dijos

Thanks, That's seriously a great write-up.
This could be the beginning of a great series.

delicious

Without getting too long winded it sounds like (and you basically state this yourself) it's just not for you. I think it's ****ing awesome here - it's the most vibrant and beautiful city I've ever been too. And I'm not very weird at all.

Mtbnomore

Yeah, Sacramento DOES suck.

doofo

try longer than 4 days and then i might consider believing what you have to say

Bicycle Repairm

I was just up there last wknd, and basically agree with the writeup.
The lack of decent paying jobs would keep me from moving, since I DO like to eat/drink good coffee/have a roof over my head.
I was rather surprised by the poor turnout for the Bicycle Film Festival, especially in the "bike friendly" town of Portland.
I'd traveled all the way from Fort Worth, TX to goto that event, and the local turnout was disappointing, not just to myself, but to the organizer of the event.
Here in Ft. Worth, we had to fight for nearly 8 YEARS to get 60 miles of bike lanes put in that the city had gotten funding for in 1999.
Bikes are considered "toys" here, you WILL get harassed/buzzed here, it's just a matter of when.
Overall, I LOVED my visit to Portland, and will be back in Feb, to see if I like the winters.

thatcher

i got super lost in portland. its cool though.

cc700

Ducks are in Eugene which is two hours away.

And Beavers suck.(runs)

Suttree

I was born in Portland--
I just can't take the rain and darkness--so
I'm down here in Cali breathing ****ty Sacramento air
flavored with forest fires.

tkarwin

Nobody ever needs a GAP.

cutality

aside from that, downtown, lloyd center, and nw/23rd certainly seems like more than enough for anyone.

PluperfectArson

I am made fun of for carrying around an umbrella, when Oregonians are suppose to be known for not using them.

Truth is, I just do not like being wet.

andre nickatina

Like has been said, there is a Chinatown (read: Homelesstown), and there's a thriving black community in North Portland who could give a **** less about you enjoying your art/culture on Alberta / Mississippi because it was their street pre-gentrification era (think all black owned businesses, in contrast to how it is now). There's also a lot of Hispanics here but you're not going to see them if you stick in the Alberta/Hawthorne/NW 23rd/Downtown/"culture" areas, you'd have to go to Greshem or 82nd or the not so nice areas of town. And right wing conservatives... yeah, they're out here but Multnomah county as a whole (including Portland) pushes a would-be Red state to being Blue, and pretty vocally so. I strongly disagree about the food, you can find a lot of diverse places downtown if you look (Peruvian, Indian, Greek, Mediterranean, Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Lebanese). Bagels... I don't know, I'm not a bagel guy.

Yeah, I guess I can't comment because you threw like 10 generalizations all into one super-generalizing stereotyped group. Maybe that's just my edgy Portland sarcasm? Actually, I think as a whole this city is too polite whereas you go out to Boston and everyone's a smartass.

Yep, it's a recreational sport though I can't see why that's bad. I like to get in 3 or 4 cups a day downtown on/before/after the job.

There's plenty of jobs on craigslist and most of my friends looking for jobs don't have to go too far. But maybe you mean careers? I don't know. The homeless do permeate the Burnside bridge but also realize there is a strong homeless-advocate scene and there's a number of organizations near there that cater to the homeless, one of which I've volunteered to work at. It's not any worse than other big cities and in my eyes, better. I remember seeing more homeless in SF and Vancouver, BC, and they're going to try to get a lot more out of you than just pocket change.

That's a welcome critique I suppose.

Very much so true but that's part of the personality of the city.

There's Beavers for baseball (and they're champs), the Timbers for soccer (very loyal fanbase), and a velodrome for track racing. But yeah, we're way into the Blazers.

Yeah I don't know. I've had it go both ways.

Sounds like you didn't make it to Lloyd Center, Mall 205, Gateway, or any of the other chain havens that aren't inside all the 'cool' neighborhoods like Alberta and Hawthorne. There's plenty of chains here and you don't need to go to the suburbs to find them.

If St. Helens erupted again all we'd get would be some ash, happened in 1980 and it looked like snow from what I hear. If Mt. Hood erupted that'd be a hell of a lot worse, but hey, we can ski/snowboard there YEAR ROUND. There's only 2 other places in N. America that you can do that. So yes, if you wanted to go up in the middle of July to snowboard, you certainly could (and you'd find people from all skiing states up there with you).

Did you go downtown much? It's so permeated with lunch spots it's hard to decide which one to go to. Food carts everywhere, cheap Mexican food, Thai food, pizza, sushi, sandwiches, soup, everything.

cutality

i was going to start in on a detailed response, but i'd just like to say that i concur with andre.

Shaman

I am in total awe that one can so accurately depict a town in a matter of 4 days.


Btw... The concrete jungle starts to look more common the further out from the core you get.

There is a reason the term "Culture" has such multi-faceted adaptation in meaning

newnoise

I'm moving to Portland in about a week and am really excited. I'm going for school and from what I've seen thus far I'm excited about the whole art/music/bike scene. we'll see my impressions after living there for a bit.

by the way does anybody have a room they want to rent to me?

tkarwin

What school will you be going to?

andre nickatina

An impression on my part: maybe it's just because I live here and so it catches my eye but I swear more people make these types of posts about Portland than any other city in regards to bike scenes, and I've seen opinions all across the board on BF. Is Portland really seen as some bike-mecca to out of towners?

cc700

Portland's blowing up.


It's seen as a lot of things to a lot of people, and ****'s picking up speed. It's going to the be next 'it' place. Maybe the migration will create some jobs for the homeless?

k_hedge

Nice review.
I'm actually moving to Portland next week..and I've never been.
I figure if i don't like it I'll head someplace else..just really need to get out of Southern California!!

newnoise

right now PCC but eventually PNCA, yeah, I'm going to be another annoying art school hipster on a track bike.

Suttree

When you think about how bike-unfriendly many towns are, yes, Portland
is a bike mecca in terms of how it is planned and the culture of the people
there and their general disposition towards bikes. Help keep it that way.

cc700

after spending my summer there... I hear you!

and after spending many summers in OR...
get ready for culture shock.

andre nickatina

The thing is, while there's a lot of bike-advocacy, there's still a lot of motorists that get pissed off at seeing bikers on the road. It's no picture-perfect utopia here, even if we are more bike-friendly than other places, and people need to get that idealistic notion out of their heads.

-=(8)=-

Wow....Its strange how people can have such
different views of the same place. I grew up right
outside of Philly but spent a huge part of my life
in the city. I think its an unliveable dump. It was cool
in the 80's but going into the 90's something changed
and its only gotten worse. The wage tax is ridiculous
to if you try to work there......the filth...mean, mean peeplz...

fixedude

true words! when i was in portland, the relative lack of major chain stores was a big PRO for the city. so was the tugboat brewery and powells!