The Multnomah Villager

So on Sunday we all went on a nice bike ride around the Willamette river paths, and along the Springwater corridor to Oaks Park. Since I work over in the inner east side industrial district, I popped up the block to my office and left my bike there, intending to pick up some mid-day miles when I had a chance over the next couple of weeks. Instead, I decided to do somethng I’ve been meaning to do for a while - ride home to the Village from the office. I have wanted to do this for the following reasons:

• The main thing that stops me from riding to work when I can is the perceived difficulty of riding home.
• I have trouble fitting excercise into my routine, and a bike commute would be a good way to do that.
• Some half-baked sense of cutting down on driving, although six miles here and there ain’t getting me on Al Gore’s Christmas card list.
• I like riding and wouldn’t mind riding to work now and again.

Here’s the deets:

• It was 6.44 miles from my office to my home.
• It took me 43 minutes, which is an average speed of 8.8 MPH. It’s all uphill man.
• Top speed? 27 MPH and that was cruising down 35th from Capitol to my house.
• I ride a mountain bike, a Cannondale F500 with offroad tires. If I had a road bike, or hybrid or road tires, I’d have cut some time off the ride.
• I had to stop a couple of times briefly. It’s all uphill man.

Here’s the reasons I don’t, and won’t, ride more often:

• It’s a hard schlep after a day in the office - even a day in MY office, we’re not exactly baling hay.
• It’s dangerous. See below.
• I can only ride two days a week, and sometimes I have meetings that require me to be across town. On Tuesday and Thursday I take Tae Kwon Do at noon in Sellwood which requires a car to get to and from. On Wednesdays I spend lunch helping out my grandmother in Calaroga Terrace over by Lloyd Center, which also requires a car. So Mondays and Fridays it is, if I don’t have meetings. I am a total casual fair-weather biker.
• Frankly, and I know it’s selfish, I like having my car during the day should I decide I want to run an errand or go to lunch or something more than a few blocks away.

Now here’s the specifics of this particular ride home from downtown. Your mileage may vary, as they say, so feel free to contradict these claims or share your own stories in comments. Yesterday was Monday. The first Monday after the 4th of July weekend, so I imagine that commuting traffic was pretty typical, since everybody should have been back to work from their long weekends and time off. What is it 80-something degrees? Felt good to me. I left my office on SE 3rd at around 5:15PM. All day I have been debating which route to take - should I opt for the hardcore uphill of Terwilliger, or the danger of Barbur, or the extra length but enjoyable ride down the river to Willamette Park? I just didn’t have Terwillger in me - there’s no way I could have made it up that hill, and there’s the chaos of downtown to consider. I figured I’d set out across the Hawthorne Bridge and decide when I got to the west side which way to go.

I opted for the gradul uphill of Barbur, even considering the traffic and what I anticipated to be some hairy merges (I was right). I flipped onto Front Avenue, which has NO BIKE LANES and headed towards Barbur. There was a tricky bit when the traffic merges in from the Ross Island Bridge, and then I had to dbate whether or not to ride through the tunnel to connects to Barbur. Deciding that the tunnel was likely a death trap, I took the short hill up to Barbur behind Caro Amico (full disclosure: I got off and walked up the short but steep hill). Once I was up on Barbur I crossed at the crosswalk (no one yielded - I waited for a break) and then proceeded to what I anticipated would be the trickiest area. Riding the right hand curb towards the signal by that one convenience store there are two lanes coming out of the tunnel to your right. I found myself riding in the middle of three lanes of rush hour traffic, with two lanes of cars between me and the suddenly existent bike lanes. It was dangerous to turn and look to determine if I could get over, and kind of tricky to get over, but I’m posting this - so I made it.

Then it was all bike lane all the time down Barbur. My plan was to head down Barbur to Fred Meyer and bail out toward Custer Park and up Troy/Canby to the Village. The bike lanes were good except there are several instances where foliage has grown out and obscured as much as half of the available lane. This being Oregon, most of that foliage is blackberry, which has thorns and cuts if you ride through it. There were a few spots early in the ride where there was no alternative, and one bush in particular nearly turned my handlebars. I had space on Barbur though and dodged the thorns. Going across the one high bridge is kind of freaky. The busy intersections on Barbur in front of A-Boy and Fred Meyer were no problem, although the turn right at Burger King was an adventure. It’s not much easier in a car.

I had to stop twice on the way to Custer Park and up Troy until it turned downhill into the Village. I was blowing like some kind of walrus. The hill behind Loaves and Fishes was a breeze, since I had enough speed from the short downhill where Troy turns into Canby. Same for 35th. Resisting the temptation to stop at Journeys for my Monday beers a few hours early, I got lucky on the intersection and blew through, which gave me enough speed to get up the bit of hill by Key Bank before the fast run down 35th to my house.

My conclusion: If I was in better shape, rode more, smoked fewer cigars and had hybrid tires, I could probaby ride to and from work OK. Actually, if I just rode more it would get easier - although it’s tougher now at 40 that it was at 25. Anyone who’s bike commuting from downtown, especially coming over Terwilliger (which seems to have the best bike lanes and is a beautiful route) is working hard for their commute. I sometimes read about cities that talk about facilities where you could lock your bike, and have access to a shower, etc. That sort of thing in the heart of downtown would make it easier to adopt a more frequent bike commuting schedule.

Still, I’m glad I tried it, but the Village… well, we just aren’t a biking paradise over here. Great scenery, but you have to work for it!

EDIT: 7/10 - Well I’ll be darned. Apparently you can take your bike on the much vilified aerial tram. THAT has the potential of changing everything, since with a Tri-Met pass (or a ten ticket pack, since I’m only potentially bike commuting a max of two days per week) I could bypass the vast majority of the uphill and most of the danger of riding home…. I gotta try this.

OK, I’m shamelessly copying and pasting this text from the email that just came in via the Multnomah Villagers Yahoo! group (no relation to me), sorry Bernadette - consider yourself a “guest poster”

Author event on Tuesday evening at Annie Bloom’s:

Here is the event link:

Time: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 7:30 PM
Location: Annie Bloom’s Books
Title of Event: Nanci Hamilton presents Portland’s Multnomah Village

In this pictorial retrospective, author, longtime Portland resident, and historian Nanci Hamilton has gathered more than 200 images from local collections of vintage photographs and other visual memorabilia to trace the unique story of Portland’s Multnomah Village.

Once rolling countryside and bucolic dairy farmland, the area that became Multnomah Village was transformed when the Oregon Electric railroad line connecting Portland to Salem placed a station here in 1908 and brought Multnomah within 15 minutes of Portland’s downtown core. The electric train opened the way for individual families to build the charming homes of their dreams. Over the next 20 years, as the rise of the automobile transformed transportation options, the village continued to grow and thrive, with its own post office, grocery stores, pharmacy, movie house, churches, school, and bank to meet the needs of those living nearby. The subsequent rise of shopping centers and large retail grocery chains led to a change in the character of the village, which was annexe  piecemeal by the city of Portland beginning around 1950. The former village center is now an eclectic yet dynamic mix of shops, restaurants, and galleries tucked into the storefronts of a generation ago. The “bones” of the village as it was in the past remain visible.

This sounds pretty interesting, and I’m definitely going to buy a copy of this book. I’ll try to get up there Tuesday night, maybe I’ll see you there!

I often am involved in conversations that start with the sentence, “what the Village REALLY needs is a….” Perhaps you’ve had one of these conversations yourself. I find that they often end with the speaker wishing for a Trader Joe’s, a small independent movie theater or something along those lines. For my part, I’m pretty happy with the business and food options that we have in the Village, although I’d agree with the movie theater dream. I’d like to point out though, that I’m really pleased with the evolving live music scene that we have growing here.

You can now regularly find live music of various kinds at O’Connor’s Annex and Village Coffee. In addition, it appears that the Village Hut is starting a regular, intimate live music schedule now that summer is here. Don Snedecor’s nascent Jazz in the Village series may grow into an actual outdoor festival in the next year or so, and there is often live music at Sip D’Vine.

The option to hear some music, grab a glass of wine or beer or tea or coffee or whatever, or have a late supper brings people into the Village later into the evening, expanding the opportunities for all of our business owners, not just those hosting music (or in Renner’s case, Bingo). Once more venues offer the chance to do something after the dinner hour, it’s much more likely that people will get into the habit of coming into the Village at times other than the weekend breakfast hours. This should be a benefit to all the business owners, although it doesn’t help our traffic and parking issues.

Woody Allen famously said that the reason he lives in the city is so that he has someplace to walk after dinner. When I am in New York, I often think of this quote when I walk around the city after a long day. There’s always something happening, some interesting store to look in, some bar from which music flows onto the street. Of course that’s New York, and one of the reasons I walk in the evening is that I EXPECT to find something going on. WE haven’t quite gotten to that level here in Multnomah Village yet. In fact, I was just having a conversation with Patrick, the effusive bartender at Journeys, about the struggle of getting people out and about later in the evening. Perhaps a late night happy hour would do it, he suggested.

My Mother was recently visiting from back east. She’s come out here many times since we’ve lived in the Village and loves it here. She currently lives in a small town in Virginia that has a main drag that is something of a smaller-scale, southern-fired version of Multnomah Village. She was telling me, over beer and wine and an excellent plate of bites at Journeys, that their town stages a monthly “Ladies’ Night” where women purchase a wrist band or something from one of the participating vendors, and then come into the downtown area where the wristband is good for two drinks at any of the participating vendors, as well as special discounts offered by retailers and service providers. It seems to me that with the mix of services that we have in the Village right now, especially the wealth of boutique and spa service options, that such an event might work here in the Village.

Regular evening events such as live music and the Outdoor Cinema help expand the Village’s life past the monthly first Friday “late night” scene. They offer opportunities for those of us who live near the Village to get out in the evening and take advantage of downtown-style nightlife without having to go downtown. I for one am trying to do what I can to support these things, as they appeal to my interests. I encourage you to do the same. Next time one of those live music posters, or ads in the Post about a Jazz event catches your eye, or you’re just walking by Village Coffee and realizing they’ve got a BAND in there – stop by and listen to a song or two. Buy a drink, leave a tip, and enjoy the scene.

OK, “Post” - it’s OK to byline me by name,  but if you’re going to do so - get the name right.

Looking westish from the sidewalk along Capitol Highway

SO, as you Portlanders probably know, the city is in the process of rolling out free (ad-supported) wifi throughout the metro area. Now that the service has gone live downtown, they’re rolling it out to the neighborhoods. I noticed the distinctive routers up along Capitol Highway a few weeks back, and I got to wondering whether or not the signal would be able to get down in the hollows, since I live down the hill on 35th. Well, my curiosity is about to be satisfied it seems, since on the way home from breakfast on Saturday I noticed a brand new Metrofi router installed on the light pole right outside my house!

Mrs. V immediately began plotting to abandon Comcast, and I wondered if the signal was live yet. As of Sunday, it’s not - at least I can’t pick up a wireless signal, but then again most of the other usual suspects that pop up in my available networks list didn’t seem to be visible either. I’m going to take the ol’ laptop up to Journeys tonight I think and see what sort of wireless signals pop up from there. It would be nice to be able to use MetroFi’s signal up in the Village, although at home I’ll stick with wireless Comcast for the speed thanks very much. More details to come as I discover them.

UPDATE:Sunday night (the 1st) I schlepped my laptop up to Journeys to check out whether or not I could see the Metrofi signal. I could not. However, I COULD pick it up in my car and liekly could have gotten a signal out on the porch, since penetration into buildings is a known limitation of the MetroFi signal. The router at my house does not appear to be active yet, I can’t see as an available network from right below, although I could pick up an unsecured network that I can’t see from inside the houe.

Lots of people have complained about not being able to use the MetroFi signal indoors. To do this requires a wifi signal booster, which is not a terribly expensive purchase, especially compared to the monthly cost for broadband. On the business side, if I was running, say a small coffee shop in the Village, purchasing a signal booster is probably WAY cheaper than setting up your own wifi broadband, so hopefully the presence of MetroFi will give business owners who might benefit from wifi a less expensive way to add the service.

Curses! We won’t be back in town in time for Jr. V to score some Pokemon cards….. Well maybe - sounds like if you’re into garage/yard sales that this one is worth stopping by, and it helps our Maplewood.

Big MV Neighborhood Sale
Sat, July 7, 9 - 4pm

12+ homes in walking distance:
clothes, furniture, books, Pokemon cards, toys, etc. for sale
and food and beverages for sale

Part of proceeds donated to Maplewood School

32nd Ave, 33rd Ave, Florida St
Enter from Vermont or Capitol Hwy

Thanks, Cate!

So I’ve been thinking about integrating a calendar feature for a little while now, but haven’t done so because of the work invovled with gathering information and keeping it updated. So I was happy to discover that the Multnomah Village Business Association has done the work for me! Well, for us. I’ll be adding a sidebar link to this, but for now..

The MVBA Multnomah Village Events Calendar is here.