Having grown up in Seattle years ago and been in Portland many times (years ago), your title sucked me in. Enjoyed your commentary, even though sad. I know people who have moved away from Portland due to what you describe. Haven’t yet looked it up but suspect a shrinking population and tax base.
I remember visiting Portland nearly two decades ago. That was the whitest downtown I have ever seen!
Makes me think Diversity IS something of a strength. Us southern whites who have grown up with a large black population are considerably saner than those who have grown up in whitopias.
Always interesting to see what east coasters think of our cities. Portland's weird, the city is in its own little grey zone between a first-rate city and a second-rate one. Definitely one of the most advanced cases of urban rot out here. San Francisco is going the same way now, which is all the more tragic since SF was always so much more than the others (yes, I am biased). Los Angeles wants to, but LA is a creature unto itself and can never truly die. San Diego, at least, is fine
Yep. You pretty much summed it up. It wasn't like this, even 10 years ago. Oregon was nice, more the thing you expected than the thing you found. Bend in particular wasn't like that. It was a dusty mid-size town on the wrong side of the mountains of no particular note. Then Portland got TDS, but hard, and a lot of the yuppies fled there and "improved" it.
Has a few nice breweries, or did; the attached restaurant at Worthy is a can't-miss, along with McMenamins there. Or I should say, was; not sure about it now. Haven't been back in a long time, since I made an obligatory pilgrimage to The Last Blockbuster with a friend when the one in Australia shut down and gave it its title.
Incidentally I always thought the inventory system was DOS based; is it really Unix? Once a long time ago I worked part-time at one. It's hilarious that they never changed it, even when they rolled out their Netflix competitor.
We went on family holiday to Oregon last year and found it incredible, despite our trepidation and a fellow passenger wondering why we were going there. But we found there were far too many sights for a single trip and wish we could go back. Highlights included the Columbia Gorge, Wings and Waves Waterpark, the Enchanted Forest, Cannon Beach, the Catholic shrine on a cliff side… we were also lucky enough to have a clear day on the way to Seattle and took a side trip to Mount St Helens that our little ones still talk about.
We stayed in the western suburbs which seemed very well policed, prosperous and verdant. My wife wondered why we weren’t living there, but I reminded her that everywhere is better in the summer. We never felt tempted to go downtown- I saw some YouTube videos and it seemed very second rate.
It didn’t have that wildness of British Columbia, but made up for it with variety. We also noted that the cars were very beaten up and old, for some reason. And the food was mediocre. BC had wonderful fruits, vegetables and seafood, but we didn’t find anything particularly fresh or local in Oregon in our everyday travels.
We did spend a day in downtown Seattle and found it depressing and bedraggled, while supremely expensive. Washington has the same rundown feeling as Canada these days. And Seattle airport was a disaster. We arrived three hours in advance, barely made our plane and our bags showed up a couple days late.
Having grown up in Seattle years ago and been in Portland many times (years ago), your title sucked me in. Enjoyed your commentary, even though sad. I know people who have moved away from Portland due to what you describe. Haven’t yet looked it up but suspect a shrinking population and tax base.
In glad you liked it. You are probably right about where it's going.
I remember visiting Portland nearly two decades ago. That was the whitest downtown I have ever seen!
Makes me think Diversity IS something of a strength. Us southern whites who have grown up with a large black population are considerably saner than those who have grown up in whitopias.
Art.
Always interesting to see what east coasters think of our cities. Portland's weird, the city is in its own little grey zone between a first-rate city and a second-rate one. Definitely one of the most advanced cases of urban rot out here. San Francisco is going the same way now, which is all the more tragic since SF was always so much more than the others (yes, I am biased). Los Angeles wants to, but LA is a creature unto itself and can never truly die. San Diego, at least, is fine
Things weren't this bad ten years ago.
Yep. You pretty much summed it up. It wasn't like this, even 10 years ago. Oregon was nice, more the thing you expected than the thing you found. Bend in particular wasn't like that. It was a dusty mid-size town on the wrong side of the mountains of no particular note. Then Portland got TDS, but hard, and a lot of the yuppies fled there and "improved" it.
Has a few nice breweries, or did; the attached restaurant at Worthy is a can't-miss, along with McMenamins there. Or I should say, was; not sure about it now. Haven't been back in a long time, since I made an obligatory pilgrimage to The Last Blockbuster with a friend when the one in Australia shut down and gave it its title.
Incidentally I always thought the inventory system was DOS based; is it really Unix? Once a long time ago I worked part-time at one. It's hilarious that they never changed it, even when they rolled out their Netflix competitor.
A sad state on American cities, but well written.
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed
Bleak but entertaining.
We went on family holiday to Oregon last year and found it incredible, despite our trepidation and a fellow passenger wondering why we were going there. But we found there were far too many sights for a single trip and wish we could go back. Highlights included the Columbia Gorge, Wings and Waves Waterpark, the Enchanted Forest, Cannon Beach, the Catholic shrine on a cliff side… we were also lucky enough to have a clear day on the way to Seattle and took a side trip to Mount St Helens that our little ones still talk about.
We stayed in the western suburbs which seemed very well policed, prosperous and verdant. My wife wondered why we weren’t living there, but I reminded her that everywhere is better in the summer. We never felt tempted to go downtown- I saw some YouTube videos and it seemed very second rate.
It didn’t have that wildness of British Columbia, but made up for it with variety. We also noted that the cars were very beaten up and old, for some reason. And the food was mediocre. BC had wonderful fruits, vegetables and seafood, but we didn’t find anything particularly fresh or local in Oregon in our everyday travels.
We did spend a day in downtown Seattle and found it depressing and bedraggled, while supremely expensive. Washington has the same rundown feeling as Canada these days. And Seattle airport was a disaster. We arrived three hours in advance, barely made our plane and our bags showed up a couple days late.
This was funny.
What a wonderful read, thank you!