Think Out Loud

On The Road is Think Out Loud’s radio road trip series: conversations with wanderers, tourists and residents along Oregon’s backroads and highways.Pull up a map of Portland’s urban core, and you’ll see a tidy checkerboard of right-angled roads. The city’s blocks pack together like snugly fit teeth. Its streets run crisp lines — north to south, east to west. The system’s simple, elegant.And then there’s Sandy Boulevard.Sandy cuts a wide, reckless scar through Portland’s otherwise orderly grid. It scoffs at your roundabouts. It laughs at your stop sign.We wanted to get a better feel for this decidedly punk rock boulevard. And so we decided to walk it — all the way from its origin, near the corner of SE 7th and Alder, to The Grotto, out at NE 85th.