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Susan's Online Guide to Portland Let me Help You Find a Home and a Neighborhood |
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Welcome to my Web site about the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It's my way of helping you become acquainted with the neighborhoods and communities of the Portland metro area and to inform you about the Portland area housing market. Your comments and suggestions about my Web site are always welcome. If you have questions or if you are interested in buying or selling a home in the Portland area, contact me online or call me at (503) 497-2984.
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Community News |
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Oregon puts consumer complaints data online March 10 − The Oregon attorney general's office has put its complaints database online, meaning consumers can better research companies before deciding where to take their business. Consumers without Internet access may call the agency at 1-877-877-9392. Entries on the database, which contains complaints received since Jan. 1, 2008, do not include consumers' names and offer limited information, such as a company's address, the general category of the complaint and whether it was resolved. Read more...
Cheap Eats 2010 March 10 − Let us help you out with that. You are holding in your hands our biggest Cheap Eats ever. Since January, we’ve eaten our way across the city, from St. Johns to Powellhurst-Gilbert and as far afield as Gresham and Hillsboro, in search of the best places to fill your stomach without emptying your wallet. In these listings you’ll find an all-encompassing guide to eating well on a budget—call it a gastronomic stimulus package. In addition to the usual list of restaurants (over 150 of them) where you can eat lunch for $10 or less and dinner for under $15. Read more...
Willamette Valley plant is hopping March 9 − Oregon is ripe with both hop farms and the small breweries that depend on locally grown hops to give their beers distinctive flavors. Yet before Oregon hops make it to Oregon brewers, most take a detour out of state. General Contractor BooCo Constructi on is finishing a hop processing plant in the Willamette Valley that will eliminate that detour. The plant will turn hops, the cone-like flower of the hop plant, into small pellets favored by brewers. Hops supplier Indie Hops leased out 4,500 square feet of an agricultural warehouse in Hubbard, a town that hosts an annual hop festival, to make the pellets. Read more... |
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House, Home, & Health |
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Home buyers check out apps March 10 − Just in time for the spring house-hunting season, smart-phone applications that provide information to home buyers are proliferating. Real-estate firms have long vied to have the most engaging Web site to attract people searching for homes. Now they also feel compelled to have an "app" for Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other smart phones. Rather than being moneymakers—brokers tend to offer their apps for free—the apps are seen as a tool to make the home-buying process easier. "I don't think it's driving revenue for us, but it's making customers happier," says Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin Corp., a Seattle-based broker that operates in nine states. Read more... |
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Living Green |
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City will hold ecoroof fair Friday and Saturday March 9 − Anyone interested in installing an ecoroof, a vegetated roof that absorbs rain and reduces stormwater runoff, can find all the information and resources they need at the free, city-sponsored Ecoroof Portland 2010 fair from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Leftbank Annex, 101 N. Weidler St. The fair will go over how ecoroofs work, why they're important and what the future is likely to bring for Portland's rooftops and skyline. Read more... |
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Sports and Outdoors |
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Northwest outdoor calendar for March − On March 13-14, head to Mazama Lodge and join the Mazamas Nordic Committee and Trails Committee in this event for the whole family. Activities include cross-country ski lessons, a snow-leprechaun building contest, storytelling by the fireplace and a snowshoe race. Visit the Web site or call the lodge for directions. Register for the event by e-mail to mwynton@lycos.com. Lodging $22 adults, $15 children; all event-related activities free; www.mazamas.org or 503-272-9214. Read more...
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Portland Blogs and Web Sites
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Susan Marthens |
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© Copyright 2000-2009 All rights reserved Web by Dasan Design ● Telephone (503) 819-0011 |
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Developers
suspend massive Oregon City project March 10 − The developer
behind a proposed retail-entertainment-office complex that would be twice
the size of Bridgeport Village suspended the project this week, citing concerns
about support from city officials. "We are not certain whether we will continue
to have the support of the (Oregon City) council necessary to move our project
forward," CenterCal CEO Officer Fred Bruning said in a letter to City Manager
Larry Patterson. Two of Oregon City's five commission members have opposed
the project, called The Rivers for its location near the confluence of the
Clackamas and Willamette Rivers. In addition, two supporters, Patterson
and Mayor Alice Norris, both will be leaving office. Patterson is retiring,
and Norris, because of term limits, will not seek re-election. Bruning said
CenterCal will reassess after the November election.
County
'finally' about to open Morrison Bridge's new bike, pedestrian path
March 10 − After months of delays, a 15-foot-wide pedestrian and bike path
on the Morrison Bridge -- as well as a new auto off-ramp to Southeast Water
Avenue -- is expected to open Friday. "We're finally going to be opening
it up, it sounds like," said Multnomah County spokesman Mike Pullen with
a chuckle and a sigh. For Pullen, that means no more answering questions
about why the
When
will WES prove itself? Tri-Met's Wilsonville-to-Beaverton commuter rail
still suffering growing pains March 9 − After a year of
disappointing ridership and frequent breakdowns on WES,
Ply-on-foam
walls increase energy efficiency March 10 − A Styrofoam
and plywood sandwich? In Washington County, the strategy is being used to
dramatically increase energy efficiency in walls of a residential construction
project. Ben Walsh, president of Green One Construction, two years ago came
up with an idea for a new wall assembly that sandwiches expanded polystyrene
between plywood sheathing and the wall frame. Styrofoam creates a thermal
barrier in the wall, which becomes 40 percent more energy efficient than
a standard wall. Walsh’s assembly, which he calls ply-on-foam, has not been
recognized by the Oregon Building Codes Division. To prove his walls were
safe for use in his Sage Green residential project in Washington County,
Walsh had his assembly tested at Oregon State University’s Knudsen wood
engineering laboratory in Corvallis.
Energy
Trust of Oregon hosts free workshops for home energy efficiency
March 9 − 
Sideways on the Siletz March 10 −
There are moments when it seems everything is going
sideways on the scenic river that encircles its namesake town like a
green jade necklace. The rain comes down sideways. Alder and vine maple
trees grow sideways out of moss-covered canyon walls. And, of
course, there’s that definite sideways tilt to the winter steelhead
fishing on the Siletz River.“ ‘Side drifting’ is by far the most popular
method,” said Phil Paradis, of Paradise Guide Service in Canby. “I’d say
90 percent of the boat anglers side drift.” Side drifting is a technique
in which anglers allow small bits of lightly-weighted bait to drift
downstream alongside or slightly behind their boats, with boat and bait
both moving at the speed of the current. Properly executed, the
technique results in a “nice natural drift,” Paradis said. It also
produces a high percentage of “hook-ups” because the downstream angle of
the fishing line tends to pull the hook back into the fish’s mouth
rather than out of it.
