Monthly Archives: October 2018

Portland Sportsball Teams

Sports

This is a work in progress. More info added regularly.

Rose City Rollers — women’s flattrack derby league
Location: Hangar at Oaks Park and sometimes other venues around town
Season runs: January – Spring, with other events year round
Ticket prices: $7-$20
League: Rose City Rollers
Mascot: enthusiastic fans?
A few comments: This is not a single league but rather an entire league. The All-Stars team is BLANK and represents Portland in the BLANK league. Fans are passionate and very loud. I have been known to use ear plugs at bouts.
Location: Civic Stadium, currently known as Providence Park
Season runs: March through September
Ticket prices:
League: NWSL
Mascot: Timber Joey?
A few comments: Thorns games are great fun. Lots of families attend, and it’s exciting to see lots of young girls and boys excited about the team. The team is supported by the Rose City Riveters, with the seats at the North End for standing and cheering for the whole game
Location: Civic Stadium, currently known as Providence Park
Season runs: January through October?
Ticket prices:
League: MLS
Mascot: Timber Joey, formerly Timber Jim
A few comments: The Timbers have been in Portland in one form or another for decades. Their current incarnation is terrifically popular and the fans impressively enthusiastic. The members of the Timbers Army have been sitting at the North End of the field for many years and you are expected to be on your feet and cheering.
Trail Blazers, basketball
Location: Rose Quarter, currently known as Moda Center
Season runs: October through May
Ticket prices: all over the place
League: NBA
Mascot: Blaze, who looks like a rat?
A few comments: like many a popular sports team, the Blazers have broken many a Portlander’s heart. But they are ours, and many of the current (and past) team members are beloved members of our community. The longtime owner, Paul Allen, recently died and the team is currently reflecting and appreciating his support and contributions to the team and league.
Winterhawks, hockey
Location: Portland Memorial Coliseum
Season runs: September through March
Ticket prices: $15-$35 (approximate)
League: Western Hockey League – WHL
Mascot: ?
Transit: MAX lines and many bus lines
A few comments: There are a devout group of Winterhawks fans. We should all try to go to a game a year to help support them and the team.
Location: Lents Park
Season runs: summer?
Ticket prices: cheap
League: summer wooden bat collegiate league
Mascot: Dillon the Pickle
Transit:
A few comments: I used to live around the corner from the Civic Stadium and always enjoyed catching some minor league baseball games in the summer. I was happy for Portland when we got major league soccer, but missed the relaxed, summer baseball. The Portland Pickles have helped fill that void. I am not a very passionate sports fan, so sitting out on the berm, drinking some beer and hanging out with friends has been exactly my speed.
Hillsboro Hops, Baseball
Location: Gordon Faber Recreational Complex in Hillsboro
Season runs: Summer
Ticket prices: affordable
League: Northwest League and Minor League Baseball — Short Season teams feeding into other minor league teams and eventually Diamondbacks
Mascot: A Hop
A few comments: family friendly

Portland newspapers and magazines

Newspapers

I am actively updating this post. Let me know what I missed!

Background: the surviving daily newspaper for Portland, the Oregonian has gone through many, many changes over the last 25 years
Frequency: daily?
A few comments: the daily newspaper for Portland, the Oregonian has gone through a number of layoffs over the last twenty years. As staff have been shed, the amount of in-depth local reporting has decreased. It seems like new reporters have come up, increased their expertise, and then been laid off. They have a branding confusion between The Oregonian and their web presence of OregonLive. The comments on the website tend to be incredibly toxic. In my opinion, their failure to merge their print and online brands and offer a native digital subscription has led to a missed opportunity with possible subscribers of my generation.
Background: started more recently, the Portland Tribune and has associated small town papers and is a good way to get a sense of some of the suburban Portland issues
Frequency: 2x a week, I think, but I just read online
A few comments: Bob Pamplin (founder) is a conservative business owner of Ross Island Sand and Gravel
Background: started in early 2000 as a sister paper to Seattle’s the Stranger. Just shifted to every other week.
Frequency: Every other week
A few comments: this was the weekly paper I started reading when Willamette Week seems kind of old. But now I’m old! But Portland Mercury is young at heart, right? One of the big focuses right now are events and activities in Portland.
Background: the alternative weekly paper since [the 1970s?], the writing has ebbed and flowed over the decades. Currently creating print “Best of” compilations that can be quite handy.
Frequency: weekly
A few comments: I mostly read their compilations and attempt to read their website on my phone. There are a few usability issues with a constant pop-up to sign up for the email newsletter and troubles with loading more articles while still knowing where I am in the website. When I do dip into their reporting, I particularly appreciate the local politics coverage, even if I don’t agree with every point. Their voting guides are always useful.
Others:
Neighborhood papers:

How to pay for your rides on Trimet

Trimet

I love mass transit, and Trimet gets me where I want to go in Portland, Oregon! The payment options have been changing, so here’s an update on the current situation.

Portland’s mass transit is straightforward to ride. You can pay with cash as you get onto buses, but you need to buy your fare before you get onto the light-rail trains (MAX). Fare info is here on the Trimet website.
If you want to plan further ahead, we now have Hop Fastpass. You can buy a Hop card at the kiosks at the light-rail stations, online, at a wide variety of stores, and at the Trimet offices in Pioneer Square. You can also set up a phone application to pay for your fare.
Using your Hop Card: tap your card or phone at the pad when you get onto the bus or onto the light-rail platform. You do not need to tap when you get off. There are some great perks for doing this:
  • if you ride twice in a day, you have an all-day pass (this used to drive me crazy when I wasn’t sure how many rides I’d take in a day)
  • if you spend $100 in a calendar month, you have a monthly pass
  • you can register your card in case you lose it
  • you can set your card to autoload so you always have a fare
There is a non-Hop card option for your phone as well. For this, you need to activate your fare before getting onto the bus or the train. Show the activated fare to the bus driver when you get onto the bus. For MAX, you only need to show your fare when requested by a fare inspector.
The lightrail system (MAX) first started to be built out in the 1980s, and none of the stations have turnstiles for fares. This means that we’re on the honor system to pay for our rides. Please pay for your ride! There’s all sorts of great Trimet and mass transit history info on in the Trimet history section of their website.
Trimet has all sorts of things that make me happy, but recently I’ve been appreciating the music lyrics on the front of the buses on the bike racks — keep an eye out!