Dear Portland,
 

I will be in your town, hopefully with a bicycle, this weekend. What should I not miss? I'm there for a job interview, and I want to scope out the town (good and bad).

I'm there from Friday until Monday. Where should I ride to and what should I do? I like beer, long rides, and pretty outdoor stuff.

hmmm...

neighborhoods worth seeing (good) -
hawthorne / belmont - hippies and hipsters, cool restaurants, shops, culture.
downtown - self explanatory.
goose hollow - quiet college neighborhood on the edge of downtown, some decent hills.
ne alberta - artsy district, ex-black neighborhood.
nw 21st / 23rd - lot of shops, restaurants, stuff to do.
pearl district (honorable mention) - pretentious yuppies, overpriced food, borders the old downtown industrial neighborhood.

since you mentioned it - bad neighborhoods
central eastside industrial - one of my favorite parts of portland. griminess, hobos, train tracks, industrial wasteland, burnside skatepark, ****ty pavement, train tracks.
north portland - our "ghetto", in some areas. lots of house parties here on the weekend.

suburbs -
not much to see here.
but for honorable mention, sellwood is technically a "suburb" but is a nice, mellow, low key neighborhood. good places to eat, nice residences, golf course.

if it's bike shops you want to see, don't miss bike central or veloshop, both downtown.

coffee, nothing beats stumptown (sw 3rd and pine, se 34th and belmont, se 57(?)th and division).

don't miss powell's book store if you like books. multiple stories high, maze of rooms, nationally renowned. nw 10th and burnside, right near veloshop, rocco's pizza, half n half coffee. extensive magazine room too.

rides, there's the springwater corridor trail, mt. tabor (hills), sauvie's island ride...

beer, we have a lot of local microbreweries that you may want to check out.

pretty outdoor stuff - rose garden downtown, laurelhurst park, mt. hood.

skidmore bluffs. cool outdoor drinking spot, also pretty romantic in a punk rock kind of way if you need that kind of spot. not as good as the old "pirate ship", but they blew that up. RIP.

Bump. A kind person on the NYC board has lent me a bike box, but I just checked, and it will cost me $80 each way to carry my bike on the plane. Anybody have a ~56 bike I can borrow? I may rent one from the waterfront bike shop, but I'm afraid that they'll only have hybrids.

PM me. I can give collateral if need be, and certainly buy you beer, food, etc.

Thanks!

say hi to Portland--I was born there and love it--but I love
Cali more!

call a shop and ask if you can ship it there, it will take longer but it will be much cheaper


on a sidenote I might get a gig at sellwood cycle. What is the general consensus on this shop?

I stopped in there a couple of times when I was living in Portland. They seemed to emphasize used bikes and repairs, as I recall.

I believe Erik Tonkin is one of the co-owners. He races cyclocross at the elite level, and was (is?) one of the instructors for the cyclocross training clinics that are offered in the fall.

call bike central, they and veloshop are mostly fixed gear oriented. central is more track, velo is more fixed and commuter and cyclocross stuff, too.

they had some felt f90 road bikes last i saw

Sellwood Cycles has cool shop hats. I grabbed one when I was visiting. It's more of a neighborhood-type shop.

Also, find this bar called Tugboat. It's downtown somewhere, and was easily my favorite. $3 microbrews..... Mmmm.....

velo and bike central are dope. don't take it personal when dean hates on you...(you'll know what i mean if you go to bike central)

stumptown coffee is ok. ristretto roasters is the ****ing ****.
Powells books...that's the jam. You'll probably see my bike parked there.
forest park is fresh for hiking, or some dope night time single track.