Tag Archives: West End

Four ways to traffic oblivion

Even though my son Jason once turned getting his driver’s license into an odyssey, the one thing at which he excelled was knowledge of traffic rules. So I always smiled when we reached a four-way stop and he asked: “Dad, why do so many people go at the wrong time?” That was an astute observation for someone who […]

An immigration tale: Yiayia’s American dream

Last week, in my piece on soccer, I wrote about several immigrant boys playing a pick up game on Portland’s Western Prom. They probably came from the neighborhood surrounding nearby Howard C. Reiche Community School. Whenever walking my dogs that way, I wave and nod to families sitting out on their stoops in the cooler sunsets. They come from […]

How can Jurgen Klinsmann really improve the U.S. national men’s soccer team?

This week I was walking my dogs on the Western Prom in Portland and witnessed a rarity: a pickup soccer game. The 5 boys were in the 10-12 year range, and were playing a makeshift half-field contest, 2-on-2 with 1 goalie. As best I could tell, 3 boys were African and 2 Hispanic or Middle Eastern, […]