It’s almost common sense that using a cellphone while driving results in accidents. Any time you take your eyes off the road while driving a car, you’re putting yourself at risk. Before 2007, talking on a cellphone was tricky enough, but after Apple released the first iPhone that fateful July followed up quickly by Google’s Android platform, people are now writing emails, updating their Facebook status and even watching YouTube movies while tooling down the road at highway speeds.

When Oregon passed a law banning cellphone use in early 2010, it only made sense. Now, more than a year later – why isn’t it working? The answer’s easier than you might think – the law’s not working because it’s not being enforced. In 2010, Portland police issued just 372 tickets and 295 warnings.

Mayor Sam Adams is going to make a change to that. Thanks to a minor alteration in the law in the legislature, the Mayor’s declaring open season on motorists using their cellphones.

Why has the ban done nothing to reduce cellphone use up until this point? The lower the likelihood of getting a ticket for violating a particular law, the more likely people are to violate the law if it’s convenient. If you’re a pedestrian and no cars are coming, would you cross a crosswalk against a “don’t walk” signal? If you do, you’re violating the law. Since it’s almost never enforced, you can see people break this law all the time in Portland.

The same applies to bicyclists who run stop signs when there are no cars around. It sucks to lose all the momentum when there aren’t any other cars, so why stop – especially if almost no one gets a ticket for this behavior?

How about a driver turning against a red arrow if there’s no oncoming traffic? Performing a rolling stop at an empty intersection? Tinting your car’s windows darker than the state’s legal limit? Riding a non-street-legal motorcycle or ATV on public roads?

There are so many laws, it’s hard to keep track of them. If they’re not enforced, they aren’t even laws – they’re simply suggestions or ideas (and, sometimes, incredibly poor ideas).

Do we think the cellphone ban is a good idea? Absolutely. The distraction provided by modern cellphones is astounding, especially since many of them don’t have real keyboards so using them without looking at them is almost impossible.

However, we have to ask the legislature this: before you make another idea into a law, can you set aside the funds for enforcement, too? The Oregon people don’t need another good idea from our representatives; we can come up with those ourselves.

This year, the news is a little more encouraging from The Oregonian: “Statewide, Oregon State Police issued 1,012 citations and 2,515 warnings last year. So far this year, troopers have written 613 tickets and given 1,065 warnings, twice the pace of the same period in 2010.”

Are there other laws that are just good ideas to you? Leave ‘em in the comments.

Source: Do you talk on your cellphone without a hands-free device? Portland police will be watching

Kenny and Zuke's Pastrami, up-close and personal

Portland and Seattle are both becoming renowned the world over for their diversity in food. Whether it’s Seattle’s eclectic chefs or Portland’s homegrown bacon and eggs, both cities have a lot to offer. So, in Sunset Magazine’s recent comparo – who wins?

After duking it out in a variety of categories including: crowd control, new ideas and booze & caffeine, Portland loses out to Seattle – by a pint (PDX scored 52 with SEA bringing 54). The culprits, according to Sunset are our lack of diversity (guilty – there are several ethnic restaurant types sorely lacking in P-town; we’d kill for more Indian and quality Chinese restaurants) and a little too much snobbery (can you say hipster madness, anyone?).

The entire slideshow/article is a really good read, and, we’ve got to say – when you’re looking for somewhere to eat at either Portland or Seattle, everyone’s a winner-winner-chicken-dinner.

Source: Portland vs. Seattle food fight

Click-Z, an online marketing website, interviewed Powell’s Books to find out that they are planning to try Google Offers later in June. If a company as popular as Powell’s Books is talking about trying out Google Offers, we started wondering – what’s the deal with these sites?

If you have no idea what we’re talking about, the coupon-a-day business model is quite straightforward. A company agrees to have an amazing deal listed on a deal-a-day coupon site (such as $9 of coffee & food for $3). The coupon site then emails its members to let them know about the deal. The members buy the coupon. The company gets a lot more people walking through the door, and the coupon site keeps a portion (as much as 50%) of the proceeds.

Where’s all the controversy coming from?

The Company’s Side

Companies who feel burned from using coupon-a-day sites tell quite the horror story. When talking about businesses with products , each coupon sold results in a loss. How? The company can receive as little half of the value of the coupon which is already a huge discount from the actual cost of the goods. In other words, a coupon for $3 for $9 of goods results in $1.50 (half of the $3) for the merchant. $1.50 will likely not cover the costs that go into $9 worth of goods.

In addition, many regulars will buy the coupon. Since those regulars would have come anyway, that results in lost profit to the store. To make matters worse, a large number of the new customers won’t come back – meaning that they’ll take advantage of the great coupon price, but then never return for the store to have a chance to recoup its loss.

The Coupon-A-Day Site’s Side

Coupon sites aren’t built for the companies they work with to make a profit. The sites are built for the company to get attention. The sites will drive thousands of customers into a business. The business needs to ensure that they’re tracking these customers by getting email addresses and following up with them to see how their experience was. Companies should view the coupon sites as a marketing expense, not as a way to make money.

What should I do if I’m a company thinking about trying one of these sites?

If you run a company and are thinking of using a coupon-a-day site, you need to make sure you’re cut out for them. If you’re goods-based, do you have a sizable marketing budget to give away your product(s) almost for free? If you’re a service-based company, make sure that you give a long enough expiration date on the deal that you can accept the new business without turning away your existing customers. As with every business decision, carefully review the option to make sure it’s right for you before jumping in.

I’m an intrigued consumer – where can I find these sites?

They’re popping up all the time, but if you’re curious to check a few of the really popular ones out for yourself, here are some links:

Groupon

Living Social

Google Offers

Do you have a story about your experience (good or bad) with a coupon-a-day site from either the company or customer perspective? Leave it in the comments!

Source: Google Offers, Day 1: Portland Coffee Shop Calls It ‘Jaw-dropping’

Stumptown Coffee developed a reputation for seriously good beans over the last decade, and Portlanders reveled in its anti-establishment approach to… erm… growing coffee beans.

Now, the news just broke that Stumptown Coffee Roasters has been sold to a private firm.

Duane Sorenson founded Stumptown Coffee Roasters and has lovingly grown the business to its international appeal. A blog on Esquire magazine’s website broke the news that Sorenson sold the company to the highest bidder. Was this the result of an overindulgent caffeine high? Will Stumptown become another Starbucks flavor? Has McDonald’s decided to spruce up its McCafe with McStumped?!

Only time will tell, but this much is certain – Stumptown Coffee Roasters will never be the same.

{melodramatic chords here}

Update as of June 1, 2011: The Oregonian reports that Stumptown Coffee Roasters wasn’t sold, they took on investors. According to The Oregonian’s article, there are no plans to change management, and the new funds will help Stumptown expand and introduce iced beverages as well.

Update as of June 2, 2011: The New York Times brings even more details to the story with an interview with Duane Sorenson himself. According to the NY Times’ blog post, Sorenson’s investor is a “buddy of his.” Sorenson had no intention of relinquishing control to an outsider investor, he simply wants to open up the possibilities including additional stores throughout the country. That being said, anytime outside investors are brought into a company, some creative control is lost. Hopefully, Sorenson will be able to maintain his leadership as he guides Stumptown into this new era.

Update as of June 6, 2011 Willamette Week breaks the news that a 90% controlling interest in Stumptown Coffee Roasters has, indeed, been sold to TSG Consumer Partners, “an investment firm famous for buying small companies and then flipping them for a huge markup.” Check out Willamette Week’s in-depth Stumptown story for even more details about how the whole deal came together.

Have a story of love you’d like to share of Stumptown Coffee Roasters? Leave it in the comments.

Source: The End of Stumptown, America’s Hippest Coffee Brand

There are said to be a few different sources for the name. In 1888, the Episcopal Church held a convention where attendees referred to Portland as “the City of Roses.” This caught on when, in 1905, the mayor (Harry Lane) came up with the idea of an ongoing festival dedicated to roses while attending the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. Two years later, in 1907, Portland held its first Portland Rose Festival.

Another possible source for the nickname is Leo Samuel. He founded the Oregon Life Insurance Company in 1906 (now Standard Insurance), and enjoyed growing roses outside his home. He even placed a pair of cutting shears so people could take a rose with them. This inspired other individuals and businesses to grow roses, too.

Thanks, Wikipedia!

This brings up the third source – roses grow like crazy in Portland. They grow so well here that Portland has an International Rose Test Garden which is free to visitors. The garden does exactly what its name implies: they experiment and grow different varieties of roses every year.

If you’re looking for something to do that it’s authentically Portland, definitely check out the Rose Test Garden and the Portland Rose Festival. You can’t go wrong.

Source: Portland Rose Festival

Each year, the U.S. Postal Service releases a list of cities where dog attacks are the most prominent. This year, Portland tied with Minneapolis for 7th. Now, it’s obvious why dogs would bite people in Minneapolis – the accents are just so annoying (kidding! We love you, Minneapolis!).

In Portland, we have to wonder if the dogs aren’t a little nippy since the postal workers are marking the dogs’ territory. Got a different idea why the dogs are gnawing on postal carrier prime rib? Leave it in the comments.

Source: Portland ranks tied for 7th in dog bites on mail carriers

We know what your first thought: “Dude, where’s White Castle?” (sadly, the nearest one is in Minnesota) which might be followed up with “Wait. Portland’s only #3?” A legitimate thought, too, considering you can simply follow your nose to find the heart of hippy-land in SE. Plus, Portland’s home to the U.S.’s first Cannabis Cafe where medically-licensed smokers can enjoy the green gooodness in the company of others.

Despite the lackadaisical approaches its subject-matter might imply, the Daily Beast’s survey is actually quite scientific. They use a variety of sources and methods to compile their data. So, if Portland wants to become #1, it’s going to have to give it the good ol’ college try… or not, y’know…

For more details on the survey as well as to see the other cities, check out the survey in the Source. If you have your own Portland pot-loving (or hating) stories to share, leave ‘em in the comments.

Source: America’s Pot-Smoking Capitals

Dillon Mahmoudi and Eric Crum dreamed up the concept of the Badass Map after seeing the 20-Minute Neighborhood Map which shows how many commercial services are within a 20-minute walk of any neighborhood.

Mahmoudi and Crum used a wide number of variables including number of bars, strip clubs, coffee shops (and a whole lot more) to create a badass index of each neighborhood, and then built it into a map:

Portland Badass-ness Map from Dillon Mahmoudi on Vimeo.

Source: How ‘badass’ is your neighborhood?

Considering how the majority of goods are still transported by trucks, you might think that any bridge that’s a part of this interstate would be extremely high-tech, and that the replacement of said bridge would be expedited quickly and efficiently.

Welcome to Portland, where what’s quite possibly one of the most important commercial bridges in the world crosses the waterborne border of two states: Oregon and Washington. Let the problems begin!

Despite I-5 being an interstate (usually at least partially covered by the Federal system), a lot of the expense behind the upkeep and maintenance of our interstate freeway system falls on the states. Usually, this isn’t a problem where the state in which the maintenance happens to reside simply foots the bill.

Ah, you might ask, what happens when the part of the freeway is a bridge? A complex bridge that, in addition to being multiple lanes is also a drawbridge? And it’s located between two states? And those two states are in huge tax problems because one doesn’t have a sales tax and the other doesn’t have an income tax?

Answer: unbelievable bickering, whining and peeing contests of epic proportions unseen anywhere except on televised wrestling.

So, we started wondering: how about we just tear down the I-5 bridge, set up a few catapults in its place, and then launch the governors, the city councils and anyone else involved deep into the heart of the Columbia to resolve their differences?

Got a better idea? Leave it in the comments.

Source: Governors: Build a truss bridge to replace I-5 span

Cooking Light magazine ranked Portland a top food city due to residents being able to keep animals at home, the wide variety of cooking classes and the carts. At the same time, but in a totally different place, Adam from Man v. Food recently raved about Portland In a recent video blog post. Truly, what’s not to love?

Check out our reviews of some of our favorite restaurants below. Plus, if you have a great restaurant or other Portland activity that you’d like to recommend, leave it in the comments!

- Casa Naranja

- Gravy

- Hilt Bar

- Kenny and Zuke’s Deli

- Mississippi Pizza

- Rock Bottom Brewery

- Rogue Distillery and Public House

- Serratto

Source: Portland’s Food Rules

Source: Adam raves about his travels in Portland