I sat here for awhile trying to figure out the best title for this post. Alas, there it is. I have decided to leave Portland Metblogs and try something new. I want to thank Metroblogging for the opportunity to write here over the years. I especially want to thank all the readers and commenters who have come and gone leaving behind amazing discussions. YOU are why I wrote. Now off to another adventure. Take care. Be well. Live long and prosper. So say we all. Best of luck. Godspeed. Keep on Keepin’ on. Just deal.

Your Portland blogger,

Dieselboi (aka Brett)

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi

As you well know by now, there was a couple of serious incidents on Yellow line MAX in the past week.  Both incidences involved groups of teens attacking or intimidating passengers.  I have usually been a defender of MAX as I think it is one of the best Portland decisions of the past 25 years.  But wow, you would think that after all the negative publicity last winter that TriMet would have maybe figured it out.  They need security on the train!  Plain and simple.

Yet, in this past week’s incident at Prescott Station (where I embark and disembark daily) leaves me realing.  I’m angry with TriMet, but I’m also angry with my fellow commuters.  Yes you, the person sitting there hiding while some young punk starts beating up a woman.  In this most recent incident, a Vancouver woman came to the defence of another rider and was attacked.  I praise her as a hero for standing up against these jackasses.  Yet, as a result, she was injured.  I know for a fact these two women were not the only riders on that train.  6:30pm?  Give me a break.  How many other riders on that train just sat there and watched or moved away from the frackas because they didn’t want to get involved?  People, there are more of us than them and my experience has taught me that if more people confront an issue like this, it will get defused.  Portlanders should have come to the defence of this woman and helped her out.  We’re all in this together.

Let me leave you with this thought regarding the next time something like this begins to transpire.  When you see the aftermath of a disaster or where a group of strangers have been affected by forces out of their control, do you ignore it?  Do you put your head in the sand?  Or do you react and do something to try to help them – donate food, blood, money, blankets etc?  If you are one of those who do rise up to help out these strangers, why aren’t you helping out the person next to you.  They need is just as much.

Walked home yesterday evening through SE, NE and North Portland. A pleasant walk. At beers prior, a bike commuter friend proffered that he believed there are indeed less cars on the road. Do you think that? It was pretty quiet on the streets last evening around 7:30pm. Quieter than normal.

So, anyone want to venture a guess where this is? May get you a beer at our meetup next week.

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi

Yikes! The Steel Bridge closes tomorrow and won’t open again until the end of August. They’re replacing or upgrading the MAX line that crosses the bridge – so that’s a good thing – but long closures are such a pain for traffic.

Of course they do have their good points as well – when the Burnside Bridge was closed – the traffic on Sandy Blvd. wasn’t nearly as heavy – and it doesn’t seem like it’s regained as much traffic as it had prior to Burnside being closed for so long.

But you know the first few weeks in that area near the Rose Garden are going to be a mess as people figure out their best new routes. If that’s your normal commute – good luck!

(Oh – and this is only for cars – the lower deck for bikes and peds will still be open.)

Happy Wednesday, kids. This week is already too much for me – dealing with the day job and the boyfriend being sick has left me no patience for dealing with the nutters on the MAX. Sure enough, there are copious amounts of visitors unfamiliar with our city to whom I am glad to be of service, but the screaming children running up and down a moving train, their parents gleefully ignoring them, is a bit nerve-wracking (especially directly after work). I’ll be taking some photos of the new ships on the Willamette in between a dentist appointment and the Timbers match against Minnesota tomorrow afternoon, so here’s to hoping the clowns won’t be getting in my way this time.

For those of you sick of or too good for the Rose Fest (specifically the Rose Floral Parade on Saturday), Dave from Dave Knows: Portland has some great tips on how to avoid the festivities (there’s also an amazing time-lapse video of the fireworks from last Friday, if you missed it). As this is my first (collective gasp) Rose Fest, I might get up early enough to become part of the throng downtown or at the very least, try to talk the crew at the Horse Brass into tuning in the broadcast while we’re enjoying morning brews and breakfast.

Yesterday, when it was sunny, I walked about 2/3rds of the Rose Festival Parade route looking for duct tape. The good news is that people who normally were taping and reserving spots almost 2 weeks before the parade got the message. The bad news is that today, someone used spraypaint to reserve their spot.

According to the City, “The use of duct tape, chalk, paint or unattended personal property, such as lawn chairs, to mark or reserve a spot along the parade route is prohibited. “

Now, I wonder if the Portland Police are going to be out enforcing said ban. It is a $100 fine if you are caught. Will they go out Friday evening/Saturday morning passing out fines? Will they let it slide this first year? Anyone know how to get stats on that?

Oh, and to be honest, this actually may mean Tower as in placement of. But hey, let’s get this party started!

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi

So are you bummin’ over the thought of your sushi getting more expensive because of the rice shortage? Or maybe you’ve canceled a summer vacation – like we did – because the cost of flying/driving is just ridiculous? Sucks.

This recession we are in hits everyone differently – and I may whine about the price of airline tickets or fresh salmon, but I’m not worried about feeding myself or my family – and as we all know for a lot of Oregonians that’s a more than real problem. Tomorrow when they deliver your mail – your postal carrier will also be collecting canned goods and other non-perishables as part of the USPS’ Stamp Out Hunger program. We had a plastic bag delivered with our mail yesterday to place food in for our carrier to pick up, but even if you didn’t simply put out canned goods next to your mailbox prior to your mail delivery tomorrow and they will take them.

It’s so easy. If everyone put out even one can of beans or box of macaroni think how many people that would feed.

Moving to Portland was partially to get out of a town I really really really despise, and partially to get to live in a place with an extensive public transportation system. I grew up in California, between the south SF bay area and a town north of Sacramento. As the time I spent there was all pre-driver’s license, I relied heavily on the public transportation there, which in the bay area (at least at the time) was awesome, but was severely lacking 100mi north. VTA (Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority) hours were long, the waiting time was little, and I felt safe on the bus and lightrail (in San Jose). One thing about the busses down there was that they were dirty – kids were always putting gum on the backs of seats and most of the windows had become translucent due to the myriad of scratches that had built up over years of wee taggers satiating their need to mark yet another solid with his/her scribble, as well as any other surface.

TriMet vehicles tend to be really clean and comfortable to ride. Sure, there have been a couple of late-night puking sessions on the MAX (not me, thankyouverymuch), those who don’t shower, and once in a while the bus and even the MAX get to capacity, but for the most part, our public transportation is great. The only big problem I have with TriMet currently is the sometimes missing busses (walked a full 2 miles along my path before the 71 went zooming by one day), and the damned machines that never work (but I have a monthly pass, so that’s moot to me for the most part). What do you love/hate about TriMet? Do you actually send requests into their “comment” lines? I might be notorious for letting them know at least once a week that the machine they’ve never fixed at the 60th Ave MAX stop is indeed still broken…

This is slightly old news, for those of you who read the same Portland-centric transportation blogs that I do, but TriMet is giving the buses voices! You read that right – not only will the buses announce their eventual destinations to riders at the stop on an external speaker, but they’re equipping the buses to do the same for major stops inside the buses, much like the MAX and Streetcar do per stop already. The lines taking on the system (powered mostly by GPS) are few for now, but so far I’ve heard the announcements on the 20 and the 75 (per the major stops). As I took my first ride on the 75 yesterday, and as I was preoccupied by my cat being freaked out (it was her first bus ride, full stop, and to the vet, no less), the announcement for the Powell stop, so clearly stated, was incredibly helpful. I know that some drivers speak the stops into their wee microphones as they are approaching, but in my near-year of bus riding here, I’ve only been able to actually hear one of these drivers – and I have excellent hearing. Thanks, TriMet, for improving upon our awesome public transit system! They’re not always on time, but at least I now know where we’re going on the bus.

Anyone who reads blogs knows there are plenty of bloggers out there who rant about something in their neighborhood.  Maybe it is the drug house down the street, the abandoned cars, the neighbor who doesn’t mow their lawn or rowdy teens.  Whatever it is, I always respond in my mind’s voice- “deal with it, you live in the city.”  And yet, I catch myself whining and complaining about similar things.  Oh well, what is one to do.

I have a new complaint though that falls into a different category.  I have learned to deal with the hookers, dealers, abandoned cars and nasty neighbors, but what I’m really ticked off about now is the helicopters.  Yup?  Helicopters!  I remember reading the New York Times a few years ago that there was an uproar about all the commuter helicopters flying in to the city and how the shear amount of them were disturbing residents along the routes from the toney neighborhoods outside the city.  I never would have thought I would complain about helicopter noise in Portland, but here I am.  The helicopters in question are the news choppers covering traffic or an incident.  I doubt Portland has a thriving helicopter commute scene and I usually only notice the helicopter noise because it is constant.  When these pilots what to get a shot of stalled traffic or breaking news, they usually just hover in one spot – usually above my house.  And since I live close to I5 and just north of I405, they are there almost every morning around 6am.  It wakes me up and makes me cranky!

So, if any of the news helicopter pilots are reading this, please find alternate locations to hover.  You have amazing cameras that can zoom, so you don’t have to be right over traffic.  Please, for the sake of my sleep and my family who has to deal with me being cranky, don’t hover over my house.  Ok, rant done.  Back to Thursday.