Introduction - Lily Batty

Introduction - Lily Batty

by Lily Batty -
Number of replies: 4

Hi everyone! My name is Lily Batty, and I’m a freshman at Bryn Mawr. I don’t know what I want to major in yet, but obviously I have some interest in the cities major. In my free time I like to paint, crochet and listen to music. I am from Portland, Oregon.

There are many things I enjoy about my city. I like how easy it is to travel without a car through most of the city. I think that the small business opportunity in Portland has exploded in recent years, which I really enjoy. Hopefully, that won’t be decimated by COVID-19. I like that the downtown is physically separated from the rest of city by the river because it allows for a clear delineation between downtown and the rest of the city. There are also many things that I dislike about Portland. On top of the list is the lack of diversity and the abundance of racism. (If anyone is curious about the protests this summer, I’m totally game to chat about it) I could list so many more of Portland’s flaws, but I think that would be boring for non-Portlanders, so I’m not going to do that. I really love the pacific northwest because there are tons of outdoor recreation opportunities and I love to hike and camp and stuff. I think that the city experience in the northeast is very, very different from the city experience in the pacific northwest, so I’m interested to learn about Philly.


In reply to Lily Batty

Re: Introduction - Lily Batty

by Veronica Ramirez Hernandez -
I've heard Portland is a great place for outdoor adventures. I'm curious to know your perspective of Portland when it comes to the flaws. What would you say Portland needs to improve on?
In reply to Veronica Ramirez Hernandez

Re: Introduction - Lily Batty

by Lily Batty -
I think the top few things Portland needs to improve on are as follows:
1) Having better and more empathetic solutions to homelessness. Right now, there's a lot of time and money put into putting in anti-homeless infrastructure (such as boulders set in concrete in places where people camped out) and little effort put into actually helping the homeless.
2) There's a lot of traffic from the suburbs and commuting Washingtonians on the freeways and main roads, and the proposed solution is to widen the freeway, which I think is a terrible idea and I hope we don't do it.
3) Historically, Portland has had a big problem with gentrification and I know that continues into today.
4) Finally, the Portland school system is really unequal both in funding and also in the demographics of the schools. A lot of students in Portland think that the school districts were deliberately lined to make some schools more rich and white.
In reply to Lily Batty

Re: Introduction - Lily Batty

by Gillian Lancaster -
Hey! I've never been to Portland or any of the northwest but I'd love to visit, it looks so pretty out there. I knit but I brought some crochet hooks so I could try to learn if I had the time.
In reply to Gillian Lancaster

Re: Introduction - Lily Batty

by Lily Batty -
Did you join the knitting club's mailing list? we should compare knitting/crochet projects sometime. I suck at knitting so in my opinion crochet is way easier to learn....