Plaza de la Libertad Electoral

In downtown San José.

Grass Blades

I don't like the EMP building that much -- its "in your face" quality, especially in the front, is wildly appropriate as a structure to honor pop culture, but it's exhausting to look at.

This public art installation across the street, on the other hand, I love. It's called Grass Blades, designed by John Fleming, and consists of strands of steel painted to resemble bamboo. It complements the steel curves of the less ostentatious side view of EMP perfectly.

One more park picture

Flowers at the park. We can always use more flowers.

Fence

This is the fence along one side of Tanner Springs Park.

At first glance it looks like an ancient wood fence that's sagging in every direction and about to fall over, but it's actually made of old railroad tracks.

Tanner Springs Park

I noticed this small park in the Pearl District when I was out riding the streetcars a couple of days ago, and during our lunch break today, I hopped another streetcar and ate my burrito there.

It has lawns and benches like any conventional city park, but also tall wild grasses and wildflowers, and a stream, like a little bit of undeveloped wetlands plunked down in the middle of the city of Portland. If I lived in the neighborhood, I would be there every day.

Urban poetry

Metal seats in an undistinguished public plaza in Manhattan.

I am always a sucker for the patterns in symmetrical seating, like the curves of these backs and armrests framing the small geometry of the metal grid.