Luckily, the YCI is located on what is fast becoming Northeast's Nob Hill. After evening classes, find French cuisine at Trio and salmon Caesar salads, burgers and other tavern fare at the Alameda Brewpub. All the sideways-glancing, nervous people are ogling books by Mapplethorpe and anybody else who likes to photograph nekked people. The Graffiti Removal Task Force offers free graffiti-removal kits in nine of the city's 27 fire stations. This program is a real community model.
People work together to better the city.
The kits, which have been circulating since March 1995, come complete with buckets, solvents, paints and masks. Preying on neighborly kindness, the man asks to borrow money for the necessary items with a promise of quick repayment as soon as Mother's Medicare check arrives. The scam is clenched when the man invites the neighbor to witness Mother's mess. The fact that nobody complains about the racket is pure testament to Portlanders' capacity for letting people just do their thing. Joan Husman, who has been a chef at the restaurant since 1977, remembers that instead of painting over this original graffiti, the owners of the Genoa painted around it and used a small gold frame to feature the spot.