Dave Knows Portland

Book Review [and Giveaway!]: Joyride – Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet

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Mia Birk has written a book about her travails and travels working to make bicycling an integral part of the transportation system and culture of American cities and towns: Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet.

In the book she relates personal stories and struggles of her several decades experience convincing first herself, then bureaucrats, planners, engineers, and the public at large (including her own family) that bicycling is not just kids stuff. The stories are inspirational; relating both tiny and big steps forward through the morass of politics and public opinion.

Portland is the setting for many of her stories, as Birk was the Bicycle Program Manager for the city from 1993-1999. Portland’s bicycle culture and infrastructure are now regarded as shining examples of what is possible in American cities. One wonders where we would be now if it weren’t for Mia Birk’s work. Any one interested in Portland’s bicycling history and culture will enjoy this book. Activists and bicyclists from anywhere will enjoy the inspirational stories and possibly learn a thing or two about promoting bicycling in their own cities.

See Mia Birk talk about her book at Powell’s Books (1005 W Burnside) on Tuesday, January 4 2011 at 7:30pm!

Giveaway!

For a chance to win a copy of Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet, share one thing you like about bicycling in the comments below. On Friday, January 7 2011 at noon I will draw the name of one commenter randomly and send them a copy of the book for free!

Pittock Mansion Holiday Ticket Giveaway 2010

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Update: We have our winners! Michael D. Barton, Kitty, and Didi!

Pittock MansionVisit the Pittock Mansion this holiday season to share in A Northwest Christmas: The Natural Beauty and Bounty of Oregon. The mansion has been transformed into a holiday wonderland. Festive decorations, ribbon, garland, poinsettias, and more than 15 Christmas trees delight visitors until January 2nd, 2011.

Anyone can visit of course. Admission is free for members, $9 for adults, $8 for seniors (65+), $6 for youth (ages 6 – 18), and free for children ages 5 and younger. The mansion is open every day from November 22 until January 2nd 2011, except for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. Hours daily are 11am until 4pm.

But how would you like to visit one of Portland’s most elegant historic homes during the holiday season for free?

Win a pair of admission tickets to the Pittock Mansion – I have three pairs to give away!

On Friday, December 17 2010 at 6am three randomly chosen commenters will win a pair of tickets!

As always, it’s super easy to enter – just tell us what you like about old houses in the comments below!

(Please use a real email address so that I can contact you if you win – no one else will see your email address, and I will not use it for anything else besides this contest to contact you if you win!)

Update: We have our winners! Michael D. Barton, Kitty, and Didi!

Photo credit: Cacophony (retouched by Tiptoety). Image used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

Breakfast in Bridgetown – Book Review [and Giveaway!]

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We have a Winner! William Reagan wins the free copy of Breakfast in Bridgetown, 2nd Serving.

Breakfast in BridgetownBreakfast in Bridgetown: The definitive guide to Portland’s favorite meal, 2nd serving, is a great resource.

I know breakfast in Portland pretty darn well, and even I learned of a few spots from reading the book that are now on my must visit list. The book isn’t just a catalog of great restaurant places in Portland (though it is mostly exactly that). There’s also an article by Brett Burmeister, of Food Carts Portland, giving the rundown on food cards that offer breakfast. PortlandFood.org‘s Nick Zukin‘s contribution helps you hunt down authentic international breakfasts in Portland.

The bulk of the book is authored by Paul Gerald, host of the weekly Cascadia.fm show Breakfast in Bridgetown, and he knows how to break a fast in Portland, Oregon.

One day, sitting in the Beaterville Cafe, it occurred to me that I had never done an article about a breakfast place in Portland. Then I thought of all the options I could write about. And within a few minutes, Breakfast in Bridgetown was born — at least, in my head.

So the book and the show is really about Portland, and our lives here. I’m not a restaurant critic, and the book doesn’t have stars or any kind of rating system. For each of the places, I’ll describe it, tell you what I think, throw in what others think, try to tell you how the place fits in the Portland breakfast pantheon, and then let you decide if you want to eat there.

Find Paul Gerald on Twitter @PDXBreakfast Guy. He’s also got a blog, where you can find the weekly podcasts, at BreakfastInBridgetown.com.

The book can be found at Stumptown Scribes, Powell’s, and other places – check out the blog for details.

We have a winner – Thanks to all who participated, William Reagan was the randomly selected winner!

CONTEST!

Win a free copy of Breakfast in Bridgetown, 2nd Serving!

Leave a comment on this post indicating your favorite Portland breakfast spot. On Tuesday, December 14 at 6am I will draw a name randomly out of a figurative hat and send that person a brand spanking new copy of the book, signed by author Paul Gerald himself!

LA Times On Urban Foraging with Portlander Rebecca Lerner

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LA TimesPortland based journalist, blogger, and urban forager Rebecca Lerner is featured in Foraging is Green Eating at its Purest, an article by Cara Smusiak of NaturallySavvy.com, at LATimes.com.

When people think of eco-friendly foods, they often think of organic foods and family farms. But foraging for wild foods is perhaps the purest way to eat green.

Foraging is harvesting indigenous, wild plants and fungi, as well as fishing and hunting–it’s all about eating what the land provides.

Last May Lerner lived off foraged foods for a week and recorded her adventure on CultureChange.org. She explains:

foraging isn’t just about finding sustenance during emergencies. “At its core, wild food offers you a deeper way to explore your relationship to the land outside your door, to recognize the gifts Gaia (the Greek goddess of the Earth) has left for you.”

Read the rest at LATimes.com: Foraging is Green Eating at its Purest.

First WaysVisit Rebecca Lerner’s website, First Ways, for her urban foraging and other wilderness adventures, most within or near Portland. First Ways is also on Facebook, and you can also follow Rebecca on Twitter: @UrbanForager.

TriMet Diaries Hits A Chord

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TriMet Diaries Last week Heather and I launched TriMet Diaries. We knew, in our Portland take on Muni Diaries, we had something good, but the interest and attention has been overwhelming!

PortlandAfoot‘s Michael Andersen started things off with an enthusiastic comment on the launch announcement post, and a flattering blog post soon followed: Awesome new transit blog: TriMet Diaries.

We also received an encouraging comment by Christian, proprietor of TriMetiquette, on the launch post. And Punkrawkers blogs on and Bojack have also blogged about the site.

Last Thursday we posted F*ck You TriMet: A Love Story, a short film by Sam Brosnan. This beautifully shot but confusingly plotted video that takes a lot of geographic liberties piqued the interest of some of our more, uh, persnickety, readers. Analyses of the film soon appeared on MAX FAQs and Hard Drive.

Heather and I have a stash of Portland transit related posts on our own blogs to mine for TriMet Diaries (Heather’s are especially amusing!), but the point of the site is to provide a forum for Portland transit riders to contribute their own stories. Thank you to William Reagan (TriMet Vignette) and Torrid Joe (Short Bus, Short Fuse) for already sending in stories! We’ve also been promised enough reader contributed stories to last for months – please send them in!

And just this morning Thrillist featured our humble site: TriMet Diaries: Like The Princess Diaries, with less Hector Elizondo and more public transportation. Thrillist, for you philistines [which I was a member of until late last week] is an online digital lifestyle publication which recently expanded to Portland with Patrick Alan Coleman, formerly of the Portland Mercury, at the reins.

Thank you all, and keep reading, linking, and sharing!

You can follow TriMet Diaries on Twitter, and subscribe to the TriMet Diaries RSS feed! A Trimet Diaries Flickr or Picasa photo pool is in the works too!