Portland is Awesome

Today I went to the Greenlight Greater Portland kick-off event and heard Richard Florida, author of Who’s Your City talk about what a great city Portland is.  Given the livability factors (greatest number of microbreweries, library with the largest circulation per capita, greatest number of bookstores, forest, mountains, coast and desert within easy driving distance) that should be no surprise to anyone.  But, he went on to talk about how important involvement in community is to people’s sense of well-being and how the high rate of community involvement in Portland is a huge factor in what makes Portland livable.

This is not news.  Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone bet a steak dinner that the social isolation and decline in social capital was a national phenomena.  He lost.  Portland was the one exception.

But we cannot rest on our laurels.  We all need to continue to participate in community and ensure that Portland continues to be the awesome place that we know and love.  Here are some upcoming opportunities:

The City Club of Portland is a 93 year old organization that relies on volunteer research efforts to affect public policy.  At their annual meeting on Friday, Steve Schell will be reflecting on City Club’s research in his talk “City Club Research: A Quiet Catalyst For Momentous Change.”

Another important effort is the Bureau of Planning’s update of the 1980 Comprehensive Plan and the 1988 Central City Plan. The Planning Bureau says: 

The Portland Plan is an inclusive, citywide effort to guide the physical, economic, social, cultural and environmental development of Portland over the next 30 years. The plan will build on the work the community did through visionPDX, which captured and fleshed out our shared values of sustainability, equity and accessibility, and community connectedness and distinctiveness.

There are two upcoming opportunities to participate in The Portland Plan as part of the Community Summits on Saturday, June 14th.

One of the gazillion things I love about Portland is the access to affordable and eclectic opportunities to both watch and participate in the performing arts scene.  For the moment however, I am going to focus on music.

Being a small business owner with an early bedtime, I don’t get out much these days.  But sometimes great music will come and find you.  Several months ago I met Marie Schumacher at CubeSpace’s monthly nonprofit networking event.  Marie and I got together over coffee so that she could pick my brain about consulting and her organization PDX Vox.  As a thank you, she sent me a copy of her CD Sometimes at Night, which was some of the best new music I had heard in months (if not years).

Fast forward to now.  After many, many months, Marie sent me an email about an upcoming gig on June 1st at 1pm in the afternoon at Springbox Gallery, 2375 NW Thurman St., Portland. Yes, this is a show that is business-owner and parent friendly.  How cool is that!??!?!?!?  And with a suggested donation of $5-$10, it is cheap to boot.  That alone is cause for some serious celebration.

But wait, there’s more.  Portland also has a great new resource to find new music, with an emphasis on the homegrown stuff from the Pacific Northwest.  When OPB shifted their on-air music programming to an online music page, that opened up a whole new world for those of us who didn’t stay up late enough to listen to David Christensen’s music show Ecleticity.  Now we can access streaming music and well as download studio performances and check out playlists and all sorts of fun stuff.

I still don’t sit still long enough to listen to as much music as I would like, but I am enjoying these new opportunities nonetheless and invite you all to join me.

When I began traveling to Portland in 2000 and 2001, the Portland Airport was a mess. Construction was in full swing, and my experiences in the Portland airport were not good ones. I mostly remember walking for what seemed like miles next to construction barriers and ending up in isolated, unconnected terminals where food choices were very limited.

Fast forward a couple of years to the completion of the A, B, C terminal renovation. At the time, it was new and shiny, but unconnected to the poor D and E terminals. I was always a little sad when my flight was scheduled to leave from the no mans land that was D or E.

Now, we have choices. The gates are all connected by a walkway, so I can eat wherever I want and I can pick the shorter of the two security lines. We can choose between Starbucks or Coffee People and fast food or sit down restaurants in addition to Powells and other stores with entertainment for the flight.

However, my favorite thing about the Portland airport has to be the free and stable wireless. With the security rules in full force, the free wireless makes getting to the airport early bearable. If you are lucky, you might even catch one of the piano players or other musicians providing some free entertainment.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve managed to—often unintentionally—eavesdrop on some pretty interesting conversations here in good ol’ Portland. Spend enough time in coffee shops, on public transit, and at brewpubs and it’s simply bound to happen.

And sure, nothing beats a good “OH” tweet. But sometimes, you’re looking for a little more catharsis.

If only there were somewhere to vent your bile and snark on a larger stage. If only…

Enter Overheard in PDX

Part voyeur daydream, part sad commentary on life as we know it, Overheard in PDX is a never-ending stream of the strange things that come out of other people’s mouths, submitted by people who were lucky(?) enough to hear them.

A quintessential part of the Portland experience, I’ve heard it said that Overheard in PDX is an awesome Portland blog.

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.

“If only…” your geeky mind struggles. “If only I could be as adept at parenting as I am at managing information via RSS feeds.”

Okay, well, maybe that’s just my mind. But still.

You’re a geek. You’re a parent. You’re looking for hacks. Enter Parent Hacks.

With parenting tips, books, techniques, cool stuff, and firsthand accounts of actual parental successes (gasp!), Parent Hacks is the ultimate way to get more out of parenting. And maybe, just maybe, the thing that will keep your kid free of a service pack or two.

Besides, how often do you get to read a blog where one of the categories is “Poop, pee, potty, etc.“?

On second thought, don’t answer that.

Get the tips you need to succeed in all your parent geeking. Visit Parent Hacks, an awesome Portland blog.

One of the multitude of things that makes Portland awesome is its creative vibe. And that creativity often comes through in a variety of ways—culinary pursuits, brewing, coding, music. But more and more the one thing for which we’re becoming known is our vibrant crafting scene.

So much crafty stuff is happening around here on any given day, that it’s difficult to stay on top of it all. (And I’m not even into crafting. I can’t imagine what it’s like for someone who is.)

But have no fear craftaholics. Help is near. And it’s a blog called DIY Alert!

I swear, this thing is chock full of more craftiness than you can shake a size 13 needle at. (So much craftiness, I’m using dangling prepositions!) From knitting to felting to profiles on artists to fabrics to yarns… the list goes on and on.

Knit one, pearl two, indeed!

So, if you’re into crafty type stuff or you know someone who is, I’d highly recommend DIY Alert!, an awesome Portland blog.

As a relatively short-time Portland resident (I mean, I’ve only lived here 13 years or so), I’ve always taken a particular interest in the history of our fair town. And for that, there was no better place than Stumptown Confidential.

Now, you’ll notice I didn’t link to “Stumptown Confidential.” And that’s because, unfortunately, that brilliant blog recently met with its untimely demise—due to a hosting problem.

Stumptown Confidential is history – my files were lost when the host flipped some switch. I’m saddened that all my work from 2004-2008 is gone for good. Thankfully I still have the photos and put them up on a Flickr account.

But the story doesn’t end there. The good news is that Stumptown Confidential has risen from the proverbial ashes as part of another of Schlockstar’s sites, Lost Oregon:

The goal of the site is the same as Stumptown Confidential’s – document the disappearing Portland and Oregon of the recent past – through postcards, photos and words. Due to my geographical location of Portland metro, the site might be more skewed toward the area though.

So, take a little trip down memory lane—an often kitschy memory lane, at that—with Lost Oregon, an awesome Portland blog.

If the name of this one alone—Crappy Indie Music—doesn’t convince you to click, I’m not sure that my explanation will. But I’m willing to give it a shot.

Portland has a thriving music scene. And it seems were are forever hearing about the big-name stars who make their home here. But what about those talented musicians who fly a bit below the RADAR?

Enter Crappy Indie Music, which carries local music news on bands you—even in your uber-hip Rose City musical expertise—have likely never heard of. And the writing is as lively and punchy as the title of the blog belies.

In its own words:

[Crappy Indie Music -- The Blog] CIMTB is a Portland-centric, Vantucky-luvin’ indie music blog.

For more, visit Crappy Indie Music, an awesome Portland blog.

If there’s one thing we like in Portland, it’s free stuff… err… it’s utilitarianism. Make it useful—and affordable—to the largest subset of the population and we will forever be enamored of your contribution.

Blogs are no different. And so, I give you the misleadingly named Around the Sun.

Around the Sun promises a veritable treasure trove of money-saving ventures in the Portland area. What’s more, there’s a regular feature on “free things to do this weekend in Portland” which is—ironically—priceless.

I am not a financial expert; I’m just a regular girl who wants to make the most of my money and share what I learn along the way.

Why spend time looking for something to do when Around the Sun does the due diligence for you? I mean, really.

Every week, I find this blog chock full of interesting stuff in Portland, for which I have to spend nada, zilch, zero.

If taking a look at Around the Sun doesn’t give you some good ideas for something to do, I’ll give you your money back.

That’s right. It’s that good.