Cincinnati Enquirer: Savor Portland's Weirdness

BY BETSA MARSH

Like a glacial breeze off Oregon's Mount Hood, Portland blows away the cobwebs of same-old travel.

Instead of dutifully slogging through museums, how about pulling up a chair at a sidewalk cafe, sipping chai or a microbrew, and asking your server where he would go? Or rent a bike and see how many neighborhoods you could breeze through before happy hour. And what's not to love about a city that embraces not one but two happy hours - about 5-7 each evening, then a second-wind version about 10 p.m.-midnight

'THINK DIFFERENT'

And why not? It's one of the key questions of the Portland mind-set, along with its twin, "What if?" Some Portlanders chant the city mantra "Think Different," while others echo "Keep Portland Weird." Weirdness is so institutionalized now that the Travel Portland association hands outs "Keep Portland Weird" bumper stickers. Codified weirdness - can an entire city be an oxymoron?

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Posted Mon, 04/07/2008 - 8:02am.

[[ Categories: Livability & Environment | Travel Portland ]]

I'd prefer less publicity.

Submitted by Milly on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 3:50pm.

I no longer feel flattered by all the POVA-purchased publicity our town has gotten in the last year. I actually feel threatened by it. One of the keys to the fragile balance of variables that makes Portland what it is: relatively low population density. It's changing, rapidly. I've vowed to never again tell anyone how much I love my town and why.

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You win

Submitted by Steve on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 5:33am.

You win! Yes, we are all the kids who couldn't get a date in high school. Plus it makes Portland so atractive to truly entrepeuneurial types.

All of my friends in the Bay Are know we are weird. They think about this often as they drive to their $100K a year job with benefits which we have a paucity of (unless you are a city commissioner.)

If this is it for creativity, can I get a refund?

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stop the "keep portland weird" marketing

Submitted by Aimee on Sun, 04/27/2008 - 12:19pm.

"keep portland weird" bumperstickers to promote a town is like shopping at Hot Topic to promote punk rock...it's just wrong...as a native portlander i've seen this city get more and more crowded and snobby over the years...portland isn't "weird", it's now becoming just a bit smaller than seattle and, like seattle, overrun with those who think that growth is a good thing. i'm with tom mccall on this one - visit but don't stay! the reason portland has the personality it does is because of its size and individuality of its people...it breaks my heart to see longtime icons like saturday market being pushed out of their longtime home and virginia cafe forced to move after so many generations to accommodate an unnecessary eyesore of a highrise...all the money spent on areas like the pearl and south waterfront, yet still in my woodlawn neighborhood of ne portland, it takes the police 2 hours to respond to a 911 call because there just aren't enough of them to patrol the area...we need to remember our roots and fight to preserve the personality by limiting growth and spending money on the communities we already have and the schools we already have and the environment that is being polluted by those who think they can't live without their gas guzzling SUV's...new bridges? good grief! let's show real love for portland by taking care of our own instead of pimping our town out to attract more outsiders. get out of your cars, get on the bus or your bike (or use your feet!), support your local businesses, take personal accountability for your schools, your community, your environment. one step at a time, it can be done.

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