{"id":908,"date":"2014-10-26T13:38:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T18:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/?p=908"},"modified":"2014-11-03T10:04:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T15:04:13","slug":"sustainable-aspects-and-parks-of-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/digital-computational-studies-2430-fall-2014\/public-space\/sustainable-aspects-and-parks-of-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainable Aspects (and Parks) of Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The data I collected during my transect walks reflects the sustainable aspects of Munjoy Hill and Deering Oaks Park. I paid attention to gardens, composting bins, recycle bins, trash bins, and solar panels (along with some other observations). Though, it was interesting to see that a few buildings actually did have solar panels, overall there were not many \u201cgreen\u201d indicators throughout Munjoy Hill. In fact, I did not see one recycle\u00a0bin\u00a0anywhere in Portland!<\/p>\n

When I interviewed for mental maps, the barista at Coffee By Design mentioned Portland’s composting system and while I was visiting a bakery, there was publicity for the composting system as well. However, it was challenging to note which houses actually recycled or composted since I walked around on a Sunday and both are collected on Tuesdays. It would be interesting to see how many people actually compost since\u00a0my data does not\u00a0accurately reflect the people.<\/p>\n

While walking, I passed one park (Fort Sumner Park), which was overgrown and not particularly cared for. It was hidden in a residential area,\u00a0but\u00a0had a GREAT view of the city (see picture below)<\/em>! The bottom half of the park did not have much, but once walking up the staircase, there were four benches overlooking\u00a0the city. Another noteworthy green space I saw was the\u00a0East Promenade, which is one large park along the shore of the eastern side of Portland. It did a good job of providing enough seats for visitors,\u00a0the history of the area (such as at the Fort Allen Rehabilitation Park<\/a> ), and\u00a0attractions that appeal to a wide range of people. There\u00a0was a playground, a baseball field, picnic tables and benches,\u00a0and spaces to walk along near the shoreline.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Sumner Park on Sheridan<\/em> (Taken by Jenny Ibsen)<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

The View from Fort Sumner Park<\/em> (Taken by Jenny Ibsen)<\/p>\n

When I walked around on my second visit, I went to Deering Oaks Park, which had an interesting use of space because there was a large central fountain and pond, yet there was no seating around it.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

Deering Oaks Park Map<\/em>\u00a0(Drawn by Jenny Ibsen)\u00a0–<\/em>\u00a0My extremely rough sketch of the park, including all the trash cans and picnic tables that I saw during my 30 minutes there. The black rectangle is a stage and the green circle is a plot of plants.<\/p>\n

The park had several awkwardly spaced benches in an abundance of purposely uncared for grass. There was a sign posted nearby stating, “Sections are purposely left unmowed in order to return to a more natural and healthy woodland.” This was\u00a0extremely interesting because though\u00a0naturally\u00a0maintained gardens\u00a0are more sustainable, I have never actually seen this in practice. This could be more effective in the park if there were more\u00a0attractive aspects to the park. There were not enough\u00a0seating options to attract a large amount of people, and aside from the stage, there were not\u00a0many other reasons for people to visit the park in general. This, in addition to the uncared for grass, gave the park an overall average feel (though, it did look nicer than other parks in Portland).<\/p>\n

Overall, Portland has a few impressive aspects of green technology, but could use some work for the basic framework of the city. There were solar panels\u00a0a few buildings and there were plans for them on a newly\u00a0constructed building. I was also surprised by the abundance of Hybrid cars, mopeds, and\u00a0Partial Zero Emission Vehicles (PZEV). Yet, the city definitely needs to work on its public green spaces and frequency of recycling bins.<\/p>\n

Transect Walk<\/strong>
\nStarted: Eastern Promenade\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (10\/19\/14)<\/p>\n