Saturday, April 04, 2009

They Noticed!


I once came home with purple hair.

I sat down next to Dave and said, "Whaddaya think?" He got that deer-in-the-headlights look and said, "About what?"

"My hair, silly!" I replied. He looked at it.

"Did you get it cut?" he asked.

It kinda felt like that when I looked at the cover of the New York Times "Escapes" section yesterday and saw a photo of a bicyclist crossing the St. Johns Bridge under a headline that read "Portland, Portland Style: Touring By Bicycle."

It appears that, after twenty-plus years of becoming one of the country's most bikable cities, the word has finally reached the Gray Lady in her crumbling mansion.

"Careering through streets on a bicycle in Portland, Ore., this time of year can be an easy weekend adventure that mixes showers, sunbursts, cafes and a robust bicycle culture...It’s not unusual to see women riding through the winter in skirts and knee-high boots, followed by athletes training in winter riding clothing."

There was even a shout out to Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB), though describing it as "a tavern decorated with spare bike parts that serves organic beer" doesn't do justice to the model of green redevelopment that it has become.

Maybe they'll notice next time.

Photos by David N. Seelig for The New York Times.

5 comments:

Alan Cordle said...

Do we even have "taverns" in portland? Makes it sound like some seedy, dark grill. HUB is the drug that I'm thinking of.

Kathleen Bauer said...

Alan...you need to get out more. There are plenty of taverns (try the Sandy Hut sometime) but to mistake a brewpub for a tavern is to somehow miss something very important about Portland, don't you think?

Meghan Humphreys said...

"The Frugal Traveler" for the NY Times, Matt Gross, is supposedly working on multiple stories about Portland for future issues. No more frugal way to get around town than under your own power!

Kathleen Bauer said...

Cool! I'll tell Dave. He was glued to Matt's narration of a cross-country trek in an old Volvo. What should we tell him to check out?

Kathleen Bauer said...

BTW, the link to that trek is here.