My favorite otter pup on SW Yamhill. Photo: Daniel Ronan

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.

While at a Christmas Eve service at the church I grew up in, the first verse of "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem" got me thinking. Do I know another "little town?"

With the risk of falling trap to biblical implications, I'd venture to say that Portland is this "little town." It seems that astonishment and beauty resound in the "O" year after year for Bethlehem, much like feelings for our fair city.

But beyond this trite onomatopoeia, there is truth that lives in this city, a truth, I'm sure similar to that realized by Phillips Brooks, the Episcopalian preacher from Philadelphia who authored this poem.

Aside from the references to the newborn king, the town of Bethlehem is depicted in the dead of night. My guess is that even during the day, Bethlehem remains ever quiet.

Walking in (quiet) streets, be it Bethlehem, Philadelphia, or Portland, reveals to the passerby much more than what's on the ground. Above the sky, and all around, there persists something more to be attained, a calling.

If it's a truth, a calling, or a purpose, our cities reflect this intangible however omnipresent value.

From ancient towns to modern metropolises, the city-state has been the foreground for rights, both human and civil, religions of all creeds, and people of all nations.

But if we are to wish for peace in the new year, it's important that we hold our cities to a higher standard.

Cities in the United States have languished beneath the burdens of greed, environmental degradation and social disparity.

As we confront the issues of our day, and the problems of our time, it's important that we find what exactly the value of the city is and what it means for our future.

At the same time, learning how to best address our problems will give us greater ability to see that "everlasting Light."

Anyway you slice it, peace comes from divine inspiration.

Stay sexy Portland.

Accordingly, I've decided to post more of my thoughts on Portland here on PDXme, rather than going through the lengths of investigative reporting for each post. Hopefully it'll enliven some sort of discussion, posted or otherwise. But then again, one can't ask for too much this Christmas. Look what happened to Packy.

"Packy," one of Portland's asian elephants, before here demise. Photo: Daniel Ronan

"Packy" the largest asian elephant of the United States, in her restructured form. Photo: Willamette Week

Francisca, a subject for the Urban Weeds blog. - Photo: Lisa Warninger

Urban Weeds is a collaboration between photographer Lisa Warninger and stylist Rebecca Westby. Urban Weeds was created when Chelsea Fuss saw a need for a street style blog documenting the people and style of Portland. She teamed up with Lisa and together they founded Urban Weeds. Lisa is a professional photographer and she loved the idea of doing a daily portrait. Together they started Urban Weeds and began bringing people street style from Portland. When Chelsea's blogging took her elsewhere, Rebecca seemed a natural fit to take her place at Urban Weeds. Now, Lisa and Rebecca are at the helm and are continuing to grow and evolve as Urban Weeds.

PDXme: What is the purpose/inspiration behind Urban Weeds?

Urban Weed's bring Portland street style to people around the world. This amazing city is full of interesting, unique, and stylish people and the blog was created to give these people of Portland a platform. We want to capture a bit of the essence of Portland to share with people in the city and around the world.

PDXme: What is the reaction when you ask people for their picture on the street?

People are usually excited and happy to share a few moments of their time with us. We love the collaborative nature of Urban Weeds and the random, lucky direction if often takes us. We love meeting so many wonderful people and talking to them for a few minutes about what inspires and delights them. Plus, who doesn't like being told they look great?!

PDXme: What has been the most enjoyable part of working on Urban Weeds?

Getting to know the people of Portland. We get to meet so many different people everyday, and it is always fun and interesting to meet new people and run into folks we have already photographed!

PDXme: What is next for Urban Weeds?

Urban Weeds is currently in the midst of launching it's sister site, The Sunroom. The Sunroom is a place for all things fashion, style, and Portland. It is a collaboration between Lisa and Rebecca and is the place where they share their photo shoots, introduce sponsors, and post about Portland's fashion community and events.

The "Oregon Stag" shirt at Greg's on Hawthorne. Photo by Daniel Ronan.

PDXppl is a series of profiles of Portlanders and area residents and what they do.

In any city, flashy marketing tends to take off more than in other localities. Take the "I ♥ NY" shirt or any sports team products as prime examples. Here in Oregon, we've come across one such example of a product as a part of a groundswell love for all things Oregon; the curiously designed "Oregon Stag" shirt with the state's boundaries. After a bit of research, I managed to contact the designer of the shirt and ask him a few questions (as you'll see below). Time will only tell the other products of OR love that will (literally) be in store, but I'm excited to see what the artists and dreamers of Portland and Oregon can come up with!

PDXme: Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Chris Stevens, I'm a graphic designer by trade but I make t-shirts for a living. My company's name is Northwest Shirts and I primarily make and print my own designs which I sell in stores and at fairs and festivals around the Northwest.

PDXme: What brings you to printmaking/ shirt making?

Well as I said I'm a graphic designer by trade which in Portland means that I was bartending and catering, whatever I could do to get by. I bought a bunch of equipment off of a friend a few years ago and taught myself how to print. It was something I always wanted to do and apparently I'm pretty good at it because it's five years later and I haven't slung a drink since.

PDXme: Your shirt design bears remarkable resemblance to the University of Oregon's proposed redesign of the Made in Oregon sign, is this just a coincidence? If so, how did you get the idea to make the "Oregon" shirt?

Well, this is a funny story, I'll tell you how the design came around and what's happened with it since. About 5 years ago or so my landlord came to me and wanted me to make some shirts for his friends that own the Florida Room in North Portland. He wanted me to put "Florida" inside of the Oregon stag sign, which I did but afterwards I thought, "why don't I just put Oregon inside of it and sell them?" I've been selling them for many years now, well before the U of O sign controversy. I even have a federal copyright on the image but after consulting with a copyright lawyer he said I wouldnt stand a chance of fighting the city on it, but I could probably stop other t-shirt people from doing it. I just didn't want anybody to shut me down from making them. I sent one to city commissioner Randy Leonard and I found a picture of him holding it up on the Mercury blog. So I don't think I'm in any danger of infringement or anything.

PDXme: Where can people buy this shirt in the Portland area?

You can get it Greg's on Hawthorne at 3707 SE Hawthorne, or if your outside of the city you can get them on my etsy page at: http://www.nwshirts.etsy.com

PDXme: Anything else you like us to know?

I originally started doing this because I hated working for other people, and pretty much working period. The funny thing is this is the hardest job I've ever had. If you want to make money being a craft vendor, my advice is to be adaptable and ready to roll with the punches. Some days are miserable and some days are awesome you've just got to be there for all of them. I thank everyone who's purchased and enjoyed one of my shirts.

Current CRC from Vancouver. Photo by Daniel Ronan.

PDXppl is a series of profiles of Portlanders and area residents and what they do.

The CRC, or Columbia River Crossing is perhaps one of the largest and most controversial public projects ever proposed in the  Portland Metropolitan Area (PMA). The project’s goal, to replace the two aging I-5 bridges across the Columbia River, has presented Portland with a test of its environmental values and resolve for sustainability.

The project includes many stakeholders, including the cities of Portland and Vancouver, Metro, Oregon and Washington state governments, two port authorities and the federal government. Many non-profits, including the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), not to mention the citizens of the PMA, have also taken interest in the project.

In an attempt to learn more about the project costing the region over $65 million in planning and another $30 million more as of last week, I decided to contact Mayor Royce Pollard's office in Vancouver. Matt Ransom, Vancouver's Transportation Manager, was kind enough to respond.

Below is the email of Matt Ransom's questions and responses. Perhaps as a community we can together ask for clarifications on this project.

Note: this email was written on August 12. It has taken me a while to post this, but the debate around the CRC is still alive and well.

I have been asked by Mayor Pollard to assist you with your questions at this point. I have served as on the City’s primary project managers for this effort and can serve as a main point of contact at this point.

I will attempt to answer your questions in brief below and then you can follow-up with clarifications.

PDXme: What would be the ideal Columbia River bridge for the City of Vancouver?

The City of Vancouver’s Comprehensive Plan anticipates that and is built upon the assumption that a new and updated Columbia River bridge will be built to serve the community and region’s future mobility needs.  The City’s basic vision of this project is that it will be: multi-modal with the inclusion of light-rail transit; that the pedestrian and bicycle corridor will be updated to sufficient size and that is strive to meet world class standards for these modes of travel, that the adjacent interchange and new bridge serve freight truck traffic in a safe and efficient manner, the implementation of the project will achieve sustainability goals in terms of construction methods, materials selection and operations and maintenance practices, and that the funding plan is equitable and sustainable.  These broad objectives have been laid out in our adopted policy plans and were stipulated in the City Council’s resolution of support for a locally preferred alternative in July of 2008.

PDXme: The $4.1 billion dollar price tag for the proposed span has lifted a lot of eyebrows and with a $65 million price tag for planning alone, many have criticized the feasibility of the bridge. How does Vancouver view the currently proposed bridge?

Broadly speaking, the City’s policy plans (Comprehensive Plan and City Center Vision plan) recognize the importance of this bridge infrastructure, both in terms of its inherent value for community circulation and economic well being, coupled with the direct benefits and effects that is places upon downtown Vancouver in particular.  For the vibrancy and future well being of our downtown, the Council has laid out a vision where a bridge should be re-built to ensure downtown multi-modal access, and done in a manner which allows for future growth while delicately inserting the re-built infrastructure in direct adjacency to our downtown core and historic reserve.

Updating this infrastructure to meet our community’s future needs, is a very important task and a myriad of important and inter-connected issues relate to this effort.  In our view the project efforts to date have been thoughtful and detailed in their study and with that effort costs result.  That is to be expected for such and important regional decision.  Based upon the reports we have seen, it is our understanding that the costs incurred to date are within the norm of other similarly sized and complex projects and are in line with preliminary estimates which were developed at the outset of the project.

PDXme: Specifically, light rail to Vancouver has been a major goal of Portland leaders for quite some time. How do you view light rail, as well as other amenities for pedestrians and bicycles affecting downtown Vancouver’s development?

The City Center Vision Plan for downtown Vancouver, which was updated in 2007, calls for significant increases in mass transit to support downtown’s growth and development.  At a minimum, the Plan proposes that to sustain our downtown environment and to support housing and employment growth, over 35% of future commute trips into downtown need to occur in non SOV (single occupancy vehicle) modes.  With the adoption of that general policy direction several efforts are now underway to enhance our transportation networks to support this goal.  Significant expansion of our bike networks and bike parking facilities are underway and the linkage to a new bridge corridor will provide a significant increase in safety and capacity for that mode in particular.  The regional transportation planning agency, the Southwest Regional Transportation Council, recently wrapped up a multi-year planning effort to design the broad plan for expanding mass transit, and specifically bus-rapid transit systems, to serve greater Clark County.  Each of the proposed rapid transit lines would feed downtown Vancouver, which would result in a significant infusion of peak-hour commute trip supply.  Finally, the proposed extension of light-rail transit north into downtown Vancouver would be a significant addition of bi-state transportation supply into downtown which would support an increasingly important bi-state reverse commute, as the downtown Vancouver employment market expands into the future.  Bottom line; our plans are reliant upon the expansion of mass transit and bike systems into downtown and current initiatives will go a long way towards providing us the infrastructure systems to support of growth and development objectives.

PDXme: In terms of economic development for Vancouver, the installation of I-5 in the 1950s hampered much of downtown’s economic vitality. In your view, what effect would the proposed bridge design have on Vancouver’s downtown economy?

Downtown Vancouver prosperity has, from its outset, been reliant upon the river and the bi-state infrastructure systems.  Early river ferry traffic and the initial Interstate bridge fed downtown with activity and most of the commerce of those early days lined Main Street to support and take advantage of the cross river activity.  The same is true today.  Multi-hour congestion on I-5 and SR-14 at the doorstep of downtown Vancouver currently stifles downtown access and economic activity in many ways.  A new bridge which provides multiple net new enhancements to transportation infrastructure supply (light-rail, bikes, etc) with efficiency upgrades (auto and freight) feeding downtown Vancouver will help foster additional economic growth within this important regional center.

Quotes that strike chords in Matt's responses in reference to the CRC project include the mention of "a myriad of important and inter-connected issues relate[d] to this effort" and  "inherent value for community circulation and economic well being." To me, the CRC is more than just a circulator for getting across the river and back, and I believe Matt Ransom and his colleagues share this sentiment. Additionally, I see the tangential issues of the bridge as being "inter-connected." The discrepancy I see in this project, however, is the lip service paid to the concerns of global warming and community building, while effectively (and ironically enough) ignoring the economic impacts of a 12-lane bridge.

Yes, people need to get across the river, and in a timely manner, but will a twelve-lane bridge design really help solve this recurring issue? Will a bridge inspired by 1960s design, with its inhuman scale and propensity to induce demand for single occupancy vehicles really aid the economic and community issues of automobile congestion and pollution? If both Portland and Vancouver intend to grow responsibly and "sustainably" as two cities of a common region, shouldn't the one link between them be rebuilt (or not built at all) to reflect the desires of its visionary planners and citizens?

Something is not right in the Rose City. "Sustainability" seems to have become a buzz-word for a project that has frustrated stakeholders like the BTA, which wiped its hands clean of the public process surrounding the bridge design. With the City of Portland, Metro, the State of Oregon, and Oregon's congressional delegation all on board or eerily silent about this project, one can't help but think of the fitting parallel to the Mt. Hood Expressway, a freeway never built, but which would have sliced through SE Portland, destroying Ladd's Addition and 1% of all Portland's housing at the time.

As with every large project, I believe there is a door of opportunity, to paraphrase the often-recanted phrase. When citizens of Portland didn't want a freeway, they stood up against their elected officials to successfully derail the project by laying down the rails of our now extensive MAX system. I ask Portlanders, Vancouverites and other citizens of the region: are we going to sit idly by while our values and quality of life are at stake? Could over $4 billion in the middle of an economic recession perhaps be better spent on a longer-term solution to our region's connectivity, including improvements and upgrades to the existing 1-5 bridges and significant investments in high-speed rail?

I believe that the CRC could be successfully geared towards increased regional thinking by focusing not only on the regional benefits of a new bridge, but also on north-south connectivity issues of the entire Pacific Northwest. The Obama administration's dedication of $8 billion dollars for high-speed rail shows a commitment to passenger rail, and a large local investment by the state of Oregon (with what would have been borrowed CRC money anyway) would work to provide a cleaner myriad of cross-Columbia transportation options. I liken these transportation options to Matt's, "myriad of important and inter-connected issues relate[d] to this effort."

The sheer amount of money needed to build this super bridge, which will become obsolete with the onset of the effects of global warming, is not merely one of many inter-connected issues; it is the issue. If Portland is pledging to meet its climate goal of 80% of 1990 emission levels by 2050, we cannot afford to spend over 4 billion dollars on a project that will hamper our efforts to meet this goal. The prospect of borrowed money represents another burden for future generations in addition to increased environmental harm. For $4.3 billion, according to Metro cost estimates, we could build MAX lines from Portland to Gresham along Powell, from Portland to Sherwood along Barbur, and from Clackamas Town Center to Oregon City along I-205. These three projects are at the top of list of high capacity transit corridors for future MAX line expansions, showing just how far $4 billion dollars could go if "sustainability" were treated as more than just a buzz-word.

Regardless of the way you talk about the CRC project, we must define our priorities as a city and as a region. The task at hand is to find a more sustainable alternative to the proposed Columbia River Crossing. Contact your legislators and elected officials. Get involved with the citizen campaign and read additional information here and here in opposition to the bridge proposal. For the Facebook inclined, I couldn't find a group addressing this issue, so I went ahead and started one, Citizens for a Better Bridge - NO to the Columbia River Crossing. Together we can find better solutions for Portland and regional transportation needs.

You should follow PDXme on twitter @djronan!

Emerson Valentine Lyon in concert. Image courtesy of EVL.

PDXppl is a series of profiles of Portlanders and what they do.

Musicians are "a plenty" in the 503. With numerous music events such as MusicfestNW, PDX Pop Now! and the Waterfront Blues Festival, the Rose City definitely knows how to  jive on a Saturday night. What is more, Portland has also been a producer of top musicians, namely the Decemberists and Pink Martini. Musicians on the local level are also pretty good. Whether hopefully transitioning to larger gigs or laying low in Portland, artists employ their talents in a myriad of music genres. Emerson Valentine Lyon (EVL), a graduate of Wilson High School in SW Portland, is one of these artists.

PDXme: Describe yourself and what you do.

I am currently attending Portland State University as an English major, expected to graduate in 2011. In terms of my act, I like to describe myself as a hip-hop inspired artist rather than a rapper. Although my music has prominent hip-hop elements, the overall themes of my work very rarely touch on the obvious scenarios of the genre (and if they do, it is more satirical than anything else). My live act involves synths, toy guitars from the 80s, drum machines, and other things collected in thrift store visits around Portland. I am one half of the group Thuggage, the duo known for dissing Soulja Boy and making ironic ghetto anthems.

PDXme: What do you like most about being a musician?

Being a musician is great, especially a modern musician where even when I’m on tour, I can be writing songs due to my low-maintenance setup. I think having the ability to travel for practically free - and occasionally better than free -while paying for gas and food, is awesome.

PDXme: Are there any particular artists or types of music from which you draw inspiration?

My biggest inspiration as of late has to be Beck’s Midnite Vultures. Honestly Beck never appealed to me until my roommate insisted I listen to him because we supposedly share a certain sound. The artist I am frequently compared to, and for good reason, is Kanye West. Although I strongly dislike his last record, he is someone I aspire to be. Biz Markie is fantastic. Rare disco grooves are always funky and either inspire me to write something new or offer a source to literally pull samples from.

Image courtesy of EVL.

PDXme? What shows have you done in the past?

I recently came back from a tour where I played shows in Washington and Canada, opening up for Blackalicious in Vancouver B.C. Most people in Portland know me for hosting ‘The Gold Delorean Party" in a warehouse, where I played and booked my favorite Portland acts at the time.

The best way to get to know my music is on my Myspace page where you can get free downloads of my music. Thuggage also has a Myspace page.

To see me live, come check me out at Virgo & Pisces at 500 NW 21st this Friday, August 14th at 8PM. It’s free and for all ages!

You should follow PDXme on twitter @ djronan!

Amtrak ticket stubs for round trip train reservations and bike reservations.

This past weekend I took a trip up to Portland from Eugene with my bike. I really appreciate the fact that I can bring my bike on the train, as it gives me the choice to do whatever I like when I arrive at Union Station. Upon arrival, one can bike to the nearest bus line to get home, go to Powell's for the newest read, or relax at a nearby café. At any rate, the fact that Amtrak permits bikes on board does wonders for a visitor's experience in the Rose City.

As a pretty much monthly visitor to Portland, surprisingly enough, this past weekend marks the first time I have brought a bike on board. Accordingly, I've given some thought to how bikes on Amtrak trains fit the Portland goal of diverse travel options. In short, "choices." If you offer citizens choices in terms of their travel options, the more likely they will make a different choice than insisting on riding alone in their cars. Be it train, light rail, bus or bike, Portlanders get around. Amtrak's inclusion of bicycles on board increases the number of choices people can make upon arriving to town as to where and when they want to go. Accordingly, I've written a brief list of ideas and suggestions in light of my trip that might make arriving "from train with bike" that much more desirable and convenient.

1. Improve ticketing of bicycles upon purchase. The decision to bring my bike from Eugene to Portland came after I had already bought my ticket north. For me to add my bike to my reservation, I had to cancel my previous ticket and be charged an extra $10 dollars on top of the ticket price to bring my bike roundtrip. Days after, I was reimbursed for the initial transaction. The easier we make it easy for “leisure riders” to make reservations for their bikes on the fly, without needing reimbursement of previous Amtrak fares, the more accessible trains will be and the more popular the prospect of riding one’s bike at one’s destination.
2. Standardize bike boarding information, waver forms and tagging. On Saturday morning, I arrived at Eugene Station to wait in line for the appropriate ticketing to bring my bike on board. To bring your bike you need to sign a form acknowledging that Amtrak has no liability for potential damage that may occur on your trip. After signing, I received a carbon copy of the form explaining the terms of agreement along with a tag for my bike. On the return from Portland, I was given a perforated form to perform the same task. The text was easier to read and more intuitive as it looked like it was printed off the same printing system as my tickets. The tag ripped off the form to be hung on my handlebars. Regardless of the differences in waver forms and bike tags, the actual round tickets, four in all (two for the fare and two for the bikes) looked the same. It would great to bring this sort of standardization to the bikes on board. Lastly, at the end of my ride to Portland, I wasn’t required to give proof that my bike belonged to me, whereas after arriving in Eugene I was required to give the other part of the ticket I received before boarding. To sum it up, Amtrak needs to be better with making a more seamless system for transporting bikes, especially when it comes to showing proof that a bike belongs to a certain individual.
3. Increase the capacity for bicycles on board. A quick call to Amtrak revealed that trains the Amtrak Cascade line only have capacity for six bikes, that is, six bike hooks to hang bikes if they are not already taken. I imagine more bikes could be accommodated if brought in boxes, but boxing your bike for less than a two-day stint in Portland doesn’t make sense. If Amtrak and Portland got together to find away to accommodate more bike hooks on trains, this could potential decrease the demand for rental cars, taking more cars of the road and encouraging visitors to see Portland and its neighborhoods on two wheels. To put this point into perspective, if I wanted to come to Portland with a group of friends to participate in the Bridge Pedal this coming weekend, and we all brought our bikes, then everyone else would be sweet out of luck. If we started off in Vancouver B.C., we would essentially take up all available bike parking for passengers boarding in Washington.

So there you have it. It would be great if people could suggest ways to make some of these suggestions happen. I was sure to send in these comments on the cards that were provided on the train, but more people pushing for better access to Amtrak's trains with bikes will surely make for a better case. You can leave your comments online here. And if you are post prone, (word on the street is you can get a ticket for a free drink on Cascade trains if you send them a comment) you can send your comments to:

Washington State
Department of Transportation
Rail Office
P.O. Box 47407
Olympia, WA 98599-7407

With the coming Winter Olympics in Vancouver, not to mention the fact that people just want to bring their bikes on board, it's important that we work to increase bike capacity on Amtrak as well as streamline current policies towards our two-wheeled friends. I also see this as a potential improvement that could come of Washington and Oregon's application for stimulus funds to update the Cascade line's crossings and aging infrastructure. If we're set on making the riding the train a viable transportation option, it's important that we make it viable for all users, those with and sans vélo. The more bikes at Union Station, the more money in the Portland's, and not to mention the Pacific Northwest's economy.

Ottavia of Italy & Quincey of New Jersey. Rendez-vous with a Southern European and current Eugenian: 1

Cup & Saucer Café on SE Hawthorne. Number of Cupcas visited: 1

Biker on SE Hawthorne. Number of "bike walkers" observed: 20+ Number of those 20+ hipsters: huh?! you don't know?

Obama on yo' fixie. Number of Obama images: undefined

SW 9th and Burnside Number of Artsy photos: all of them

A sweet print with the neighborhoods of Portland! Birthday gifts received (four months late): 1 A sweet print with the neighborhoods of Portland! Birthday gifts received four months late: 1

Ottavia (Otti) of Italy and Aida of Spain. Rendez-vous with Southern Europeans: 1

United States Government General Services Administration: 911 Federal Building! Number of semi-neglected yet still timeless government buildings passed on rambling walks through the Pearl: 1

Bike corral at Powell's! Number of bike corrals passed at Powell's with pictured friend Leanne: 1

Peace in Oregon on W Burnside. Spoof on "Made in Oregon" Sign 1/2

"Oregon" on SE Hawthorne. Spoof on "Made in Oregon" Sign 2/2

Union Station at dusk before heading home. Number attempts at this picture: 7

A family shot before heading to Union Station. Number of pictures shot in Jamison Square Park: 5

Things I couldn't get pics of:

My hairdresser, James, at Bishop's salon in the Pearl, soon to be tying the knot.
Haute politico Andrew Plambeck at Marco's in Multnomah Village.
The oh so beautiful Willamette River.

And with that, I hope you have a great start to your week. Lucky are the people who live, work and play in our beautiful City of Roses.

Beating the heat at SW Broadway & Madison, Summer 2007.

Portland in Heat by Amelié Rousseau

Portland in heat:
A blushing rose, propped up in its ornate vase: wilting.

Rectangular fans silhouette the windows and doors in SE Powell, the west hills, Sellwood, and St. John’s.
“Why pay thousands for air conditioning?” they say.
“It’s only hot in Oregon three weeks a year,” they say.

Tonight a tiny frog darted under my garage door.
Why should it want a night in this concrete hole?
I covet the frog's cool swamp to my hot sheets.

Portland in heat:
A boat waiting to sail: yearning.
Sea legs lost until the river breeze cools,
Only then can it fill its sails again. Freedom.

Other PDXpoesy may be viewed on the PDXpoesy page!

The Oregonian rose their daily's price to $1 at the beginning of July. Would you even buy this if Palin wasn't on the cover? Oh, what news!

I read a lot of Portland news. Each day I try to keep up with the latest happenings of the "Rose City" while reading the online weeklies, including the Portland Tribune, Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury. The Oregonian, the state's flagship newspaper, (with the most dreadful-looking website of any major publication I know) has fallen off of my "must read" list as of late. Beyond the more traditional media I, as any college student would, frequent local blogs.

My favorite blogs include Bike Portland and Portland Transport, two blogs dedicated to transportation issues in the Portland Metro Area. I've been an alternative transportation reader since my formative years in high school when I volunteered on the board of the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association. Watching livable communities organize and thrive is something I take much interest in and hope to pursue on the career level someday.

My career aspirations aside, I fear that the traditional media is loosing (if not having already completely lost) its relevance. With my blog reading, I have taken to reading authors that have specialized knowledge in their respective fields that offer professional analysis that Joe the Editor just can't showcase, much less produce. I would argue that when it comes to livability, or any issue for that matter, the media has the duty to inform and inspire those to take action.

Your run-of-the-mill hipster, Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

Yesterday, over at Bike Portland, blog editor Jonathan Maus brought to my attention to an Oregonian opinion piece titled "The bike as a fashion accessory." The "story" consisted of a writer frustrated with the Portland hipster set that does nothing but ride their bikes all day, and when not riding, making sure to be seen with them walking down the sidewalk. Interesting premise, if this were at all news. Yes, we have hipsters, big deal. But is it really only the hipsters that walk their bike down the sidewalk? Is this news anyway? Is this at all informing or inspiring coverage of the goings on in Bridge City? The answer to each of these questions is a resounding "no."

That's why, as mentioned in a previous post, my family ended our subscription to the Oregonian. I ended up only wanting the subscription to read the moderately enjoyable "inPortland" section in Thursday's paper, but came to realize that the majority of the Oregonian's opinions are not worth the forests sacrificed to print them. What had before resulted in month-mounds of Oregonians, resulted in several trips to the recycling cart. And a'bloggin' I go!

You can read more about my thoughts on Portland publications and blogs on the PDXmedia page.