This is a golden age of dining and drinking in a city that 15 years ago was about as cutting edge as a tomato in January. Every little neighborhood in this city of funky neighborhoods now seems to be exploding with restaurants, food shops and markets, all benefiting from a critical mass of passion, skill and experience, and all constructed according to the gospel of locally grown ingredients.

Sam Adams has a plan. If it is approved by City Council, construction on the eastside streetcar would start next year and be up and running by 2011. The line will run from NW Portland, over the Broadway Bridge to the Lloyd District, and then on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Grand Avenue to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. (Oregonian)

I made a map of the current streetcar in blue and the proposal in red:

Mass transit projects like this get me really excited. The ability to easily move around the city without a car works to "shrink the city" by reducing the time and energy it takes to get around. The other day for example I was driving out though Gresham and I thought, "Man, with the MAX line out here, you really aren't too far from Portland."

The eastside streetcar helps reattach the close-in eastside to the rest of the city, and if I'm still living in Northwest in 2011 then I'll have a straight shot from my neighborhood to the CEID. Future awesome indeed!

"Again, the issue of sustainability is key, however: operating on a small scale means that an organization (or a city) is likely nimble and entrepreneurial, but it can also mean that it's fragmented and fragile." -Portland: City of the Small

"HUB will be a 20-barrel bio-diesel fired brewery," they say, and then go on to detail the project and have a very in-depth interview with brewmaster Christian Ettinger.

Read more at the Belmont Station Beer Forum.

The article says "Portland was named a green leader because, with 125 projects and counting, the city has the most structures certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, the magazine reports."

Additionally Fast Company wrote, "Portland became a case study on how to stuff sprawl when it enacted strict limits on urban growth. Today, it's at the forefront of the 'eat local' revolution, in which individuals and restaurants buy directly from area farmers to preserve livelihoods and open space. With 13 farmer's markets, and nearby world-class vineyards, residents not only buy local but they eat and drink well, too."

Since January 2002, all Oregon workplaces were smoke-free except for bars, bingo halls, and other such dens of iniquity. But while Oregon was stuck with smoky pubs, other cities and states have been outlawing smoking in public outright. And by and large, they've found, contrary to tobacco companies' claims, that it doesn't drive bars out of business. In fact, in many cases, revenue improved. Plus, it's been easier to keep employees happy and healthy. Even bartenders that smoke don't tend to enjoy 8 hours a day of secondhand.

Depending on what side of the issue you fall on, you now have a new reason to celebrate or loathe the new Democratic-controlled Oregon Legislature.

Me, I'm just looking forward to heading down to the bar and playing some pinball without my clothes and hair reeking of smoke.

Deposits on the way for bottled water from from The Oregonian:

Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, Oregonians will have to plunk down a nickel deposit on every bottle of water they buy. A proposal adding water to the list of beverage containers covered under Oregon's Bottle Bill law sailed through the House Thursday on a 42-16 vote. The Senate, which already passed Senate Bill 707, must agree to minor amendments. Then the bill is off to the governor for signing. Democrats --and Republican Rep. Vicki Berger --celebrated Thursday's House vote as the first major update of Oregon's landmark bottle recycling law in 36 years.

Holding a bottle of water in her hand during floor debate, Berger said: "Who would have envisioned in 1971, that Oregonians would have embraced this product?"
In fact, Oregonians buy nearly 200 million bottles of water each year and most are not recycled. The state Department of Environmental Quality estimates that Oregonians trash as many as 126 million bottles every year.

Oregon grocers continued to fight the measure, arguing that their stores will be swamped with bottles creating both hygiene and storage problems. The industry has put forward a counter-proposal that would move bottle returns out of the stores.
If grocers fail in the Legislature, an industry lobbyist said Thursday that they will collect signatures for a 2008 ballot initiative. --Michelle Cole

Portland drivers most courteous.

Portland getting Spanish TV station.

Portland No. 3 on 'Best Places to Live' list.

The North American Organic Brewers Festival will be held at North Portland's Overlook Park on June 8 and 9. More than 25 breweries from the Pacific Northwest, Colorado, Wisconsin, Vermont, Germany, England and Belgium will be represented.

What better for Portland's future than to be the world center of organic beer?

Mayor Potter Says, "Our Secret is Out"

May 5: Mayor Tom Potter links to some of the positive press Portland has received. We mentioned that Tom Potter had recently launched his own blog, which was pretty exciting! But looking at the Mayor's blog now is pretty embarrassing. A prominent tab on the Mayor's page and the last update was December 6th, 2006. There was a rash of posts in early December, but previous posts were only a few each month (sometimes just one). So while "Our Secret is Out" it's certainly no thanks to Tom Potter's blog.

Future City Charter

May 18: Back in 2005 Tom Potter started his plan to change the charter. This update was about the Charter Review Commission missing their deadline, but the line that really stuck out to me was, "the charter-reform debate likely will set the stage for the 2008 mayoral election, in which many City Hall observers expect Potter to run for another term." From my perspective there seems to be a lot more people against the idea of changing the charter than are for it, with the general attitude being "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The best source of information is the unaffiliated Portland's Future Charter site.

Daisy Kingdom's Future Awesome

May 31: Jim Winkler's DeSoto project rounds out May 2006. The project was first mentioned in April of 2005, and we're been seeing constant construction underway on the block and the Grand Opening of the Museum of Contemporary Craft is scheduled for July 22, 2007.

Plus the amazing projects that are part of the City of Portland and Energy Trust of Oregon Award $425,000 in Green Building Grants, which includes my favorite upcoming project, The Central Library Ecoroof Project.

Soon patrons of Portland's historic downtown library will be able to check out more than books. As part of a major roof renovation, Multnomah County will cover approximately 7,400 square feet of the building's roof with a modular ecoroof system. Once built, thousands of visitors each day will be able to witness how ecoroofs manage stormwater, attract wildlife and reduce energy use.

Sam Adams' blog has a post about the Green Streets plans they are working on to deal with stormwater.

It's a pretty exciting time in Portland right now!

Update: Oh yeah, I forgot about the OregonLive article More efficient us that Matt sent me!

Hey Mikey. I'm not sure if you know about Lovecraft Biofuels, but they are a pretty famous in the world of alternative fuels/grease cars. They do veggie oil conversions. The store in LA has gotten a lot of national attention, and they just opened a branch in Portland. I noticed it last time I was down on Division.

It's pretty awesome that Portland is the next place they chose to grow. It says a lot about Portland.

Thanks to Azure for sending that along!

Less based on taste, the award was granted "for its sustainable business practices, including the use of local ingredients and its commitment to purchasing wind-driven electrical power."

The award was given in the network's inaugural Food Network Awards, which was broadcast Sunday. I'm pretty excited about our local chain being recognized for it's sustainable business practices, and that hazelnut shake deserves some kind of award too.

Always great to have the NYTimes shower some attention on our fair city. I haven't been to most of the places they mention, but I'm not quite the target demographic of their travel section.

Still, H20 seems like a weird place to recommend. :)