Through the large windows of a cafe on the plaza's top level, customers sipping robust Starbucks coffee can keep an eye on what's happening outside. Half submerged in another corner of the square is a travel bookstore run by the local Powell's chain, whose flagship store is elsewhere in downtown Portland. On a Sunday morning I watched an employee of Powell's cross the plaza with a young retarded man in a wheelchair to make sure that he could get into the men's room. Portlanders tend to have an almost small-town sense of responsibility for what goes on around them. What surprised me, in exploring Portland, is how much of the rest of the downtown is paved in brick.
Brick sidewalks in hues from orange to maroon continue for block after block.
Portland may have the most richly surfaced downtown in the United States. Up from grates in the sidewalks grow hundreds of trees, mature enough that when the sun is low on the horizon, their leaves cast shade on the second and third stories of the buildings. The trees soften the downtovvn. Another softening influence is water, flowing constantly. Brass drinking fountains are all over the downtown, each with a quartet of spigots that gurgle day and night.