Stroll through a residential neighborhood in any US city and what can you expect to see? Houses. Parked cars. Yards. In Portland, you’ll often get a little extra bang for your buck.
Scattered around the Rose City are neighborhood displays, galleries, exchanges, and other creative visual landscapes designed specifically for the enjoyment of passersby. Portlanders took the concept of the Free Little Library and did what they do best: made it one of a kind.
We’re talking about residential yards-turned-stages for skeletal scenes, depots for swapping VHS tapes, communal crates full of fetch toys for dogs, and more. And now, there’s a resource that lists them all in one place: the PDX Sidewalk Joy Map. The interactive map, launched this week by The PDX Dinorama, is a running list of projects installed in curb gardens, front yards, or on the sides of buildings.
Each site is free to enjoy, though the creators note that visitors will “want to bring quarters for the vending machine or pay for a pottery piece at the Poetry Pottery box.”
