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Greetings from Portland


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#1 Fort Worthology

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Posted 10 May 2009 - 07:32 AM

Catch y'all in a week or so. Loving it.










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#2 longhornz32

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Posted 10 May 2009 - 07:28 PM

Have a good time but be careful! Most people I know that visit Portland end up there permanently.


#3 panthercity

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Posted 11 May 2009 - 01:05 AM

Thats wierd I was going to ride the amtrack there this weekend but decided on waiting til the 30th for the george lopez show so I went to the publc market in Seattle instead very nice pictures Atomic. How bout some pictures of my old neighborhood (Fairmount) when you get back?

#4 Keller Pirate

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Posted 11 May 2009 - 08:55 AM

I see you rode Tri-Met in from the airport. I was just there two weeks ago and went right by the Aloft Hotel.

Note the traffic congestion while you are in town. I think Traffic Calming is to transportation what Enhanced Interogation is to intelligence gathering.

#5 FoUTASportscaster

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Posted 11 May 2009 - 09:53 AM

^Would that be for you the driver, or for you the pedestrian/cyclist/resident?

I bet I know the answer, given what I know of your post history.

#6 Fort Worthology

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Posted 11 May 2009 - 04:47 PM

QUOTE (longhornz32 @ May 10 2009, 08:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Have a good time but be careful! Most people I know that visit Portland end up there permanently.


I can already sympathize with them.

Since we're taking a break, here's a few more photos:


































































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#7 John T Roberts

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Posted 16 May 2009 - 05:51 AM

Kevin, your pictures are really great. An old friend of mine, who is a native Fort Worthian, was offered a good job several years ago in Seattle. She was very apprehensive about leaving home, but took the job. She fell in love with the Pacific Northwest and she said it was a great decision. She still misses her friends here, but she has made many new ones up there.

#8 McHand

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Posted 17 May 2009 - 08:19 PM

I completely sympathize with the guy in the 6th picture holding the toddler under his arm and bending over to pick something up! Anyway, that is my favorite shot because you really show that people are actually using this thing.



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#9 vjackson

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Posted 22 May 2009 - 12:27 PM

Great Pics. It's been a long time since I've been there, and it's still changing!! Portland's a wonderful city, once you get used to the rain. Gotta get back up there.

#10 360texas

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Posted 22 May 2009 - 03:00 PM

Yes, we lived in Seattle for several years while going to UW. 5 days out of whole year had sunshine !

Que was to construct a 2' square card board box. Insert into the box 2 light bulbs. Turn on light bulbs. Insert face for 20 minutes each day !

That is part of the reason we live in Fort Worth Texas !! Are we having fun yet ? Yes... no box !

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#11 Keller Pirate

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Posted 24 May 2009 - 10:19 PM

QUOTE (360texas @ May 22 2009, 04:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yes, we lived in Seattle for several years while going to UW. 5 days out of whole year had sunshine !

Que was to construct a 2' square card board box. Insert into the box 2 light bulbs. Turn on light bulbs. Insert face for 20 minutes each day !

That is part of the reason we live in Fort Worth Texas !! Are we having fun yet ? Yes... no box !

You are pretty sharp, picking states to live in that don't have an income tax. smile.gif
I agree that Ft Worth is a better place to live year round, but I'm sure you are aware that Oregon is warm and dry during the summer months. The weather is nice enough that we are spending a week at the beach in Oregon this year. Also, you don't get as many pennies in Oregon since they don't have a sales tax, most folks charge a round number for products, it is nice to buy something and find out the price is the price as marked.

The "Go By Streetcar" sign is a knockoff of the "Go By Train" sign on Union Station. I was lucky enough to be in town in 1985 when the sign was restored and lit up again. IMHO bicycles are the thing Portland has done best for all their efforts. The bike boxes at corners were developed in response to a rash of fatalities a few years ago and they seem to have worked.

My comment about congestion in Portland is their own label as the most congested city. They don't use that title when they advertise the city and I'm not sure I would agree, after visiting San Francisco last week. 10% sales tax too.

Portland is going through a very tough time right now, unemployment exceeds 12%, the usual budget shortages, crime on the rise, high cost housing and businesses moving away. The local paper had an opinion column recently (which I couldn't locate online) and the writer said that maybe Portland had gone too far in making downtown into a 20 something pit stop, as well as other reasons for the trouble, but that was the phrase that caught my eye.

Without a sales tax to finance light rail and the streetcar, Portland has an employee tax to operate those systems. That tax is a suspect in business leaving town. The streetcar and light rail are operated by an agency called Tri-Met, locals call it crime-met, because of the problems on the light rail line. They have fare inspectors but locals are so used to not being checked that people have gone years without buying a ticket and it is hard to put fear into a homeless person that uses the light rail as a rolling homeless shelter.

Tri-Met recently announced cutbacks in both bus and light rail service due to budget shortfalls. However they are still planning on expanding with new lines. That left some folks scratching their heads, but I can sort of understand that times might not always be as bad as now.

I know Portland promotes their city as an urban oasis for all the improvements they have made over the years, but I have to think that San Diego is a better example of a well run light rail system that works better for the citizens. Of course, San Diego has so much other stuff going for it, no one even notices the mass transit they have developed.


#12 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:30 AM

Realized I never posted any from the rest of the trip. We really fell in love with this city. Here's some more photos:




















































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#13 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:32 AM


















































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#14 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:33 AM




















































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#15 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:34 AM


















































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#16 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:36 AM
















































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#17 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:37 AM


















































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#18 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:41 AM






































































































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#19 Fort Worthology

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Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:44 AM
























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#20 modpod77

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Posted 08 August 2010 - 04:29 AM

nice pics
bar stools clearance sale going on now...

#21 Volare

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Posted 09 August 2010 - 02:08 PM

That Thai food looks tasty!!!

Hate those exposed powerlines for the buses as seen in a few of the photos (although they look much much worse in person). Downtown Portland and Seattle are riddled with them. Hope they never come to FTW.

#22 Fort Worthology

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Posted 09 August 2010 - 04:19 PM

QUOTE (Volare @ Aug 9 2010, 03:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Hate those exposed powerlines for the buses as seen in a few of the photos (although they look much much worse in person). Downtown Portland and Seattle are riddled with them. Hope they never come to FTW.


The overhead wires for the streetcar and light rail trains are barely noticeable in person - I don't know how one could hate them, and it's hardly "riddled" with them (two or three streets in the entire downtown isn't exactly "riddled"). The streetcar lines in particular are barely noticeable and get lost in the trees and such. I'll gladly take a little bit of visual clutter for effective electrified rail transit. I hope they come to Fort Worth very, very soon.

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#23 JKC

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Posted 09 August 2010 - 04:36 PM

Pioneer Place was one of my regional responsibilities for about four years during the previous life. Many memories there. Interesting how the photos look so fun and peaceful. I notice the same thing when I look at photos of Baltimore, they seem to melt away the inner-workings. Makes me wonder why I didn't "stop and smell the roses" a bit more.

#24 Volare

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 09:19 AM

QUOTE (Fort Worthology @ Aug 9 2010, 05:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The overhead wires for the streetcar and light rail trains are barely noticeable in person - I don't know how one could hate them, and it's hardly "riddled" with them (two or three streets in the entire downtown isn't exactly "riddled"). The streetcar lines in particular are barely noticeable and get lost in the trees and such. I'll gladly take a little bit of visual clutter for effective electrified rail transit. I hope they come to Fort Worth very, very soon.


No no, not the streetcar overhead lines. I don't mind those much at all since as you point out they are generally just a few of them and not very noticeable. I'm talking about the overhead power lines that they put up for the electric buses in places like Seattle and Portland. Basically the entire downtown street grid is covered with those things, and then you've got the busses trailing those ridiculous 20 foot long booms behind them so they can move all around the street while still picking up their electrons.

Perhaps the overheads in your photos aren't for the buses at all but rather for the streetcars. Wouldn't surprise me as my recollection of the bus wires was that they were much more obtrusive and obnoxious, with guy wires screwed into the buildings beside the street- ugh!! Ah yes, here is a link of a photo from google. This reminds me- the intersections are a particularly ghastly sight.

Just to be clear, no one is talking about electric buses in FTW (as far as I know), only a streetcar, which I support wholeheartedly. I merely fear that the buses may become a fallback measure in the event the streetcar is "too expensive."

#25 Fort Worthology

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 10:29 AM

QUOTE (Volare @ Aug 10 2010, 10:19 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm talking about the overhead power lines that they put up for the electric buses in places like Seattle and Portland.


Not sure what you're seeing, then - Portland doesn't have electric buses. They have regular buses, light rail, and streetcars.

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#26 Volare

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Posted 10 August 2010 - 02:41 PM

QUOTE (Fort Worthology @ Aug 10 2010, 11:29 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Not sure what you're seeing, then - Portland doesn't have electric buses. They have regular buses, light rail, and streetcars.


Yes, yes, it must be Seattle that I'm thinking of. Although in googling it I guess they call them a trolley bus.

http://www.seattlepi..._trolley17.html

And I guess they are planning to get rid of them soon. I guess it is not state of the art anymore for public transit- apparently only 6 cities in the US use them anymore, including Seattle. My concerns for FTW are unfounded then!

Huzzah the streetcar!!!

P.S. At least I won't stand up in front of a professional in the field and insist that there must be trolley buses in Portland because I had one in front of my house when it was a kid! wink.gif




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