Dave Knows Portland

Archives for June 2009

Yes – every corner is a crosswalk

by 4 Comments

The Portland Bureau of Transportation recently commissioned Animated Traffic Law to produce the video below. (You’ll be able to catch it on the big screen this summer before Portland Park & Recreation’s Movies in the Park film showings.)

From the frequency with which I’m honked at, sworn at, or just ignored whilst attempting to cross the street at intersections without marked sidewalks, I get the impression a large percentage of drivers are ignorant of the laws in question. The video highlights the responsibilities of both pedestrians and drivers (which includes bicyclists when operating on the road as traffic!).

Via Portlandize, and Mayor Sam Adams’ Blog.

June 11, 13: Timbers face Carolina, Charleston on the road

by Leave a Comment

TimbersThe Portland Timbers face a challenging next three days. After dispatching the Kitsap Pumas Tuesday (read Grondhopper‘s account of the match here) in a US Open Cup match, their next too matches are on the road too, against the two USL first division teams ahead of them on the table.

Portland Timbers vs. Carolina Railhawks – Tonight, 4pm.

Portland Timbers vs. Charleston Battery – Saturday, June 13th 4pm.

Both matches will be broadcast on USLLive, and both matches will be shown at the following local venues:

Saturday’s match against the Charleston Battery will also be shown here:

For more information, changed venues, and new venues visit this thread on the Soccer City USA Message Board.

Study: Oregon only state with over 1% green jobs

by 7 Comments

Oregon is the only state where green jobs represented more than 1 percent of employment.

That’s according to the Green Inc. blog at the New York Times website: Study Cites Strong Green Job Growth .

The story cites a Pew Charitable Trusts study The Clean Energy Economy (pdf). (Read the press release here).

The study finds that in Oregon 1.02 percent of jobs are green (read the study for definitions). Maine is the next closest state, with .85 percent.

Via Lawrence Siulagi’s twitter.

Wanted: Your excuses for not having valid bus fare

by 3 Comments

Transit blogger EMS at Light rail and I: a love story 28 years in the making…:-) needs your help! She’s compiling a list: 100 reasons not to have valid fare on TriMet . . .

Some of the highlights of the list as it now stands (100-67):

92. The TVM [Ticket Vending Machine] is for left handed people – I am right handed

89. My guiding spirit told me no fare inspectors are working today (we have dozens of them now, buddy – try another excuse, or find another spirit to guide you)

81. I am running away from love (and the fare you owe us, apparently…)

A while back Christian at Trimetiquette posted  Top 5 ‘fareless’ excuses, which included several gems:

4) “I’m on my way to pick up my monthly pass!” – now, this is more believable, naturally, in the beginning of the month.. if it’s during the middle, preface this excuse with: “I just got paid and…”.

3) Crying uncontrollably. Crying and making the fare inspector feel bad is mean.. but if it means not paying for a ticket, hey, give it all the crying you got.

2) “Ticket? You’re supposed to buy a ticket?” – play the “I’m not from Portland and I have no idea what this moving metal bus thing is and that I am supposed to buy a ticket?” game.

I’ve contributed a few suggestions to EMS’s list:

  • The TVM wouldn’t let me upgrade to all zone! *
  • I thought the bus was free on snow days!

Comment on her post with your suggestions!

* Say you’re in Hillsboro or Gresham and you want to take MAX back to town but all you have is a 1-2 zone pass or ticket. Used to be that you could buy a 30 cent upgrade from the TVMs. But a few years ago TriMet removed that option. Now your only option is to either buy an all-zone ticket or find a bus driver somewhere to buy your upgrade from, which is especially difficult, if not impossible, if you’re at a non-transit center MAX stop. This is one of my Trimet pet peeves.

Reed College is very very expensive

by 8 Comments

When I attended Reed (Old Reed™ days of course) the school advertised that about 50% of the students received financial aid.   I being one of them.  Having some idea of how the financial aid formulas worked, what amazed me was that this meant that the other half of the students’ parents had an extra $30,000+ just lying around each year.

Well now it’s an extra $50,000 just lying around.   And according to the New York Times, 100 students this year who would have otherwise been accepted just don’t have rich enough parents.

PORTLAND, Ore. — The admissions team at Reed College, known for its free-spirited students, learned in March that the prospective freshman class it had so carefully composed after weeks of reviewing essays, scores and recommendations was unworkable.

Money was the problem. Too many of the students needed financial aid, and the school did not have enough. So the director of financial aid gave the team another task: drop more than 100 needy students before sending out acceptances, and substitute those who could pay full freight.

I’d think Reed, with a $357 million endowment, and owning a big chunk of Eastmoreland, could scrounge up a few more dollars for the middle class and poor kids. I guess not.

Read the rest: A Small College Struggles With Economics