Joseph Glode
Broken Parallel is a street photography project about Portland, Oregon's 82nd Avenue. The street sits approximately 5 miles from the Willamette River, effectively downtown Portland, and 4 miles from the the city's eastern boundary; and runs the entirety of the city's limits from north to south. Despite the avenue's central location within the city's east side, the street is widely perceived as a forbidden boundary between the inner city and the outer city. But this perception is not based solely on the avenue's geographic location. 82nd Avenue, also known as the the Avenue of Roses, also demarcates the point in which the progressive urban design and quality of life that Portland is renowned for ends; and the where the disarray of urban sprawl and blight begins. For most Portlanders, it is seen as a venue for pawn shops, car lots, peep shows, and a variety of other illicit and illegal behaviors. There is some truth to this, however, there is so much more to the story. The area has not experienced the revitalization or gentrification that other parts of the city have, but it is changing and becoming one of the city's and the state's most diverse regions.