So your opening was how St John's is "real" unlike the "fake" Alberta and Mississippi commercial strips, and you follow it by promising to turn St John's into the same thing. I don't think "growing up" means what you think it means.

Welcome to Portland. I agree with the post 100%, but it's not just St. Johns old people that bitch. Portland in general loves to bitch about the past and what the city is becoming. It's annoying as hell. Classic entitlement issues, but the "old timers" like to believe because Portland is "weird" they don't come across as privileged. I love St. Johns! I love what's it's becoming and the vibrant, clean, youthful energy filling streets. I love the old shops and the new ones moving in. I love the new homes being built and the ones people restore with their hard work. Spread the word around! St. Johns is the spot! Best location to live in all of Portland!

Old Portland sucked goat balls in so many ways. But the cheapness of it all did allow for anyone willing to put in a modicum of effort (which was only about 25% of the population) to buy up their own piece of it before it got predictably more expensive. The whiners are whining because they sat on their asses throwing crap pottery to sell at Saturday Market while working a half-time job to rent a shitty basement room and now can't believe that their lack of effort and ambition sees them priced out of the city when people with an actual work ethic show up to make the place nicer.

A city is going to change. This is inevitable, so complaining is pointless and so on and so forth.

As someone that is something of an "old timer" it is true there was more crime, dingier, and grosser. On the other hand, this wasn't as bad as it sounds. There was a stronger community, a stronger DIY aesthetic, and a general punk-rock-gloom many of us found really great. Not all of us really appreciate people from San Diego leaving San Diego to try and build San Diego only to be upset when people ask "Why did you even leave San Diego?"

But, as mentioned, I recognize change occurs. Portland was never going to stay in the sweet-spot many of us appreciated. And it's not so bad we're leaving. And, honestly, it's largely our fault for getting older and transitioning from being the rum-soaked lump on the sidewalk to looking at how nice a house is.

But you got everything you want, you transformed the neighborhood, priced the locals out, and made it into your own image. Take the fucking win. There's no reason to whine about what you imagine other people's feelings are.

Native New Yorkers love to say the same shit about NYC. Even if in truth they would have been murdered, raped and murdered again walking down the parts of town they now take for granted in 1980 (when they were likely toddlers or not yet even alive). As a native myself that experienced shitty violent neighborhoods I don't share the sentiment. It's MAGA level fiction. But mostly what it says to me is that the speaker feels they are missing something in their lives that they don't think themselves capable of finding within, and that is profoundly sad. It's like they're dead before they're dead.

Also why exactly is Alberta and Mississippi "fake"? Now you're just practicing the same xenophobic bullshit as the olde timer but expressing it in a different way. Check yourself.

The post is condescending and dickish. Question for the OP: where do you get off telling the locals how they should feel? Seriously- this is douchebaggery plain and simple. When the recession comes it will be bye-bye to self-important transplants as the satellite offices close, so don't let the door hit you on the way out. Saint Johns will be Saint Johns and you will be back where you came from, thank god.

I got thrown out of Dad's once. I was trying to buy a meal without a drink.

St Johns never had prostitutes working corners, and no dope touts on street corners to speak of, for that matter. So you don’t know what you are talking about. They had problems back in the day and they have problems now. One of them is is an influx of fart smelling snobs.

Go back to where you came from comment never gets old... If gentrification means no more entitled white drug addicts and lazy ass part time musicians with college degrees....then YES to gentrification! Gentrification = growing economy. For those who bitch about it, you're not angry at transplants, you're angry that you missed the opportunity. Look in the mirror and bitch. You all know the truth right? The reason why people move to inexpensive areas in urban cities???.... They start small and raise kids then move when the kids are older for better schools. Then rent the home out to those who either enjoy renting or didn't know growth on the West Coast happens overnight. That's why PPS schools continue to underperform. Everyone smart enough to invest moves to the burbs but holds onto the investment property. Yes, we'll move eventually, but not before we jack up the price for the next transplant. Rent or sell... either way... my small down payment is going to make a better life for my family. Don't let your blood boil over. It's only the truth.