Surf's up!
Hey, let's go swimming in the Willamette in downtown Portland. The water's fine! What could go wrong?
| Posted at 9:44 AM | Permalink |
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on July 13, 2012 9:44 AM.
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Comments (12)
Chicago has North Avenue Beach, which is right in the center of the city and a lot of fun. No one goes in the water.
Posted by Justin Morton | July 13, 2012 9:53 AM
I did see a guy in just a Speedo and swim cap swimming in January under the interstate bridge three years ago. True story.
Posted by Tom | July 13, 2012 10:07 AM
Watch out for all types of logs floating by.
Posted by reader | July 13, 2012 10:59 AM
Dude, you're already paying for it (with your sewer charges for the projects that have made the water cleaner), so might as well take advantage. Mayor Creepy can pump in some techno and round up some young boys, pretend it's Ibiza and host circuit parties. We're well on our way to mimicking Barcelona and the coast of Spain in every other way, including 25% unemployment, and the money's already gone, so if we're going down anyways why just drink the Kool-aid when we can host our very own Jim Jones party, right?
Posted by This boat has sailed | July 13, 2012 10:59 AM
Anybody remember the caimain that the police claimed was roaming the Willamette fifteen years ago? Well, the police never found it (first searching to kill it, and then searching to prevent it from drowning in cold weather), so it could STILL BE OUT THERE! Duhn duhn duhn! This means we have only one thing to do: film this whole event and sell the footage to SyFy. I even have a title: "Caimanoid vs. Hipster".
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | July 13, 2012 11:28 AM
Who knows? Maybe we're ready for that kind of thing again. Didn't you run a link to the bit about a fancy public beach in Oak Grove or somewhere, back in the day?
Barges and log rafts aren't as numerous up here as they used to be. With Ross Island mining closing and Zidell no longer scrapping there, it might be reasonable. Those things go slow, but swimmers go slower and could be invisible to the pilot. They deal with it OK out at Hood River, as far as I know.
Then again, the Willamette of the past was famous for big snags rocketing through 2' below the surface and invisible due to muddiness. Getting bumped and dragged by one of those? Not fun to any normally wired person and too frequently fatal. I'd want to know that had gotten a good deal rarer than it used to be.
Posted by dyspeptic | July 13, 2012 12:17 PM
Dookie...Dookie in the river.
Nah no thanks.
Posted by BOBO | July 13, 2012 12:59 PM
My idea of fun. A beach covered in gooey gobs of goose guano.
Posted by PDXLifer | July 13, 2012 1:37 PM
We could be the Salton Sea of the Northwest...
Posted by Tim | July 13, 2012 1:54 PM
Anyone speak fish? Lamprey? These populations could provide an earful, anyone listening?
Posted by sheila | July 13, 2012 2:01 PM
If the water quality has improved, why not? Most cities do have river beach fronts.
Posted by talea | July 13, 2012 7:10 PM
Most cities do have river beach fronts.
Yes, but Seattle had the choice of putting the beach on EITHER the Duwamish River OR Alki Point on Puget Sound. They chose wisely.
Tacoma had the choice of putting the beach on EITHER the Thea Foss Waterway or way out on the Sound. They chose wisely.
Portland is choosing the unwise path. There's already a beach at Kelly Point Park. There's a beach at Rooster Rock, several on Sauvie Island, and one at the Gleason Boat Ramp near PDX. There are beaches on Government Island (if you have a boat to get to it.) There's a beach at Chinook Landing.
Why does downtown need a beach? Oh, yes, to fit King Sam's ginormous ego boost. I need a better reason than to make King Sam happy.
Posted by Erik H. | July 14, 2012 7:02 AM