Nancy Hales: The City That Worked For An Out-Of-Town Visitor

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Nancy Hales, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Nancy Hales

Nancy Hales Photo by Alan Wiener

“The City that Works.” This slogan pasted on the side of city vehicles probably doesn’t get much notice by Portlanders. But for one recent international visitor, it defined his entire Portland experience.

Last week I hosted a delegation of civic leaders from Guadalajara, Mexico. They were here to study Portland’s urban livability efforts. The 15-member team even brought a television cameraman, Ernesto Vazquez, to chronicle their week.

As manager of PSU’s urban study tour program, First Stop Portland, I spent a lot of time with them. Four days of site visits, panel discussions with local experts, neighborhoods tours, and lots of time on transit. My role as First Lady and with First Stop Portland blended to offer a complete picture of what makes “the city work.”

Mid- afternoon of the last day, as we were boarding the Yellow Line near PSU’s Urban Plaza, Ernesto stops and looks up in horror. He motions to his back pocket and conveys in broken English: My wallet is missing! AGH! We have crisscrossed the city all day; the wallet could be anywhere.

Retracing Our Steps

I make hasty arrangements to hand off the group, and I set off with Ernesto to retrace our steps.

The next two hours are painstaking. We work backwards stopping to inquire at each of our stops. Nada. We end up in the main lobby of the Bureau of Planning and approach a security officer behind the desk. We attempt to explain what we’re looking for; Ernesto’s English is spotty, and my Spanish is nil. He describes his wallet as “green” and points to brown. He says inside are “groups” and I assume he means credit cards. He mentions his “granddaughter will be very sad” if he loses his wallet. Why? I ask. “I was to buy presents for my family,” he says. “Much money.”

How Much?

The knot in my stomach grows larger. How much? I ask. “Much money, close to $2,000.00 in US bills.” WHAAATTT! I scream silently. Who would ever carry that much money in cash in their back pocket? This search goes from futile to surreal.

Describe the wallet, says the guard a second time. Ernesto gives his name, attempts to describe the contents of the wallet. I vouch for him. She says, deadpan, “Hmmm, that’s not enough.” Tell her about the money, Ernesto! At last, he does.

A long pause and then she says, “Wait over there.”

And in that moment a small miracle happened. She produces a bulging, weathered brown wallet, and returns it to Ernesto. In the process of handing us back Ernesto’s wallet the guard also tells us that not one, but several people had possession of the wallet at some point. I held my breath while he counted the money inside. Not one dollar was missing.

That 2-hour ordeal conveyed more about a “city that works” than our elaborate itinerary ever could. And every now and then, we experience our city and its citizens in a way that’s much more revealing than a phrase on a passing truck.

Homepage Photo Credit: Alan Wiener