Dave Knows Portland

Local Motion: Portland Mayoral Candidates Discuss Active Transportation (6-February-2012)

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Local MotionThe PSU Planning Club presents Local Motion: Portland Mayoral Candidates Discuss Active Transportation on Monday, February 6, 2012 at the Lincoln Performance Hall (1620 SW Park).

The [Mayoral Candidates] Forum will pose questions to the candidates regarding active transportation issues such as transit, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, funding concerns, and major projects such as the CRC.

This event is co-sponsored by a strong team of student clubs and regional non-profit organizations, including the PSU Environmental Club, 1000 Friends of Oregon, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Coalition for a Livable Future, the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, the Community Cycling Center, Ride Connect, and OPAL Environmental Justice.

Three mayoral candidates will be present, Eileen Brady, Charlie Hales, and Jefferson Smith. Portland Mercury’s Sarah Mirk and Larry Wallack, Dean of PSU’s College of Urban and Public Affairs, will serve as emcees.

This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:15pm (light refreshments will be served in the lobby), and the forum will run from 7pm to 8:30pm. A reception with the candidates will follow the forum.

Portland Aerial Tram 5th Birthday Open House (28-January-2012)

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Portland Aerial Tram CarOn January 27, 2007 the Portland Aerial Tram opened to the public.

Celebrate the tram’s 5th birthday, this Saturday, January 28, 2012, at the “behind the scenes” celebration – according to the The Oregonian Hard Drive column:

On Saturday (not Friday), the OHSU Center for Health and Healing will hold a “behind the scenes” celebration from 1 to 3 p.m. featuring:

• Tours of the Tram engineering room and control tower with the operations team.
• A local art and photography exhibit of the Tram.
• Information on hiking and biking routes from the Tram’s Upper and Lower Towers.
• Information about development in the South Waterfront District.
• Information about “Get to Know Your Tram Month,” scheduled for June 2012.

Read the rest of the column and visit the Portland Aerial Tram Facebook page for more details.

Photo credit: Tram photo by Wikipedia user Cacophony. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.

December 30, 1950: Governor McKay Dedicates New Sauvie Island Bridge

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Sauvie Island span dedication photos and headline in The Oregonian, 31 December 1950The Sauvie Island Bridge, the first physical link between the island and the mainland in the island’s history, was officially opened with a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at noon on Saturday, December 30, 1950 (The Sunday Oregonian, 31 December 1950).

Sauvies islanders Saturday dedicated the new bridge which has ended their 100-year isolation from the mainland.

Mrs. J. W. Frater, mother of Governor Douglas McKay and early day resident of the island, cut the ceremonial ribbon to open the bridge to traffic.

Governor McKay, who lived on the island as a boy, in a dedicatory speech called the $900,000 bridge one step in a giant building program which will be necessary to put Oregon’s highway network in the shape to meet the demands of the state’s increased population and industrial growth.

The bridge replaced a nearly 100 year old ferry service, which had its last run on Sunday, December 31, 1950. A new bridge replaced the original in 2008.

New Year’s Weekend Amusements (Dec. 30, 2011 – Jan. 1, 2012)

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New Year's EveWhether you’re after fine dining, dance parties, activities with the kids, or fireworks, I’ve got you covered with this post: New Year’s Eve in Portland.

On New Year’s Eve all TriMet buses and trains are free after 8pm, with some routes running until 3am!

And you still have a few options through the weekend if you haven’t yet got your fill of holiday lights and displays:

Peacock LanePeacock Lane 2011

Peacock Lane officially lights up for the 2011 holiday season on December 15 at 6pm.

Peacock Lane is a narrow residential street one block east of Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard (née 39th Ave) between SE Stark and Belmont. Since the 1920s the residents of this stretch of mostly Tudor style houses have gone a little crazy with the Christmas lights [more]

Pittock MansionPittock Mansion Holiday Season 2011

Once again Portland’s historic Pittock Mansion is going all out for the holiday season. This year, from November 21 through January 2, the theme is Christmas Around The World.
“Every year, starting more than 40 years ago, dozens of volunteer decorators, designers, and local organizations donate their time and talents to transform Pittock Mansion into a Christmas wonderland for approximately 17,000 delighted visitors during the holiday season.” [more]

Tannenbaum MadnessTannenbaum Madness 2011

Alberta Main Street‘s Tannenbaum Madness is a walking window tour of whimsical, wacky and artistic trees.
“Tannenbaum Madness is an event, inviting families and art lovers to bundle up and take a stroll up Alberta Street this holiday season. Businesses up and down NE Alberta Street create a walking tour of whimsical, artistic, and unique holiday trees on display it in their front windows.” [more]

Zoolights!ZooLights 2011

The 2011 ZooLights ignite for the first time on Friday, November 25. The sparkling lights and brilliant hues will be cast each evening (except Christmas Eve and Day) through January 1, 2012.
“More than a million lights transform the Oregon Zoo into a luminous winter wonderland filled with moving sculptures, forests of lighted trees and animal silhouettes.” [more]

And for even more weekend events and activities, check out the Dave Knows Calendar, and visit Around the Sun, Blogging Portland on the Cheap, PDX Pipeline, and Oregon Events at OregonLive.com.

December 29, 1854: Tillamook’s Morning Star is Completed

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Morning Star 2 (replica of the original)Unable to find a captain willing to risk his ship on the Tillamook Bay bar in the 1850s, the denizens of Tillamook County faced a dilemma. They had plenty of milk, butter, and cheese, but no sugar, flour, or coffee – they had to laboriously grind wheat kernels in their coffee grinders to bake bread, and they resorted to drinking a toasted-wheat beverage instead of coffee or tea.

So they decided to build a boat.

Instead of seeing their products go to waste, the settlers set to work. With no lumber mills nearby, they started with standing timber. From native Douglas fir, they shaped a 37-foot keel and built a 6-foot hold using 6-foot by 8-foot timbers spaced 10 inches apart. These were then covered with a 2-inch thick planking of Douglas fir, sawed by hand into 40-foot lengths.

Metal needed for spikes and fittings was hand-forged from materials left by the wreck of the Shark, a 12-gun U.S. sloop of war, which broke up on the Columbia River Bar and drifted south to the beach at Arch Cape in 1846. It took six trips with four horses to pack it on the trail over Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain, across the Nehalem River and south to Kilchis Point in Tillamook Bay — a total of 289 miles by today’s roads.

The rigging and sails were made from bolts of canvas, rope and blocks bought for $10 from the Tillamook Indians, who salvalged them from an 1851 wreck that drifted to Netarts Bay west of Tillamook. [Source: The Morning Star of Tillamook (pdf)]

The Morning Star was completed on December 29, 1854, and launched soon after.

Further reading: