I'm writing this post from a coffee shop in downtown Portland so I thought I would talk a little bit about spending time in Portland and getting off-campus. I'm a tour guide, and one of the questions that I get a lot is how much time students spend off-campus, especially since first-years aren't allowed to have cars on campus. In my experience, the city is pretty accessible even without a car, and I love taking advantage of the city.
How to get off campus
The Pioneer Express is usually how people get off campus into downtown. It's a shuttle run by the school that takes you to the nearest grocery store, Fred Myers (Freddie's), and into downtown near the Portland State campus. It usually takes about 15 minutes to get downtown which is perfect to listen to a podcast or at least part of one. A lot of people take the Pio and then walk or uber/lyft, or catch the TriMet to get to other destinations in Poland. Speaking of the TriMet, that's portland public transit system and you can access it from downtown or by getting the public bus that stops at LC. If you want to get somewhere in a different direction than the Pio most people either rent a ZipCar for a few hours or take a lyft or an uber. Lyft and uber are nice if you're going somewhere with a group of friends because once you split the cost it usually winds up being only a few bucks per person.
What Portland is usually like
Even though it's a big city downtown usually isn't too crowded or crazy. There are lots of restaurants and food trucks in the area near the pio stop which is nice. There are some houseless people in downtown but no matter what downtown usually feels pretty safe. Sometimes it feels very much like an episode of Portlandia when you see people walking around in flannels with brightly colored hair drinking local coffee. I remember once seeing a group of drag queens walking past a "keep portland weird" mural while I was standing on the street between food trucks and voodoo doughnuts and I doesn't think there will ever be a more portland moment. You'll always run into something entertaining and quintecentally portland in the city.
Popular stuff to do in the city
A lot of students like to go into the city to get food from restaurants or food trucks. On the weekends there's a farmers market that takes place right at PSU where the pio stop is which is really convenient and that's a fun thing to go to. There's also the larger Portland Saturday market (happens Saturday and Sunday) and that's a fun event that a lot of people like to go to. Thrift shopping is also pretty popular, there's a really nice buffalo exchange in downtown and lots of other second-hand stores that usually have good finds. Going to Powell's bookstore is also pretty popular, especially for first-years. There's a lot to explore there besides just books, and a lot of students have posters from Powells ro decorate their dorms. Concerts are also pretty popular and sometimes you can get student discounts at different venues.
Coming back to campus
I'm really happy to go to school in Portland and to have access to the city, but no matter how much I enjoy being in the city it always feels really nice to come back to campus. I really like that Lewis & Clark is its own isolated campus, I remember visiting other schools that were more mixed in with other city buildings and it was hard to tell where all the college was and where the community was. I really appreciate every time I go home to my dorm and the campus feels like a safe and contained little community of its own. I think there's something about the campus that makes it feel like I'm going home to the whole campus and not just my dorm room.
If you have any questions about student life at LC, please email me at quentingaul@lclark.edu