out a few indistinct shapes in the gloom.  One thing I have seen and think is pretty cool is a coffee stand.  I can just hear you now ~ Wow! A coffee stand!  In Portland, of all places!  Ok, ok, quit with the sarcasm.  It's not that there is a coffee stand, it's the stand itself that caught my eye.

Do you remember those curvy, mushroom shaped bus shelters that spoke so eloquently of the '70's?

By the '90's, most were closed up and vandalized with just a few left functioning along the bus mall.  In the past decade they have almost all been replaced by the new variety of streamlined, hi-tech style bus shelters.

Well, along 5th Avenue, between Madison and Jefferson (I think) is one of the old bus shelters that has been converted to a coffee stand.  It looks quite cozy and cheerful!  The funny thing is, I think it was moved to this location expressly to be a coffee stand.  I don't think it was there before.  At any rate, I can't locate it on Google street view at its current location.  Interesting, no?  Yes, I thought so too.  This might need some further investigation!