'Portlandia' Comes to the Beltway with Epic Bike Move
With its egghead wonks and buttoned-down lobbyists, Washington, D.C. has practically nothing in common with the retro-cool youth retirement community known as Portland, Oregon: Until now.
.With its egghead wonks and buttoned-down lobbyists, Washington, D.C. has practically nothing in common with the retro-cool youth retirement community known as Portland, Oregon: Until now. Last weekend, D.C. suburban couple Anthony and Jess Reiss went where no Washingtonian has likely gone before: The painstakingly slow but environmentally-friendly bike move. Mike Rosenwald reveals this watershed moment in The Washington Post's Maryland suburbs blog:
At first, the idea of moving via bikes was a joke. That’s because moving their residence on bikes presented challenges, the most notable being that they would be moving their residence on bikes.
But the joke turned into an idea, and the idea turned into a plan. Bicyclists from the community offered to help. A church group offered to help. A bike messenger from the District offered to help — a big coup because he had a trailer that could haul 300 pounds.
Ok, so it's not exactly the same kind of bike move—which is apparently a real-life thing in Portland—spoofed in season 2 of IFC's Portlandia. Instead of involving just a few bike rickshaws and taking days on end, the Reisses had the help of 25 people. (It must be nice to have friends.) "It took two hours," Anthony said. "I thought it would take two days."
Regardless, the whole ordeal has the District cowering at what's next for the nation's capital: The mainstreaming of tattooed young professionals? We shutter to think.
You can watch the entire intentionally-cumbersome move below: