Portland is Awesome

Oregon has more nonprofits per capita than any other state in the union and the bulk of those are located in Portland.  In some ways this is a really good thing.  When Robert Putnam was writing Bowling Alone he bet a steak dinner that the phenonema was nation-wide.  He lost.  He lost because of Portland.  We are a city that is socially and civilly engaged.

Oregon is not a wealthy state and all of the nonprofits struggle to stay afloat financially.  But Portland’s nonprofit community is small and tight and very collaborative.  I see this time and time again through CNRG’s monthly nonprofit networking and free training events at CubeSpace, through the Nonprofit Continuum Conference and through events like the one I attended last night coordinated by Carole Zoom.

Carole Zoom is trying to support the nonprofit community (and herself) by coordinating an efforts to help Portland nonprofits buy a building of their own.  This is something she did while living in Eugene and now that she lives in Portland, she wants to duplicate it here.  Last night was the initial meeting for this effort and she expected about 20 people.  I stopped counting when we got to 60.

Not all of the organizations that were in that room are in a place to participate in the purchasing of a building.  Some are not ready financially, some are not ready organizationally.  But, when we broke into small groups to discuss what could happen if organizations could make mortgage rather than rent payments, there was a incredible transformation that took place.  Every group that reported back talked about the synergy that came from those small, short conversations.  Groups that had never spoken suddenly started brainstorming ways to work together to achieve their mission, serve their target populations and generally be creative in the face of great needs and minimal budgets.  That is why Portland is Awesome.

Portland is indeed awesome.

I say this mostly because of the communities I have become a part of here. I’ve lived in various cities around the world throughout my life, and I’ve never felt more at home and more a sense of community than I do here in Portland.

I am involved in several communities; my analogy is that each community is a luscious fruit, which is glazed with the heart of Portland, which in turn makes me the tart I am today.

But let’s look at the places I’ve lived besides Portland.

Places I’ve lived, in order:

• Copenhagen, Denmark
• Bellingham, WA
• Denver, CO
• Boulder, CO
• Reservation near Flagstaff, AZ
• Ashland, OR
• Eugene, OR
• Lancaster, PA
• Portland, OR
• Seattle, WA
• Portishead, England
• Whitefish, MT
• Rhododendron, OR
• Portland, OR

I’ve had amazing offers for wonderful career paths outside of Portland since moving back in 2003, but I just can’t seem to take them and move away; I feel like I have found home here in Portland within my various communities.

My Communities.

Many of my communities overlap, and each of them tend to have their own medium of communication or central place of interaction. I would consider myself a part of a few communities (in no particular order):

• Geek
• Jewish
• High School Friends
• Neighborhood
• Gay

The geek community I feel is those who have geekishness in their lives and talk about social networking web applications or tech companies or new hardware products or Red Dwarf on British television.

I love hanging with my Heebs. As g-d is an important part of my live, as is my cultural heritage, it’s great have my Jewy friends beside me either drinking at a bar, dancing in a club, playing dodgeball, or at shul.

My high school friends are my close inner circle of friends, my main set of homies; I love them, their spouses, their kids. From backyard bbq’s to working on each other’s houses to being there for each other emotional on the roller coaster of life, these friends in our little community mean the world to me.

Even though I have only lived in the S.E. neighborhood where I bought my home for two years now, I feel really connected to this community; I care about the businesses here and the schools and the crime, and I endeavor to help create a positive difference. (Can I get a ‘what, what?!’ for multi-block garage sales?)

I try to stay connected to knowing what’s going on in the queer community by either hanging at Crush, or reading Byron Beck, or supporting the Cascade Aids Project or reading Just Out every now and then or going to the PDX Lesbian and Gay Film Fest. While the community is not an integral part of my life, and tends to overlap into other communities (PICA, music scene, etc.) being a lesbian is integral to who I am (hello ladies!) and so, I am connected to the community.

How are you Tart-ish?

Now, one could say ‘You could have all of those communities in any other city. I hear there are Jews in New York and gays in Philly!” Thanks for the incredible insight, Snarky McSnarkerston. But see, here’s the thing:

None of these communities would be what they are without being a part of my overall Portland community.

Each of my communities have the wonderful Portland feel to them – they are painted lightly with a warm Portland tone, like a glaze upon a tart. A glaze which binds everything together, holds each entity together as one and puts a shine on my whole life.

What are some of your communities in Portland? Are they replicable elsewhere or are they Portland specific?

Next week: why Portland strip clubs are like submarine sandwiches.