This is what a city with real infrastructural support looks like in 2008, despite a rainy season and plenty of hills. Imagine what naturally bike-practical, flat cities like Philadelphia, New York and Denver could do!  Portland is really at the forefront of breaking past biking as a subculture or a casual means of exercise, it’s seen as a tool for EVERYONE.  I love seeing parents pick up their kids from school on BIKE rather than a minivan.

I currently live in the yellow area (Inner Southeast) and will be moving to the blue region (Inner Northeast) at the end of the month.  I would say bicycling is our primary source of transportation, followed by walking, car, and transit.

Read more from BikePortland.

Portland’s daily newspaper website, Oregonlive, is really unfun, ALL TEXT, and the articles are way too airy.  The print publication doesn’t get much better.

PREDICTION: We’ll see massive consolidation of the newspaper industry, once all newspapers bite the bullet and go ALL web.  We’ll have the big guns: NY Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal covering everything.  Blogging will replace all hyper-local journalism.  We’ve seen newspaper consolidation, while the papers maintain some semblance of locality.  Corps like Gannett and Knight Ridder have maintained an umbrella over most local rags for years.   Soon, we won’t be talking about the Oregonian or the Philadelphia Inquirer when referring to local coverage anymore.  We’ll get better national and worldwide journalism with higher salaries, but local reporting will plummet.

Not sure if this is good or bad, but judging from the type of coverage valued in the Inky and the Oregonian, I don’t think we’ve got a whole lot to lose.  I wonder how we’ll keep the focus on local issues.