VanPortlander

I haven’t entirely abandoned this site but it’s taken a back burner to a few other side projects at the moment. My expectation is that when I’m back, it’ll be in a bigger, better way. Stay tuned…

You’re going to get more streetcars, whether you like it or not. Just ignore the fact they don’t really relieve congestion. PDOT will be holding a series of meetings about future streetcar planning.

On a sorta-related note, my sister was in town last weekend from Phoenix. I asked her how long it takes her to get to work, and she told me a little less than half an hour, noting that it was very fast despite how far she lives from her office. Why? In Phoenix, they build roads. Imagine that! Building transportation infrastructure which can meet the demands of the people… what a concept!

A couple weeks ago I blogged about how TriMet should use the GPS data to provide real-time connection info on buses and light rail train.

Today on #6 both in the morning and afternoon I saw what might be a precursor to that system. Today there were automated announcements (accompanied by message board displays) at each major transfer point such as Burnside, Hawthorne, Pacific (MAX), and so on. This is quite possibly the worst photo I’ve ever taken, but here’s a quick snapshot of the message board in use:

First we have automated transfer announcements… hopefully the next step is tying that data together for real-time transfer status information.

I was skimming through a post on BlueOregon about the peace rally when I noticed this bit:

Interesting deal…

…my youngest daughter had to be coaxed into going. The deal I finally struck with her was all about quid pro quo… She would come to the Peace Rally & March with me and I would go to the very last showing of her highschool’s production of Fiddler on the Roof later that evening.

To me it seems strange to equate attending his kid’s achool play with attending a political rally…

And speaking of that rally, I have to ask: what was the point? What was accomplished? Thousands of local folks oppose the war, but we already knew that, right? Yes, I’m cynical about it, but was there any benefit other than feeling good?

While browsing my feeds today I learned that yesterday Portland lost a blogger. Russell Shaw used to write locally for Metblogs, but was known in wider circles for his work as a tech journalist and blogger for AOL, ZDnet, and the Huffington Post. He passed away while on a business trip in San Jose.

Most days, my commute brings me past Fairly Honest Bill’s on the corner of MLK and Couch. It’s an interesting secondhand store with a wide variety of merchandise… but that’s not the interesting part. To me, the interesting part is the signage, some of which I offer up here:

Click to view larger on Flickr

Sometimes my RSS reader and searches turn up some gems… like this new blog, appropriately titled Things About Portland That Suck.

The big headline on CNN this morning is a study which found that tap water in many major metropolitan areas contains tiny quantities of pharmaceuticals, both prescription and over-the-counter. Given that the folks at the Portland Water Blog always talk about the high quality of our water, I figured I would click through on the CNN article to see if Portland was one of the affected areas.

Yep. Most of the metro areas had between 1-3 drugs identified, although they found 56 different drugs in Philly. Portland had 4: acetaminophen, ibuprofen, sulfamethoxazole, and (amusingly) caffeine. Darn us and our coffee obsession!

If you give a Portlander a camera, and set them loose on the city, you’ll find a great set of images as a result. Last weekend, Bay Area photographer Thomas Hawk was in town and led a photowalk for several hours on Saturday afternoon/evening. Our group started out around 30 folks as we started at Pioneer Courthouse Square and dwindled to around half that number by the time we split up near the Coliseum. I had a great time, it was good to meet Thomas as well as several local Flickr folks such as Squid Vicious - that’s his shot of one of the beams on the Broadway Bridge up above. Everyone was asked to tag their photos on Flickr, you can see a bunch of the shots from the walk.

If your name is Morris, and you watched the Rose Parade from your taped-off area at MLK and Davis, please go remove your tape. It’s still there.