Bryan Robb

Tag: pdx

  • Despite Climate Friendly and Equitable Communities (CFEC), there are over 1,000 units of housing being developed within 1/2 mile of Elmonica, Willow Creek and Merlo MAX stations (8 trains per hour) and every single unit is still being built with at least 1 off-street parking space.

  • Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene opening for Stars at Wonder Ballroom

  • Going to see Stars tonight in . Pretty excited. I used to love this album…20 years ago. These reunion tours are starting to make me feel my age.

  • Downtown this morning.

  • I’m loving the frequency improvement of MAX trains west of downtown Beaverton now that the Better Red extension is complete. Instead of 15 minutes, we’re getting trains every 7-8 minutes. It makes a difference when I’m deciding which mode to take when my morning is chaos.

  • As I leave for the OR American Planning Association conference in downtown , I’m reflecting on my commute from 7 miles out, on a light rail line cities twice our size wish they had, from a suburban area with 11k people per square mile, twice the density of many urban census tracts in the U.S.

  • Beautiful morning in the northwest, but time to button up the house until this evening. These temp swings are pretty drastic.

  • The new TriMet light rail system map showing the extension of the Red Line 10 stations deeper into Washington County and improvements made at Gateway and the Airport.

  • TriMet completed its Better Red project, extending the MAX Red Line all the way out to Washington County Fairgrounds. I can now take one train all the way to the airport. Hopefully they’re still working on bettering security.

    https://www.koin.com/news/trimet-max-a-better-red-line-expansion-beaverton-hillsboro-airport/

  • Growing up in MI, I always thought Grosse Pointe et al. was just a bougie area. My perspective has changed. They are gorgeous, rather urban former street car neighborhoods for which there is no affordable counterpart in the PNW.

  • Back home in Portland after a week in Michigan and now I just want to move back to the Midwest.

  • I was in the area for work, so drove up to Council Crest Park to break up the routine. Hazy, but gorgeous day (70° F), with many people out enjoying it.

    A distant, snow-capped mountain is visible through a haze, framed by silhouetted evergreen trees.

  • Switched our flat rate electric service to time-of-day pricing with PGE. So long as you can divert your energy use away from 5-9 to other times of day, your bill should go down. I charge my EV overnight ($0.08 per kWh) and saved $29 last month over the flat rate plan.

  • Bumming around Southwest on this rainy Saturday.




  • I was between site visits today and lucky enough to have a few moments to spare, so I stopped at one of my favorite little pull-offs where I used to sometimes stop to eat my sack lunch. A lovely day, and grateful for where I landed in this world.

  • A coating of ice on everything. I’ll be staying here today, if anyone needs me.

  • Pea soup on the morning commute.

  • Pumping my own gas for the first time ever while in Oregon.

  • Japanese Breakfast at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

  • Built to Spill at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

  • One thing the Portland region should absolutely be embarrassed about is how many of our light rail stations are just surface lot park & rides. Given our current housing crisis, there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a thousand housing units or more at each of these.

  • Likely heat island effect, but ugh. It certainly feels like 110°F.

  • Planted my zucchini starts outside last week and I worried it might be too cold for them. Now we’re heading into another weekend in the 90s. Our weather here in Portland can’t figure out what it’s doing.

  • Finally getting my garden into some sort of shape. Weeded this box, added some compost, soil amendments, etc. One down, one to go.

    Also put a band-aid fix on the broken corner (bottom left). Last year a moving truck backed into my driveway and smashed the corner. Caught the whole thing on camera.

    Feeling behind this year but it’s been so cold and rainy.