As I first blogged about in this post a couple months back, the Cyan PDX project is now up and running. The coordinator for their media relations, Beth Forsman, saw my original post and e-mailed me a personal invitation to come and check it out. She was kind enough to arrange to have Damin Tarlow, the project manager, meet with me and give me the full tour.

The showroom is impressive: a large, beautifully open area with two full models of the available floor plans. As Damin explained to me, the project is centered around living small, with the least amount of carbon footprint and local environmental impact. All the appliances are European in design and the first of their kind to be installed in the US: in fact, the oven dials were all in celsius. The clothes dryer doesn’t vent heat outwards, rather it recycles the heat generated and vents what moisture remains out the same drain the washer uses. The building will also feature an eco roof and have Zip Cars stationed outside. The intent is to make the surrounding area a “green street”, with as little automotive traffic as possible and with a heavy emphasis on walking and biking. In fact, parking spaces don’t come included in the price of your condo: you’ll need to fork over another 40k for that luxury.

What surprised me to hear is that this is only phase one of the project. Phase two is directly across the street on the West side of 4th and Harrison. The existing Streetcar jog around that block will be straightened to flow diagonally across the lot, following the existing line through the PSU urban center, and the building will be built over and around it. Phase three will see the showroom demolished and recycled and a third building erected on that lot.

All in all I was impressed with the concept, but with a bit of healthy long-time-Portland-resident skepticism. The prices are a bit high for condos on the smallish side IMHO, and I have to wonder if the trend in the pearl could happen here: if the buyers don’t come will these become apartments? Regardless, the landscape in downtown is changing, and it will be interesting to see what this area looks like in a few years time.

On a personal note, one thing I liked is that they use Macintoshes in their showroom for people to check out their website with. Major Mike points for that! As an added bonus, check out the building at night if you can: projectors fill the front windows with a screensaver-like display of moving light and color that’s very cool to watch, just don’t let it distract you from your driving. (:

Friend of the Oregon Citizens Alliance and frequent meddler in Oregon’s battles for Gay and Lesbian rights, Fred Phelps and his merry band of bigoted hatemongers are flying to Australia to picket the funeral of actor Heath Ledger. Why? Because despite his record of staunch heterosexuality, and the fact that he has a daughter by his former Fiance, he was in Brokeback Mountain. You know, the one about the gay cowboys? Yeah, that seems productive.

Click here to see the press release, although I must caution you it’s a vile, hate filled piece of garbage. Now that I am thoroughly sick to my stomach, I’m off to barf a rainbow.

Well, she WAS here, anyway…

Actress Kate Mulgrew, the alter-ego of one of my favorite Starfleet captains, made an appearance in Portland on January 4th to host the opening of her son Alec Egan’s first art exhibition. Alec will be showing his work through January 30th at Studio 2507 in SE Portland. Am I normally interested in Art? To be honest, no. Am I interested when Mrs. Colombo herself is greeting guests with wine and cheese? Can I get a hell yeah?

How this slipped by my geek radar I will never know, but I intend to visit the gallery this weekend just to check out his work since talent obviously runs in this family. Yes, we Trek geeks are that hardcore! You can see some of Alec’s work as well as information on the gallery here. A big thanks to Totally Kate for the photo from opening night.

When I first saw this little box a couple of weeks ago, it was mounted ten feet up the wall at the Smart-park on first and clay. It’s screen was off and Christmas music was blaring from it’s speaker, and I thought OK fair enough. Now the screen is on and it’s being used for…you got it, advertising. It was placed there by a company called City Broadcasting, about which I can find very little, and features a scrolling news ticker, weather information, and advertising spots for local businesses. Another screen proudly claims that it will soon be featured in every Smart-park in the city, with more locations to come.

I’m trying to decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I like the use of technology, even if it does somehow remind me something you would see in Logan’s Run, but I also dislike the idea of having metal boxes shrieking at me downtown telling me where to go for the best Chinese food in town or what the weather is like ten feet away. I guess as long as they don’t start listing the names of people who need to report to Carousel, or dispatching robot police if you are seen littering, I see no major harm. What say you?

If you’ve wandered anywhere near fourth and Harrison recently, you’ve seen this building going up, and like me, wondered “what the hell?” Until recently it’s been unmarked and unbranded, until a website address banner was thrown up in the window. Before that it was nothing but a source for lunchtime ire for me: several yummy lunch carts called this corner parking lot home when they were unceremoniously relocated a couple blocks away to fourth and College. I decided I could forgive this transgression if it was going to become a new Apple store or something fun but alas, it was not to be.

It’s for a project called Cyan PDX, and a visit to their website doesn’t reveal a whole lot. The basic gist is that it’s going to be a condo complex of low impact construction, green living, and lower carbon footprint than other condos going up downtown. The adjacent lot was home to a vacant office building for the last year, but that’s been torn down in the last month and now the building is starting to go up. The white base for the large crane that’s about to go in to get the party started was just completed last week.

Googling around, not much information can be found out about this project, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I asked some of the construction folks about it and they just shrugged, but they did tell me that the smaller building that is nearly complete is going to be the leasing office as well as a full model of one of the completed units. Until things move along and the sales office opens, or the website decides to reveal more, it’s a bit of an enigma.

They both arrived and I of course wasn’t ready yet. In my rush to leave, I left behind my camera AND my wallet. I had just switched wallets and grabbed the old (and empty) one in my rush, and the camera was in my lighter coat that I had forsaken at the last minute for a heavier one.

First we hit the low-brow for mini corn dogs and a midori-collins (my signature drink) and that’s when I realized I was sans cash. “Don’t worry, we got it” my friends said amongst my protests. “Well how much is my part?” I asked, pencil poised above paper, but they would only smirk. “Guys, I have to know how much for the post!” but again, only grins. A frantic, silly game of “keep away” involving the menu ensued, so I laughed and gave up.

We moved onto Life of Riley for more members of the fried food group (in this case onion rings sprinkled with goat cheese, thus making it healthy) and again my friends grabbed the tab. I suggested running back to my place to grab my stuff, but they wouldn’t hear of it. “Relax man, we got it, stop freaking about it”. At this point I insisted we were done, but I was hauled along to Manzana where we enjoyed burgers and Sprite’s. Again my friends grabbed the bill as I protested, but it fell upon deaf ears.

We returned to my place when the evening concluded and I located my wallet and insisted my friends take the cash. “Nothing doing man, it’s only money. You can get us next time”. Then my other friend said “it’s not about the money, it’s about us hanging out! Thanks for a fun night!” as I was wrapped in a hug. I bid them goodnight and they were on their way.

So what did my $20 buy that evening? Certainly nothing tangible, but it reaffirmed the knowledge that I have some of the greatest friends I could hope to have. It goes beyond just paying a few bar tabs, it showed me again how selfless they were, and that having close friends around you was more important than who was paying for what or how much something cost.

So actually that $20 bought me a lot, come to think of it.

The one thing it needed then and still needs now is adequate lighting. From the HW 26 tunnel to the 405 interchange there was only three lights, and two of these are over the freeway and not really designed to light the path itself. In between those lights it was black as pitch, and certainly not what I would consider a safe place to be walking. Recently the third and center lamp burned out and stayed out for a couple of days and the city replaced it. Shortly after that it went out again…and stayed out for several weeks. Repeated e-mails to the city went unanswered. Granted I don’t use that path at night, but I was concerned for other people. You don’t know how many times I look down to see an individual, male or female, bopping along in pitch black listening to their iPod, presenting a prime target for theft or worse.

After several more e-mails, the building owner (who had joined me in my cause) received a response from the city telling him that replacement of the bulb was being postponed because the lamp was defective, and a sound-wall was being proposed for that stretch and the lamp would have to be moved or replaced anyway. Yep, the city won’t come out and replace the lamp until it cuts through a mountain of red tape and proposals to then plan and build a sound-wall that may or may not even come to fruition. I’d settle for continual replacement of the bulb every week until something is done, but you know that’s not going to happen. As much as I would love a sound-wall up between me and HW 26, I would rather that people have a safe path to walk on first.

In the meantime, myself and fellow residents of my building have been turning on what exterior lighting we have on our porches to try to brighten the area up, but what we really need is for the city to unclench, wise up, and replace the bulb (or I know it’s crazy talk, but the entire lamp) so that area is safer.

A recent trend I’ve noticed in our fair city has me a bit puzzled: the great swarm of carry-on luggage being used for everyday toting. At first I would see one or two on PSU campus, now about a third of the students I see has one of these things rattling around behind them. But it’s not just for students anymore because now they are popping up downtown, with people from all walks of life using them to haul their stuff. To each his own of course, I just don’t get it. What happened to backpacks, messenger bags, and the good ol’ Timbuk2? Did everyone’s stuff just get a lot heavier? Is gravity getting stronger? Are we getting lazier? If this is the latest trend then count me out: I got suckered once by a little something called the “fanny pack.”