VanPortlander

I love the geek factor in the Portland area.  I love that we do geeky things.  I love that there are a lot of geeks here.

One of those geeks is Scott Hanselman, a software developer.  He happens to have diabetes, and he occasionally blogs about it on his website.

A couple of his friends have setup an interesting geeky event coming up on October 11th.  They’ve got two theaters at Cinetopia booked to play Halo 3 as a fundraiser for the Fight Against Diabetes.

Head over to Scott’s blog to find out more, including how to register for the event.

Oregon Live notes that Rudy Giuliani will be in town this weekend checking out Rose’s Deli (among other things). I figure if he’s checking out delis, he might as well check out bagels as well. There was quite a discussion over on Metroblogging Portland a few months back about the search for a true New York bagel in the Rose City.

I haven’t yet tried Kettleman’s, but I have had Sunrise Bagels several times and wonder how they stack up.

Today Metro voted to continue down the path of creating a taxpayer-subsidized hotel to go along with the taxpayer-subsidized Oregon Convention Center.

The cynic in me can’t help but observe that the new hotel and assorted restaurants, clubs, and other redevelopment would be happening right across the street from Metro’s headquarters.

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence…

Poor Randy Leonard.  He’s not a big fan of the Mayor’s “Let’s All Have a Committee” method of government.  So far, the SAFE committee folks haven’t been able to figure out how to adequately provide locations for the homeless to use the restroom downtown (which was one of the conditions for the site/lie ordinance).

So what does Commissioner Leonard do?  He did a bit of research and came up with a solution.  A Euro-style sidewalk toilet solution, to be precise.  Apparently that’s not exciting the committee, but hey, at least it’s a solution.  Which is more than the committee has been able to come up with on their own.

Mayor Potter has posted an open letter to the community in which he chastises those who apparently weren’t respectful at some neighborhood meetings discussion the proposed Interstate / Chavez street renaming. From his letter:

César E. Chávez’s work was rooted in his belief in peaceful and nonviolent action. Unfortunately, this same legacy of respect was not present last week during a neighborhood discussion of a street commemoration in his name.

As I’ve said before many times: good people can disagree. And many do in this case. The exchange of opinions is healthy for a community to better understand all sides of an issue. But when an opinion is delivered with negativity and disrespect, it is not healthy, it is destructive.

You know what would be respectful of your constituents, Mayor? Following established city policy on street renaming rather than ramrodding this through in an alternative agenda.  Why is it so hard to follow city code?

This is the first in a series of weekly interviews/profiles of various local bloggers. It’s good to learn a bit about the people behind the websites and I hope that you find the responses interesting.

This week’s featured blogger is Chris Smith, who happens to have declared his candidacy for Portland City Council earlier this morning.

1. Start off by telling us a bit about your current blog project(s)… where do you write?
   I founded portlandtransport.com in July of 2005. While it has always been a multi-contributor blog, I’ve been the main voice. I also blog occasionally on political issues on Blue Oregon, and I comment semi-frequently on a number of local blogs.
2. How did you get started? What was your first online blog or journal about?
   I had done a few guest posts on Blue Oregon, and been an active commenter on the old Portland Communique (I still miss it) before I founded Portland Transport. The goal behind Portland Transport was to create a common place where advocates of various modes of alternative transportation could come together and share ideas.
3. What’s your favorite part of blogging about local issues?
   I’ve always been a fan of civic engagement, and I think blogs (at least those that don’t degenerate into flaming) are a great vehicle for building common understanding and discussing ideas. We’ve worked hard at Portland Transport to build a code of conduct that facilitates discussion without devolving into argument.
4. On the flip side, what do you find most challenging when blogging about Portland?
   Having enough time to do it well!
5. What has been your favorite moment while blogging? Do any particular posts or reactions/coverage of posts stand out in your mind?
   I think my favorite post was one I wrote after attending a TPAC meeting on the Regional Transportation Plan where the comment packet included an off-the-wall critique of the RTP policy chapters by the local Federal Highway Administration office. I posted a copy of the comment letter and it got picked up by the local press, which in turn drove more coverage in the blogosphere. It was kind of bizarre to watch the meme bounce around through the different media.
6. Let’s get technical for a moment. Do you have any favorite blogging tools? Platforms? Online or offline editors? Anything you use to make your blogging easier?
   Portland Transport runs on Movable Type, which I’ve generally found to be a good environment, although as the blog accumulates more and more history I’m finding performance an issue. I’ve also worked with WordPress in other settings and it has a lot of advantages as well. Lately we’ve been using the Akismet anti-spam plugin, which has dramatically cut down the amount of comment spam that has to be moderated (although on a couple of occasions it
   has killed legit comments).
7. Finally, what bit of advice or words of wisdom would you give to someone considering starting their own blog? What do you wish you’d known from the start?
   Blog about something you’re passionate about!

Thanks to Chris for his participation in this effort. If you’re interested in transit and transportation, be sure to check out Portland Transport.

Bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks and his reponse was allegedly “Because that’s where they keep the money.” It never shocks me too much when someone involved in youth work or coaching ends up in trouble for some sort of child sexual abuse. That’s where they keep the kids.

On 9/25/07, Detectives with the Child Abuse Intervention Center (CAIC), interviewed Neil Finger, age 28, the owner of the Vancouver Cheer Academy. As a result of the investigation, Mr. Finger was booked into the CCSO [Clark County] jail on two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor in the first degree.

His name is Finger? Oh boy…

TriMet has done a pretty good job of spreading the word, but just in case you missed the message and will be downtown at all this coming weekend, remember that things are going to be torn up (with no MAX service for several blocks) so that construction crews can install crossings where the new Portland Mall MAX will cross the existing MAX tracks.

For more details on the bustitution, or to find out exactly where things will be in a state of confusionconstruction, see the information page on TriMet’s website.

I used to write for Metroblogging Portland, and chose to leave several months back to spend my time on other ventures.  The roster of authors changes over time as folks come and go.  Tonight it looks like one of the newest authors chose to remove himself from the blog, deciding to criticize the site on his way out the door.  Even if you don’t normally read the site, it’s worth heading over there for the humor value of this author’s last post.

Metroblogging co-captain Dieselboi responded in the comments to explain why the author (Julian Chadwick) was apparently upset.  Image that… apparently Chadwick was expected to actually blog about Portland (instead of Ghostbusters and Odwalla), and not just throw up Metroblogging articles that were pointers to his personal blog.

Tonight’s lesson is subtitled: how to pretty much ensure you won’t ever write for a major Portland blog again.

Generally I appreciate the various methods in which TriMet uses technology to communicate with its ridership.  Service alerts are available via e-mail, there are RSS feeds for information, and project websites are kept up to date with the various expansions that always seem to be in the works.

That said, today they announced TriMet TV and I wonder if a video podcast is really necessary.  How many folks will subscribe as opposed to getting the same information in other methods?

What information will be delivered to a wide audience that can’t be delivered via existing methods?  And if the answer is “not much”, I wonder if this is the best use of limited TriMet resources…