How to Fall in Love with Your City Again
On discovering a new perspective
Once upon a time, I was an Uber Eats driver.
I only did it for about two months (perhaps less) because I was in between jobs and it was a way to make some extra cash. Although the term “extra cash” is a bit misleading as the job itself did not pay very much. Most people were generous and tipped, but even if you did it for eight hours per day, five days a week, it’s not enough to pay the bills or save for a rainy day.
Money aside, the fact that I never knew where Uber would send me was enough of a thrill. You sign up, download the app and log on, and depending your location, Uber tells you where to go pick up and where to deliver. Then, depending on where you are at that moment, you may end up driving all around town, fourty or fifty minutes away from where you live.
On more than one occasion, I found myself in neighborhoods and suburbs I’d never been to before. I drove on country roads, past mini-forests and large vasts of undeveloped land, through neighborhoods lined with shady trees and landscaped yards, children riding their bikes in the front yard, and glorious holiday decorations. With each “new” neighborhood I discovered, my mouth dropped.
It’s amazing how you can get so siloed in depending on your family’s economic status. Growing up on the other side of the tracks, I’m used to seeing this…
…and this.
…not this.
….or this.
I got a new job and stopped delivering for Uber Eats. It wasn’t until recently when I decided to embark on a new project (which I wrote about here) that I began driving around town looking for these specific things.
It felt like deja vu. Once again, my mouth dropped, and the realization set in: the reason why I haven’t been exactly a fan of my city is because of where I currently live, where I’ve always lived, which is…not the best part of town.
And it also became glaringly obvious that affluence and poverty are not so far apart. All you have to do is drive for fifteen minutes on the same street and things begin to change. The quality of the road changes, as is the quality of the homes and the businesses that surround it.
Take, for example, Foster Road, a busy thoroughfare in Southeast Portland, near where I live. It’s rough. There is a freeway exit, lots of homeless encampments1, potholes, unruly foliage, and dilapidated homes. Not to mention discount grocery stores, strip malls and pawn shops. But if you keep driving another fifteen minutes past Foster & 122nd Avenue, you’re immediately engulfed in a new development with enormous and beautiful new homes at a cost of $600,000+ and endless peace and quiet.
This useful tool2 gives you an honest look at poverty lines in accordance with its population. I was curious as to where I would fall, so I selected Multnomah County, where my house (and previous homes I’ve lived in) is located. Not surprisingly, the rate of poverty is 13.8%.
…while in Clackamas County, where the aforementioned “new” development that you only need to drive fifteen minutes to get to, the number drops to 8%.
Fifteen minutes isn’t that far in the overall scheme of things, but it could be the dividing line that separates one zip code from another, or the line between food deserts and a Whole Foods, between free clinics and research hospitals, between students excelling in sports to those failing in math. This zip code phenomenon is real.
I would never suggest that anyone drive through crime-ridden or poor neighborhoods just to compare it to their own. But I know for me, it was worth it to see that there are better areas to live in, that perhaps there are some redeeming qualities about my hometown after all.
You’re probably asking….
What does this have to do with food?
In my experience, the “best” kinds of foods are in not-so-desirable neighborhoods in most major cities. Whenever we go out to eat, my husband and I usually gravitate toward an Asian restaurant off 82nd Avenue in Portland. The type of cuisine doesn’t really matter; what matters is the taste. Steaming, fragrant hot bowls of soups and stews and meat grilled to perfection, next to hordes of dim sum—we love ‘em all.
At home, I keep my meals simple, which usually include a protein (grilled or pan fried), a vegetable dish, and rice. If you’re at home, why not try something like Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce, jasmine rice, and marinated meat?
Here’s a simple recipe for the broccoli, courtesy of The Woks of Life.
And here’s our homemade fish sauce marinated chicken recipe.
Did you miss the last post?
In this post, I talked about meeting a stranger who had a secret agenda. Read here 👇🏼
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It’s a big problem in this city, so big that the New York Times has covered it.
Only for the U.S.
Thanks for your thoughtful message about where we live.
“In my experience, the ‘best’ kinds of foods are in not-so-desirable neighborhoods in most major cities.” I think you’ve got a point there. It makes me realize I should spend more time exploring L.A. too. The broccoli bowl looks delicious!