Mark Nelson, I often think of slurping down the mercury of my sling-psychrometer on those dreary days, longing to see, once again, a classic low-cloud 9.

"My boyfriend and I moved here from Chicago two months ago—we are hardworking professionals..." I literally stopped reading right there. I can feel the liberal guilt soaking up my keyboard. I'm curious if they moved here for jobs, because why are so many companies bringing in people from out of state? There are so many unemployed people already here. And as for feeling unwelcome, well, no one is obligated to roll out the red carpet for you. Especially in this rental market and job economy.

I grew up in (mostly) Seattle and have lived in a number of cities, including Austin, Dallas, Washington DC, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Indianapolis, Yakima and now (gasp!) Vancouver-across-the-river (not the officially cool Vancouver BC). Every one of those fine cities has has it's anti-newcomer people, most of whom were once newcomers themselves. The "I just can't explain it to newcomers" letter could have been written by any number of my former neighbors in Seattle. When my husband and I moved our family here 24 years ago because of a job transfer, we weren't surprised by some of the attitudes. What had been a pleasant surprise is that the majority of people we've met on both sides of the river don't give a rat's patooty about who's in, who's out, how long anyone's been here or the hippest place to eat at the moment. They care about the work they do, the community or arts project they're involved in and their circles of friends and family.

For me, it helps to simply think of myself and everyone here as citizens of this particular corner of the world. We're all world citizens, whether some of us like it or not. This is a less divisive way of looking at the issue. It has also helped to be part of several tribes - in my case, Renaissance musicians and history enthusiasts - that span both sides of the river. Tribes ignore boundaries and break down walls. None of the people with whom I play /sing cares about what neighborhood our fellow musicians live in. We have a bigger purpose.

@onlysanepersonintheworld, just because you know people who are unemployed doesn't mean that there are local people to fill many jobs, because many jobs that are available have qualifications that people living in portland simply don't seem to have. My company has 9 open reqs and we have been trying to fill 8 of those for over a month. These are good paying jobs with benefits, but we aren't seeing any applicants who have the skills we need and have started trying to attract talent from outside the metro area for several of the positions.

Geri, wow, well said!