Labor Day at Washington-Monroe

At the theater inside Washington-Monroe High School in Southeast Portland, where a thousand evacuees from New Orleans will soon arrive, a prop from a school play still sits on stage. It’s an archway that reads, “Atlantic City”.

In between bursts of scrubbing walls and mopping floors at the school on Monday, as part of a Red Cross volunteer effort to prepare the school for arriving evacuees, I sometimes would take a moment to cruise the corridors of this abandoned school that has been frozen in time. The lockers, the chalkboards, the long cafeteria counter: it seemed such a shame this ideally located high school in Southeast sits empty. But now Washington-Monroe High School is alive again, if only because of a tragedy some three thousand miles away.

The cots have been set out with a blanket. The dust and grime have been properly scrubbed and bleached away. But I think there’s a lot that our city’s architects and builders could still do.

Outside the school is a massive athletic field. How about if some group of you out there who know their way around a hammer and a 2x4 construct a modest play area for the kids that will be spending their days in this foreign place with their toys floating into the Gulf?

This idea need not extend only to the building community, but I’d love to see some resourceful soul rent a bus, pull up to Washington-Monroe, and say, “Who wants to visit Mt. Hood?” Not only have these people lost their homes, but many are poor and have never seen much of the world outside New Orleans.

Or what if one of our movie theater operators moved into that old school auditorium, the one with the leftover prop, and started showing movies? Maybe you could start with “The Big Easy” for old time’s sake.

Honestly I’m not the type of person who’s always first to volunteer when crisis comes, but luckily I was dragged to Washington-Monroe yesterday by my gallant girlfriend. And if I can don rubber gloves and scrub for a couple hours, I think so many more can do something to.

For many of the 1,000 evacuees arriving this week, this will be the only time they ever see Portland. The volunteers at Washington-Monroe have already hand-painted signs there welcoming the evacuees to Portland. But I say we should take it a few more steps. We can’t make these people forget they’ve lost their homes, but we can put a bit of a twinkle in their eye when they someday look back on Portland and all that the people there showed them and did for them.

Comments

[Valarie]

A neighbor of ours had an interesting idea. He said if we really do get 1000 evacuees, there are bound to be some good cooks in that mix. Could an entrepreneur gather a crew together to create some kind of restaurant, thus giving the evacuees real jobs and Portlanders a taste of Southern cooking?

[Justin]

It sure would be nice to have some nice southern cooking. Anyone have a house they could donate up in NE Portland to them?

[Dennis]

Why not open up the school cafeteria or a classroom or two and make temp. dining rooms and open a temporary restaurant open to the public?? Serve Southern Homestyle dinners. I will come from Seattle to eat. Maybe some will relocate here permanently and open a nice Southern Cooking establishment.

[Ryan]

I would hesitate to start asking them about the only stereotype we know about the Big Easy.

[ccl]

I am almost offended by this culinary cultural distinction between the Pacific NW and the deep South. True...the culinary expertise is exceptional especially compared to Portland's mismatch "pan-asian-pesche" cooking. Creating jobs for our new guests is a great idea, but lets not limit it to what we believe New Oleans to be. Like it or not, New Orleans is one of
America's glorious cities similar to NY, LA, Las Vegas, Miami, etc.. I personally have a great affection...New Orleans is my favorite city in America. Do we have anything named after Louis Armstrong? If you have not been to "Preservation Hall", you need to plan a trip when NO re-builds and visit it twice. We need to give and help re-build this cultural and architectural gem!! It furiates me that people are happy pointing fingers. Lets point fingers when the time comes. For now, lets help a city that was founded a century before the Wilamette valley was even discovered by modern Americans (even though it was inhabited centuries before)...even before the Declaration of Independence. Thank you Brian for taking the time to get out there and help out!

[ccl]

Expansion on what I previously said...My girlfriend, Sarah, put it perfectly, "You can do anthing in New Orleans. You can dance and sing in the middle of the street" (during the day), you can love, kiss...did I say dance and sing? New Orleans is what we all want to achieve as architects, planners, etc and rarely achieve (even to all you Pearl District and South Waterfront afficianados?!). New Orleans is a "CELEBRATION OF LIFE!!"...what architecture wants to be, but rarely is.

[hunter]

Too late. No one from New Orleans wants to come to Portland to cook you for you...

[Valarie]

Oh, please. I wasn't asking them to come and cook for me. It seemed like a possible way to help evacuees who are trying to get back on their feet, as suggested by a neighbor, whose wife and family are from Gulfport.

[MarkDaMan]

quote by ccl:
"New Orleans is what we all want to achieve as architects, planners, etc and rarely achieve (even to all you Pearl District and South Waterfront afficianados?!"

I found this in Phil Stanford's column today in the Tribune and thought it was interesting after reading that post...

Three weeks ago, P-town’s premier real estate developer Homer Williams (Pearl District, South Waterfront) got a phone call from a guy with a soft Southern accent, claiming to be C. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans. Naturally, Homer thought someone was pulling his leg, but he listened anyway. … “We’ve been watching what you’ve been doing up there in Portland,” said the man — who, as it turned out, was exactly who he said he was — “and we want you to come to New Orleans and do the same thing down here.” … Not that anyone’s blaming Homer for being skeptical at first, you understand. After all, it has been one heck of a week or two.