As the city that is renowned for it’s $35 art tax for anyone that earns over $1000, you would think that Portland would at least have its streets in good order. However, as you’ve already seen, there are some gaping potholes beginning to show through the asphalt.

Of course potholes develop from time to time, especially in Portland due to the climate. But these are clearly very big and could do quite a lot of damage to your tyres when driving.

The images clearly show exposed cobbled streets and metal, which is pretty much the last thing that you want 2023 rubber to be exposed to. Instead of taking this up, the city thought the best idea would just be to completely pave over it. Whilst this is a good plan if you’re going to maintain the streets efficiently, it is a different story when 2 foot potholes begin to show through.

Clearly this was a much more inexpensive way to paper over the cracks at the time. However, we are now going to pay the full price of this blinkered decision.

The car industry was largely responsible for the displacement of streetcars. Before the 1920’s cars were fairly unaffordable for the average American which began to change when the likes of General Motors were able to mass produce vehicles and sell them to the public. As you know, when people own their own vehicle, they are much less likely to use public transport, which led to the decline of streetcar popularity.

As you can see, the 1920’s in Portland was a much simpler time and could be mistaken for a town in Europe if you didn’t know what you were viewing. At it’s peak, this was a network that spanned over 35 different routes. Whilst the streetcar does look beautiful, these days we are more concerned with maintainence costs, practicality and the amount of people using the service. Obviously it was removed for good reason in the first place. Although, who knows? Maybe we could see a return of this service in the not too distant future.

Regardless, for now, it would be best if Portland City council actually covered up these potholes with the tax money they take. This would be the least residents deserve.