Here you go, clever bunnies.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1242420993…

Not to mention those damn derty fer'ners takin' all our alt-weekly editorial positions.

Just kiddin' Matt. No one really wants your job anyways.

Is Matt an editor and I never realized it? That would explain so much.

Wait... are you saying that Matt isn't an editor? That he's supposed to be a reporter and his articles are supposed to be treated as factual?

That's really fucked up.

Kiala needs to get back here so we can all properly Voltron with trivia cat.

Look up, Jasun.

No apologies necessary, Jasun. Keep up the awesome recall drama and you can do no wrong by me.

I think you missed the optimism in the article, Matt: look at the local businesses mentioned, Willamette Week, HotLips Pizza, Boly:Welch Recruiting. good for them, just for existing, too bad the Mercury didn't get a shout-out too, maybe you should let them know how well the escort service ads are doing?

This could be a good thing. I honestly wouldn't mind if this article caused some people to think twice about moving here right now.

Hey Sam Adams et al, I have an idea... why don't we all get together and have a "hipster lottery" of sorts (or maybe elections) where selected folks [cultural emissaries] get to go and "colonize" a particularly dull backwoods (perhaps Midwest?) city/town, where the rent is cheap and there are lots of service-industry jobs. Mandatory minimums of good coffee, venues/music booking, foodie culture, arts, bikes, etc. will be established and maintained (we can use the stadium money to fund it). City by city, we make each and every place in this country a "cool" place to be, so then everyone can share the load. Like Shirley Jackson, but with hipsters instead of kids and you have to go live in Des Moines, Iowa instead of be killed.

For the record, I am a carpetbagger, not a hipster, and this place has been home, on and off, since the sixth grade.

Totally depressing. like, beyond depressing. Boy, that neon rose sure looks good, now that we are slated to become a goddam ghost town. But, I hope noone minds if i spam around a bit this beautiful, soon to be 88 degrees Sunday in the most beautiful town in the world...

I'll take a Ted wheeler to go,
I'll take a Ted wheeler to stay
I'll take a Ted wheeler all the way
If he can just make Sam go the fuck away...

This place is going to explode. I'm making exodus back-up plans if it turns violent.

People, this may be our time.

Oregon is the politically ripest fruit in the nation; in facing our economic ship's Titanic, we have the opportunity to turn this into a revolution.

Oregon has vote by mail, death with dignity, medical marijuana, abundant intellectual capital, and the closest thing in the nation to an independent collective mind...a new national party could be born here.

"where selected folks [cultural emissaries] get to go and 'colonize' a particularly dull backwoods (perhaps Midwest?) city/town, where the rent is cheap and there are lots of service-industry jobs."

It's already happening. First the actual artists will get the heck out of here, but hipsters won't notice for awhile, because they don't hang out with real artists. Then the remaining superficial artists and "freelance djs" will notice that there are fewer and fewer authentic people and more and more douchebags desperately looking for The Scene. Then, you wake up one day and it's yuppie central. I watched it in Seattle, I'm seeing it here.

Also, I'm not surprised that kids right out of college would come here, because they have a lot of mobility. But the fact that older professionals like lawyers and engineers would just pick up and move here without testing out the job market is a bit surprising.

The economy here isn't huge. Places like Nike are laying off, so these professionals will have to start their own businesses, or risk being underemployed for a long time.

But I guess part of moving here is leaving the fast track anyway....

Fast track, Blabby?

I have been here since the sixth grade and have yet to land a $15/hour job.

Which is the only reason I am a candidate for Mayor!

Man, I was conceived, born, and raised in Oregon. It's a constant battle to not feel contempt for new people coming in and taking jobs as I haven't been able to work for months and months now.

I have to admit that those statements were optimistic early Sunday ravings, and that I really need to get out of Portland more often.

Portland is not Oregon, but the hinterland voted for death with dignity and vote by mail. It is also going to get a taste of the dismantling of political gridlock through the recall effort.

In the face of what may be a historic economic downturn, is it completely insane to speculate that some kind of political eureka moment is getting ready to happen...?
With the election of Obama, that paradigm shift in leadership on a national level could translate into significant shifts on the local level.

It's also possible that a radicalism will emerge that is ugly, not beautiful, which is not a comforting thought.

US out of Iraq,
California out of Oregon.
Yuppies and f--kin' hipsters out of Portland. Now.

I would honestly rather that Portland didn't grow exponentially over the next few years. Part of the reason this place is so awesome is because it's not obnoxiously huge. If Portland turned into San Francisco most of us wouldn't be able to afford to live here.

We can't tell people not to come. People want to move here for the same reasons most of you did. Our famous state planning law requires that cities plan for 20 years of growth with realistic numbers, so we can't pretend that it's not going to happen.

Besides, if growth were effectively stopped, the result would be rapid housing price inflation. Every new household whihc was marginally better off than the median would outbid one more household further down the ladder. The result is that the poorer population would be displaced.

Of course this is already happening in the inner neighborhoods, and North pdx.

"What I don't understand is why do we anticipate growth, but not work to prevent it? Can't we say, hey, enough is enough, you impact all our quality of life the more sprawl/population we have?"

Yeah, but immigration and migration keep a city vibrant. Granted I wouldn't want to relocate from Brooklyn to Portland if Portland was the size of Brooklyn BUT a city does need a flux of different minded folks from various backgrounds to remain progressively dynamic. And I agree with the Immortal Goon when he says that the opportunity for an ugly radical movement may arise from the current economic crisis. The only way to prevent and/or combat a culturally conservative monster is to keep those young and open-minded (potential) tax dollars rolling in. Or Portland can become Spokane. I'm just sayin'.

Besides, maybe Portland (and the Hinterland) could benefit from instituting a sales tax for once. Institute a nominal 5% sales tax on nonfood-stuff goods/purchases over $50 and reap the benefit of the influx of migrants. Then the state wouldn't have to raise taxes on beer (which would serve to kill a thriving cottage industry in the state). Also, and I think this idea will appeal to a lot of the Nativists, imagine all those tourist dollars that go untaxed and think of all the pretty Columbia River Crossings you could build if a tax was instituted. Levy a sales tax, lower personal income taxes to a rate that is proportional to the revenue gained from the sales tax, make tourists dollars count and make all those migrants pay a little more to live in Portland. Any increased levels of stress placed on public services could be alleviated by increased levels of funding and there would no longer be the allure of not having to pay a sales tax that does indeed attract people to moving to Portland. All this and we haven't even discussed raising the cost of vehicle registration.

I'd never say taxes are a universal panacea and usually they're serve no more purpose than snake oil. That said, your state's economic situation is dire (as indicated by the unemployment data released today) and people have got to start compromising. I'm just saying.

Hmm...my husband and I are planning our move to Portland from the cultural pit of America, Long Island. PDX is our salvation...you people who live there are so lucky to be literally surrounded by others who share your views. Here, for people like us, stranded in the 8-lane congested misery of endless suburbia, life sucks.

Even more frightening than the prospect of joblessness and poverty is the attitude of anti-immigrant Portlanders who harbor resentment of others who are just trying to find a better mode of existance. Really, that attitude is no better than the anti-immigration crap I hear all the time from the conservatives you detest.

uh, for those whining about anti-outsider sentiments: if you like portland and oregon so much, ASSIMILATE! you like our bike culture and good coffee, so suck it up: part of our culture is "Welcome to Oregon-- Now Go Home." it's a historical thing. don't take it so fuckin' personally.

oh and the bulk of our state is composed of people who migrated here, or whose parents/grandparents migrated here. even the native americans weren't *always* here. so *all* of us can be pdxenophobic, even those who are new to town.

and: for those of us who actually grew up in Oregon, let's be realistic. part of the reason these durned outsiders take "our" jobs is that we are TOO FUCKING STUPID to pay any reasonable amount of taxes...

...which means we have crappy-to-mediocre education at all levels.

...which means companies hire out-of-state migrants who come in with a better education.

...and which means hotshot smarty-asses like me had to leave Oregon to get a good education. i happened to come back. many don't.

so if you want old-school Oregonians to get the jobs? tell your legislators, and your parents, to pony up at the polling booth.