A reader passed on a link to an article in Dwell magazine (for those not familiar, the magazine covers modern architecture with a hip sort of spin).
The article covers transportation in the West in general, but if you make your way all the way to page 3, you’ll find the insight that in Portland, you can make your way from the airport, to dowtown, all the way out to farmland (Sauvie Island in this case) all on transit.
Let’s hear it for SB 100 (pre-M37 that is).
I’m told that the print version of the article (I haven’t seen it yet) has an excellent picture of our Streetcar.
3 responses to ““Dwell”ing on Portland”
The print version –I’m a subscriber– has a picture of the Streetcar at the SW Park & Mill stop. It looks like about 16 people waiting to board it there. Gives you the sense that it’s on a dedicated right-of-way, though, which while it may be sorta true there, isn’t really the case.
On a side note, there’s also an article by Brian Libby (“Portland Architecture” BLOG) on the Belmont Street Lofts. It’s a reasonably fair article about the Lofts –and, especially, Randy Rappaport (not a hero in my HAND neighborhood for destroying the Clay Rabbit/Thomas House site to place his “The Clinton” Lofts). It’s amusing to look at the exterior photo of the Belmont Lofts…it DOESN’T show the butt-ugly garage facing the residential neighborhood, and there’s only a handful of cars parked on Belmont. The spine of this issue –256 pages of mostly ads– quotes Randy Rappaport: “I’ve told Wayne that the spirit of the Flaming Lips is in this building.”
Whatever.
Service to Sauvie Island (and some of the best biking & beaches in the state) is nice, but what impresses me is that even Estacada has all-day, six-days-a-week service. It seems to me that in most other regions, a city like that would be lucky to have commuter service.
Oh, and I wouldn’t call Forest Park “inner-city”.
The Dwell folks also came and photographed Breakfast on the Bridges and Critical Mass, but they weren’t so optimistic about bicycle culture making it into the story. Our worldwide design-y fame will have to wait for another day…