PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

Good Morning, Portland!

by Claire Dederer, January 3, 2011 12:01 PM

Good morning, Portland! Up here in Seattle, we... well, we hate you. We hate you for being cooler than us, and for having better restaurants. We hate you because, while we were getting all overexcited during the tech boom and building terrible, terrible buildings, you were passing ordinances that basically turned your city into Sweden. Convenient transit. Nice-looking young folk in dun-colored clothing. Bikes everywhere. You probably get paid to have babies in Portland. Do you? Of course you do. And I hate you for it. I when I say "hate," I guess I mean "love." Sometimes that happens.

Here in Seattle, we believed in capitalism for years and years, even though we pretended it wasn't capitalism. We pretended it was a revolution. The whole city was obsessed with making money. Meanwhile, you guys were creating a tiny pinko dream state. Sigh. As far as I can tell, nobody in Portland actually goes to work. They browse record bins. They mulch. And they hang around at Powell's. That's why I love to visit Portland. I can immerse myself in your strange atmosphere of industrious leisure.

Here's what I would do if I was spending the day in Portland:

Breakfast at the Daily Cafe.

Powell's.

Lunch at the Daily Cafe.

Powell's.

Then I would skulk into that Anthropologie across the street and spend some time mauling the sale racks.

Then a lamb sandwich at Brasserie Montmartre. (Despite the remodel.)

And then, of course, lots and lots of video poker. It's the opiate of the masses, I hear.

But I am in Seattle (or near Seattle, on what a friend refers to as "your precious little island"). So I will instead spend today as I spend every day: trying to figure out how to pay my mortgage.

Books mentioned in this post

Poser My Life in Twenty Three Yoga Poses

Claire Dederer

Best Books of 2022: Fiction by Powell's Staff
The Big List of Backlist: Books That Got Us Through 2022 by Powell's Staff
25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell's Staff
Powell's 2023 Book Preview: The First Quarter by Powell's Staff
7 Essential Authors Recommend Their 7 Essential Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Powell's Staff

Blog Categories

25 Responses to "Good Morning, Portland!"

beebee January 8, 2011 at 12:05 AM

hey!!! I picked your book up TWICE tonight at ..... you guessed it, POWELL's! I bought Wally Lamb and Mary Roach instead. I had never heard of you, I'm sorry. Well, now I have. Kind of. Glad you like PDX! I've lived here all my life. I concur with bits of most comments here - the economy sucks, and it's embarrassing how hip the picture of us is right now. I think it makes us blush a little and stresses us out that we have to live up to it. I don't find us especially quaint, hip or cool. But I do think we're willing to be individuals. And we admit we're neurotic and we would like to just be left alone. As far as our food - Stumptown coffee is good. Period. Our food carts are outstanding. Try the ones on Hawthorne and 12th. Also, the carts by the Governor Hotel all stand out, and you can walk to Powell's from there. We have a wonderful mix of people here. Despite our lack of African Americans, we have communities of Vietnamese, Ukranian, Iranian, Lebanese and Hispanic peoples that keep our taste buds interested! Wander up and through the Eastside and you'll find some wonderful fare. Oh, and Powell's has an annex on Hawthorne.

lookitsablog January 6, 2011 at 08:03 PM

How or why did this post make it as far as it did? It reads like a high-school "compare and contrast" essay, with a few attempts at humor thrown in. Blah. I'm betting it didn't help her book sales much.

Jen January 5, 2011 at 06:37 PM

idk. I think you might not want to talk about the EMT if you are heading to anthropologie. There are better store than that-maybe Matisse on broadway? lol. Also: I would switch my lunch with either Nicholas's or Cup & Saucer, and breakfast would be a combo of voodoo & stumptown. Have fun in Portland, I miss it so much.

John January 5, 2011 at 02:50 PM

Actually, you wouldn't be doing any of those things because you would be struggling to find work which isn't here. You would be anxious and worried about making ends meet, and depressed because you want to work hard but there are precious few opportunities here. \Stop making this city into something that it isn't. It's disrespectful to the people who actually live here.

Katie Scarlett January 4, 2011 at 07:59 PM

What is wonderful about both Seattle and Portland is that we can work and have a family life in livable neighborhoods close to downtown. It's true that Portland is the darling of the outside world right now, but the picture the media represents is no more accurate than most other press of this type. For a test, read any travel section about your own town. They highlight a few unusual places that most locals would never go and activities most people would never do.

Suntee January 4, 2011 at 05:45 PM

As a native Portlander who has lived in Seattle for the past 29 years, I see the truth in this article. I love both Seattle and Portland for different reasons. I visit Portland several times a year because I have a large extended family that lives there. Seattle has grown a lot since I moved here in 1982. I hardly recognize the parts of town that used to be funky, affordable and working class. There has been unbridled development in Seattle that has sacrificed a lot of the charm and character that enchanted me originally. However, Seattle is a gorgeous city and still has many treasures: the views of the Olympics and Cascades, jaunts around Green Lake, Folklife Festival, Pike Place Market, KUOW radio, and more ethnic diversity than Portland. In my corner of Seattle I know lots of folks who are vegetarians, animal lovers, hula hoopers, practictioners of yoga, bike riders, etc. You can't really generalize about Portlanders and Seattlites because there are materialistic people in both places. I think that Seattle does have lessons to learn from Portland. Sometimes I wish that I could move back to Portland. But it does lack the diversity that I value for my multiethnic family-- and in many cases the jobs. There are strengths and challenges in the public school systems in both places. However, i can't afford private schools in Seattle, so my child attends public and it's a mixed bag--some aspects are excellent and wonderful and some aspects are less than positive. I think our society as a whole needs to re-evaluate and start focusing on what counts most, what we value. Booming development, pushing standardized tests and running schools like corporations are not what I personally value.

Result(s) 1-6 of 25