They Call It Portlandia
Comparisons to other, bigger cities, abound.
Recently, the New York Times labeled Brooklyn the “Portland of the 5 Boroughs” (Think Food.) (And, that is blatant plagiarism because I’ve been calling Portland the Mini Me of New York City for at least a decade.) I’ve also heard fond comparisons to Paris (the one in France). “Paris of the West”, and that reference is also about the food-centric population and the fact that the city lies along a flowing river. (“The Willamette, damn it!”)
Portland also reminds me of Paris because it is cleaved neatly into four very distinct quadrants and the layout of the place makes complete sense. You can master the geography of the metropolitan and surrounding areas in one weekend. The northwest, (NW), the southwest (SW), the northeast (NE) and the southeast, (SE). Just master that much and you are already ¾ of the way to your desto, whatever that desto might be. Then there’s the awesome public transportation system and the bike friendly culture in the city center. And, (much like Paris), each neighborhood has its own very distinctive personality.
Weather-wise, the die-hard, “Keep Portland Weird” citizens tell you not to let on that the rumors of incessant rain are grossly exaggerated. They would like to discourage new transplants and keep this little gem of a city all to themselves. And, who can blame them? The place is now already filthy with Californians and everybody knows, with THEM you also get motor driven four wheeled vehicles, several for each family member. The vehicular traffic has been gradually increasing every year and it is now nearly constant into the city from the suburbs. It goes from bad to worse to god-awful at the rush hours.
If I lived there I would ditch my car and take mass transit everywhere. I adore walking out of the airport fifty yards away from baggage claim and jumping on the clean and modern light rail. Lickety split I am in the City Center where I can hop off and grab the street car that runs reliably just like clockwork to my local in-town desto, whatever it happens to be. From downtown or even from the remote Southwest District I have taken the trolley to transfer to the Red Line all the way out to the extreme Northwest ‘burbs to nearly the end of the line. A few times I have done so with my bike whereupon I mount my trusty steed and pedal the remaining ten miles or so to where I want to be. If you have a bike and you aren’t afraid to ride it, you can survive in Portland NICELY without a car. And that is why Portland routinely gets on the list of “Best Bike Friendly Cities in America”. You do need to be prepared for rain. A rear fender is a must, and a good bright yellow rain slicker and flashing red lights will increase your chances of survival.
The annual “Bridges Bike Ride” is a “must do”. A sea of bikes crosses the river in ten places. The ride is closed to automobiles for many hours on a Sunday morning. It is beautiful thing to behold. Understandably, Portlanders are VERY proud of their “Green-ness” in more ways than just the bountiful foliage that they are famous for.
Alright, yeah, weather is an issue up in the Northwest. It is. But, this is one benefit of having a slate-gray sky for 9/10th of the year: When the sun finally does shine in Portland, every street is a carnival. Every café and restaurant suddenly has sidewalk tables and PEOPLE are EVERYWHERE. Mt. Hood’s visibility is like the Bat signal. Party time! On a few lucky days, you can see Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens up in Washington state and a few lesser mountains to boot. Visibility of all these snow capped peaks is like a gaseous cloud of some feel good drug has been dispersed into the atmosphere. Likewise when the odd snow storm hits the city. But, in reverse. EVERYBODY disappears. Portlanders are good with a constant drab, gray forecast. Extremes – either extremely good, or extremely bad weather – has an effect on the populace and their behavior like no other place I’ve ever been. There’s something really unique about Portland and it starts there with their response to the environment. I wasn’t kidding. The town motto really is “Keep Portland Weird”. They just seem to have a knack for elevating ordinary life to a celebratory level.
Just one more critical reason to fall in love with Portland is the proximity it has to both the coast (2 hours to Cannon Beach) and the mountains, (about the same to Sisters and beyond to Bend), each area lovely and desirable for obviously different attractions. In addition to those spectacular opportunities for “getting out of town” the Columbia River gorge area is right across the state line, (less than an hour’s car ride, but many Portlanders bike over there for recreation).
If you like cities, or even if you don’t, I recommend this one. Put it on your Desto3 list.
