Last Saturday night a solid group of businesses from the organization Transportland, who use cargo bikes instead automobiles to move people, goods and materials around rode in the Twilight Parade, part of the annual Rose Festival.
Dan Kaufman from Portland based Crank My Chain was on hand and filmed all the action, check it!
Fox News has just come out with a nice little article outlining why you need to come to Portland. Check out number 10…
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/03/19/10-reasons-to-fly-to-portland-oregon-right-now/
The second season of “Portlandia” – a critically-acclaimed show on IFC that lovingly lampoons life in one of the country’s most unique cities, if you’ve never heard of it – recently ended. But you want to know what’s even more fun than watching Fred Armisen make jokes about Portland, Oregon on your television? Tuning into the actual city itself. Should you need a little push, here are ten compelling reasons to book a flight, like, now.
1. It’s exactly what you think. Funny hats, food trucks, obsessive baristas, urban gardening, bike lovers – Portland is practically a laboratory of all that’s hip and cool in North America right now. Soak up the vibe with a visit to the city’s legendary Saturday Market, which just launched its 36thseason. The event – which actually runs both Saturdays and Sundays, in the city’s historic Chinatown area – features tons of local artisans, as well as plenty to eat (portlandsaturdaymarket.com).
2. Take it from the top. Any city can do parks, but how many have gigantic arboretums, brimming with gorgeous flora from around the world, plonked directly on top of the downtown area? Just a short hike up from the bustle of the city center, the cool, green forests and manicured gardens of the Hoyt Arboretum remain one of Portland’s finest assets (hoytarboretum.org).
3. Get schooled. Portland is known for inspiring its share of creativity, and schools like the Oregon College of Art – with a handsome campus among the trees on the edge of town – do their part to help channel all that inspiration. See tomorrow’s big names today at the school’s ever-changing Centrum Gallery, which rotates monthly with work from current students, as well as alumni and faculty. The Retail Craft Gallery on campus sells the work of more than 100 artists, all affiliated with the college (ocac.edu). A short drive down Burnside, back in the heart of town, the Pacific Northwest College of Art is a partner in the cutting-edge Museum of Contemporary Craft, which features a free First Thursday (of every month) event, where the museum stays open into the evening hours (mocc.pnca.edu).
4. Beer, schmeer. We all know there’s a ton of really good beer around here. Has been for ages. But even cooler is the rise of the city’s Distillery Row, a collection of – you guessed it – distilleries located within walking distance of one another, just east of the Willamette River. Together, they are working to ensure that nobody ever needs to drink out-of-town whiskey – or gin, or vodka, or rum – again. Each stop on the Row keeps weekend drop-in tasting hours – learn more at distilleryrowpdx.com.
5. Okay, fine, beer. Seriously. Coming to Portland and not drinking the local beer is kind of like going to New York and refusing to eat pizza. From Deschutes Brewery’s heady black beers to Laurelwood’s Organic Green Mammoth IPA, you really can’t go wrong; make sure to also sample the more obscure stuff, such as Upright’s complex sour beers or Cascade Brewing’s barrel-aged Bourbonic Plague, with an ABV of – mind how you go – 12 percent. To brush up on the scene, check out portlandbeer.org.
6. Simply gorges. Remember how Seattle used to be the cool town and Portland was that little thing you sort of just breezed through? Well, Portland’s the one everyone’s paying attention to now, and you can stillbreeze through it. There’s sprawl here, but not much – from the middle of town to the beginning of the protected Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area can take as little as twenty minutes. Once in, get off the freeway and slow down – there are dozens of waterfalls, more than 100 great hikes of all difficulty levels, and of course, that incredible scenery. Map out your route at gorgefriends.org.
7. Drink coffee. Portland’s coffee is some of the country’s best. How good? It’s best-known roaster, Stumptown, went on not only to become an immense hit in New York City, but it’s also getting its hooks into Seattle, too. They’re still the big guy around here, but they’re also just a start. Other roasters to know include Coapa, with its chic café in the Industrial District, Courier Coffee on SW Oak Street and Exacto Coffee, which is served at the cool GrindHouse Coffee in up-and-coming corner of North Portland. (Which you can refer to as NoPo, if you like.) If you’re in a downtown hotel, your best bet is Sterling Coffee’s simple but perfect Coffeehouse Northwest up on Burnside – it’s been around a few years now, but it’s still one of the most perfect venues in town. Learn more about what’s brewing locally at caffeinatedpdx.com.
8. You gotta eat. Can we talk? About the food? From one of the best bacon-egg-and- cheese-on-a-roll breakfasts you’ll ever eat in your life (at Bunk Sandwiches) to epic meat dinners at Laurelhurst Market, a butcher shop and restaurant, to a proper night out at Le Pigeon, spicy wings and cool salads from hipster Thai Pok Pok, crazy bad-for-you breakfasts at Pine State Biscuits, those food carts mentioned previously that serve up every kind of food you can imagine, all over town, to incredibly fresh vegetables and locally (and sensibly) farmed meats, to great Northwest fish and oysters and you name it – Portland is a town for people who really, really like to eat. Don’t come expecting a ton of traditionally fine dining – but do come hungry. Really, really hungry. Maybe also bring stretch pants.
9. But save room for dessert. One of the most famous foodstuffs in town for a few years running now has been a now-oft-copied bacon maple contraption at Voodoo Donuts, but that’s just the start of the fun. Here you have everything from “Cupcake Wars” champ Kyra Bussanich making magic at Lake Oswego’s Crave Bake Shop to James Beard Award winner Kim Boyce, making waves at her new Sandy Boulevard bakery, called – rather simply – Bakeshop. But there’s nothing simple about the pastry; Boyce has years of experience in top kitchens in Los Angeles. From rhubarb hand pies to fig buckwheat scones, you have to try it all.
10. Work it off. Eventually, even the most intrepid eaters and drinkers will be crying “uncle” – now you know why this town’s as into outdoor activity as it is into stuffing awesome things down its gullet. It’s called survival. And not weighing 400 pounds. If you’re having trouble getting motivated to get up and get going, join a group bike tour – anywhere from an easy spin around downtown or a day out in the Gorge or up in wine country – through Pedal Bike Tours (pedalbiketours.com). If you prefer an upper-body workout, the Portland River Company offers cool guided tours – and instruction, too –out on the Willamette River (portlandrivercompany.com).
George Hobica is a syndicated travel journalist and founder of the low-airfare listing site Airfarewatchdog.com.
Very interesting choices were made in this article by London’s online newspaper The Guardian, but I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
Portland, Oregon
What’s going for it? Do you like letterpress? Do you like vintage clothes? Do you play in a nu-folk band? Then get ye to Boise, Eliot and Overlook in Portland. The city has been the capital of liberal, hipster USA for decades. The Dandy Warhols wrote Bohemian Like You about their very home town. There are some, indeed, round these parts who’d like the entire Pacific Northwest to break off from the rest of the US and go it alone. So very liberal is Portland that it’s a home from home to anyone from Europe, especially if they read the Guardian. Cyclists are loved, not loathed. There are planning restrictions on crappy developments. Portland has the highest number of microbreweries in the world. Everyone is lovely. My auntie lives there and will make you a nice cup of tea if you’re homesick. H.E.A.V.E.N. Shockingly, it still remains relatively good value. Especially the patch north of the Willamette river above the railyards. When I first visited in the early 90s, Boise, Eliot and Overlook were the kind of spots you sped through: always the first sign of a neighbourhood you should buy in. Now you can’t move for contemporary modern antiques shops and dinky record stores.
The case against Bit too cool for school. Everyone’s like you. Who will you have to hate? Oh, yes, everyone like you. The weather: like Britain, but more so… hotter and colder and danker.
Well connected? Unusually again for the US, cycle and walk without abuse: the most bike- and foot-friendly city in the country, packed with proper cycle routes (15 minutes to downtown from the northside). You may use the car. Occasionally. Perhaps for a surf trip to the coast, or a ski trip to the mountains (both 60-100 minutes).
Hang out at… A food cart: all the rage (check outfoodcartsportland.com). Or, for the indulgent, Grand Central Bakery, in an old scrap metal yard. Artisan, innit.
Property The area is full of 1910s and 1920s bungalows that the local real estate guys call “craftsman style”, with handsome stoops and carved wood decoration. There are a fair few vacant lots, too, for the brave, plus 1960s and 1970s infill apartment blocks that, with a zuzz, could be nice. Look off the main drags, like Mississippi and Interstate regeneration projects. Huge detacheds, £415,000-£575,000; four-bed-plus detacheds, £225,000-£415,000; two- or three-bed detacheds, £140,000-£215,000. Condos below this.
Bargain of the week Two-bed detached on NE Sacramento, £128,000, with propertiesofportland.com.
Local building management company Melvin Mark has recognized the partnership between Go Box and Pedal as a great way to go green and stay in shape.
More Ways to Go Green at the Haseltine Building
Greetings!
Eat your lunch and love the planet too.
GO Box is a new, innovative service providing reusable to-go containers to downtown Portland food carts and their customers. With GO Box, food cart customers get their meal in a reusable, durable container. More GO Box containers mean less trash.
Now E-San Thai and Pedal Bike Tours, located in the Haseltine Building, have added a GO Box program! When you order take-out from E-San Thai, ask to join the GO Box program, your food will come in a reusable container that you can then rinse and drop off at Pedal Bike Tours. You will then be given a token for the next time you eat at a food cart or restaurant participating in the program. To learn more, go towww.goboxpdx.com.
2012 Resolution #5: less gas, more fitness.
Pedal Bike Tours in the Haseltine Building offers free lunchtime fitness rides. Available starting in January on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at noon, they are a great way to get some exercise and see our great city of Portland. A changing room and shower is also available at the shop. For more information or a list of other bike tours, check outwww.pedalbiketours.com.
Pedal Bicycle Tours and GO Box are offering a special deal between now and Dec 24. Simply stop in to Pedal Bike Tours (address and hot link here) and sign up for GO Box to get 20% off any one item in the store. At Pedal you’ll find locally made bike crafts and gifts for all seasons as well as a great selection of products for bike commuting.
By using GO Box, you can get your meal in a reusable container, skip the disposable, and help make Portland even greener — all while eating waste-free and guilt-free! The one-time subscription fee of $8.50 entitles you to a reusable container for an unlimited time — a great deal for those of us who love the food carts and hate the waste!
