Click here to view the embedded video.

Photography by Lance Page. Music soundtrack provided by Andrew Parish.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Produced by local film maker Mike Vogel. Music by Trevor Bennett.

While the popular Street of Eames home tour ended its 5-year run last spring, Atomic Ranch fans can still get their fill of California modernist design with the Rummer/Oak Hills House Tour, scheduled for Saturday, May 21 between 10am and 4pm.

Sponsored by the Historic Preservation League of Oregon, the tour features inside peeks at 8 Robert Rummer-designed homes in the 256-acre Oak Hills planned development just north of the Sunset Highway at Cornell Road. In addition, tourgoers get a midcentury modern architecture lecture and a Q&A session with Mr. Rummer himself.

Buy your tickets here.

Hat tip to M Realty’s modern home specialist, Marisa Swenson.

Unfortunately, Fair Housing laws limit our ability to guide or ‘steer’ people into specific neighborhoods based on our opinion of  a neighborhood’s racial complexion, family-friendliness, safety, and other social factors. Often, we just point them to the raw data, where available, and let them come to their own conclusion.

Over the years, sites like PortlandMaps, Walkscore, and others have made this process a lot easier, through geomapping and other visualizations. For example, I love M Realty’s Walkscore heatmap view for searching in highly walkable neighborhoods.

But what if someone wants to know where Portland’s badass neighborhoods are?

I have little to no hipster in me, so I wouldn’t even know where to start. But a couple local dudes apparently do and have created the city’s first bad-assness index.

The factors:

• Public transportation availablity. Good.
• Property values. Yes.
• Bike access. Sure.
• Beer availability. Still with you.
• Coffee locations. Makes sense.
• Food cart proximity. I suppose…
• Pinball availability…um.
• Strip clubs…no comment.

Pull together the data, geocode it, and turn it into a heatmap, and voila — Portland’s badass neighborhoods (PDF).

Areas of town get ratings from from ‘Hella Badass’ to “Flannelville” to ‘Vancouverish’ at the low end (sorry my Clark Country friends). The Boise neighbhorhood gets top prize, followed closely by Goose Hollow and Oldtown/Chinatown. Your mileage may vary, as they say.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shout out to Rick Turoczy at the Silicon Florist for the find. From Dillon Mahmoudi on Vimeo.

This gem, Twice Charmed by Portland Oregon, however, was written by local author Katherine Dunn (Geek Love) for the Smithsonian Magazine. Dunn moved here as a teen and re-emigrated to Portland later in her life.

Yes, it’s a little sentimental, but saccharine-free.

Portland’s population has mush­roomed since I was a kid. The perpetual tug of war between preserving and modernizing saws back and forth. Urban renewal ripped out communities and poured in glass, steel and concrete, but some of the replacements are wonderful. The town is better-humored now, more easygoing. That feel of the old hobnobbing with the new is more amiable. Of course the blood and bones of the place never change—the river, the hills, the trees and the rain.

If you want an assured ticket for Portland’s popular modern home tour (April 17), you might have to pony up early.

The 2010 edition of the Street of Eames will be the last. And tickets will disappear in a matter of minutes.

However, from an announcement this week from the organizers of the Street of Eames home tour:

Tour tickets go on sale Monday, Feb. 22. But, as we did last year, we are selling advance tickets (with a donation) now so you can be sure of getting in.

Effective through Feb. 21, you can purchase tickets at $250 per pair. This includes two $50 tickets and a tax-deductible donation of $150 to the Street of Eames Fund, which supports after-school programs for homeless elementary school students in Portland Public Schools.

We have sold out every tour every year so buy your advance tickets now and make a difference for our city’s neediest children.

The April 17th tour, the fifth and final Street of Eames, will feature eight fabulous houses!

For more information, go to streetofeames.org. And follow us on Twitter @StreetofEames for updates as well as tour-day traffic alerts.

To stay on the cutting edge of Portland’s urban farming scene, you’ll need to trade in your chicken coop for pygmy goats, according to the latest Willamette Week.

Here are 14 people (including one of my current clients, very cool) and trends to follow in 2010.

(Photo courtesy of Monterey Bay Equestrian Center.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Planning an exploratory visit to Portland? Then check out TravelPortland.com for events and things to do, places to see, etc.

Note: I am totally ripping this post off local author, Donald Miller, but his blog put me onto this video.

Portland real estate prices stay level, sales on modest climb for May

RMLS official tabulations for May 2009 will come out next week, but my early review shows that closed sales continue a small month-over-month increase (a seasonal effect), and median and average sale prices were essentially flat from the previous month. Closed sales will show to be up 10% over April, but down by ~30% from one year ago. Both median and average sale prices are around 13% off levels from a year ago. Come back early next week for a full report.

Oregon foreclosures nearly double in a year

A recent tabulation of foreclosure activity in Oregon shows a nearly 90% increase compared to May 2008. One out of every 525 Oregon homes received a foreclosure filing in May–the nation’s 12th highest rate.

Oregon to get a head start on recovery?

Really? Why? From research by Moody’s:

High-tech industry is one element. A slowdown in technology spending in 2008 and 2009 has created a pent-up demand for technology — businesses that know they need to upgrade and are waiting for the ability to spend.

“States that have a high concentration in tech-related industries are well positioned to take advantage of this trend, which is particularly true of Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington and to a lesser extent Texas,” said economist Andrew Gledhill of Moody’s Economy.com.

I certainly hope the prediction is true, but I suspect digging out of a 12% unemployment hole will take longer than expected. (And wasn’t Moody’s one of those rating companies that suggested those mortgage-backed securities were AAA rated?)

Bike community letting it all hang out

Last, but not least, the Portland bike community celebrates it’s version of the World Naked Bike Ride on June 13 with a series of events. If you’re in the vicinity of NE 39th and Glisan around 2PM, you’re bound to get an eyeful during the Sunny Nekkid Ride (fair warning!). The big event is at midnight, and last year, 2,000 riders participated.

Photo by jd.inaz. Used under Creative Commons license.

Portland has attracted college-educated, single people between the ages of 25 and 39 at a higher rate than most other cities in the country. Between 1995 and 2000, the city added 268 people in that demographic group for every 1,000 of the same group living there in 1995, according to the Census Bureau. Only four other metropolitan areas had a higher ratio.

Small problem. No jobs.

Some new arrivals are burning through their savings as they hunt for jobs that no longer exist. Some are returning home. Others are settling for low-paying jobs they are overqualified for.

Full article here.