Public Transit Tour: Portland, Oregon
Public Transit Tour
Portland, Oregon
May 11, 2008 – May 18, 2008
“By Rail, By Bus, By Flip-Flop!”
Read the Overview of the tour below, or read the blog posts Supernormal Tyler wrote about his recent tour via the links below:
In honor of Mother Earth, on May 11th, 2008 (Mother’s Day) Supernormal Records sent Supernormal Tyler out on the road. Tyler will toured the Northwest and focusing on the city of Portland, Oregon. This was a dual-purpose tour:
- To promote Supernormal Records and Tyler Christensen’s music
- To highlight the ease and accessibility of Portland Oregon’s Tri-Met Public transit system and encourage the use of public transit in cities around the world.
Supernormalrecords.com visitors are treated to a show unlike any other. Videos and blogs documenting the day-to-day hour-by-hour progress and process of pulling a tour like this off.
Tyler did not rent a car, did not have a driver, and got around town and to and from gigs via the extensive and efficient Tri-Met Public Transit System in beautiful Portland, Oregon (scroll down for more details).
Supernormal Tyler stayed at the famed Portland Hawthorne Hostel in the Hawthorne district of Portland, Oregon (see below for details).
“This tour will be an exercise in sustainable living,” says Tyler. “I don’t own a car in my hometown and I try to keep my carbon footprint tiny so that I may help others make up for their obese carbon feetsprints.” he laughs. “Portland is going to be a blast because everyone I talk to raves about the Tri-Met, and where I come from (Scottsdale, Arizona) it’s all unreliable buses and footwork. It’ll be nice to feel the smooth pull of an electric street car again. I can’t wait to begin.”
Shows and Shooting Schedule
- May 11th – White Eagle Saloon – Songwriters Night
- May 12th – [TBD]
- May 13th – [TBD]
- May 14th –
- May 15th –
- May 16th – Public Transit Tour: Supernormal Tyler LIVE at Eugenio’s 3584 SE Hawthorne
- Portland Oregon 97202 (MAP IT) Showtime: 8:30 PM – 11:00 PM
- May 17th – Supernormal Tyler LIVE at the Matchbox Lounge 32nd AVE and Division
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- Portland, Oregon 97202 (MAP IT) Showtime: 10:00PM-11:15PM
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May 18th – The White Eagle Saloon – Songwriters Night
Overview
The Hostel
“Portland’s famed Hawthorne Hostel”
Located in one of Portland’s most popular destinations; the Hawthorne District. The hostel is bohemian, & enviro-conscious. Hawthorne Blvd is known for it’s quaint eateries, coffeehouses, pubs, unique shops, and the famous Bagdad Brew Pub & Theatre. We have chosen this location for our accomodations due to what they call their “Green Commitment”
Hawthorne Hostel’s Green Commitment
- The staff and board members of the hostel are committed to use environmentally kind practices whenever available and cost-acceptable.
- We have an eco-roof, made possible with a grant from the City of Portland to showcase sustainable development practices.
- Over 80% of the office, cleaning and disposable supplies come from ‘green companies’ such as Seventh Generation and Bio-kleen.
- We participate in the electric companies’ ‘green electricity program’, so that 100% of our power comes from renewable sources such as wind and geothermal.
- We are a designated ‘Sustainable Living Center’, per the HI-USA program.
- We use a non-motorized lawnmower called a ‘reel mower’. Did you know that a gas lawn mower uses puts out as much emissions as an average car?
The Transit System:
“The Tri-met Rail yard in Portland, Oregon”
In 1872, twenty-one years after the city of Portland was founded, citizens and leaders began the work that would build the city’s public transit system. Today it is known as the Tri-Met. Combining people-movers such as: Buses, light-rail, commuter-rail, a street car, and a (OHSU funded) one of a kind Aerial Tram citizens and visitors to Portland, Oregon have a myriad of options to arrive on-time and in-style.
The Portland Aerial Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon carrying commuters between the city’s South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is the second commuter aerial tramway in the United States (after New York City’s Roosevelt Island Tramway).[3] The tram travels a horizontal distance of 3,300 feet (5/8 mi, 1 km) and a vertical distance of 500 feet (150 m) in a ride that lasts three minutes. (quoted from wikipedia.org)
“The Portland, Oregon Aerial Tram”
Travelers and commuters can arrive at the Portland International Airport and be transported to the city center in a matter of minutes. During the duration of a visitors stay, little else is needed to see the entire city, and get this: In a large area called ‘Fareless Square” all travel is free. Yes, meaning no money.
Fareless Square
FarelessSquare includes most of downtown Portland (within the boundaries of the Willamette River, NW Irving Street, and the I-405 freeway), as well as MAX stations from the Rose Quarter to Lloyd Center and bus stops along NE Multnomah to 13th Avenue.
When boarding a bus, MAX or streetcar in Fareless Square, just take a seat and enjoy the ride. Fare is not required unless you are traveling outside of the Square.
Fearless Fares
If you are travelling outside the designated Fareless Square, the fares are fearless. Affordable and easily attainable tickets can be purchased on board the bus, at ticket vending machines located in MAX stations, neighborhood ticket outlets (Fred Meyer, Safeway and Albertsons stores), the TriMetTicket Office at Pioneer Courthouse Square in person, or send your digital self in to the TriMet Store online and score some tickets.
The Purpose
“I want to show my listeners how I live,” Tyler says. “Since I started writing songs I have been pushing myself to write honest lyrics and stay true to my core beliefs. I learned early on from Ani DiFranco that if ‘you don’t live what you sing about your mirror is going to find it’ and I think that is a pretty good rule. I sing what I live, and this trip is to be a peek into how I travel, how I live, and how I hope that we all can live the values that I sing about in my latest song, ‘One World’.”
The song Tyler mentioned, “One World” is posted in Demo Form on Tyler’s Myspace page at www.myspace.com/supernormal.
