Road Rage Against Cyclist
Last summer, the Oregonian reported an incident between a cyclist and a deranged driver in Portland: Jason Scott Rehnberg, 37, yelled at the car to slow down, and apparently angered by the remark, the driver chased the cyclist. He rode his bike into the neighborhood to escape and after a while, probably thinking he was safe, he went ...
Dangerously Disconnected From our Food
“It’s easy if you stick to a few basic principles – no real food and nothing from living things […] You can’t genetically engineer something that doesn’t have genes.”
Tom Bardwell in Hard to Swallow
The folks at Equal Exchange are true activists – they have already weighed...
The Dutch are the original designers of the "bakfiets" cargo bikes - though the Danish have a long legacy of their own with the "Long John" variety of cargo bikes. When you cruise the streets of either Copenhagen or Amsterdam you'll see lots of imaginative examples of everything from babies to plants to bags of flour carried around.
Cargo bike is made in the U.S.A.
It seems these days that green building is everywhere you look. It's hard to not find a media outlet throwing in a story with a green building angle. Hurrah for those who want to build or remodel green, you've got plenty of resources now. But what if you're not yet at the "Honey, which rainwater catchment system do you like? The red, or the orange?" stage? What if you just want to rent, and you want it green (or greener)? Not so easy to find.
The world’s finally come full circle for members of a new gym in Portland which is converting the pedal power of its bikes into real energy.
The gym, opening September 1, takes human powered energy from its fitness bikes and stores it in a battery which runs some of its other equipment. The 2,800 square foot gym, called the Green Microgym is owned by Adam Boesel, a former grade teacher. He was interviewed by the Seattle Times and told them its the first human-powered gym in the US.
Image source: Pie Footwear
Can your footwear be socially conscious and fashionable? Yes, according to Pie Footwear (the shoes are not edible), which just opened their doors in Portland, Oregon. JC and Stacey Matney own the store and began with the idea to have a comfortable shoe store, but realized they wanted their store to match their values and went vegan and sustainable instead.
We've covered gyms that harvest power from human exertion in Hong Kong, where California Fitness, a wholly owned subsidiary of the 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide chain, has installed cardio machines that help light the facility.
Now a gym in Portland, Oregon is taking the green gym philosophy one step further by incorporating an environmental ethic into the whole business plan. First off, the Green Microgym generates as much as 40 percent of its own electricity from solar panels and exercise machines like stationary bikes.
Image source: Race Monday Night
What started with just an idea to get women back in to bicycle racing with monthly bicycle racing clinics for women has turned into a dozen women screaming at top speeds at the Portland International Raceway in 2009 - a 1.9 mile big and wide loop racetrack. The clinics, held the 2nd Monday of each month (May-August, 2008), were to introduce women to the sport of bicycle racing, including an introduction to the sport, a race and then a debrief.
(Michael Moose/Glaserworks)
Terrence Mann said "If you build it, they will come"; I once said at a public meeting about a Toronto streetcar line that "investment follows infrastructure." Portland proved it; 10,000 residential units have been built and $3.5 billion has been invested within two blocks of its streetcar line since it opened.
Bob Driehaus writes in the IHT:
Thinking of the multiple home projects our family has undertaken under the last month of intensive homeowner repairs - repainting, refinishing of a damaged countertop, clean-out and setting up of a clothesline station in the laundry room - they nearly always engendered a trip to the hardware store to purchase a missing tool or tools. About half of those trips required car-borrowing for heavy schlepping or because the items were outside our bike circuit.
The E-bay of renting?
On August 1, at REI stores and at the REI web site, trail runners and hikers from newcomer Environmentally Neutral Design (END) go on sale for between $60 and $90 a pair.
Recycled content sneakers
Portland is a cyclist's city with expanding bike paths (200 miles installed since 2000) and increasing numbers of riders, but also some pain and problems as more cyclists and motorists try to co-exist. On inner-city rides it is easy to feel that a majority of motorists are accustomed to cyclists and have shifted their habits accordingly, though big trucks still feel like a major hazard.
Portland loves green box biking
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