Skidmore Fountain — Attraction in Portland

There is not much to the fountain, aside from it's history. What's really special about this place is the Portland Saturday Market that takes place here, which just reopened. Historically, it has been open Saturday and Sunday. However, they are doing Saturday only right now. There are a bunch of booths with locally made art, jewelry apparel, and other various sundries. There are two different booths that sell hand-made soaps that are simply epic. I always get a bar or two -- they smell so good! There are several food booths/carts and usually there is live music. There's also a spray fountain at the waterfront part of the market that the kids love to play in. I really wanted to give this 5 stars because I really love the Saturday Market here. However, there are more days in the week besides Saturday, and all those other days this area is dominated by drugs and homelessness. It is also just generally pretty filthy and every now and then you get a whiff of what can only be raw sewage. It's much better during market hours, but even then, if you walk half a block in the wrong direction, you will find yourself at one of the darkest, dirtiest and sketchiest looking light rail stops in all of Portland. During the market, this place is 5 stars. All other times, 1 star. However, I still gave it 4 stars average, since most people will be only visiting this spot...

So, this fountain is not running at the moment, and I'm not sure if it ever even runs anymore. The area itself although looks cool and has cool things happening around it such as the Saturday Market and the Skidmore Market, it is also pretty scary and ghetto with the homeless and drugs in the area. I decided to include photos of the Skidmore Market with the photos of the fountain as I didn't see anything on Google maps for the Market, which I think is quite important. I learned from a vender at the Saturday Market that some people believe the Skidmore Fountain has been around even longer than the Saturday Market. Personally, I don't know if that is true or not, but what I do know is this is the first time I've ever heard of the Skidmore Market. The vendor also said that what makes the two different is one of the markets(Saturday Market) requires the are sold there to be hand-made while the Skidmore Market does not. The two Markets are divided by the Blue/Red Max line...

Skidmore fountain is an iconic point of interest in Portland Oregon and is where they hold the Saturday markets. Unfortunately however it has also become a center for homeless people to hang out because it is under the Burnside bridge and out of the rain. Drug dealing is coming here and you should be aware of this if you plan to visit the fountain. If you're not looking for drugs it's fairly safe to go during the daytime but I would highly recommend that you go in small groups just to be on the safe side. Most of the crime that occurs in the area around the fountain is like drug dealers against drug buyers and that sort of thing. if you don't mind homeless people laying around or asking for change and you're not looking to be involved in anything illegal I would say it safe. But again go in the daytime and...