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If You Are Afraid to Ride TriMet, You’re An Idiot

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Joseph Rose‘s Friday Hard Drive column hit the nail on the head: MAX beating was ugly, but the reaction by some has been just as bad.

And it also disseminates some telling statistics:

The assault of Karley Buckland was one of just 36 reported on a light-rail system with 41 million boardings last year. By comparison, the Bay Area’s BART system – with turnstile access and its own police force — had 19 last month alone. In 2011, there were about 20 carjackings in Portland and 319 Oregonians died on the road. Does that mean we should discourage our 16-year-olds from learning to drive? Frankly, I worry more about my 17-year-old daughter – who isn’t in a rush to get her license — getting hit in a crosswalk than her being a TriMet crime victim.

Your odds of being assaulted on MAX are about one in a million. About the same as your odds of drowning in your bathtub, or being struck by lightning (no, really).

The crime rate has been declining on TriMet for years (though there was an uptick in 2010 when the Green Line opened), and the rate of violent crime nationwide is at a nearly 40 year low.

Your odds, in any given year, of dying in a workplace accident are 1 in 48,000, so your transit commute may actually be the safest hour(s) of your work day. Transit is also far safer than driving – in 2008 the passenger death rate on buses was .08 per 100 million passenger-miles (as opposed to .55 for automobile passengers).

Humans are bad at risk assessment, so it would be natural if a report in the news triggers a fearful reaction. That doesn’t make you an idiot, it makes you human. But you ARE an idiot if, upon learning how rare the risk is, you still cling to your irrational fear, or perpetuate the myth that riding the MAX is “dangerous.”

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A Mean Spirited Non-Foodies Food Guide in the Oregonian

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Contrarianism is the Willy Week’s métier, but The Oregonian has jumped into the fray with their Non-foodies Food Guide.

When they canned Roger Porter this past summer we learned that the Oregonian’s A & E editor, DeAnn Welker, envisioned something different for the paper’s coverage of local restaurants. Porter explains in an August conversation with Eater PDX:

“We are radically changing the way we cover dining and restaurants.” That changing direction means, as Welker told me in person, that The Oregonian intends its restaurant coverage to be aimed at ordinary people. It will henceforth meet the needs of readers who go to the places where most of the people go […] we had had some disagreement over the paper’s forthcoming increased attention to restaurants in the suburbs and to chains.

Despite the nod to ordinary people, I suspect the motivation for the the shift in coverage is actually that small restaurants and food carts don’t have large advertising budgets, so they won’t be buying Oregonian ads anytime soon. Where most of the people go includes larger restaurant chains, which have advertising budgets. So basically the O is going the tea party route, i.e. faux populism.

And if my supposition is correct, that explains why the businesses represented in the Non-foodies Food Guide are, with the exception of Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen, large corporate (though putatively local) chains: Dutch Bros. Coffee, Old Spaghetti Factory, Shari’s, and Taco Time. (And evidence is gathering that my suspicion is correct, because as I type this I see a leader board ad for The Old Spaghetti Factory atop the OregonLive.com webpage, and a Shari’s 99 cent Breakfast special coupon on the PDX BEST DEALS sidebar.)

The Non-Foodie Food Guide articles (I’ve found three on OregonLive.com) penned by Lee Williams drip with sarcasm and condescension. I understand the cynical decision (i.e. $$$) to editorialize on behalf of advertisers, but to insult readers? Not so much. But I suppose since there’s not much of a story there (we all know about these chains – we see them every day alongside the road and in advertising, and virtually all of us have patronized them before), snark is their last refuge.

My Beef With Burgerville

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HamburgerI want to make it clear I’m not just being contradictory. In fact, I’m a fan of some aspects of the Burgerville business:

That being said, I’m not a fan of Burgerville’s food, or their marketing. In much the same way I’m not a fan of McDonalds’ or Burger King’s. But what’s that you say? Burgerville means Fresh, Local, Sustainable?

I think it’s generally a good idea to be wary of marketing. Burgerville’s, in particular seems carefully crafted for local sensibilities, as you would expect – which makes me even more wary.

Fresh, Local, Sustainable is their marketing mantra (but the cynic in me suspects it will change eventually to whatever buzz words become part of the next popular marketing trend). Let’s look at each of these marketing claims:

Fresh: This claim is disingenuous. Some ingredients are frozen (e.g. potatoes), some are fresh (e.g. tomatoes, lettuce), some are more or less processed than others. True of Burgerville, true of McDonalds. If you’re looking for fresh, a fast food restaurant is generally not the best place to go.

Local: Most restaurants, including national chains, obtain a large proportion of their ingredients locally; it’s cheaper! The bigger ones have the clout to contract local processors to produce ingredients to their specifications. I learned this on a tour of a McDonalds restaurant when I was eight, as they showed us the locally baked hamburger buns. This is not a novel concept invented by Burgerville.

Sustainable: Bullshit. Fast food restaurant businesses are not sustainable. Perhaps some of Burgerville’s business practices are baby steps toward sustainability, they have compost bins in the stores for example, but a spade is spade. You can put all the sustainable lipstick in the world on Burgerville and it’s still a fast food restaurant you probably drove to in a gasoline fueled car where virtually every piece of food, drink, or condiment is wrapped in paper or plastic.

But perhaps my biggest beef with Burgerville is with the food. A connotation of fresh, local, sustainable, is healthfulness. But hamburgers, fries, sodas, and milkshakes (fresh, local, sustainable or not) are far from the healthiest food choices you can make; Burgerville’s Tillamook Cheeseburger has 130 more calories and 13 more grams of fat than McDonald’s quarter pounder with cheese for crying out loud.

Local, Fresh, Sustainable doesn’t make it better for you; fast food is fast food.

Tuesday Timbers Tidbits: Everyone is a Critic (06/15/2010)

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Timbers
The Portland Timbers lost to Miami Saturday, but the biggest moans and groans (and boos) came at the Timbers MLS crest unveiling at half time of the USA vs. England match viewing at Director Park.

If you’re a Timbers fan, you’re already aware of the controversy. My stance is that yeah, the new crest is crap. Cartoon shadows and that weird pendulous chevron thing? Really?

Most of the MLS logos kinda suck though. Lots of ahistorical or nonsensical team names, and tenuous grasps at traditions elsewhere. The new Timbers logo does at least tip the hat to the team’s history and previous crest. I can imagine far worse results.

That being said, I didn’t expect the Timbers organization to make such a big change. No doubt they will retain the trademarks to the previous Timbers logos, and use them for retro lines of souvenirs and other ephemera (and if they don’t, they ought to license the previous crests to the 107ist for fund raising efforts).

Timbers Logo 2There are some proposals floating around to jettison that silly triangle chevron thing, but keep the cartoony shadow. Interestingly, the team already has something new that, I think, would be far more acceptable to more of the Timbers faithful. Take a look at the image to the right. I did not mock that up; it’s from an image of a Timber scarf for sale on the MLS Gear website.

Anyways.

Here are few other reactions:

And I’m looking forward to today’s Morning Submission broadcast. Expect a good rant . . .

Meanwhile, the Timbers also announced the season ticket prices for 2011. And they seem more reasonable than the crest choice. Check out this nifty virtual venue thing to see the pricing and compare views from different sections.

And tonight, Tuesday, May 15th the Portland Timbers host the Sonoma County Sol in a US Open Cup match. Kickoff is at 7pm. Tickets are cheap.

Have Fun Crossing the River – Rose Festival Fleet Week Begins Today

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Rose Festival 2010The 2010 Rose Festival excitement for today is the arrival of boats from the United States Navy and Coast Guard, and the Canadian Maritime Forces – it’s Fleet Week.

(I prefer to call it the Raising and Lowering of the Bridges since the fun part is waiting for the Broadway, Steel, Burnside and Morrison to be raised and lowered so you can cross the river. Fun!)

Here are the arrival times:

  • Wednesday, June 2, 2:30-4:30 p.m.
  • Thursday, June 3, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2:30-4:30 p.m.

Ships depart:

  • Monday, June 7, 5-11:30 a.m.

Visit TriMet.com for alerts on how the ship traffic will affect bus and train service.

Last year Joseph Rose of the Hard Drive blog shared some secrets to getting around the Rose Fleet traffic jams, many of which are valid this year too.

And if you see any one from the Canadian Maritime Forces wandering aimlessly downtown, direct them to PortlandPoutine.com!