KCRag Forum

I'm going to be in Portland Oregon from Aug 27 to Aug 30.  I already have a hotel which is in Downtown Portland.  I'm planning on using Trimet for most of my visit, but the event I'm attending will be ending late Saturday or early Sunday at the Rose Garden Arena.  Anyone know of a nice shuttle/limo service or is the taxi service honest in PDX?

I'm planning on visiting the Japanese Gardens in Washington Park, doing the Epicurean walking tour, maybe the Portland Art Museum. Any other "tourist" things you guys recommend? I'll be traveling alone too.

I've seen quite a few events at the Rose Garden and always have ridden the train afterwards. What's the concert?
The stop for Light Rail is literally in front of the Rose Garden.
What's the walking food tour consist of?

bbqboy wrote: I've seen quite a few events at the Rose Garden and always have ridden the train afterwards. What's the concert?
The stop for Light Rail is literally in front of the Rose Garden.
What's the walking food tour consist of?

It's actually a fight, UFC 102.  I don't know how long it will last because I might have to stay for post fight press conferences.  The Max line has stops till 1am? I also might be going to a fighter's after party and I'm not going to be too familiar with PDX to know where the closest stops will be. 

The walking food tour I'm taking:

http://www.portlandwalkingtours.com/tou ... ursion.php

I'm doing the 10am which will be more of the bakeries, beer, and tea places. Have you heard of it? I'm also looking for a good chinese, viet or thai restaurant.  I'm not trusting any reviews online.  I want to go to a restaurant where the clientele is actually Asian, so don't point me to PF Changs or where tourist go and take pictures of the neon sign in front  

http://www.portlandfood.org/index.php?s ... ntry120782
A nice group of folks.

Cool, thanks.

http://www.portlandfood.org/index.php?s ... =9382&st=0
looks promising.
As far as cool neighborhoods, I like to walk Alberta, 26th and Clinton, Hawthorne, some blocks of Belmont, all eastside.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/inde ... es_se.html
  Food-cart pod with amenities set to open in North Portland
by Karen Brooks, The Oregonian
Saturday July 11, 2009, 8:37 PM

Portland's funky food-cart culture, one of the most vibrant and diverse in the country with hundreds of carts on the streets, is about to get organized, financed and landscaped.

North Mississippi Avenue, home to several well-known if eccentric carts, will be the scene of a new slice of food-cart culture.
Stephanie Yao Long/The OregonianDeveloper Roger Goldingay (left) and designer and contractor Michael Tunson will open Mississippi Marketplace in this open lot in August. The building will house a brewpub called Prost! adjacent to 10 food carts.

Set to open at the corner of North Mississippi and Skidmore Street in early August, Mississippi Marketplace will be Portland's first curated food cart and market pod in a newly paved 10,000-square-foot lot. The project has been designed with an anchor tenant, a spiffy brewpub called Prost! set in a building transformed from a seedy board-up to a handcrafted Greek Revival beauty.

Ten food carts will be selected by developer Roger Goldingay, along with a cluster of booths devoted to crafts or a farmers market, depending on interest. Each cart will have amenities rarely available to food-cart owners: six to 12 seats per cart; access to a portable toilet; full-service electrical; a recycling plan; and someone to keep the grounds clean and tidy.

Until now, Portland's exploding food-cart scene has taken a more duct-tape approach. Many carts subsist on bare bones, with limited electrical power, seating and bathroom access. Then again, they are free to create their own moods, like the late-night party scene created by the cart pod at Southeast 12th Avenueand Hawthorne Boulevard.

Multnomah County has more than 375 food carts, with action blossoming in the suburbs -- and the applications keep coming.
cont....

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/i ... _line.html

    Blurring the urban-rural line in Damascus
by Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian
Saturday August 08, 2009, 5:00 PM
Thomas Boyd/The OregonianOregon's land-use system has protected agriculture by separating it from urban development, but farmer Larry Thompson and the new city of Damascus want to integrate the two.
DAMASCUS -- Larry Thompson has always been ahead of everybody else.

He stopped using pesticides and fungicides on his fruit, berries and vegetables years before organic became iconic, and long ago eliminated the middleman distributor by selling direct at his fruit stands and at seven farmers markets.

His harvest crew, including three generations of what began as a migrant family, has been documented, paying taxes and earning Social Security since 1986. He donated the use of 3.5 acres to Mercy Corps Northwest, which teaches Russian and Cuban immigrants how to farm Oregon-style.

He earns ovations at land-use conferences, gladly consorts with government planners and won a Western region sustainability award at the 2008 New American Farm conference. At 55, he's trim and shrewd in a cowboy hat and big Chevy pickup truck.

But not even Larry Thompson has grown a city before, and his ideas this time would turn Oregon's heralded land-use system on its head.

The region's growth regulators seeded the new city of Damascus on Thompson's 77-acre farm. In Thompson's vision, the city can be a place where urban development and agriculture entwine like his graceful marionberry canes.
cont......

gearing up for your Oregon visit:
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... /908140329
      Oregon Medical Marijuana Act

Approved by voters in November 1998, the law permits people suffering from debilitating medical conditions confirmed by a doctor to use small amounts of marijuana without penalty. After completing the Oregon Medical Marijuana program card application and providing proof of ongoing illness and a doctor's signature, the patient, a caregiver and the marijuana provider or grower are issued cards.

A quarterly survey done in July by the Department of Human Services revealed that 20,300 patients are cardholders. Jackson County has the third highest number of cardholders, 1,931, surpassed only by Lane and Multnomah counties. Since January 2006, the number of cardholders has doubled, said Lt. Mike Dingeman of Oregon State Police's drug enforcement section.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/inde ... _city.html