PODC 2000: Portland, Oregon
BLUEBERRIES!!!
Oregon is famous for all kinds of berries, including blueberries.
Blueberries are in season and those looking for a diversion the weekend
before PODC might consider picking blueberries on Sauvie Island.
Sauvie Island is a low lying island at the confluence of the Willamette
and Columbia Rivers. While inside Portland (almost), it is very rural
and largely agricultural.
There are a number of farms there that sell produce and some have "U-pick"
fields. Highly ecommended is the Sauvie Island Blueberry Farm on
Reeder Road. They have everything you might need (e.g., picking containers)
and sell their blueberries (that you pick) for $1/pound.
You can find a route to the farm
here. The farm is open every day
from 8am to 5pm. It is recommended to call the farm at (503)621-3332
to ensure the berries are still there and to ask for directions if necessary.
(No answer at the phone doesn't mean they're not open for business.)
The Location
Click here for the
CitySearch overview of Portland. Generally in July the average high
temperature is around 80°F (27°C) and the average low is around
57°F (14°C). While there is always a possibility of light
rain, the average daily rainfall in July is only .02" (.05cm)! Check
the local weather.
The Street System
The conference hotel is located in SW Portland. Portland is divided,
more or less, into four quadrants. The division between east and
west is the Willamette River. The division between north and south
is Burnside Street. (Owing to a bend in the Willamette, there is
also a N Portland; this is located east of the river but west of the main
east-west dividing line.) Thus, the conference is west of the river
and south of Burnside. Building numbers are 100 to the block.
Thus, the hotel is at 520 SW Broadway and is thus about 5 blocks south
of Burnside Street. The following discussion focuses on the west
side of the river.
For the most part, avenues (which run north-south) are numbered going
west from the river. The street right on the river is Front Avenue,
recently renamed Naito Parkway; First Avenue is one street west of that.
There are a few exceptions. There is no Seventh Avenue; instead,
there is Broadway. In some parts of downtown, there is Park Avenue
instead of Eighth Avenue.
While the avenues are numbered, the streets (which run east-west) are
named. In most of the city, there is no pattern to the names.
There is, however, a section of streets in which the names appear in the
following alphabetical order: Ankeny, Burnside, Couch (pronounced
"kootch"), Davis, Everett, Flanders, Glisan (prounced "Gleason"), Hoyt,
Irving, Johnson, Kearney, Lovejoy, Marshall, Northrup, Overton, Pettygrove,
Quimby, Raleigh, Savier, Thurman, Upshur, Vaughn, and Wilson (there is
a York Street two blocks north of Wilson, but the street in between is
named Roosevelt). As noted above, Burnside Street forms the boundary
between north and south and thus these alphabetical streets cover most
of the area of northwest Portland near the hotel.
Getting Around Portland
Portland is served by an excellent public transportation system.
Click here for more information.
Things to do around Portland.
-
Powell's Bookstore. The world famous
Powell's City of Books has over 1,000,000 new and used books on the shelves.
See information about the main
store (located on West Burnside Street and 10th Avenue) in Portland
(within walking distance of the hotel).
-
Powell's Technical
Bookstore. Stocks used, new, hard to find, and antiquarian titles
in the fields of Architecture, Chemistry, Computing, Communications, Construction,
Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Electronics, Mathematics, and Physics
(within walking distance of the hotel).
-
Portland Saturday Market.
It's actually open Saturdays and Sundays! The largest open-air
arts and crafts market (in continuous operation) in the United States.
An easy walk from the hotel, it is between First Avenue and the Riverfront
Park, under and just south of the Burnside Bridge. Buy your lunch
at one of the food booths, walk across the street to the park, and eat
your lunch on the river!
-
Interesting streets and areas to visit:
-
NW 23rd Avenue. This street, about two miles from the hotel, has
a large number of shops and restaurants, including a source of excellent
bagels (Kornblatts Delicatessen, between Hoyt and Irving). Most of
these are concentrated between Burnside and Lovejoy.
-
NW 21st Avenue. This street also offers a wide variety of restaurants
and bars, many of which are a little less "trendy" than those on NW 23rd.
There is also an excellent independent movie theater, Cinema
21 (during PODC, Cinema 21 will be showing a film called "Jesus'
Son").
-
SE Hawthorne Boulevard. East of the river, the street offers a number
of shops and restaurants thare somewhat more "counterculture" than those
found in NW Portland. These are mainly concentrated in the 30s (centering
around SE 35th Avenue). This area can easily be reached from downtown
by bus.
-
Ladd's Addition. This neighborhood in SE Portland (but close to downtown)
presents an interesting an alternative to the usual north-south grid pattern.
It is covered with mature old trees and features four separate rose gardens.
It is located between SE 12th and SE 20th Avenues just south of SE Hawthorne
Boulevard (see above).
-
Washington Park. A city park in the hills west of Portland;
easy to reach by bus
and light rail:
-
OMSI. The Oregon Museum of Science
and Industry; a bus
ride from the hotel
-
Portland
Art Museum. Any easy walk from the hotel.
-
Beer. There are a large number of small breweries in Portland.
Here is some information about them:
-
Oregon Birders On-Line.
Oregon is on the Northwest flyway.
-
Bicycle
resources
Destinations & Day Trips from Portland
-
Columbia River Gorge Scenic
Area. A great place to take a short hike. Many hikes are reachable
by car from downtown in under 30 minutes.
-
Waterfalls.
Many of these are located along trails starting in the Columbia River Gorge
or on the Columbia River Highway.
-
Multnomah
Falls. Located 31 miles East of Portland on Interstate 84. Very
easy to get to and one of the most popular attractions in Oregon.
-
Mount St. Helens This
volcano last erupted in October 1986 and it is still active. This is the
longest drive from Portland at about 2 to 3 hours, but is well worth it!
-
Cannon Beach. The fastest
way to the Pacific Ocean is to take US-26 West to Cannon Beach. The drive
is about 80 miles and takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes.
This page maintained by Gil Neiger.
Last modified: July 13, 2000