SEATTLE STYLE: WHERE THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BEGINS

Seattle style is a picture artists could paint and it wouldn’t look like Portland.

But the comparisons never end.

Get on the whine line and listen.

Seattle traffic, Seattle housing, Seattle expansion.

Look down the road and hear the same thing about Portland traffic, Portland housing, Portland expansion.

Although cites across America lay claim to being the ‘Portland’ of their region, why isn’t Seattle mentioned in the same conversation?

The Seattle of the South? The Seattle of the Midwest? Sorry, Asheville, North Carolina and Minneapolis have it covered.

Why isn’t Seattle the Portland of Puget Sound?

Because Seattle style isn’t looking anywhere for a new identity.

Portland carried an inside joke: it’s the place where rich hippies came to retire, get high, and paint their house purple. And send their kids to Reed.

Or they came to live under the radar and contribute to worthwhile causes.

Does that make Portland any different than other cities?

Like Seattle?

Seattle is the most ‘east coast’ city out west?

Take a look under the Seattle hood, behind the flash and glass, and you’ll see the the grit and grime of a rust belt city, not a vacation destination.

If Seattle is as ‘eastie’ as advertised, it’s because of the grab and go mentality, the ‘see it, get it, got it,’ attitude. The New York minute is a minute and half in Seattle, but the goal is the same.

Where is the Portlandia vibe there? Where is Seattleville? The sharing, caring, the giving back?

If you need to contemplate an egg before you poach it, scramble it, boil it, or fry it, don’t do it in Seattle.

Wait too long on that egg and it’ll hatch, turn into a Vulcan, and start buying property near the Space Needle for Paul Allen to lease to Amazon.

Yes, that Paul Allen, the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks, and loads more. Now it’s his sister, Jodie.

Not a man to sit on his bag of gold, Allen and Seattle fit together like a Nordstroms ensemble of color, texture, and style.

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And he’s got company.

Amazon defied trends when it stayed in the city rather than moving out to the suburbs. That’s partially because Amazon is willing to take risks, even if they don’t always pay off — it’s one of the core leadership philosophies that the company follows to this day.

When big money companies stake their future to a particular urban core, things in the core change.

Until Portland gets the sort of local commitment from people who could move their operations to a more convenient locality, like Seattle with a seaport instead of a river port, the scales will remain tipped.

Until Portland convinces people and companies with name recognition to fly their flags high over River City, it will remain ‘that place,’ where things get done elsewhere without upsetting the special local status.

Call me sentimental, but I’d love seeing a Nike Swoosh flag flying off the highest flagpole and dominating downtown Portland.

Could it happen in Seattle first?

Big Money, Bigger City

If Portland missed the boat on being the next Seattle, good job Oregon.

Get out in the world and ask people about Portland.

“Have your heard of Portland, Oregon?”

London taxi driver: “No.”

“How about Seattle, Washington?”

“Seattle? Of course. I’ve visited Seattle. It was beautiful.”

“Portland is beautiful, too.”

“Where is Portland?”

Seattle Style From France

We hosted a foreign exchange student supervisor from France.

He was a man in his mid-twenties who had the travel bug bad.

The world was his front porch and he knew his way around.

He spent time in both Seattle and Vancouver after I dropped him off in downtown Portland to catch a bus.

The guy has a special place in my heart for that bus ride.

Before I became a suburban fixture, I was a public transportation guy.

I’ve been on the bus for days at a time, crossing the country on the last run from Manhattan’s Port Authority on the west side, to old town Portland.

Tri-met was my ride for years of suburban living.

It’s a comfort knowing travel people who get to where they’re going any way it takes.

Seattle style feels like some of the same. It’s going somewhere and taking everyone along.

The big question: Will Portland follow along?

Portland says: