Hm, I totally get how reductive a store like that is...buts it's not any different from a store selling silly NYC junk or an LA store selling fake autographed Marilyn Monroe photos. Portland had entered the "famous city" tourist phase.

Silly Amy. Thinks karmel isn't just bragging about his mtv crib.

I love Portland because it pisses off Vermont and Georgia so much.

These stores also will always knee-length carry socks with "BEER", "NERD", or "GAY" down the sides of them. ALWAYS.

One thing that doesn't change, people have always bitched about change.

Please don't make us call you "Karms".

Of course, you could always walk into Red Robin and buy a piece of Beaverton.

Hmm. Honestly I'm so entrenched in my life and work and such that I don't often notice this kind of stuff (I also have the benefit of living in SE away from most of the more hipstery sections), but I was randomly on a rare visit to NW 23rd/21st last night, and on Mississippi last week, and I gotta say yeah, there's "follow your dream/support local" and then there's "repackage that dream/stay local long enough to franchise it", and I'd say we're skirting that line at the very least.

^^ Yes Todd Berry, the "dream" of Portland is no longer to see your bar / restaurant / craft / venue get successful-- it's to see it hit national- and international-level recognition. You see it in the obvious success stories like Voodoo Donut and Stumptown, but at lower levels too, like Bunk and Pine State and Little Big Burger. Your newly gentrified neighborhood isn't complete until it has its very own Salt & Straw! I mean shit, dig deeper and you'll find the same groups of asshats buying up dive bars over and over again and homogenizing them, promising all along that they're honoring the history and preserving character, etc. I call bullshit on all of that. It takes real neighborhoods and makes them into phony plastic hashtags, landmarks to pose in front of and brag about on Instagram. It's funny: I have no desire to hang out at Stumptown or New Seasons or Sizzle Pie or Mississippi Studios because they all feel like insincerely constructed hipster / yuppie memes, requiring all the mental self-flagellation of a weekend of Coachella. Any yet people wait in line to pay out the nose for this stuff. Guess they have money with no better uses and the time to spare.

^^ Yes Todd Berry, the "dream" of Portland is no longer to see your bar / restaurant / craft / venue get successful-- it's to see it hit national- and international-level recognition. You see it in the obvious success stories like Voodoo Donut and Stumptown, but at lower levels too, like Bunk and Pine State and Little Big Burger. Your newly gentrified neighborhood isn't complete until it has its very own Salt & Straw! I mean shit, dig deeper and you'll find the same groups of asshats buying up dive bars over and over again and homogenizing them, promising all along that they're honoring the history and preserving character, etc.

I call bullshit on all of that. It takes real neighborhoods and makes them into phony plastic hashtags, landmarks to pose in front of and brag about on Instagram. It's funny: I have no desire to hang out at Stumptown or New Seasons or Sizzle Pie or Mississippi Studios because they all feel like insincerely constructed hipster / yuppie memes, requiring all the mental self-flagellation of a weekend of Coachella. Any yet people wait in line to pay out the nose for this stuff. Guess they have money with no better uses and the time to spare.

Hear the fuck hear!

" "I'M PART OF THIS, TOO." Naw kid, you're a parasite. Get symbiotic or get the fuck out." Thank-you for finally breaking it down.

Ian Karmel is an anagram of "ram in kale." Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Todd Mecklem: "Ian Karmel is an anagram of "ram in kale." Not that there's anything wrong with that."

And now the veggiesexual readers of this are aroused.

C'mon folks, you know in Portland there are veggiesexuals.

There totally *are*.

I'm going to start protesting these places by hanging around them holding a corn dog in one hand and a tiny American flag in the other.

The author of this article hit it on the head. Portland isn't fun anymore and I think more of us oldies are moving away. It's too bad. Used to be a fun and cheap place to live. Oh well.

Don't worry, peeples. Come east of 82nd avenue. This is where the real Portland moved out to after the Portlandians took over. We still have divebars.