Not to mention all of the bicycling stuff that goes on. Being a vegan, there is an awesome vegan community here, with a potluck almost every weekend.
For example:
1. Portland Vegan Iron Chef, for example, went from an idea to an event with a venue that was too small for the number of people that wanted to attend within a matter of a couple of months. SupremeMasterTV even showed up to film it -- not that they are 'mainstream' or anything, but it wasn't just a couple of random people in their garage either.
2. Vegan Convergence went from just an idea that someone was kicking around (the idea that there were a ton of vegans in Portland that he didn't even know -- 'convergence' as in bringing all of the different groups together to expand social circles) to an event in the part w/ 150+ people responding as attending on Facebook (dunno how many actually showed up; there were a lot of people, but people tend to come and go at various times at these types of events).
I guess it just depends on the circles that you are in... I'm sure there are some people that describe <insert name of city> as 'sitting in the garage, drinkin some beer' because that's all they do.
I am a big cyclist (it's my business), and I don't know what other large cities are like, but Portland's bike scene is a disaster. I can't believe the animosity that's been fostered between drivers and bikers, but I went from easily doing 100 miles a week to not wanting to ever get on my bike in about two months. At least a quarter the rides I do involve pretty frightening/stressful situations like being swerved/swore/honked at. Call me thin skinned, but damn these people are nuts.
Can't attest to the vegan thing - I am a reformed vegetarian who enjoys a tasty 5th quadrant burger here and there :) Oh, there we go, the beer! I knew I was forgetting my favorite thing about Portland.
That may be, but coming from Toronto, Ontario, there are a lot of cycling events/rides/etc. It's totally awesome once a year, they shut down the bridges for cyclists (even the I-5 bridge).
Last summer (2009), I was biking a 15 mile round-trip to work, and I wasn't really running into issues, but I was also riding very defensively.
[I will admit that I wasn't a cyclist in Toronto, but -- as I understand it -- it is very bike-hostile (though there are bike couriers). If you think that the west-coast drivers in Portland are crazy, don't move to the east-coast...]
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Umm, hello? Modest Mouse? Meth?
// nostalgic Portland ex-pat
PDX Ignite, PDX Hack-a-thon, OSBridge, OSCon, etc
Not to mention all of the bicycling stuff that goes on. Being a vegan, there is an awesome vegan community here, with a potluck almost every weekend.
For example:
1. Portland Vegan Iron Chef, for example, went from an idea to an event with a venue that was too small for the number of people that wanted to attend within a matter of a couple of months. SupremeMasterTV even showed up to film it -- not that they are 'mainstream' or anything, but it wasn't just a couple of random people in their garage either.
2. Vegan Convergence went from just an idea that someone was kicking around (the idea that there were a ton of vegans in Portland that he didn't even know -- 'convergence' as in bringing all of the different groups together to expand social circles) to an event in the part w/ 150+ people responding as attending on Facebook (dunno how many actually showed up; there were a lot of people, but people tend to come and go at various times at these types of events).
I guess it just depends on the circles that you are in... I'm sure there are some people that describe <insert name of city> as 'sitting in the garage, drinkin some beer' because that's all they do.
I am a big cyclist (it's my business), and I don't know what other large cities are like, but Portland's bike scene is a disaster. I can't believe the animosity that's been fostered between drivers and bikers, but I went from easily doing 100 miles a week to not wanting to ever get on my bike in about two months. At least a quarter the rides I do involve pretty frightening/stressful situations like being swerved/swore/honked at. Call me thin skinned, but damn these people are nuts.
Can't attest to the vegan thing - I am a reformed vegetarian who enjoys a tasty 5th quadrant burger here and there :) Oh, there we go, the beer! I knew I was forgetting my favorite thing about Portland.
That may be, but coming from Toronto, Ontario, there are a lot of cycling events/rides/etc. It's totally awesome once a year, they shut down the bridges for cyclists (even the I-5 bridge).
Last summer (2009), I was biking a 15 mile round-trip to work, and I wasn't really running into issues, but I was also riding very defensively.
[I will admit that I wasn't a cyclist in Toronto, but -- as I understand it -- it is very bike-hostile (though there are bike couriers). If you think that the west-coast drivers in Portland are crazy, don't move to the east-coast...]