i can't believe no one posted these pictures and article yet. i guess its cuz mark didn't show up today
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...430.xml&coll=7
Sucked into a black hole
Passers-by stop to look 60 feet down into a subterranean world filled with rumbling machines
Friday, March 02, 2007
LARRY BINGHAM
A s soon as Chris Price checked in to the Portland Paramount Hotel earlier this week, he had to check out the hole.
Price, a salesman, blew an hour perusing the pit, home to a future underground parking garage and city park downtown at Southwest Taylor and Park streets. And, judging by the scores of gawkers who stop at any of the half-dozen construction holes downtown, Price isn't the only urbanite who hears the subterranean siren song.
Outside the Fox Tower one afternoon, a young couple holding hands paused to stare at the same hole. A mother dragged her toddler to the fence. Even fast-walking passers-by rapt in cell phone conversations stole a glance.
Below them six stories -- or roughly 60 feet below grade -- the ground looked like chocolate ice cream, the rain puddles looked like small lakes and the rumbling machines scooping up coffee-colored stones looked like large Tonka trucks.
The mystery of what's down there drew retiree Jake Rens, who was headed for a matinee at the Regal Cinemas when he stopped twice. "I wonder if they ever find anything archaeologically interesting in these holes," he said.
Big holes, it seem, raise compelling questions.
How did they get that equipment down there?
What did they do with all that dirt?
Is that where they plant us in the end?
Price, the salesman, scoped the 32,000-square-foot excavation from every corner and determined which worker was in charge -- the man with the blueprints. He knew enough to know what the beeping dump truck backing up outside the Guild Theatre carried.
Gravel tumbled from the bed of the truck into the hole like a waterfall. The sound of the crashing rocks drew more onlookers.
The impulse to stare at a big hole in the ground may come from that part of the brain that makes us rubberneck at car wrecks and perk up when we overhear an argument in a restaurant.
"They stare when people are working, and they stare when there's no one down there," said Elizabeth Neal, assistant manager at the Flying Elephants deli. She has seen people at the fence every day since digging started.
"I'm not sure what fascinates them," she said. "But something does."
Maybe it's the fact that city dwellers, eyes accustomed to looking up toward high rises, relish a rare opportunity to look down.
Price thinks the urge is simpler. The hole reminded him of playing in the dirt as a kid.
Larry Bingham: 503-221-8262;
larrybingham@news.oregonian.com
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