Portland Co-op Loop

Portland is a town rich with cooperative businesses. During our stay in Portland, we took a day to tour a loop to visit all the co-ops we could pack into one day.

The loop started in Multnomah Village and proceeded over the beautiful Terwilliger Blvd ride into downtown Portland, passing by the statue Portlandia and many downtown Portland attractions. Next we traveled to the northwest part of the city to get an early lunch at Food Front Co-op.

We crossed the Willamette river at the Broadway Bridge to visit the eastern neighborhoods. We rode north to Alberta Co-op to grab some blueberries and granola, before heading roundabout way up Mt Tabor for some views of the city.

From Mt Tabor, we headed west toward the Buckman neighborhood. We stopped into the Citybikes worker co-op to restock on new high-quality tires and tubes.

Finally, we stopped into People’s Food Co-op, an amazing store where we grabbed a bottle of local cooperatively produced wine before heading back to our Warmshower’s host in Multnomah Village.

Along the route, we also passed two other worker co-ops that were unfortunately closed during our ride. Common Ground Wellness Co-op, a cooperatively run spa that would surely have been wonderful after our last three weeks of touring. And Mirisata, a Sri Lankan restaurant and worker co-op that we wished we’d have had the chance to eat at, but which is only open a few days per week at the moment. Cetainly these will be two locations we look forward to visiting in the future.