CLASSIC PORTLAND RIVALRY

Social media Portland isn’t for the weak of heart.

It’s either heaven on earth, or a hell hole from the underworld sticky goo.

If you showed up recently, things are looking better; if you’ve been here a minute you’ve seen the ups and downs.

Lastly, if you’ve lived here your whole life? Uh oh.

I googled Best Portland Blogs and the list is long, long, long. Maybe endless?

After the 25th page of google, which I checked, and you  can too, I found this:

In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 250 already displayed.
If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.

 

Did I read them all? Nooooo. Come on, who reads them all?

But this one stood out.

Emily Henderson of ‘Style By Emily Henderson’ caught my attention with one of her blog post titles:

 

After A Year And A Half In Portland Here’s How It’s Going – Is It Everything We Predicted Or Expected? It’s A Long One…

Yes, it is a long one, but it opens with the best hook:

 

Everyone asks, “how’s it going living in Portland?” so over the break I took a cool 10-15 hours to write about how we’ve acclimated to Portland – and similar to a journal entry, it’s full of self-reflection, with a heavy dose of self-indulgence.

 

Self-reflection? Self-indulgence? Since it’s a blog post it better have lots of self reflection and indulgence. That’s what we’re here for. But there was more:

 

1979 – 1995: Born and Raised in Coos Bay, Oregon, way out in the country and it was cloudy 80% of my life.

 

Born and raised in Coos Bay, Oregon means Bay Area Hospital, Marshfield Pirates, and the Egyptian Theater.

If she’d been born and raised in North Bend it would have been Bay Area Hospital, North Bend Bulldogs, and the Port Theater.

What’s the big difference?

From the outside looking in, not much. From the inside looking out, it was huge.

It’s where we learned about town rivalries, and where we learned to have a sense of humor about it.

I don’t remember anyone laughing in high school, but everything gets nostalgic the older you get. Lol.

 

One Classic Portland Rivalry

When I’ve been out of the country I’ve asked people if they’ve ever heard of Portland.

Most often it’s a hard no, but they’ve heard of San Francisco and Seattle, just not Portland.

Do I pump the Portland food scene, the Portland beer scene? Oregon wine on boomerpdx? Broadway theaters? Would they care?

Nooooo.

The Orpheum turned into Nordstroms, the Broadway and Fox are replaced by towers, and the Paramount is now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall,

It seems the biggest rivals of Portland are the surrounding suburbs of Beaverton and Hillsboro to the west on 26, Tigard and Tualatin to the south on 5, and Gresham to the east on 84.

Based on traffic reports that say I5 north is jammed everyday from downtown Portland to the border, Vancouver, Washington is the biggest rival.

 

However, in my opinion, my esteemed opinion because if you’re calling yourself out for an opinion why not be esteemed, the biggest Portland rivalry today is the same rivalry it’s always been.

Can you guess it? Take two, maybe three. What is the classic Portland rivalry?

While you thing about it:

 

 

This is the Portland Mark Rothko painted in 1928.

 

The Portland Art Museum is host to yet another distinguished guest, in fact it’s a work painted in Portland by our most famous local artist, Marcus Rothkowitz (aka Mark Rothko).

The painting is currently on display in the third floor of the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art. The ca. 1928 oil painting “Landscape (View of Portland)” was made long before his signature style of the late 40’s and depicts the then new Ross Island Bridge from Pill Hill, a moody grey sky and Mt Hood.

Overall, it is most strongly influenced by Cezanne. Rothkowitz had his first solo show at the Portland Art Museum in 1933 and went to Lincoln High School (which also boasts Matt Groening & Mel Blanc).

 

After Rothko discovered the paint roller, he worked a different side of the street.

 

More Classic Portland Rivalry

You won’t find any social media for a Portland rivalry like you’re about to find on boomerpdx.

No one has time for that when there’s so much to do, places to go, people to meet. You know, the usual.

But I do, with inspiration from Emily Henderson.

I’m teeming with energy just thinking about the classic Portland Rivalry.

Have you guessed it yet? Noooo, it’s not a reuben sandwich. (Hey D)

 

 

The classic human rivalry is Man vs Himself.

The two images in this section show the battle.

It’s the same with the city vs itself.

In this case it’s Little Big City Portland vs Big Little City Portland.

Big little city Portland is a destination for bigger brands and bigger names with new people moving in, people pulling a wagon full of wives and kids and expectations to a new place where they bet their careers and marriages on ‘making it here.’

Or the other thing.

Little big city Portland is where mid-level executives come to prove themselves while climbing the corporate ladder to the corner office in New York with a park view.

Big Portland people invest in the community, create social media excitement, and send their kids to Reed College.

Little Portland people are hustling hard and leaving decisions to spouses and agents until they can shake the dust of this western outpost off their shiny shoes and start living like real people and seeing shows on the real Broadway.

Big Portland steamrolled south Portland to build the Memorial Coliseum, then did a land swap to northeast.

Little Portland was too busy to care.

Big Portland welcomed the First Interstate Bank Tower and on reflection said, “Let’s not do this again.”

Bigger Portland said, “Hold my beer.”

Little Portland said, “What?”

The Architectural Heritage Center says:

 

Buildings perched on two downtown Portland square blocks – both drenched with decades of legal history as well as architectural significance – sit empty these days with no new uses in sight.

Both buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Both these buildings deserve brighter futures, as does the neighborhood they share in Downtown Portland.  Great minds need to get to work to find answers.

PS:

Should Portland claim the vacant and misused buildings in town? Looking at the two courthouses, one federal, one county.

 

PSS:

Whether here for a long time, or a good time, you’re only minutes away from forest bathing, also known as a walk in the woods.

Why not stick around, pilgrim.