I Love This Town

A little sun today, finally, after what feels like the longest winter evar. Broken clouds, cool, wind smells like ocean. The wet winter makes for the greenest imaginable spring ... plants practically attacking pavement. Some kind of festival — the Rose Festival? — on the waterfront which, has for some reason, attracted a flotilla of, no fooling, pirate ships. With sails.

Over lunch I rode down to Clever Cycles, to look at Xtracycles — and damn, I love this town. We’ve reached bicycle tipping point in Portland, and I offer the intersection of SE 9th Ave and Hawthorne as proof. The street itself is the major bicycle thoroughfare — westbound on the bridge onramp you’ll have actual bicycle congestion, which the city attempted to remedy with bicycle passing lanes. On the northeast corner there’s the Lucky Labrador brewery, where you’ll find more space to park bikes than cars. On the southeast corner is Clever Cycles. Our enormous bicycle market allows shops to specialize to such a degree that we have at least one shop that specializes in bicycles for transportation.