The People In My Neighborhood
Living in Portland Oregon makes me think a lot about mental health. Not just mine but those around me. You see I work in the heart of downtown Portland and spend my lunch hours walking up and down the Willamette River through a city park. Traveling through a public park is a lot like visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles. It is basically a conglomeration of everyone. For me the saddest part of the experience is viewing the vandalism and destruction left by people that don’t enjoy the park for the reasons it exists as a public gathering point. Portland has so much to be proud of yet unfortunately there is a small destructive element that that doesn’t share common values. Walking through the park is like walking through a healing wound. The scab can be ugly but it is a part of us and we can only hope when the wound heals and the scab falls away, what lies beneath will be better than what covered it. Portland is filled with homeless people. Their lives and what it does to the