Forward, Progressive, Liveable Cities, Like Tacoma, have...

Fair warning: long essay.

Lamenting the Couvs lack of pro art supply stores, with a neighbor artist friend. Tacoma, same pop. (180K) has more than one. Bellingham, less than half our size, has 2 I know of. What gives, Vancouver?

However...as I was about to have 500 rush hour apoplexy en route to locate a Van Mall Michaels no longer there (at Fishers, where so many useful stores now congregate...not sure its sustainable to expect West Van folk, New Seasons & Trader Joes whores all, to constantly travel out past 205 to buy good food...but thats another post)...i looked UP, & saw a Joann Fabrics sign, beckoning me in off 4th Plain Orchards blah & thin veneer of fakey "historical" improvements (how does County have $ to pay for fake gaslamps anyhow, & how does that serve as a best use of struggling Orchards tax dollars?).

Turning in, I saw they also sell "crafts", the suburban housewife way to say "art supplies". I went in hesitantly (gay man, fabrics store inner homophobia forefront), and nearly gave up when I hit the feather boa aisle (now know where Raintree Imperial Court shops for costumery lol). Then, like a sign, I noticed canvas. Frames. Actual good brushes...and in very back corner, an aisle blessed with two different brands of oil paint...including the object of my mad quest, a large tube of titanium white - the oil n acrylic painters bestest friend.

Happy at last, I drove back to Hough in peace. Which nearly caused sideswipe from swervy laning car not using blinkers to change lanes going 45 in 60. Thank Gawd not hit. Paint now put to good use on spider orchid work (see pic).

Reflecting, I believe (as I said above) that the Couv needs and can support a full service art supply store. If placed in say, Delta Park, itd be so close to our arts nerve center (such as it is in its 2 block long 6th St corridor) as well as the side of town where most of our practicing artists, school arts programs (Shumway, Clark College) are. Plus Oregons nice no sales tax. A store here would also draw good N & NE Portland base, Alberta arts to St Johns gallery folk, who also are inconvenient to either Pearl or near-Laurelhurst art supply locations. An art supply near Fishers, say lovely downtown Camas, also not amiss.

Part of being a "grown up" city, rather than a large suburban morass, is having simple amenities like an art supply, as well as growing arts & cultural draws that attract a worldwide audience. Im sorry, but a Skyview HS based Vanc Symphony, tiny Clark Co Hist Museum, Officers Row private houses, half empty Academy building, defunct Esther Short theatre, private nondescript Catholic "protocathedral", closed swimming pool, Central Library-housed movies & lectures, & genteel Pearson Air Museum (with adjacent not refurbed since 1970s Hudsons Bay fort) dont cut it.

The City of Destiny (Tacoma) by contrast has 3 nationally if not globally known museums, a splendid and large Federal courthouse, Stadium HS ( 4 story 5 acre Victorian gothic pile), an actual Theater District with many theatres, a conservatory plus botanic garden at Wright Park, and of course a giant zoo. Plus several prestigious colleges & private schools.

I do realize the Couv got the short end of stick when Salem-wary 1889 Oly lawmakers parceled out who got what state goodies, given their paranoia of an Oregon-joining 5th element in Clark County (cant even imagine). Hence we have the respected and known state deaf & blind schools, gained BPA in 1930s, & smallish state offices\regional HQs. God forbid lawmakers give us anything of importance, seeing as we were (at time) apparently chummy with PDX. Heck, Oly in 1917 didnt even shell out $ for Interstate Bridge...that was Couver dollars bringing Model T's, streetcars, & commercial traffic north of river, while privileging ourselves on Portland amusements & draws. Perhaps our lockout on state goodies coupled with our self paid Portland umbilical cord caused our stunted growth. I dont know, but we cant, shouldnt, and wont be able to shunt our arts, culture, higher ed, & govt needs to Oregon forever, especially when our soon to be by 2020 600K pop will be paying either light rail tix or $3 toll to get there. Its not PDX's place, nor would conscientious Couvers want it to be their place, given time spent there enjoying urban things means less arts & culture, street & nightlife, less indy stores & useful shops, & pinched higher ed offerings here (esp scary given Oly didnt give us a 4 year univ til a few years ago, & we lack private liberal arts colleges). Plus not doing things for ourselves means Trimet's unelected board & very different govt priorities, along with PDX movers & shakers, a Rose City specific arts agenda that promotes the outrageous and bizarre as healthy (sure it is, but is our "normal" really as bland as Oregonians in PDX say?), and our freely given $ benefits OREGON, leaving Couv forever.

Yes, growth & work on this is slow, painful. But necessary. I, for one, wont countenance a Vancouver that centers aimless beige sprawl around a giant mall while thinking empty lots, forbidding glass bank edifices, boarded up Victorians (W Evergreen Blvd & W 12th St) & vandalized WWII style shotgun shacks (Harney Hts), mixed with & tore down for bigger bland warehouses & industrial shops, a toy nearly self enclosed "condo district" (Esther Short), isolated blah private looking rowhome & condo neighborhoods (Columbia Shores, the new Boise Cascade area), struggling and defunct indy shops, taverns, & arts galleries (6th St, Main St, inner E 4th Plain), and an oversized isolated struggling to pay rent Public Health Building (in middle of fenced off VA medical sprawl) are in fact GOOD things in a liveable city.

Im not saying we arent trying, or that our efforts arent worth it. We had to work with hostile state govt, greedy Puget Sounders, alluring Portland sights, & a big army reserve splitting us in two (that weve done wonders with). Plus Kaiser shipyards, Boise Cascade paper mill, giant rail yard, and our own aversion to spending $ on non essentials (plus hostile to taxes & govt spending on arts etc). Heck, up til the Y2K-ish "great leap forward", we were a mid sized town of 45K pop in 1940 and 80K abt 1990, surrounded first by rural salts of the earth farms then by mushroomed chaotic suburban sprawl with even less $ and amenities than us. We chose a fateful path when we first started the metropolitan process, joining City to County for health, parks, etc; then annexing 100K new faces near Y2K to reach out & touch Camas, 15 miles out. Regressing by refusing to support and grow things like art supply stores (the tiny dtwn one is now a Christian Sci Reading Room), or rely on PDX arts to come to us and or go to them means we give in to a rabid vocal now-minority rural, conservative, wealthy exurban clique that believes its sustainable to lambast Portland's "godless pinko ways" & shop Lloyd Center in same breath. We might as well give in if we dont continue & increase our arts, culture efforts, disbanding (as so many out County naysayers wish for) to rejoin suburban swamps. At that point we may as well beg Trimet to take us into receivership...giving up being a city means relying on what soon looks to be a deficit ridden, service slashed County govt (from current malfeasance). Screw that, I say. Gimme art supplies.