I'm gonna miss this town
 

Tonight, I had nothing to do so I did a little ride downtown and back, but the highlight was I did it a way I had never done before. I live by the terwilliger curves for anyone who cares, and went down corbett and cut through a bunch of that south waterfront developement stuff to get downtown going through parking lots and the few odd roads back there.

Climbing back up corbett watching the lights of the east side get progressively lower, just feeling like I'm rising above the city. Beautiful.

This is why I love southwest (and I'm probably the only 20 something person to EVER say this), there are just so many small roads and roundabout crazy ways to get places that just take time to stop and think about in order to find that it's just amazing.

i will too, indeed. my last summer here for a while. i live in john's landing. it's quite magical at times. you have great way of putting it into words.

portland is wonderful for cycling. I probably spent 6 hours on the road today.

**** yeah.

I'm gonna be back in the fall (just going home for the summer), but I'm going to be looking for a new house to live in, what do you think of John's landing? Anything cool local shops/coffee/beer/etc, Good houses? decent rent?

+1....lots of fun places to ride here.

hey, as far as st. john's...i live in kenton. we're probably pretty close.

Just seven short months and I'll be packing up and heading north... I'm finished with this small town stuff, time for a city with stuff to offer. Cow tipping is ****ing over rated.

ha ha, awesome. joining us in pdx, eh? need a bit more pbr in your life? ;)

it's pricy here. we pay nearly nine hundred for a small two bedroom. the hawaiian grill has great food, corbett fish house is good, the ross island grocer has good espresso and bottle beer. i'm not out much, homebody; it's just really close to work. i like it a lot.

Yes and no. In Salem, it was whatever was kicked down to us by older siblings. In Corvallis it's fighting over the last halfrack of PBR with fratty mcfrat-frat. Of course I've decided its not worth it and started to wean myself by buying nicer beer therefore less... it's gotta help the cycling cause I guess.

It's confusing, but john's landing isn't the same as st johns, john's landing is basically the neighborhood between i5 and 43, north of the sellwood bridge and south of the ross island (as far as I know). Yeah, that's a little pricey, but I live in a small 2 bedroom as well but with 3 other people, it's all about creatively using space.

christ, i miss portland horribly. i've been back in the bay area (born and raised) for more than six months, and it still doesn't feel like home the way portland did. i was going to rant about how nobody appreciates it enough up there, but it looks like you do. good on you for that.

p.s. i pay $960 for a <500sq.ft. studio, which i share with my girlfriend and our dog.

i pay $825 for a three bedroom house 7-10 minutes from downtown.

ahhh portland.

edit: double

that's a good deal. i live...like 15-20 minutes from downtown, and among 5 of us, it's 260 each, so you do the math...heh. 825 is damn good, though...where do you live, tacks?

and oops about john's landing. it's something i get confused. sort of like the difference between 1/8" and 3/32"...every time i do anything with the drivetrain where i need to know that, i have to triple check to make sure i did it right because i can't remember which is road and which is track and crap. and i have to think for a second about which is thicker, because i also suck at math...

north east by legacy emanuel and matt dishman community center.
it's a weird little corner of north/northeast portland, but its a great location and the rental prices rule.

there is a better-than-good chance that I'lll be moving to portland within the year.

I just got back from pdx last night...was in town for five days w/ no bike (save for gf's roommate's Schwinn Hollywood that I repaired on the last day I was there). But the few mins of riding around Alberta that I did do, I loved.

Reminds me in some ways of Madison WI, my hometown...

1 of the handful of places id like to live in the US

The one time I've heard shots in portland was right up in that neighborhood as I was leaving (going south on williams or vancouver, can never remember which goes north and which goes south) during the This Bike is a Pipe Bomb set when they played here last.

yes, i've heard of a couple of stray bullets in my neighborhood, although I've never personally heard any.

there are absolutely some sketchy houses where there seems to be curbside drug delivery of some sort that obviously makes for potential violence, but you KNOW everything west of MLK and north of broadway is going to be completely gentrified in like, five minutes.

anyway, I always end up bombing vancouver to downtown, or if I wanna get some nature, take fremont over to 7th. that street is one of my favorites and well out of shootout-range.

Yeah, and what's the deal with that auto-body/car repair place, up north on Vancouver more towards alberta. I've seen what looked like was about to become a brawl going up there, and they have all this weird signage that's like "don't sell drugs here." It definitely looks like a straight up crack dealing area.

hahah. the one on the corner of fremont and vancouver?

i too notices the "please don't sell drugs here" written on the building with sharpie. cuz y'know drug dealers wouldnt want to make whomever wrote that mad right?

what IS that place? I've seen car washes going on there tons of times, but never run by kids. just weird groups of middle aged men washing flashy late 70s and early 80s oldsmobiles.

also, there is sometimes an early morning/late night RIB SHACK there. seriously, next time you ride by, look for the little building on the south side of the property that says "sisters" above the window. they sell ****ing ribs out of it at 7am.

weird weird weird.

yeah, and i hear some decent funk come out of that building sometimes...i don't take vancouver much, cuz it's not the best route from my 'hood...but sometimes i go to the hostess outlet up from fremont...mmmmm...

i was at the TBIAPB show, but i don't remember shots or hearing about a shooting. last time i remember shootings, i didn't hear the shots, but i was at a show at the now-defunct (as far as i know) f.ckpit. listening to a couple of people talking, three separate shootings had all occurred in that neighborhood that night. this place was on shaver, a couple blocks off of mississippi. when i left the show, i kept running into cops putting crime scene tape up everywhere. interesting enough.

oh, yeah, and i had friend who lived on 19th and killingsworth who was witness to several drivebys. the last one he didn't even think about, he just though his roommate was making popcorn...

at least most portland isn't like that.

oh, and the now-defunct joe's bar on 19th and alberta (i think it was 19th) had signs up all over saying "no swearing" "no fighting" "no drug dealing", etc...and sold 40s of OE800.

...and that's what I love about Portland.

Speaking of weird and SW Portland, I remember some big-ass cemetary just west of the Sellwood Bridge.
Up in there aways, and just off one of the cemetary streets, there's a grave that's marked "Batman".

Batman??

[QUOTE=humancongereeli was at the TBIAPB show, but i don't remember shots or hearing about a shooting. [/QUOTE]

I had left the show at that point, and was biking south.

yes, speaking of weird and portland...i need to dust off "fugitives and refugees" for some more ideas of fun places to go.