|
 Known
as The City of Roses, Portland lies at the junction of the Willamette and
Columbia Rivers. Above the city, you can wander through fragrant paths
of rose bushes at the Washington Park
International Rose Test Garden (over 7,000 rose plantings). You
can also visit the
Peninsula Park and Rose Garden in northeast Portland (over 8,000 rose
plantings) and
Ladd's Addition in southeast Portland with 2,000 plus rose brushes.
For all of you trivia fans, the City of Portland have never
adopted the rose (or any other flower) as the official city flower.
We do have an official bird (Blue Heron) , slogan (A City That Works), and
a song.
Mt. Hood can be seen from the International Rose Test Garden,
the Japanese Garden, and viewpoints throughout Forest Park, the 4,836 acre
park running along the ridge of the west hills. The ledges below these
parks are crammed with interesting houses reachable via steep sidewalks,
connecting bridges and hidden stairways.
For interesting views of the city, check out the
Cam sites and walk through
one of the Portland bridges.
How Portland Got Its Name
 Besides
being called the Rose City, Puddletown, and Stumptown
(from its lumbering past), Portland is nicknamed Bridgetown for the
unique bridges that unite east and west Portland. Occasionally the
city closes the downtown bridges to motor traffic and gives free run of
them to bikers, hikers and runners.
Portland got its name from a coin toss in 1845. in
1843, two men by the name of Asa Lovejoy and William Overton filed a land
claim for an area known as The Clearing. Overton soon sold
his shares to Francis Pettygrove and the two of them couldn't agree on a
name. To resolve the deadlock, they flipped a coin
− now known as the Portland penny
− to decide. Lovejoy, who was from
Massachusetts, picked Boston. But Pettygrove won, and he chose Portland,
the city in his native Maine.
Regarding Portland culture, "Mayberry on Mushrooms", was
offered by Environmentalist, Steve Gunther in 2005. While Des Moines
Register journalist Donald Kaul, as quoted by Jonathan Nicholas in
The Oregonian on November 15, 1999, reported that “Portland is San
Francisco run by Canadians.”
Cooking Light: Eat Smart, Be Fit, Live Well
In 2008,
Cooking Light magazine
wanted to know what places best fit their philosophy to eat smart, be fit,
and live well. Using statistics from such organizations as the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and
the Zagat Survey, they ranked major metropolitan areas on 15 criteria.
They ranked Portland as the number two city (Seattle was first). We
think their write-up of Portland sums up life here in the Rose City well.
Portland is called the City of Roses for its proliferation
of brightly hued blooms, but the color that best describes this city
is green. Portland prides itself on being environmentally friendly,
boasting an award-winning public transportation system, 277 miles of
bike paths, and city planning that minimizes sprawl.
The soft seasonal drizzle that falls over the city (actually, there's
more annual rainfall in Atlanta) makes it literally green as well. Consequently,
Portlanders enjoy 227 parks and 146 miles of lushly forested hiking
trails, rain or shine. The climate also nurtures the fabulous food and
wine produced here, helping make Portland fourth in the nation in per
capita farmers' markets and top for its number of organic restaurants.
Portland earned the second spot on our top 20 list of Cooking Light
cities because it also ranked highly in the following categories: acres
of parkland per capita; percent of population that reports to be in
good or better health; percent of population that exercised in the last
month; and its walkability.
Parks and Green Spaces
 If
you love the outdoors, Portland is your kind of place. There are
parks
(10,763 acres which represents 11% of the city's area), trails and green
spaces scattered throughout the city −
it's perfect for a pleasant hike, a picnic or a pickup football game.
Area waterways welcome those who enjoy rafting, canoeing, kayaking, rowing,
boating, and fly fishing. And if there's not enough to keep you occupied
in the city itself, you won't have to travel far to find more gorgeous scenery
and outdoor pursuits. One of the best ways to see Portland is joining
up with the
Portland
Walking Tours.
Portlanders have always felt blessed by the wealth of nature;
they assume and expect unimpeded access to the outdoors for both resource
production and recreation. Evidence of our love for parks is that
park bond issues usually pass with ease. The Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade
has become influential among park planners, with talks of floating walkways
achieving buoyancy in planning sessions around the country.
Portland receives high marks for the city’s use of volunteers
in its parks according to Peter Harnik, the Director of the Center for City
Park Excellence. In an interview in the Portland Tribune in July 2006,
Harnik said. “But so many people in Portland are environmentally oriented
and want to help, and the parks departments gives them a way of doing that.”
Overall, the Portland park scene rates very high according
to the Center for City Park
Excellencee. Other information from the site:
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Portland ranks second in its class for the number
of park district soccer fields per capita, ninth for playgrounds per
capita, and right in the middle of a large pack with its six golf courses.
-
Portland ranks second to last among the 17 cities
in its population-density class for baseball diamonds per capita.
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Forest Park is the 14th largest city park, number
ten if the list is restricted to municipally owned parks (as opposed
to state, county and national parks within city boundaries).
In 2007, 6.2 million visits were logged at recreation sites.
Other facts from the Portland Parks & Recreation:
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66% of the acreage is dedicated to natural areas for
the preservation and protection of streams, native plants, and wildlife.
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3,000 people grown their own fresh food in 31 community
gardens.
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Portland's tree canopy currently covers 26% of the
city.
-
trees in parks number roughly 1.2 million and public
street trees are estimated at 236,000 with combined total of public
trees accounting for 47% of Portland's tree canopy.
Wildlife in Portland
At least 209 bird species have been sighted across
the Metro region according to the
Audubon
 Society
of Portland. Residents of Portland do not have to go far to experience
a whole array of birds of prey. Visitors can watch Bald Eagles nesting
on Ross Island, state-listed Peregrine Falcons nesting on Portland bridges,
and Osprey nesting throughout the Portland harbor. Sharp-shinned and
Coopers Hawks regularly hunt songbirds at backyard feeders. The trilling
of Screen Owls fills the night at parks throughout the city, and some of
our more wooded parks also provide homes for Great Horned, Pygmy, and Barred
owls.
For information and updates on Metro's Regional Fish and
Wildlife Plan, urban conservation issues in the Portland metro region, and
much more visit Urban
Fauna.
Portland and Trees
 Portland
is a tree hugging town. We have thousands of trees in the city and organizations
like the Friends
of Trees continue planting more. There is a city agency,
Portland Parks Urban Forestry, that is responsible for the protection
of trees.
Portland also has a
Heritage Tree ordinance that became part of the Portland City code in
1993, and the first Heritage Trees were designated in 1994. This ordinance
calls for the City Forester to annually prepare a list of trees that because
of their age, size, type, historical association or horticultural value
are of special importance to the City. Upon recommendation of the Urban
Forestry Commission, the City Council may designate a tree as a Heritage
Tree provided the tree's health, aerial space, and open ground area for
the root system have been certified as sufficient. As of 2006, there were
283 Heritage Trees in Portland.
If you want to incur the wrath of your neighbors, just
cut down a tree in your yard. But you may also make long-lasting friends
if it opens up a view for your neighbors. Permits are required to
cut or remove all trees over 12 inches in diameter on all properties in
the city of Portland prior to the issuance of a building permit. Exceptions
include single-family residential properties that cannot be further developed
and include an existing single-family home used exclusively as a single-family
residence. Here is the link to the city's
Tree Cutting Ordinance.
Walking in Portland
Under Oregon law (ORS 801.220), a crosswalk exists at all
public street intersections, whether marked with paint, or unmarked. However,
all crosswalks between intersections (mid-block) must be marked with white
painted lines.
Here is a link to a more complete definition. Under Oregon law (ORS
811.360), drivers must stop and remain stopped for pedestrians in crosswalks
until they have cleared the driver's lane and the adjacent lane. When a
vehicle is turning, drivers must stop and remain stopped for pedestrians
until they have cleared the lane into which the driver is turning, plus
at least six feet of the adjacent lane if it is an intersection with a signal,
or the entire adjacent lane where there is no signal.
The Willamette
Pedestrian Coalition is a non-profit community-based membership organization
in the greater Portland, Oregon area dedicated to promoting walking and
making the conditions for walking safe and attractive.
Downtown Portland
Lying on a gentle, mile-wide slope between a river and
a range of hills, downtown Portland is alive and well. Whereas most
cities roll up the streets after the work force completes their work day,
Portland just keeps rolling. Restaurants thrive. Shopping
goes on well into the evening. People are hurrying off to the concert
hall, theatres, art galleries, and museums. Parking usually requires
finding a garage instead of parking on the street. Of course, lots
of folks arrive and depart on MAX, the light rail system.
Most downtown Portland blocks are 200-300 feet in length
which is much shorter than most cities in the USA. The short blocks
do two important things: it allows more light to infiltrate and it
makes for a walker's paradise. The downtown traffic lights are set
at a leisurely 12 miles per hour which means bikers can navigate through
the streets easily.
One thing we notice immediately upon arriving in Portland
is that people "get out and do things." You can always find bikers,
runners, and walkers in most neighborhoods early in the morning till dark.
Whereas all we remember from living in eastern cities is listening to the
hum of air conditioners during the summers while on walks, Portlanders are
out and about all times of the year. Yes, even in the rain.
Nike's message about Just Do It is sure applicable in the Rose City.
Powell's City of Book has an excellent walking map of downtown
Portland. Download it
here.
Benson Bubblers
 Walking
in downtown Portland, one of the first items you'll notice is the four-bowl
fountains throughout the city. Simon Benson, a Norwegian immigrant,
a lumber baron and philanthropist is the person responsible for these
drinking fountains. The story goes that while walking through
his mill one day, Benson noticed the smell of alcohol on his workers'
breath. When Benson asked these men why they drank in the middle
of the day, they replied there was no fresh drinking water to be found
downtown. Upon hearing this, Benson proceeded to commission 20
elegant freshwater drinking fountains, now known as the Benson Bubblers.
Beer consumption in the city reportedly decreased 25 percent after the
fountains were installed.
Simon Benson had Portland architect A. E. Ddoyle design
the bubblers and gave $10,000 in 1912 to fabricate and install the bubblers.
The first Benson Bubbler remains at SW Fifth Avenue and SW Washington
Street. The city now has some 60 Benson Bubblers on Portland's
downtown streets. To determine if the Bubbler is an original
one, look for the inscription: "Presented by S. Benson, 1912."
Horse Rings
 In
late 2005, Portland artist
Scott Wayne Indiana
tied his first miniature plastic horse to an iron ring embedded in a
sidewalk. He's tethered perhaps 100 more since, and Portlanders Kim
Upham and Laura Kemp have continued and amplified his efforts at
horse
projectt. The ponies are a nod to Portland history, and a way to
get people to pay attention to their surroundings. The horse rings were
put in years ago and when you came downtown, you tied your horse up
to the ring and basically it was your parking meter so to speak.
Two City Symbols
 Both
officially and unofficially, the city uses two very different emblems to
epitomize its character as a community. One is the blue heron, adopted
as an official city symbol in 1986. This graceful bird that thrives in the
riverside marshes winding through the metropolis seemed a natural mascot
to former
Mayor Bud
Clark, who enjoyed early morning canoe trips along the Willamette River.
 The
other is a huge hammered copper statue of "Portlandia" reaching down from
the postmodern city office building called The Portland at 1120 SW 5th Avenue.
The figure represents civic life and commerce. Portlandia is based
on a figure in Portland's city seal of a woman, dressed in classical clothes,
who welcomes traders into the port of the city. The sculpture is placed
on the a landing on the third floor of the Portland Building. The sculpture
is 36 feet tall but if Portlandia was magically to stand up, she would be
over 50 feet tall. Portlandia is the second largest hammered copper statue
in America (the largest is the Statue of Liberty). The Portland
is a citywide and national icon and was designed by architect Michael Graves.
The design of the building has been criticized by many architects throughout
Portland and the world.
How the City Delivers its Services to Residents
Crime and the fear of crime continue to drop in Portland.
Residents give high ratings to the livability of their neighborhoods and
the city. More businesses see the city as a good place to do business. Those
are the good things in the city auditor's report released in late 2008 on
how the city delivers its services to residents.
But here are some of what the report calls "challenges":
Emergency response times for both police and fire calls continue to be slower
than city goals. The share of homeowners who spend more than half of their
income on housing reached a new high. Homelessness is on the rise. Sewer
bills outpace comparable cities.
The report examines trends and the results of city surveys
regarding 20 city bureaus and the Portland Development Commission for the
fiscal year that ended in June 2008. You can read the entire report
at the City of Portland Web site by clicking
here.
Metro Government
You can't discuss Portland without mentioning the
Metro Council
and one of its most important function, the Urban Growth Boundary.
Metro is the directly elected regional government that serves more than
1.3 million residents in
Clackamas,
Multnomah and
Washington
counties, and the 24 cities in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area.
Metro provides transportation and land-use planning services and oversees
regional garbage disposal and recycling waste reductions programs.
Metro manages regional parks and green spaces and the Oregon Zoo. It also
oversees operation of the Oregon Convention Center, Civic Stadium, the Portland
Center for the Performing Arts and the Expo Center, all managed by the Metropolitan
Exposition-Recreation Commission.
The City of Portland and the State of Oregon are both recognized
nationally for their land use planning policies and efforts to curb urban
sprawl. The state Land Use Planning Act of 1973 requires local governments
to develop plans, make land use decisions consistent with the plans, and
coordinate with other local governments and state agencies. Metro,
the only elected regional government in the United States, helps ensure
compatible land use and transportation plans throughout the Greater Portland
metropolitan area. Urban growth boundaries (UGB) were created as part of
the statewide land-use planning program in Oregon in the early 1970s.
The boundaries mark the separation between rural and urban land. They
are intended to encompass an adequate supply of buildable land that can
be efficiently provided with urban services (such as roads, sewers, water
lines and street lights) to accommodate the expected growth during a 20-year
period. The idea is that by providing land for urban uses within the
boundary, rural lands can be protected from urban sprawl..
Metro manages the regional urban growth boundary for the
Portland metropolitan area. Adopted in 1979, the Metro UGB is approximately
369 square miles (about 236,000 acres). It includes 24 cities and
the urban portions of Washington, Multnomah and Clackamas counties. As of
February 2000, about 1.3 million people live within the UGB. For a
view of the UGB
map (PDF file).
Portland Public Transportation: Light Rail and
Streetcars
 MAX
(Metropolitan Area Express), the area 38-mile light rail system, is an advanced
and modern system that carries an average of 83,800 daily boarding and 27.5
million rides annually (calendar year 2004). The line runs east/west
- from the town of Gresham to the town of Hillsboro with numerous connections
in the downtown area. Airport MAX (opened September 2001) links the
existing east/west line with the Portland International Airport. Interstate
MAX opened in September 2004 and the Yellow Line travels south from Expo
Center Station, located on North Marine Drive at the Expo Center into the
downtown area. The Green line will open in late 2009 and will
add 6.5 miles between Gateway Transit Center and Clackamas Town Center.
Portland Mall Revitalization Project The project
will add light rail tracks to the Portland Transit Mall on both Fifth and
Sixth Avenues between Portland State University and Union Station (Amtrak).
The project was born of the need to relieve congestion on the existing downtown
Portland MAX alignment on Yamhill and Morrison Streets. This project was
originally conceived as part of a north-south light rail project between
Vancouver, Washington and Clackamas. Upon opening, scheduled for 2009, both
MAX Yellow Line and the Green Line will run on these tracks.
Portland's
streetcar line
is a "circulator" - a public transit system that carries people through
downtown neighborhoods, quickly and reliably. The Portland Streetcar is
designed to fit the scale and traffic patterns of the neighborhoods through
which it travels. Streetcar vehicles, manufactured by Skoda-Inekon in Plzen
of the Czech Republic, are about 8 feet wide and approximately 66 feet long,
about 10 inches narrower and 1/3 the length of a MAX (TriMet’s light rail
system) double car train. The Portland Streetcar is owned and operated
by the City of Portland.
You can bring your bike with you on all buses, MAX trains,
and the Portland streetcar line. For detailed description of the Portland
metro transportation system, visit
public transportation
system.
The
Lion and Rose Bed and Breakfast Inn in the Northeast neighborhood of
Irvington has an excellent video on "Getting Around in Central
Portland." Click
here to view it.
Parking SmartMeters
 In
early 2002, the Portland City Council approved a contract to supply pay
station technology for on-street parking in Portland. The City has now replaced
the majority of its single-space meters in the downtown central business
district with SmartMeters. As of March 2005, the city has 1,056 of
these machine installed.
SmartMeters are solar-powered, multi-space parking meters
with the ability to accept SmartMeter Parking cards, money, as well as credit
or debit cards. After inserting your card or money into the machine, you
determine how many minutes you desire to park (25 cents for 15 minutes).
You then receive a printed receipt which you stick on the curb-side window
of your vehicle.
Portlanders have a nickname for these tall machines:
Gumby. They make the city a small fortune since any unused time cannot
be used by others. It also means lower meter maintenance since one
machine can take care of 10-20 parking spaces. In February 2005, the city
recorded 430,000 uses and 215,675 credit card transactions in the downtown
area. At a mere 50 cents a transaction, that figures out to be about
$215,000. It is most likely closer to $400,000 a month. A Gumby costs the
city $6,100 each and they hold 1,500 receipts inside when fully loaded.
Pioneer Courthouse Square: Portland's Living Room
 On
April 6, 1984, the citizens of Portland inaugurated what has become one
of the most successful public spaces in America. Located in the heart
of downtown Portland,
Pioneer Courthouse Square, a thriving urban park, is affectionately
known as the City's "living room." More than 21,000 people pass by
the Square each day, while thousands more utilize its on-site resources.
Upwards of 300 events take place in the Square each year.
The Square's features include the Waterfall Fountain, built
of granite; sixteen columns with classical pillars topped with carved yellow
roses on which crawl pink-and-green spotted bugs; and two brick amphitheaters
which provide seats for events. Other pieces of artwork include Tom Hardy's
sculpture of three racing horses and J. Seward Johnson's Allow Me,
a bronze statue of a man with an umbrella and an upraised arm.
When the Square was born, the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization,
Pioneer Courthouse Square, Inc., was created to manage this City Park and
is governed by a Board of Trustees.
We Love our Liquids
 It
must be the rain that drives us to drink. Portlanders have the highest
per capita consumption of gourmet coffee bean in the US according to the
New York Times. We also have the second largest number of vineyards
in the nation and about 50 wineries within 100 miles of Portland.
Oregon is noted for two wines: Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris.
Benjamin Franklin once said, "Beer is proof that God loves
us and wants us to be happy." Here in the Northwest's beer mecca you'll
hardly find argument with that notion. We have more microbreweries
per capita than any other city. Walk into a typical pub anywhere
in the country and they brag about having a dozen or so brews on tap.
In Portland, that won't cut it. For example,
Horse Brass Pub in
Southeast Portland has over 50 micro-brews on tap. Portland has a couple of nicknames, "Beervana" and "Brewtopia,"
to mark its thriving microbrewery industry.
Today, Oregonians are once again leading the newest
trend in booze as products from 20 or so small-batch distilleries gain
national attention and recognition. According to Bill Owens, founder and
president of the American Distilling Institute, about 100
microdistillers are operating in the U.S. Twenty of those are in Oregon.
Oregon Distillers Guild − the first such in
the country − is strong evidence that the
state is becoming a leader in artisan spirits, too. The guild,
comprising 16 Oregon craft distillers, operates as a nonprofit
corporation to promote the common interests of the state's licensed
distilling businesses. While most of Oregon's microdistilleries have only been
in operation for a few years, Steve McCarthy of
Clear
Creek Distillery has been in the game for more than two decades.
The Arts
More Oregon adults attend opera, jazz and classical
music concerts, per capita, than in any other state. A geographical
analysis of a
survey released in late 2009 by the National Endowment for the Arts
also showed Oregon was second in overall per-capita attendance at
performing arts events.
The survey also revealed that Oregon ranked number one in the percentage
of adults attending art museums and craft festivals. The survey took
place in May 2008, before the economic squeeze, but, following decades
of scraping the bottom of the national funding barrel, the news came as
a pleasant surprise.
Whether it music, dance, stage, film, or art, you will
find it in Portland. Online event calendars are maintained by the
Portland Visitors
Association and the
Regional
Arts and Culture Council.
 The
Portland Center for the Performing
Arts dominates the performing arts scene
in Portland. PCPA consists of four theaters in three separate
buildings. The facility is the fifth largest venue in the nation and entertains
over one million people each year at over 900 events.
-
Keller Auditorium (formerly the Civic Auditorium)
located at SW Third Avenue between Market and Clay
-
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall at SW Broadway at Main
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The New Theatre Building, containing the Dolores Winningstad
Theatre and the Newmark Theatre at SW Broadway at Main
Stage Major theaters include the
Artists Repertory Theater,
Northwest Children's Theater,
and Portland Center Stage.
Opera and Ballet
Portland Opera
and the Oregon Ballet Theater.
Music
The Oregon Symphony
and Chamber Music Northwest
are the two principal groups for serious music fans. Portland has
a diverse appetite for music. Jazz and bluegrass music is very popular
in the Pacific Northwest and one can always find a jazz club or blues concert
to attend.
Portland City Search keeps track of these events.
Art
Portland Art Museum just
keeps getting better and better. Portland has numerous galleries in the
metro area with the largest concentration in the Pearl District.
Film Housed in the Portland Art Museum, The
Northwest Film Center
is a regional media arts resource and service organization based in Portland
founded to encourage the study, appreciation, and utilization of the moving
image arts.
Professional Sports in Portland
Sport fans who prefer to participate will find options
in Portland for just about every sport they enjoy. With only one nationally
prominent professional team −
Portland
Trail Blazers − sports boosters agree that it not a big
sports town for viewing sports events.
But Portland has loyal Blazers fans which are noted for
their energy. For example, the Lakers have not won at Portland
since February 2005. After a game in
Portland, Lake Coach Phil Jackson said: "You know, we just don't match
their energy." The team security staffer who is with the Lakers on
the road, city to city, night to night, when asked him why he thought
the Rose Garden gave the Lakers fits. "There is not more electricity
anywhere in the league from the crowd," the guard said.
Portland has an AAA baseball
team as of 2001 −
Portland Beavers
− a farm club of the San Diego Padres. Civil Stadium received
a $37 million facelift and a new name (PGE Park) to welcome the Beavers.
After a year of financial problems, new management took over the operation
of the Civil Stadium in 2002. The
Portland Timbers are an expansion franchise of the North American Soccer League. The return of the Portland Timbers in 2001 marks the first
time in nearly 10 years that men's professional soccer will be played at
PGE Park. The Timbers regular season usually starts in late April
and run through early September culminating with the league championship
game the first week of October. The Portland Timbers plan
to renovate PGE Park in advance of their entry into Major League Soccer
in 2011. The
Portland Winter Hawks
are a Western Hockey League team.
There is horse racing at
Portland Meadows
and car racing at the
Portland International
Raceway. Portland is one of just 16 cities that can host CART
Indy car racing. The
Oregon Bicycle Racing Association
sponsors numerous races. Their races at the Alpenrose Velodrome are
exciting. At 268.43 meters around with a 16.6 meter radius and a 43
degree bank, Alpenrose is also one of the steepest velodromes in the country.
 The
Rose City
Rollers are women of attitude, athleticism and passion playing a hard-hitting
sport of speed and skill. They were pioneers in the rebirth of roller derby
and continue to foster its growth. Their goals are to serve their community
by empowering women, providing entertainment for their fans and supporting
charitable causes. They are a non-profit formed in 2004, and a founding
member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.
Track and Field is Oregon's sport as many track and field
athletics through out the world train in Eugene which bills its self as
Track Town USA. The university hosts many prominent track and field events
at Hayward Field including the Olympic trials in 2008 and they will also
host them again in 2012. The restless soul of Oregon resided in Steve Prefontaine
(nicknamed Pre). Born and raised in Coos Bay, Oregon, Prefontaine
was a long-distance runner who once held the American record in the five
distance track events from the 2000 meters to the 10,000 meters. He is known
for his extremely aggressive "front-running" racing style insisting on going
out hard and not relinquishing leads, a tactic that his fans and fellow
competitors admired. On May 30, 1975, returning from a party and after dropping
off friend and distance champion Frank Shorter, Prefontaine was driving
down Skyline Boulevard, east of the University of Oregon campus near Hendricks
Park, when he swerved his 1973 MGB convertible left to avoid crashing into
an oncoming car and hit a rock wall along the side of the street. The overturned
car trapped Prefontaine underneath it and he died due to the weight of the
vehicle. An annual track event, the
Pre Classic, draws thousands of fans every year.
Keep Portland Weird?
 Driving
around Portland, you will notice bumper stickers that say, "Keep
Portland Weird.". The bumper stickers that started to appear in
2004 seem to suggest that Portland is uniquely and unquestionably weird
among American cities. That we became that way. That we always were that
way. That we are weird.
Terry Currier, owner of Music Millennium on East
Burnside Street, says he got the idea for the Weird bumper stickers from
a friend in Austin, Texas who said the bumper stickers were designed to
get people to support local independent businesses, which Currier says
leads to a more diverse and unique city landscape.
Still, when Currier brought the bumper stickers to
Portland, his intent had more to do with commerce than quirky. In fact,
Currier originally made 500 bumper stickers that read, “Keep Portland
Weird, Support Local Business.” They didn’t sell. “The thing with ‘Keep
Portland Weird’ is, it is open to interpretation,” Currier says. People
have bought more than 18,000 of them from Music Millennium, at $2 a
bumper sticker. In Austin, they gave them away.
In a 2009 article in the Portland Tribune, Carl
Abbott, the Portland State University urban historian says it takes more
than a bumper sticker to bend reality. “Except for a handful of
24-year-olds who ride funny looking bicycles, I don’t think Portland is
weird at all,” Abbott says. “I’d call it sincere, earnest, outdoorsy,
old-fashioned, and pleasant. If Portland were a person, you’d be
delighted if your daughter said she planned to marry it.” Here are
a couple of other quotes from the article:
-
“Portland is weird in a very sweet way,” says
Becky Ohlsen, sometime Portland resident who co-wrote Lonely
Planet’s guide to the Pacific Northwest. Some of Ohlsen’s weird
Portland favorites include the Sang-Froid Riding Club (the riding
takes place on motorcycles), and the local adult soapbox derby.
-
If a city’s spirit is revealed by its
architecture, Portland’s spirit is decidedly un-strange, according
to Jonah Cohen, managing principal architect of downtown firm THA
architecture. “It’s conservative, actually,” Cohen says. Cohen is
hard-pressed to name one Portland building that might be considered
avant garde.
Oregonians and Religion Preferences
One of the first things you hear as a new citizen of Portland
is that Oregonians don't attend church like people in other parts of the
U.S. A study by the
American
Religious Identification Survey released in March of 2008 updates a
chapter in the Oregon biography that is as constant as rain: Oregon is one
of the most 'unchurched' state in the nation.
Although Oregon has been the number one "unchurched" state
in previous surveys, the 2008 results showed that some New England states
have surged ahead of us. Vermont leads the nation with 34 percent
of its population replying "none" when asked about their religious identification.
New Hampshire comes in second with 29 percent. Oregon's none's account for
24 percent of the population in 2008 and Washington none's were 25 percent.
Idaho none's were 23 percent. Nationally, none's are 15 percent of the population.
Oregon has always ranked low in religious affiliation.
In 1890, before the U.S. Census stopped asking such questions, just 22 percent
of Oregonians told the government they attended church.
Through the years, scholars have offered several theories
for the Northwest's regional difference; a cultural emphasis on independence,
less interest in connecting to religious institutions and the beauty of
the landscape. They also argued that being "unchurched" didn't mean
that none's weren't interested in spirituality. I've heard hikers comment
that they attend church every Sunday in 'God's Outdoor Cathedral.'
Perhaps Oregonians are changing. A study released
in late 2009 ranks Oregon 40th among the states when it comes to the
significance of religion in people's lives. The state-by-state
Religious Commitment Analysis from the
Pew Forum on
Religion and Public Life found that 46 percent of Oregonians said
religion was "very important in their lives," while 63 percent believe
in God "with absolute certainty." According to the study almost a third
of Oregonians (32 percent) said they attend religious services at least
once a week; 48 percent said they pray at least once a day
Portland Has it Own Brand of Christianity
In Portland and nationally, a new breed of churches often
labeled "emergent" is carving out an alternative to the suburban megachurch.
For example, there's
Imago Dei,
founded by an ex-college football player named Rick McKinley. His church,
which has gone from meeting in his living room to holding multiple services
at a school, emphasizes art, music and social activism. Like many emergent
churches, it draws a young, hipster-flavored crowd. Another popular
emergent church is led by Bob Hyatt, the 35-year-old pastor of the
Evergreen Community.
Read more about the
Emergent Church.
The movement's unofficial leader is Portland author
Donald Miller.
Miller is an oddity among Christian authors. Most Evangelists Christians
don't care for him one bit. His fans, however, love him. Since
2003, Miller's memoir Blue Like Jazz has sold 150,000 copies and
his latest book, Searching for God Knows What is selling well.
As reported in the Willamette Week on February 2, 2005, "Miller is a Portland
writer to the core. His nonfiction, first-person stories take place in this
city's taverns, cafes, streets, parks and colleges. His moody, meandering
style is pitch-perfect young Rose City bohemian prose. His cast of characters
draws heavily on Portland's deep pool of oddballs."
Donald Miller is part of a loose network of evangelical
thinkers and writers who are trying, in fact, is to make the Rose City the
hub of a national network of unconventional Christian writers, which he's
calling the
Burnside
Writers Collective. There's Chris Seay, author of books called The
Gospel According to Tony Soprano and The Tao of Enron; McKinley,
pastor of Miller's own congregation, Imago Dei, published Jesus in the
Margins: Finding God in the Places We Ignore in early 2005. Christian
publishing is, by some estimates, the fastest-growing segment of the book
industry. According to the Association of American Publishers, sales of
religious titles jumped 37 percent in 2003 and increased again in 2004.
Oregonians and Free Speech
 Oregon
is where speech is freer than anywhere else in the nation -- or for that
matter, perhaps the world. Written in 1857, Oregon's
free-speech guarantee in an article of the state constitution. It reads:
"No law shall be passed restraining the free expression of opinion, or restricting
the right to speak, write, or print freely on any subject whatever; but
every person shall be responsible for the abuse of this right."
This language is broader -- "any subject whatever" -- than
the First Amendment. During the 1980s, the Oregon court concluded that Article
18 absolutely forbids government from passing laws directed at the content
of what residents express. This jurisprudence has made Oregon's free-speech
law the most protective in the nation.
So don't be alarmed if you see offensive displays of materials,
nude dancing advertisements, or protesters in Portland. And to "top
it all off", Oregon is number two in per-capita strip clubs in the USA (2.6
per 100,000 residents). It's all about the Oregon constitution
and not lax enforcement.
Portland Metro Area Politics
How liberal is Portland? Very if you consider presidential
elections. The first President Bush called Portland "Little Beirut" for
the hostile receptions he could rely on, and his son hasn't fared any better.
In the presidential elections of 2004, Bush received just 27.28% of
the votes in Multnomah County where Portland is located and John Kerry received
71.92% of the votes. You can see from these statistics that Portland
has been called "The People's Republic of Portland." As you proceed east
in Multnomah County, Bush did better and even won some precincts. In Clackamas
County, an area of suburban communities (e.g., Lake Oswego, West Linn, etc.)
just south/southwest of Portland, Bush won with 50.46% of the votes. In
the 2008 presidential election, Obama got 54% and McCain 44%. In the 2004
presidential election in Washington County (e.g., Beaverton, Hillsboro,
etc.), Kerry won by 52.48% - Bush received 46.66%. In 2008, Barrack
Obama won by over 20 percentage points in Washington County - he received
60% of the vote and McCain got 38%.
2008 Presidential Election - Multnomah County
Ralph Nader: 1.14%
Cynthia McKinney (PAC): .33%
John McCain (REP): 20.66%
Bob Barr (LIB): .33%
Chuck Baldwin (CON): .25%
Barack Obama (DEM): 76.65%
On some issues, the Portland metro area votes more like
a block. When Oregon had its vote on anti-gay legislation, the Portland
area rose in opposition against it, and outweighed the predominantly conservative
rural areas of Oregon that voted in favor of it. In 2000, Measure
9 (prohibited public school instruction encouraging, promoting, sanctioning
homosexual, bisexual behaviors) was defeated 55%-45%, with much of the 55%
from the Portland metro area.
Statewide Oregon is more of a blue state than a red state
and it appears that it is getting bluer with each election. By a fraction
of a percent in the presidential election in 2000 and in 2004 by a 1.5 percent
points (Kerry got 51.54% and Bush 47.49%). In 2008, Obama got 57%
of the vote while McCain got 41%.
Oregon's U.S. Senators are both Democrats (Ron Wyden and
Jeff Merkley). Merkley defeated Gordon Smith in the 2008 election
- he received 49% of the vote and Smith received 46%. Of the five members
in the US House of Representatives, four are Democrats.
Voter registration in Oregon: 936,735 Democrats to
697,309 Republicans along with 433,959 Independents. By election time in
2008, Democrats outnumbered Republicans statewide by nearly 240,000 voters.
State Offices and State Legislature
Oregon House members must run for re-election every two
years. Senators serve four-year terms, with half the Senate appearing on
the ballot every two years. A party needs at least 31 seats in the House
and 16 in the Senate to control both chambers. The state legislature has
been controlled by Republicans in the 90s and early 2000s. In 2004,
the Democrats took over the senate by a couple of votes and held control
by two senators in the 2008 election. House Democrats, who had a 31-29
edge over minority Republicans, picked up six more seats in the 2008 election.
In 2008, all of the state office holders are Democrats.
Portland Voter Never Met a Tax They Didn't Like
In the 1960s, voters turned down two-thirds of the tax
measures the city put on the ballot. Over time, the ratio has reversed.
In the past 10 years, voters said 'yes' to 13 out of 22 tax measures in
Portland. Three of the nine measures that failed fell victim to voter turnouts
of less than 50 percent (though all three subsequently passed in November
elections when the turnout rule didn't apply). And Portland voters said
yes to light-rail bonds in 1998, but the measure failed when more voters
in Washington and Clackamas County said no.
In 2008, Portland voter approved tax increases for the
zoo, Portland Community College and city children's programs despite a struggling
economy.
Elections Division
The Oregon Elections Division has a comprehensive Web site
about Oregon elections at
http://www.sos.state.or.us/electionss.
Oregon Vote by Mail
The Oregon Legislature approved mail voting as an option
for local elections in 1981. In November 1998, Oregon voters overwhelmingly
approved Measure 60, making it the first and only state to go to a complete
mail-voting system. Like Oregon Death with Dignity Law, the Vote by
Mail statue has been challenged and the law upheld. Read more about
Oregon's Vote by Mail law on the Secretary of State's
Web site.
Other Information
The
Bay Area Center for Voting Research released a study in the Summer of
2005 and ranked metro areas as liberal or conservative. Portland "Liberal
Rank" was 29 and its "Conservative Rank" 208. The report said that
Portland's "Liberal % of Total Vote" was 76.04 percent (Conservative was
23.96%).
The metro area has its share of conservative talk show
hosts, the most popular one is nationally syndicated
Lars Larsonson.
The Lars Larson Show can be heard on
KXL radio station - 750
on the AM dial. Lars' counterpart on the print side is The Oregonian
conservative columnist
David Reinhard.
Online Guides to Portland
Portland has one daily newspaper,
The Oregonian and
another weekly publication called
Portland Tribune.
Both offer many of their "print" articles online. The Tribune has
many human interest stories − it uncovers the Portland spirit in many of
their stories. Portland has numerous weekly publications including
the Willamette Week and
their lead story is always interesting. Their emphasis is on
the entertainment scene. They won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005
for uncovering the sex scandal of former Oregon governor Neil Goldschmidt.
Their claim, ". . . remain fiercely independent, and we strive to maintain
an edge."
Portland Picks
is a subscription-driven weekly newsletter delivered to subscribers each
Friday via email. It is a newsletter of 'City Secrets' and it reaches mostly
women who like to shop and purchase items and services that enhance the
quality of their lives.
Oregon Newspapers
offers links to over 100 newspapers in Oregon. This includes community weekly
papers - check out the stories in smaller towns like Astoria and Pendleton.
Now that we covered the commercial online guides, "kick
back" and explore Portland with Sandy Herring, creator of
At
NationMaster you will find hundreds of links to sites that give you
insight into Portland's soul − it is full of demographics information.
If you believe that a picture is worth a thousand words, visit
Andrew's Home Sweet Home
site. He has some beautiful pictures of Portland as well as the Oregon
coast. If you like outdoor activities, go to
Matthew Weaver's
site. Matthew tells us that he has "developed a great affinity for the amazing
natural sites here and in Washington." Much of this Web site are "virtual
tours" of his travels and mountaineering adventures in the Pacific Northwest.
As a bonus, his site has tours of all 30 Major League Baseball Parks.
Portland
Blogs provides a complete list of all the bloggers who call Portland
home.
 Portland
Story Project When it comes to telling people about your hometown,
often an anecdote means more than all the maps and guidebooks put together.
The Portland
Story Project is an online collection of written tales about what it’s
like to live in Portland. It was started in early 2005 by a couple who prefer
to remain anonymous. He goes by the name “M” and is from New York whereas
she is “C” from Florida. They get five or six submissions a week, including
a lot of pictures. Most of the stories are not just anecdotes but also the
sort of prose one reserves for love letters. As of mid March 2008,
the site was not up so the project may have been cancelled.
The Creative People of the Portland Metro Area
The Young and the Restless Scholars have increasingly
highlighted the economic importance of talented workers, the people
Richard Florida
calls the "Creative Class." These writers, designers, engineers, architects,
researchers and others create the ideas that drive business success and
regional progress. They're the "Young and the Restless," a powerhouse of
creative and talented 25- to 34-year-olds settling in the Portland area
at five times the national rate. Metropolitan Portland ranked eighth
among the top 50 U.S. metro areas in population growth in this age group;
it was fourth in the growth of college-educated 25- to-34-year-olds, with
a 50 percent gain. Portland gained young people from 43 of the 50 largest
metropolitan areas in the nation.
Read the
Young and the
Restless: How Portland Competes for Talent report. Research for
the report was undertaken by Impresa, Inc. and Coletta & Company on behalf
of Portland Development Commission, Westside Economic Alliance, City of
Beaverton, City of Hillsboro, City of Tualatin, and Nike.
Greenlight
Greater Portland, a privately funded economic development group, issued
a "prosperity index" in early June 2008 that compared the metro area with
nine other Western cities and touted its robust economic prospects over
the next five years. Richard Florida was present at the release of the report.
Greenlight's report follows in Florida's footsteps, comparing business,
demographic and quality-of-life in Portland to those of nine other hot metropolitan
areas in the West, including Seattle, San Francisco, Denver and Austin,
Texas. Greenlight predicts that Portland's economy will expand 29 percent
by 2013, outpacing all but Austin's growth during the period.
Science Lectures Draw Inquiring and Thirsty Minds
Recent college grads, retirees and working folks stream
into the Mission Theater and fill their tables with pizza, burgers and pitchers
of beer. The topic of the night is engineering. More than 200 people
gather monthly at "science pubs" in Portland to talk about everything from
the physics of fun to volcanology, from nanotechnology to engineering solutions
for water shortages in developing countries.
When: Last Tuesday of the month from 7 to 9 p.m. at the
Mission Theater at 1624 N.W. Glisan. Doors open at 5 p.m. Suggested
cover charge: $2. More information:
OMSI Science.
Portland Metro Area Demographics
U.S. Census Demographic Data To view
data from the U.S. Census for the Portland metro area
visit the Portland State University
Population Research Center. Below are the numbers from the
2000 census:
-
Population 1,572,771 million people live
in the Portland Metro area (Multnomah Country which includes most of
the City of Portland), Clackamas County (southeast), Washington County
(west), and Clark Country (Vancouver area of Washington state).
-
Portland Population in 2007 568,380 -
an increase of 7.4% from 2000.
-
Oregon Population 3,791,075 live in Oregon
as of July 1, 2008.
-
Households 614,568 total households.
63.7% of the households are family households and 36.3% are nonfamily
households. 49.8% are married couples with a family and 9.8% are
female householder with no husband present.
-
Race/Ethnicity 80.5% are whites; 2.9%
black; 0.9% are American Indian or Alaska Native; 4.9% are Asian, 0.3%
are Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 4.1% are some other
race, 3.3% are two or more races. The Hispanic or Latino make
up 8% of the total population.
-
2005 Update Oregon inched ahead of Kansas
in diversity between 2000 and 2005, Census Bureau data indicate, edging
out Kansas for 31st in the nation when it comes to the percentage of
nonwhites in its population. Between 2000 and 2005, Oregon's and Washington's
nonwhite populations both grew about 2 percentage points, Washington's
to 23 percent and Oregon's to about 18.5 percent. In Oregon, Hispanics
now make up 10 percent of the state's residents.
-
Age The median age is 34.9. 27%
are 19 and under and 10% are 65 or older.
-
Education Attainment 20.2% hold a Bachelor's
degree. 87.1% are high school graduates or higher.
-
Residence in 1995 12.6% lived in a different
state in 1995.
-
Nativity and Place of Birth 87.7%
born in USA; 11.4 foreign born.
-
Region of Birth of Foreign Born Europe
20%; Asia 34%; Latin America 37%.
-
Ancestry 20.9% German, 12.8% English,
11.9% Irish; 4.7% Norwegian, and 3.5% Swedish.
-
Labor Force 851,671 or 69.5% of population.
-
Commuting to Work 71.9% drove alone;
11.5% carpooled; 7.1% public transportation; 3.3% walked, 1.6% other;
4.6% worked at home.
-
Mean Travel Time to Work 24.5 minutes.
-
Income in 1999 Median household income
was $46,789; median family income $56,045, per capita income $23,732;
median earnings for full-time males (year-round workers) $40,214; median
earnings for full-time females (year-round workers) $30,094.
-
Poverty Status in 1999 6.2% (24,605 total)
of the families below poverty level. 19,860 of these families have children
under 18 years of age living with them and 10,939 families have children
under 5 year of age living with them.
-
Housing 62% live in owner-occupied housing
units and 38% live in renter occupied housing units.
For more details, download the document titled
Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000
Geographic Area: Portland--Vancouver, OR--WA PMSA.
Other Information About Portland
Portland Notables
Visit the page called
Kudos to learn the "praises" as
well as the "not so good" about Portland and Oregon.
Who Lives in Portland
Click
here to view a partial list of Portlanders, people from or
with connections to Portland, Oregon; a separate list of people from
Oregon is available.
Liquids
-
Portland has the highest per capita consumption
of gourmet coffee bean in the US according to the New York Times.
-
Portland has more microbreweries per capita than
any other city. Portland has a couple of nicknames,
"Beervana" and "Brewtopia," to mark its thriving microbrewery industry.
-
462 vineyards in state - 47 wineries
within 100 miles of Portland.
Outdoors
-
Skiing at
Mt. Hood Timberline is almost a year-around activity.
The high-speed Palmer lift begins operations each spring and it
whisks skiers close to the summit.
-
Oregon's
363 miles of beaches and dunes are open to the public.
You can hike the entire coast except for 42 miles of headwalls (sheer
cliffs).
Parks
-
Portland Parks and Recreation Department manages over 200 parks
which amounts to 10,763 acres.
-
Forest
Park is the 14th largest city park in the USA. Forest
Park covers 5,000 plus acres, has 74 miles of trails, and 100 plus
bird and animal species.
-
Mill Ends Park with a diameter of only 24 inches,
is the world's smallest park.
-
Mt. Tabor, in southeast Portland, is the only
extinct volcano within a city in the USA.
Business and Economic Data
-
Portland is home to the largest independent bookstore
in the world,
Powell's City of Books.
-
Largest employers in the metro area: Intel
(14,000-16,000), Fred Meyer, Providence Health System, Oregon Health
Sciences University, Legacy Health System, Freightliner, and Nike.
-
Saturday
Market is one of the largest open air craft markets operating
continuously in the country.
-
No pennies needed. Oregon does not have
a sales tax.
-
No pumping your own gas. Oregon is one of
two states that does not permit self service stations. New
Jersey is the other.
-
Portland
Business Journal An online source of business news for
Portland.
-
Portland Development Commission PDC's "Publications" section
on their Web site has online demographic information in four categories
(General, Development, Economic Development, and Housing).
-
Portland's Consumer Price Index All Urban Consumers (CPI-U)
was 194.5 (1982-84=100) during the first half of 2005. This means
a market basket of goods and services that cost $100.00 in 1982-84
would have cost $194.50 during the first six months of 2005. Local
area CPI data are not seasonally adjusted.
-
Regional
Business The federal government ranks the Portland-Vancouver
area as the nation’s 25th largest metropolitan area. It has a population
of roughly 2 million people, of whom more than 1 million are employed.
The gross metropolitan product — the total value of all goods and
services produced in the region — is about $80 billion a year. Total
output in the region expanded from $38.7 billion in 1992 to $76.9
billion in 2002, an annual increase of 7.1 percent per year over
the decade, making it the 10th fastest growing of the nation’s 50
largest metropolitan areas.
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