VanPortlander

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!

Today I was reading an article from the Tribune talking about one business’ program of offering a contest where employees could win a bicycle and accessories for commuting, with the caveat that they actually had to make a commitment to use the cycle for that purpose for 4-5 days per month.

The second winner, announced Friday, wasn’t so sure about that commitment.

Greg Owens, a 47-year-old accountant, drives to Rejuvenation’s Northwest Portland location from Washougal, Wash., in a Ford pickup five days a week. He says he’s spending about $60 a week on gas.

Even so, he was feeling a bit hesitant about going to two wheels.

“It’s 26 and a half miles,” he says. “I would practically have to start the previous day.”

Greenie-friendly commuting. A modern house. Property. Wages that employers can afford to pay.

Pick a mix; you can’t have it all.

I suppose TriMet is in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation when it comes to winter weather preparations. As a transportation provider, they need to take measures to attempt to keep things running when the roads get dicey. That said, perhaps they should avoid pre-emptive public guessing games that make them look foolish.

Monday was icy (enough to delay schools) and the other mornings this week have been a bit slick. I haven’t heard any sort of weather communications all week from TriMet. Until late yesterday afternoon, when they sent out a winter weather advisory, warning that today’s commute would be icy, slow, and require extra caution.

Today? Great drive. Dry pavement. Above-freezing. Not at all slick. First morning all week that I’ve felt comfortable taking the cloverleaf freeway onramp at full speed.

Thanks for the warning, TriMet. Suggestion: stick to transit instead of meteorology.

Money is green. Green is money. When folks go green, someone pays. I see that Fred Meyer is going for LEED certification for its Southeast Hawthorne location. Someone is going to pay, and I suspect that it’ll be me, as a Fred Meyer customer.

Maybe more of the folks at C-Train should read this blog (or listen to the news). Don’t they know that biodiesel designed for moderate temperature simply won’t work when you use it at freezing temperatures like we’ve had around here lately?

Granted, the Portland Water Bureau led the way on this discovery, but it’s good to see that C-Tran is following suit.

What? Oregon isn’t officially the feel-good state? It should be. Ideas that sound good (but do nothing positive in reality) are really popular around here. Let’s ban trans fats. Let’s make laws about duct tape. And the latest feel-good measure? Let’s mandate ethanol in our fuel. I mean, who wouldn’t want cars which run a little cleaner. Even though it’s going to be harder for folks to buy food in 2008, at least the autos will be gulping down something yummy.

This seems totally counterintuitive if the goal is to get folks to drive less. That is the goal in Portland, right?

Yesterday, it started snowing, hard, without having been predicted by anyone. Today, pretty much everyone is predicting a few inches of snow for the Portland area tomorrow.

Will it happen? I wonder. Generally, when it’s predicted, it doesn’t pan out. When nothing is predicted (yesterday, or last year’s snow event) we get some snow without warning. From a KATU article:

Rod Hill is watching the weather models closely because there is a concern that we could see more snow Thursday morning than expected.

I’d say that if the weather guy is saying we might see more snow than expected, I wonder who he’s relying on for the “expected” part of that equation. Apparently not himself…?

I give you the official VanPortlander weather forecast: I guarantee between 0-12″ of snow will probably likely mostly happen in downtown.

This would be a great occasion to break out my three rules of snow in Portland:

1. Your 4WD vehicle does not give you the ability to drive 60mph then stop in a normal distance on a sheet of ice
2. If you don’t have some society-sustaining critical job, and you’re not comfortable driving in bad weather, stay home. Please. We urge you.
3. Although it’s fun to watch, and we could use more variety in our snowtarded video clips, don’t be this guy:

Via the Columbian (who hopefully broke no laws in getting the story), I learned today that drivers in Vancouver and the rest of Clark County will again see the benefits (and potential hazards) of salt on the roads when things get snowy or icy.

Trust us, they say, this salt is different, and shouldn’t have the corrosive effect on vehicles. They think. But they still advise you wash your car. If you head down to the bottom of the article, you’ll see they’re considering adding cheese brine to the mixture. I probably don’t want to know what that is.

Portland just barely made the “Top 10″ cut.

Wow. You’d think with all the greenies running things around here, we could out-do the Los Angeles freeway/traffic system.

Today the Trib interviews a local college student who will be jumping into the Willamette River tomorrow as part of a campaign to highlight global warming issues.

Sure. They get some publicity. But don’t think for a moment that jumping into a sludge slough will actually do anything to prevent global warming, which may or may not be an actual problem. I get skeptical in the wake of Katrina.

Will the polar bear swim be a good story for the participants to tell in the future? Sure. But let’s not pretend that it actually solves any sort of issues.