A quick search for Portland on Flickr reminded me that we have many talented photographers in the Portland metro area. Here is just one stunning image uploaded today to Flickr by atul666.
Archive for the 'culture' CategoryPage 2 of 2
There’s something about the hot, muddy water brew in Portland. It attracts even non-coffee drinkers. What is so magnetic about the many cafes and coffee shops around town?
It may be about our love of the drink, sure. Seattle is considered the coffee capital, but we have held our own. Legendary Stumptown Coffee had seven Portland locations before expanding to Seattle. And what city other than Portland could produce a Rails-powered, award-winning coffee tasting site?
There are plenty of cocoa and tea orders to show it goes beyond the love of coffee. It gets to the core of what makes Portland: community. We go to our neighborhood coffee shop because it’s our neighborhood coffee shop. We see friends, we enjoy the company of strangers, and we remember that we live in a city where people are valued.
So, yes, there is something in the muddy water, whether it’s from the Columbia to the north, the Willamette down the middle, or the brew from the shop around the corner. Whatever it is that keeps us coming together, I hope it never goes away, because when it comes to community, there’s no place like Portland.
Do you think Portlanders like to ride bicycles? That’s a rhetorical question. Of course we do! The Springwater Corridor running along the east riverbank and then east through Johnson Creek is one of the best paved foot and pedal paths I’ve seen anywhere. If you like off-road, in Forest Park is the eleven-mile long Leif Erikson Drive, a wide dirt and gravel swath that had originally been cleared for a earlier twentieth-century housing development (that fortunately fell through).
Then there are the organizations and online sites! The center of the online universe for Portland bicycling is BikePortland.org, a site which the founder, Jonathan Maus, dedicates himself to full-time. That’s where I get all of the latest news covering legislation, new bike rules, accidents, and anything else related to this greenest of all travel modes. There are also awesome (yes, they deserve that hype) organized bike trips throughout the year. A relatively new organization, ORBike, runs bike events such as the Portland Century, the Worst Day of the Year Ride and Bike to the Future. I volunteered to post signs on the Century last summer and then rode the quarter century (wish I had done the half century because the rest stops were stocked with goodies like fresh, prepared in front of you, strawberry shortcake, energy bars, fruit and lots of water). The best part of the ride was the people — everyone so friendly and accommodating. At the finish line, in the North Park Blocks at PSU, was a gourmet wild salmon dinner and local micro-brews waiting. I was in heaven! The most surprising part: I left my bike unlocked along with hundreds of others and out of sight for well over an hour and I had nothing to worry about. I would never ever have done that in Boston (my old home).
I can’t write about bicycling in Portland without mentioning the Bike Boxes. We lost a couple of bicyclists over the past year in accidents where they were hit by a truck turning right into them. One of the city’s responses was to create several bike boxes with the intent of giving bicyclists a safe haven in front of stopped traffic at lights. Our city government really appears to care about cyclists. This isn’t an endorsement in any way but one of the leading candidates for Mayor, Sam Adams, is in fact an avid bicyclist and advocate.
I live in the hills overlooking Cedar Mill, west of Skyline and it’s not an easy place to embark from on a bike trip. We will take our bikes down to Sauvie Island or to the East Esplanade to get some level riding in. Someday I hope I’ll be able to ride to work without worrying about manic rush-hour drivers. In Portland, I have hope for such a future.
This is really something special. A neon corridor on Interstate. For designophiles and culture vultures like me it would be like Christmas lights all year long. In fact, why don’t they rename the street Neon Avenue?
The signs would be grandfathering into code governing the gentrification soon to descend on this neck of Portland, saving these vintage artifacts for all posterity.
Check it out here.
There is a trend across America, perhaps the Western world, in returning to artisanal values. This is nothing new; it started happening years ago. But in Portland, artisanal values are part of the city’s DNA and have flourished, along with self-expression and creativity. Look at all the hand designed and sewn fashion boutiques, crafted bikes, microbrews, distilleries, and farmer’s markets to cite just a few examples
Take this pizza. Just a few years ago it was impossible to find a decent pizza almost anywhere in the U.S. in my view. Today, with wood fired ovens sprouting up on Portland’s east side, such as Ken’s Artisan Pizza and the Tastebud food cart (soon to be a sit down eatery near the Aladdin), no one has to opt for the ersatz any longer. It has become unthinkable to open up a new restaurant that is not locally, seasonally and sustainably sourced. As far as artisanal values authentic appeal, you could say they also support the local start up culture, with its emphasis on community, grass roots organizing and love of all things open source (transparency = authenticity). Perhaps open source developers harken back to ancient guilds, the era in which craft and micro enterprises spread
And in craft, the making of things of value, lies another Portland attribute. Richard Sennett in his new book “The Craftsman” writes about the role of craft in creating mental space, in fine tuning the ability to be thoughtful and to solve engineering problems. As some people have noted, being in Portland, surrounded by lots of busy and creative anthills, there is less herd-like thinking. My theory is that this is reason people in Portland are so nice. They have that weightless happiness that comes from doing your own thing with pride and passion.
This Saturday was, as we all know it, almost too gorgeous to be true. That afternoon, I went to sit in the Tanner Springs Park with a friend, doing my nonrequired reading, observing an eagle swooping down to catch a fish then fly back out behind the highrise (no, really) and seeing people generally enjoying themselves and soaking up the sun.
But, you see, I have a habit of refreshing Twitter’s website every time I connect to see if anyone posted an update. On a work day, I would usually refresh every 20 minutes or so, and see at least several updates from the regular Tweeters (you know who you are.) But quick observations showed that Friday was less eventful (I did less checking and found less updates), and Saturday was practically quiet
Almost too quiet. Heck, I didn’t miss anything by sitting at the park all afternoon, with one exception, of course.
So I checked out our leader board yesterday night and today, compared it, and saw that something was clearly afoot:
Notice that Portland’s ranking actually went down by two positions (from #12 to #14,) narrowly surpassed by Seattle and Toronto (cities that were below us on weekdays,) and its count declined by 54%. In comparison, Seattle was down by 42%, Toronto by 38% and other cities at the top five were down by an average of 20–30%.
Sure, we may postulate that this decline showed that we are very easily distracted by nice weathers, or that we aren’t as productive in the weekends when compared to other cities.
But that’s not what I believe.
I believe that this Saturday, we collectively went outside, enjoyed the day and slept early while not bothering with our constant Twitter updates.
And I believe that this decline showed that we have kept our priorities right. That we believe in the equal importance of hyper-connectivity and having real-life conversations. This decline showed that the much anticipated ‘Portland Creative/Tech Renaissance’ is going to be a different sort of movement. One where work and life are balanced and weekends reserved for having fun. This decline showed that Portland’s real edge will not necessarily lie in its technological or creative breakthrough, but in its humanity and genuine willingness to connect with others.
The decline in Tweet count this weekend may be what set us apart from other places. And that, if you ask me, is a good thing.
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