You may remember my last illustrious mention ^[1] in TheO. Well this morning Miss Amy at the Mercury passed on a story about SE 82nd Ave ^[2] (no, I won’t call it the other thing). Basically this article is talking about all the things on 82nd that are happening and improving and getting better. Yes, there’s still a few strip clubs. Yes, there’s still a LOT of car lots. Yes, there’s still that place that’s porn in front and escorts in the back. But there’s also Fubonn and the glorious new PCC SE Center.

But that’s not what TheO would have you believe. Here’s the last bit of the article:

But the efforts, rosy and otherwise, may fall flat for naysayers such as local blogger Banana Lee Fishbones, who dubbed the City Council’s 2005 resolution to nickname 82nd Avenue the “Avenue of Roses,” “putting lipstick on a pig.”

Turner has heard the sentiment before.

“It doesn’t make any difference what we do for some people; they’ll never get over their ideas of 82nd Avenue.”

So I get called out for something I said in a comment on a post ^[3] that dieselboi actually authored. My next sentence was this: Maybe asking the people who live there what could be done would be a better use of their resources.

And if that one comment from FIFTEEN MONTHS AGO is a legitimate part of the conversation today, then I submit the following:

* Commenter Atlas calls SE 82nd “that repulsive and horrid stretch of earth ^[4]”
* Rosarians do some gardening ^[5] which includes the aside “too bad the rose will probably be stolen and hawked for meth…”

So how come those are not valid comments to point out? Because they are from last year and not 2005? Because quoting “Banana Lee Fishbones” is more interesting than quoting “Dieselboi” or “Atlas”?

FOR THE RECORD: My “perception” of 82nd (since according to the article, “Perceptions of 82nd Avenue are key,”) is that it is a street. It’s not the nicest street to drive down, but it has some nice spots, like a lot of streets I drive down. I have nothing against 82nd. I certainly won’t be first in line to extol its virtues, but it’s a street. I don’t think it’s “scummy” like the commenter in the article getting on the bus, and I don’t think it is inherently unsafe, or I wouldn’t live as close to it as I do. However, I do think a lot of it could use a powerwash and a fresh coat of paint. You could say that about lots of parts of Portland though. Here’s what else I think: Spending a bunch of money on a bunch of signs to call 82nd something else and planting some flowers so people feel better about it may not be the best use of those resources. Why not do what you’ve done in other parts of town? Give new businesses tax breaks to move there, make deals on new construction, make it tempting to build a new thing on 82nd. If perceptions are so key, then let people perceive actual redevelopment instead of some signs and some landscaping.