The Changing Face of Portland
jeffr...@gmail.com
might like to hear something from someone who is certifiably insane,
yet not a "Living Christ" (although please note that *Christ* is
actually a word for "Christian", not J.C. himself, in some European
languages). Acute observers of the Portland scene and all-state
dynamics may have noticed a shift in people coming to visit and coming
to stay in the Portland metro area. Like previous immigrants and
visitors to the state, these people are better-educated than the
American norm and somewhat well-heeled: however, they do not hail from
the "hip ghettoes" of New York and the Bay Area, or the "Inland
Empire" of the Rocky Mountain states and the Old Northwest, but from
other points within and without the United States.
This dynamic has a multitude of causes, but on any analysis it would
be unwise for those admirous of older Northwestern norms to ignore it.
Portland has always been a big city, and it has an excellent chance to
become a "bigger" one: a recognized international center of economic
and cultural innovation. Part of this means breaking with a local
tradition and accepting the role of "bridge-and-tunnelers", as well as
the rest of the state, as part of Portland's "charm"; part of it means
the aggressive pursuit of possible area advantages on the part of both
public and private institutions. The reputation of an era in state
government as being akin to a "Western Mississippi", paying for much
less than other areas deem necessary in infrastructural upkeep and
exploratory projects, will do no favors to an area influential people
elsewhere are currently very well-disposed towards. If we are to
collectively move forward, these false economies must stop.
Otherwise, Portland will acquire, perhaps re-acquire, most Oregon
residents have never experienced it as having: the status of an "also-
ran", a place that had a chance to show the way for the nation and the
world and didn't make it. Then there will really be "new wine in old
bottles", and Oregonians will collectively be sorry.
jeffr...@gmail.com
> residents have never experienced it as having: the status of an "also-
> ran", a place that had a chance to show the way for the nation and the
> world and didn't make it. Then there will really be "new wine in old
> bottles", and Oregonians will collectively be sorry.
Sorry for the omission: I meant to say "acquire, perhaps re-acquire *a
reputation* most Oregon residents have never experienced it as
having". A somewhat accidentally appropriate error, though, since I
have it on good authority that part of the pleasantness of Portland is
that it is not "about something" in an aggressive and threatening way:
the ideological overhead of other areas is absent. However, perhaps
becoming a truly "big" city involves some such overhead, and in this
"liberal hour" Oregonians have a chance to choose exactly what the
defining characteristics of the city are.
Ted Mittelstaedt
<jeffr...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:f64aba82-bfdf-4e8d...@o4g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
> Sorry to break in here, but I thought the readers of these groups
> might like to hear something from someone who is certifiably insane,
> yet not a "Living Christ" (although please note that *Christ* is
> actually a word for "Christian", not J.C. himself, in some European
> languages). Acute observers of the Portland scene and all-state
> dynamics may have noticed a shift in people coming to visit and coming
> to stay in the Portland metro area. Like previous immigrants and
> visitors to the state, these people are better-educated than the
> American norm and somewhat well-heeled: however, they do not hail from
> the "hip ghettoes" of New York and the Bay Area, or the "Inland
> Empire" of the Rocky Mountain states and the Old Northwest, but from
> other points within and without the United States.
>
> This dynamic has a multitude of causes, but on any analysis it would
> be unwise for those admirous of older Northwestern norms to ignore it.
> Portland has always been a big city,
No way. Portland is NOT a big city nor is the mentality here that of a
big city. It is, rather embarassingly, a provincial attitude, although the
people here like to think that they aren't.
This is why shit like capping I-405 and dynamiting the Marquam bridge
are not immediately laughed at when they have been proposed. It is also
why they spent whole-hog on light rail when what the city really needed
was more busses on more routes, more frequently.
Portlanders like the trappings of a big city but when it comes to brass
tacks, most of the people who live here have a small town mentality.
Truth is that the attitude out in Beaverton is more of a big city attitude.
Truth is that the Washington County and Lake No-Negro (lake oswego)
suburbs have exactly the same feel and attitude as the suburbs that
surround most of the larger cities in the country.
> and it has an excellent chance to
> become a "bigger" one: a recognized international center of economic
> and cultural innovation.
Baloney.
> Part of this means breaking with a local
> tradition and accepting the role of "bridge-and-tunnelers", as well as
> the rest of the state, as part of Portland's "charm"; part of it means
> the aggressive pursuit of possible area advantages on the part of both
> public and private institutions. The reputation of an era in state
> government as being akin to a "Western Mississippi", paying for much
> less than other areas deem necessary in infrastructural upkeep and
> exploratory projects, will do no favors to an area influential people
> elsewhere are currently very well-disposed towards. If we are to
> collectively move forward, these false economies must stop.
>
You don't know what your talking about. You are all over the
map here, one second it's city government, another second it's state
government. Make up your mind.
> Otherwise, Portland will acquire, perhaps re-acquire, most Oregon
> residents have never experienced it as having: the status of an "also-
> ran", a place that had a chance to show the way for the nation and the
> world and didn't make it. Then there will really be "new wine in old
> bottles", and Oregonians will collectively be sorry.
The Oregon residents that live outside of Portland Metro would almost
certainly send up a big cheer if the Hand of God were to sweep down
and wipe the Portland Metro area off the face of the map. They hate
the place. The Metro area votes are constantly stymying what the rest
of the state wants.
If it wasn't for Portland Metro, Oregon would basically be Utah in
it's politics.
Ted
jeffr...@gmail.com
> <jeffrub...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:f64aba82-bfdf-4e8d...@o4g2000pra.googlegroups.com...
>
>
>
> > Sorry to break in here, but I thought the readers of these groups
> > might like to hear something from someone who is certifiably insane,
> > yet not a "Living Christ" (although please note that *Christ* is
> > actually a word for "Christian", not J.C. himself, in some European
> > languages). Acute observers of the Portland scene and all-state
> > dynamics may have noticed a shift in people coming to visit and coming
> > to stay in the Portland metro area. Like previous immigrants and
> > visitors to the state, these people are better-educated than the
> > American norm and somewhat well-heeled: however, they do not hail from
> > the "hip ghettoes" of New York and the Bay Area, or the "Inland
> > Empire" of the Rocky Mountain states and the Old Northwest, but from
> > other points within and without the United States.
>
> > This dynamic has a multitude of causes, but on any analysis it would
> > be unwise for those admirous of older Northwestern norms to ignore it.
> > Portland has always been a big city,
>
> No way. Portland is NOT a big city nor is the mentality here that of a
> big city. It is, rather embarassingly, a provincial attitude, although the
> people here like to think that they aren't.
Demographics are destiny. Portland is the 23rd most populous city in
the
United States, and you know what? It's always been a populous city,
as
looking back in Census records will show you. "Attitude" doesn't
trump
reality, however much civic "minders" might wish it did.
> This is why shit like capping I-405 and dynamiting the Marquam bridge
> are not immediately laughed at when they have been proposed. It is also
> why they spent whole-hog on light rail when what the city really needed
> was more busses on more routes, more frequently.
Everyone wants light rail: Portland was just the first to get it, and
forward-looking moves like that make Portland look good. Really,
what is required is both big spending on "premium" items like light
rail and adequate bus service, *pace* the Cascade Policy Institute
(whose establishment was a dubious service to the area).
> Portlanders like the trappings of a big city but when it comes to brass
> tacks, most of the people who live here have a small town mentality.
> Truth is that the attitude out in Beaverton is more of a big city attitude.
> Truth is that the Washington County and Lake No-Negro (lake oswego)
> suburbs have exactly the same feel and attitude as the suburbs that
> surround most of the larger cities in the country.
If you wanted to get critical, I would say that "Cool Portland" has a
*faux-urban*
mentality: everything is so very very nice, which a big, diverse place
really
can't be all the time. As a Beaverton resident I think you're right to
note how
urbane it is; also, unlike the historical western suburbs, more than a
little bit
"urban". That's because there are real jobs and fair-minded public
services,
which allow people of all backgrounds to interact in a tolerant but
productive
manner.
> > and it has an excellent chance to
> > become a "bigger" one: a recognized international center of economic
> > and cultural innovation.
>
> Baloney.
It isn't one already? You must not get press for Portland bands from
other
places, or be interested in Intel's "Nehalem" architecture for their
new
chips, or see how pleased people from big, sophisticated places are
when
they visit. Portland as a "leading-edge city" already exists in part
and
is an achievable goal in full.
> > Part of this means breaking with a local
> > tradition and accepting the role of "bridge-and-tunnelers", as well as
> > the rest of the state, as part of Portland's "charm"; part of it means
> > the aggressive pursuit of possible area advantages on the part of both
> > public and private institutions. The reputation of an era in state
> > government as being akin to a "Western Mississippi", paying for much
> > less than other areas deem necessary in infrastructural upkeep and
> > exploratory projects, will do no favors to an area influential people
> > elsewhere are currently very well-disposed towards. If we are to
> > collectively move forward, these false economies must stop.
>
> You don't know what your talking about. You are all over the
> map here, one second it's city government, another second it's state
> government. Make up your mind.
Any fool can see that Portland and state government reciprocally
influence each other. Part of the problem with the Portland area
is that it hasn't had a proper research university in the past:
in recent years Portland State has been picking up some of the
slack, but the crippled state funding for education
(disproportionately
geared towards K-12, since the elite can afford to send their kids
elsewhere for college) has retarded its natural growth.
> > Otherwise, Portland will acquire, perhaps re-acquire, most Oregon
> > residents have never experienced it as having: the status of an "also-
> > ran", a place that had a chance to show the way for the nation and the
> > world and didn't make it. Then there will really be "new wine in old
> > bottles", and Oregonians will collectively be sorry.
>
> The Oregon residents that live outside of Portland Metro would almost
> certainly send up a big cheer if the Hand of God were to sweep down
> and wipe the Portland Metro area off the face of the map. They hate
> the place. The Metro area votes are constantly stymying what the rest
> of the state wants.
That's a load of horseshit. Portland has formed an economic unit with
the rest of the state since the days when it was primarily a port
for shipping local agricultural products (those days haven't
completely
passed, either). A pseudo-rural "fortress mentality" among people
who find Portland Librul Hell does no service to their more immediate
environment and cuts them off from treating Portland like what it
should be for them: a "stately pleasure-dome" where they have every
right to walk around like they owned the place.
> If it wasn't for Portland Metro, Oregon would basically be Utah in
> it's politics.
>
That may be overly optimistic: anti-Mormonism is a grand Western
tradition, of course. But it's a situation that will never obtain.
Ted Mittelstaedt
<jeffr...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:d83b35c2-0faa-4923...@g17g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
On Oct 22, 1:22 am, "Ted Mittelstaedt" <t...@toybox.placo.com> wrote:
As a Beaverton resident I think you're right to
note how
urbane it is; also, unlike the historical western suburbs, more than a
little bit
"urban". That's because there are real jobs and fair-minded public
services,
which allow people of all backgrounds to interact in a tolerant but
productive
manner.
> > and it has an excellent chance to
> > become a "bigger" one: a recognized international center of economic
> > and cultural innovation.
>
> Baloney.
It isn't one already? You must not get press for Portland bands from
other
places, or be interested in Intel's "Nehalem" architecture for their
new
chips, or see how pleased people from big, sophisticated places are
when
they visit.
Intel is a Washington County/Beaverton thing, it is NOT a City of Portland
thing. You don't see Beaverton and Hillsburrito doing the stupid idiotic
things that the Portland City Council does.
Portland as a "leading-edge city" already exists in part
and
is an achievable goal in full.
> > Part of this means breaking with a local
> > tradition and accepting the role of "bridge-and-tunnelers", as well as
> > the rest of the state, as part of Portland's "charm"; part of it means
> > the aggressive pursuit of possible area advantages on the part of both
> > public and private institutions. The reputation of an era in state
> > government as being akin to a "Western Mississippi", paying for much
> > less than other areas deem necessary in infrastructural upkeep and
> > exploratory projects, will do no favors to an area influential people
> > elsewhere are currently very well-disposed towards. If we are to
> > collectively move forward, these false economies must stop.
>
> You don't know what your talking about. You are all over the
> map here, one second it's city government, another second it's state
> government. Make up your mind.
Any fool can see that Portland and state government reciprocally
influence each other. Part of the problem with the Portland area
is that it hasn't had a proper research university in the past:
in recent years Portland State has been picking up some of the
slack, but the crippled state funding for education
(disproportionately
geared towards K-12, since the elite can afford to send their kids
elsewhere for college) has retarded its natural growth.
What has retarded Higher Ed growth is the rediculously high number
of public universities in the state. OSU and UofO should have been
shut down, and the funding given to PSU - since students have to
work to pay for tuition and jobs are a joke in both Cowtown and
Eugene - I know this from personal experience.
> > Otherwise, Portland will acquire, perhaps re-acquire, most Oregon
> > residents have never experienced it as having: the status of an "also-
> > ran", a place that had a chance to show the way for the nation and the
> > world and didn't make it. Then there will really be "new wine in old
> > bottles", and Oregonians will collectively be sorry.
>
> The Oregon residents that live outside of Portland Metro would almost
> certainly send up a big cheer if the Hand of God were to sweep down
> and wipe the Portland Metro area off the face of the map. They hate
> the place. The Metro area votes are constantly stymying what the rest
> of the state wants.
That's a load of horseshit. Portland has formed an economic unit with
the rest of the state since the days when it was primarily a port
for shipping local agricultural products (those days haven't
completely
passed, either). A pseudo-rural "fortress mentality" among people
who find Portland Librul Hell does no service to their more immediate
environment and cuts them off from treating Portland like what it
should be for them: a "stately pleasure-dome" where they have every
right to walk around like they owned the place.
Well, you can just go look at the voting records for the major ballot
measures and see Portland screwing over what the rest of the state
wants time and time again.
Not that I'm complaing of course. The rest of the state is full of rednecks
who need to have civilization shoved down their throats, or they would
have turned Oregon into whitetrashville.
Ted
jeffr...@gmail.com
> <jeffrub...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:d83b35c2-0faa-4923...@g17g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> On Oct 22, 1:22 am, "Ted Mittelstaedt" <t...@toybox.placo.com> wrote:
>
> Intel is a Washington County/Beaverton thing, it is NOT a City of Portland
> thing. You don't see Beaverton and Hillsburrito doing the stupid idiotic
> things that the Portland City Council does.
Oh, the Washington county governments have their own fetishes
(the omnipresent photo-radar, e.g.) and Intel is interesting
enough for the whole area since *the entire world* is impressed
by "Nehalem" but not able to make fine distinctions between
"this part of the MSA" and that one. A point to consider, though, is
how Gresham's investment in semiconductor fabs failed since
the memory chips they were making could be more easily
and cheaply made in China; Washington Co. has had some
previous experience with fading sectors of the computer biz
with Sequent, Mentor Graphics etc -- so including points
west as a full-stop "sixth quadrant" makes sense for reasons
other than Linus Torvalds' living in Lake Oswego.
> Any fool can see that Portland and state government reciprocally
> influence each other. Part of the problem with the Portland area
> is that it hasn't had a proper research university in the past:
> in recent years Portland State has been picking up some of the
> slack, but the crippled state funding for education
> (disproportionately
> geared towards K-12, since the elite can afford to send their kids
> elsewhere for college) has retarded its natural growth.
>
> What has retarded Higher Ed growth is the rediculously high number
> of public universities in the state. OSU and UofO should have been
> shut down, and the funding given to PSU - since students have to
> work to pay for tuition and jobs are a joke in both Cowtown and
> Eugene - I know this from personal experience.
I mostly agree, except that Eugene is an Oregon tradition and
Corvallis a source of sporting goodwill: really, I think the minor
state "universities" should be shut down and the funds transferred
to the "Big Three" (of which Portland State should logically be
what it effectively is, the biggest).
>
> That's a load of horseshit. Portland has formed an economic unit with
> the rest of the state since the days when it was primarily a port
> for shipping local agricultural products (those days haven't
> completely
> passed, either). A pseudo-rural "fortress mentality" among people
> who find Portland Librul Hell does no service to their more immediate
> environment and cuts them off from treating Portland like what it
> should be for them: a "stately pleasure-dome" where they have every
> right to walk around like they owned the place.
>
> Well, you can just go look at the voting records for the major ballot
> measures and see Portland screwing over what the rest of the state
> wants time and time again.
Yeah, well, "rural idiocy" often contains a lot of sharp practice:
people in other parts of the state cried bloody murder when the
timber subsidies went down, for example. The non-delusional
way to consider Portland vis-a-vis Oregon is as an entrepot
for shipping, business, culture, and other vital functions that
sustain rural economies -- people that view it as a
tax-and-spend Gomorrah don't have their heads screwed
on right (as you find out if you try to be an effective
leftist amongst the throng of "socially liberal, fiscally
conservative" people that can hack living in Portland
proper).
> Not that I'm complaing of course. The rest of the state is full of rednecks
> who need to have civilization shoved down their throats, or they would
> have turned Oregon into whitetrashville.
>
> Ted
Ted, I have relatives that live in Chiloquin (recently Oregon's
poorest city); they're not "rednecks", and they go to
the city as needed. Rural vs. urban Oregon conflicts hurt
the state as a whole, including the urban areas; they
need to be taken out of Bill Sizemore et al.'s toolkit,
and out of a "theoretical" construal of the state for
our own mental well-being.
Jeff R.