I opened my Gray Lady this morning to find I wasn’t the only one smitten by the bike. This time, it’s the Times with an early November Valentine for our neighbors to the South. It is a good read and don’t have a lot to add, other than:
- I’m Jealous: Why can’t my city do better? Why can’t we live in Portland?
- My friends know how to get to me — four of them sent me this article.
- The article is pretty shallow. The article emphasizes high-end frame builders and how Nike and Columbia sell cycling products, but lacks info about the large number of cool shops, amazing resources like BikePortland.org, and the other businesses who cater to regular cycling folk.
- It’s the Times’ most-emailed article. Hey, you crazy politicians take that. The nation is indeed interested in bikes as modern transportation alternatives.
- The PDX buzz is nearing an unsustainable level and I’m concerned about a hype fallout. I remember when all the college kids were moving to Seattle in the early 90s because of the music (and later, the dot.com scene). I got so sick and tired of meeting people from Virginia whom had moved to Seattle because they heard it was cool. And then they decided it wasn’t, but hadn’t got around to moving to the new IT town.
- If you think I’m dead wrong on #5, keep in mind #1. Envy isn’t always fair or rational or …
At least we had jobs here, back in the day. I think the reality of BYOE (Bring Your Own Employment) in Portland might not be so kind to this generation of hype gypsies.
-Tim
Anne & Tim
Tim King
Anne
cfdgirl
Tim K
Car Free Days 
I have considered Portland any number of times, but I wonder if it’s just a “grass is greener” type of thing. Moving to a new city is such a crap-shoot that I’m inclined to think somewhere in Europe is the next stop. Why stop at US cities if you want a bicycle culture?
I think we’re at the same place as you. I like Portland and have friends there, but moving is a big step.
At this point, if we’re moving just for bike culture we’re going straight to the Netherlands or Denmark!
Keep working on Seattle! It’s getting better all the time. Building bike/sustainable culture isn’t an over night thing.
My close cousin (practically sister) who lives in Seattle just one upped me and sold her car. And she is even thinking of coming down to visit me and buy a bike a clever cycles. She wasn’t turned off by the shooting or the bike/car crash up there.
I grew up in Washington and Seattle been making me proud lately. If we all keep it up and perhaps the entire Northwest will be a model for the country.