Portland is Awesome

Working downtown is great for many reasons, but one of the more entertaining aspects is the free music and movies in Pioneer Square.

Every summer, there are movies shown in the square on these giant inflatable screens.  It’s called Flicks on the bricks (so named for the bricks in Pioneer Square).  Just show up, sit down, and enjoy!  Here’s a pic from last year.  Maybe I’ll see you on Friday at the Goonies!

And in the same location, you can enjoy Noon Tunes, free live music.  Just grab some grub at the carts and head on over to the square for some live entertainment!

I’m a transplant from the LA area. There, I said it. But I moved here not because of a job, but rather I got a job so I could move here. One of the things about Portland that amazes me on a regular basis is just how small this town is and how connected we all are.

I’ve been working downtown for almost 8 years now and I bump into people I know all the time. A couple of weeks ago I went to lunch with a buddy of mine and we bumped into some old coworkers from a previous employer. We weren’t talking on the sidewalk for more than 5 minutes when another fellow walked up that knew everyone else but me! Next thing you know, everyone is catching up and reminiscing about old times.

I like to promote local business as much as I can, and at the very least, I try to always work with local representatives. As such, I often run into people that used to work for so-and-so and now work with so-and-so.

One particularly funny incident came up when we realized that a new vendor we were meeting was someone we actually had a bad experience with when they worked for a different vendor a few years earlier. Only we we all met face to face did it dawn on us! We thought “oh no, it’s that crazy vendor!” and he thought “oh no, it’s those crazy customers!” We worked everything out in the end, but it just goes to show that you just never know who you’re going to run into.

The thing is, this isn’t an occasional thing… it happens all the time to me.

And recently, Twitter has become the way folks in Portland are staying connected. For example, did you know that the Portland Police is on Twitter? Further, the officer that posts is one of the funniest and most informative folks I’ve read on twitter. I’ve never felt such a personal connection to the Police before. It sounds corny, but I’m glad that the Portland Police Bureau is savvy enough to use this new medium to stay connected with us.

Of course, there are many awesome Portland Blogs that help us stay in touch with each other.

The moral of working and living in Portland is clearly “Don’t burn your bridges!” Post a comment and let me know other ways Portland stays connected.