The first walk

So, there is a guy who walked every street in Manhattan. His website is www.newyorkcitywalk.com, and he got a lot of publicity for it, including a write-up in the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town," back in 2005. I can't find the archives on his website, so I'm not sure if he wrote about each walk or what, but it struck me as a cool project. I must have read about it in the New Yorker, but at the time I was living in Chicago and working full time, and it didn't seem practicable to start a Chicago Walk. Chicago is huge, and there are neighborhoods that might be a little bleak or unsafe to walk through. Plus, I was working all the time.

Now I've just moved to Portland, OR. I'm starting a job search pronto, but thought this would be the ideal time to start a walking project. (Need an academic book editor/webmaster? Call me.) Portland is not small but it's not enormous either, and the weather is lovely and balmy and mild. (Sure, it rains a lot, but at least it's warm.) In mid-January, it's like April in Chicago; I feel like I fast forwarded through winter by moving here. I love to walk, and it will help me get to know the city.

I began the walking project with a 5.19-mile loop. Up NE 15th Street to Alberta, west to 33rd Street, then jagging down to NE Tillamook Street and back to 15th. It took me a couple hours. I had intended to stop by the Albert Street Food Co-op and use my $5 off $25 coupon from the Chinook Book, but it was closed.


View Walk Portland 1-18 in a larger map

Alberta Avenue is trendy, lined with restaurants and coffeeshops and little boutiques. I stopped at a shoe store called Shoe Shangri-La and found some shoes that I might buy if and when I get an office job. I then stopped by the New Seasons Market on 33rd Street and bought some crimini mushrooms and a bottle of kombucha. Then I returned to the start, near my apartment, cutting through a hilly neighborhood called Alameda.

What am I noticing as I walk along? Stores and businesses, other people walking along, houses, colors, trees.

Here is a house with a terrific color scheme, somewhere along 20th Avenue:



Here is a useful Portland neighborhood map:
http://www.movingtoportland.net/maps/map_pdxneighborhood.pdf