Portland’s MAX happens to have 64 stations, according to several disreputable online sources. I’m dragging a group of people down there this weekend, partly to show off Amtrak Cascades and partly because I’ve got withdrawal symptoms from not enough Powell’s. I’ve got some idea of what we’re going to do, but do you have any suggestions?

During my daily numerological battle to find something appropriate, I ran across the 1999 plan for light rail from then-mayor Paul Schell and Ron Sims. Are they really responsible for adding 12 grade crossings in the Rainier Valley? It looks like a lot of this wasn’t implemented, like a ‘shell’ station at Broadway and Roy, or a station at Graham. It sure does look like MLK is now supposed to be a “Great Boulevard”, though. Check it out, it’s short, with bullet points.

29 Replies to “How Many Days? 64!”

  1. Do they still have the kiddie train from the zoo to the Rose Garden in Washington Park? That would be perfect. :) Also 23rd if you haven’t hung out there before–if the weather’s good do Tara Thai outside and dessert at Papa Haydn. You’ll spend all your time in Powell’s, though.

  2. Probably should visit the 3D Center of Art and Photography at 1928 NW Lovejoy in Portland. It’s truely unique in the whole western US. – http://www.3dcenter.us
    Also find where they hid the steam locomotives such as the Daylight.
    Al

  3. Stumptown coffee and voodoo doughnut, though the latter is really at its best late on a Friday or Saturday night.

    1. I second Voodoo Doughnut. And Golden Horse Restaurant in Chinatown. (It’s only a couple of blocks from the light rail stop!)

        2. That was the Birmingham that blew for Red October, it’s an urban myth that it was the Blueback.

  5. And yes Ron is responsible for the at grade crossings in the Rainier Valley. He perceived it as spending some of the money in an area that needed urban renewal. However many of the community leaders came and begged him to tunnel or elevate that section. Cost considerations most likely kept it off the plan and a deaf ear. (The complaint went along the lines, how come you can afford to tunnel the U district & North but not the Southern portion where us poor people live.

    The blvd idea is great, it’s just that the short blocks limit the length of the trains (if you put the station in the middle the train can’t stop with it’s end hanging out in the intersection behind it.) And ST expects that people will drive into the path of the train, try to run around the tracks etc. The estimate is 26 accidents a year, that’s one every other week, and since this section is the most exposed it’s likely to have most of those accidents.

    The good part, is that it will force us to build a trunk line South along Airport Way to skip it.

    1. LINK Stations were built to accommodate 4 car trains (length of DSTT stations) Initially, only 2 car trains will be used, only because the PINE ST STUB tunnel can only accommodate 2 car trains.

      Yes, you can run a link down Airport or the industrial area. But it will run empty most of the times, except to pick people to/from work.

      1. I remember the battle with Save our Valley. That was tough, but will pale in comparison to what will happen in Bellevue.

      2. In 2050, it won’t run empty. It’ll take all the airport riders and all the people from Federal Way and Des Moines.

  6. Head over to Hawthorne & 38th for Powell’s Books for Cooks & Gardeners, instead, and while you’re there have lunch at Fujin – their house specialty is the crispy fried eggplant and it is delicious!

    1. Half the reason I’m going is to go to Powell’s! Mostly for urban planning books, but I’m going to see if there’s anything good on urban gardening too, maybe I can get over to that store.

    2. This. Absolutely.

      Fujin is my favorite restaurant ever, I’m not kidding. They know what I order whenever I’m there and I always get top notch service. The tea comes steaming hot the second I sit down (I always get tea) and I always get my food speedy-like.

      So. So. So. GOOD.

  7. I wrote about Portland last year, here.

    To summarize, I like Everett Bistro and Byways Cafe (the latter for breakfast and the former for dinner) in the Pearl. While ambling around downtown on the weekend, I recommend the Mexican at Maya’s Taqueria at Tenth and Morrison. Our Portland office is right off the Max line a couple stops past the Rose Center so I really enjoy hopping on for a free ride into downtown anytime I can get down there for work.

    best,

    David

  8. Food: Roxy Cafe (Stark St.), Delta Cafe (Woodstock, take the #19 bus to 46th), Fujin (see above)

    Roxy is an eclectic little after-bar or breakfast/brunch spot. They have huge pitchers for their tea and they sell amazing t-shirts. Delta Cafe is like something out of some New Orleans fantasy, the food is awesome. Fujin is just amazing.

    Sights: Council Crest, Expo Center, Delta Park

  9. U-District street fair this weekend! I’ll be checking that out–it’s only a few blocks from where I live.

  10. I was hoping that there would be a posting here about the 5+ hour closure of the bus tunnel today, but sadly there’s no info.

    The metro commute blog just keeps saying “due to an alarm
    condition that is being investigated”. (And that blog stupidly doesn’t time stamp their postings — you have to rely on time mentions within the post itself.)

    1. I wonder how Link will handle a closure like that. I know they can turn trains around at Stadium station but do they plan on having a shuttle bus into downtown or let passengers use other buses?

        1. What would you have them do? Take out the fire detection system? Faulty equipment happens. This is why they did all that work earlier. :)

        2. This isn’t the first time. Remember the computer bugs that shut down the tunnel for a few days after the retrofit?

  11. Apparently, the message board of xenophobia (the “If you see a suspicious activity…) did not display the evacuation message, or signal an audible alarm, according to reports of people within the tunnel.

    I find this odd, because I remember observing the evacuation message being displayed when they were testing the systems prior to reopening the tunnel.

    Essentially, the system goes: *BONG* “An incident has been reported, Please evacuate the station through the nearest exit and follow the instructions of personnel” or something close to that. My memory is kinda foggy on this as I thought it was kinda goofy/corny sounding and probably wouldn’t work so well in a real emergency.

    It pales in comparison to what happens when the incident response system goes off at TESC’s library though.

    Brian Bradford
    Olympia, WA

    1. I saw the “evacuate tunnel” message in the tunnel once in Westlake. There were technicians at the system control panel fixing things.

  12. That would be strange if they had a station at Roy… that’s only less than a half mile away from Olive.

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