Thank you for compiling this record of local folks' thoughts that plays against the simplistic national narrative. I live in PDX, and I love this city. One of your interviewees makes a good point about the "old" PDX, when it was more blue collar, left-leaning libertarian. And while, as your final interviewee pointed out, in some district…
Thank you for compiling this record of local folks' thoughts that plays against the simplistic national narrative. I live in PDX, and I love this city. One of your interviewees makes a good point about the "old" PDX, when it was more blue collar, left-leaning libertarian. And while, as your final interviewee pointed out, in some districts it's been washed out and NIMBYized with superficially "progressive" gentrification, there's still plenty of the old Portland where the majority of Portlanders live, which is outside of downtown and the strips on the inner east side. She's right about Laurelhurst, but most people I know live around Foster, or in Cully, or St Johns, or east of 82nd. All of which are still pretty old school.
But the past few months have brought an exhausting barrage of messages from family around the country. The messages are often framed as "concern", but usually link to some new outrage article about how liberal politics have turned Portland into a war zone, and the underlying theme is "you moved to antifa town, what a mistake. How do you like the chaos now?" Well, I support the protests, and it's not chaos. I mean, I grew up in Los Angeles in the 80s. I saw a guy stabbed to death outside my apartment window. I've lived in NYC, Mexico, Bangkok, Buenos Aires. Portland feels like one of the safest cities on earth. I can understand why someone from Newberg who never leaves Yamhill County might think it's super dirty and dangerous here in the "big city", but imagine what they'd think walking down Hollywood Blvd. Let alone Patpong Road. It's just insane that the Yamhill view of Portland has become this national obsession.
And you know, rural conservative white evangelicals also think that Chicago, New York, and LA are "hell holes", but I've come to think that the reason they put so much extra focus on Portland is that it's mostly white, and there are white liberals doing a lot of the protesting. I think that bothers them and scares them more. Perhaps on some level they view us as race traitors. I think it's easier for them to dismiss anti-racism in a minority-majority, mixed race big city like Chicago or LA, than it is to dismiss homegrown anti-fascism in a small, mostly white town. This is a thing I haven't heard anyone talk about.
Anyway, it just makes me prouder of this city. This is a place you could always sit down at a bar and end up talking to a trans activist on one side, a redneck on the other side, and an antifascist further down. It's a freewheeling, open conversation unlike so many other places in America where the only ideas people get are a one-way stream from their TV. I wouldn't trade living here for anywhere else.
Thank you for compiling this record of local folks' thoughts that plays against the simplistic national narrative. I live in PDX, and I love this city. One of your interviewees makes a good point about the "old" PDX, when it was more blue collar, left-leaning libertarian. And while, as your final interviewee pointed out, in some districts it's been washed out and NIMBYized with superficially "progressive" gentrification, there's still plenty of the old Portland where the majority of Portlanders live, which is outside of downtown and the strips on the inner east side. She's right about Laurelhurst, but most people I know live around Foster, or in Cully, or St Johns, or east of 82nd. All of which are still pretty old school.
But the past few months have brought an exhausting barrage of messages from family around the country. The messages are often framed as "concern", but usually link to some new outrage article about how liberal politics have turned Portland into a war zone, and the underlying theme is "you moved to antifa town, what a mistake. How do you like the chaos now?" Well, I support the protests, and it's not chaos. I mean, I grew up in Los Angeles in the 80s. I saw a guy stabbed to death outside my apartment window. I've lived in NYC, Mexico, Bangkok, Buenos Aires. Portland feels like one of the safest cities on earth. I can understand why someone from Newberg who never leaves Yamhill County might think it's super dirty and dangerous here in the "big city", but imagine what they'd think walking down Hollywood Blvd. Let alone Patpong Road. It's just insane that the Yamhill view of Portland has become this national obsession.
And you know, rural conservative white evangelicals also think that Chicago, New York, and LA are "hell holes", but I've come to think that the reason they put so much extra focus on Portland is that it's mostly white, and there are white liberals doing a lot of the protesting. I think that bothers them and scares them more. Perhaps on some level they view us as race traitors. I think it's easier for them to dismiss anti-racism in a minority-majority, mixed race big city like Chicago or LA, than it is to dismiss homegrown anti-fascism in a small, mostly white town. This is a thing I haven't heard anyone talk about.
Anyway, it just makes me prouder of this city. This is a place you could always sit down at a bar and end up talking to a trans activist on one side, a redneck on the other side, and an antifascist further down. It's a freewheeling, open conversation unlike so many other places in America where the only ideas people get are a one-way stream from their TV. I wouldn't trade living here for anywhere else.