Since it’s the city we live in, the people we love and the air we breathe, Portlanders have normalized some things that are, perhaps, not so normal.
Most cities don’t make their dying zombie malls into multiyear DIY art fairs, like what happened at Lloyd Center. When said mall is then scheduled for demolition, most cities don’t tie up City Hall for days to testify in protest or even sing a little Joni Mitchell about how “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” Most cities don’t have one, let alone two, World Naked Bike Rides, a feat that made national news this weekend.
All three of these occurrences—the art fair, the protest, the nude bicycling—came together in total harmony on Aug. 8, Lloyd Center’s last day open to the public. The World Naked Bike Ride zipped around the mall’s parking garages with enthusiasm, if not one cohesive political message. (In a preride statement, the organizers raged on social media against the following: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the police, private equity, Zenith Energy, the Moda Center renovation, President Donald Trump and, eventually, the destruction of “our beloved Lloyd Center.”)
The 1960 mall was packed all day long with people eating a last handful of Joe Brown’s Carmel Corn or taking a spin on the ice rink, though the ice was so crowded that it was tough to skate much more than a shuffle. Ironic, given that if all these people had been shopping at Lloyd Center all along, the place wouldn’t be about to meet the wrecking ball…