Matt...you have a point. Kudos.

epic piece Matt, use this mind set to examine how the City wastes tons of time and dollars on feel good programs, while tangible and necessary services disappear.

THANK YOU. More like this.

It's bad but could be much worse. Compared to the average San Franciscan or Berkeleyite, Portlanders are downright self-effacing.

I guess most of your readers fall into this hole, but not all of us. I'm old and disagree with a lot of the eco-shit published here.. bikes, indy movie shows, music I've never heard of, sidewalk festivals that 20 people attend which are reported on after the fact so even if I wanted to go, I can't because I wasn't cool enough to know ahead of time.

Why do I read you? I read a lot of things. I like to get info from lots of viewpoints about what people in my home city are thinking and doing.

If you needed to make this rant, then you need to broaden the scope of people you hang out with.

dmitrir is right, and it's scary.

This was a crazy letter I sent to a UK based dating outfit randomly whilst channeling glenn beck, thought I would share as it relates to Portland being really no fucking different than some bumtown in Alabama...(Please JESUS save my bored soul!!!)....We are all trapped in this goddamn easy livin' hell of a country being controlled by waring corporate boards...Without further adieu....

I'm in the US where we are contained like sheep. However, in its very subtle ways, a state two borders over still has some new "cultures". Thus, I'm curious the difference in opinion across the border. Travel is much more difficult to 'the outside' when there is only expensive planes to fly, no trains to speak of and we cannot even enter neighboring countries of Canada (they deemed us too agro) and mexico (we deemed them to agro for us).

You've got to be fucking kidding me! This made me laugh so hard I nearly shit a hole through my Levis. Just to make sure I wasn't going completely insane I pulled out my trusty Webster's dictionary and sure enough, there it was in plain English:

hyp⋅o⋅crite [hip-uh-krit] - noun

1. The Portland Mercury

As much as I agree with the observation, to see this coming from the pages of The Merc is just too much. Is Matt Davis delusional or has he finally taken the Mayor's balls out of his mouth long enough to look in the mirror?

A little bird told me the origion nuclear power plant reactor leacked and had a spill or somewhere in that area. and the epa is covering it up. i guiess your doctor wants to cure you from cancerous potatoes in your new health care plan

Dear Matt,

Its easy to write provocative commentary when you disregard the responisibility you hold as a jounalist to represent the comments of citizens accurately and in context. Worse yet, referencing another writer's article, and a quote therein, seems just plain lazy.

However, I agree with your basic premise.

The point I made to Barry Johnson, in an interview, was that I felt that Portland has great pool of creative talent in disciplines as varied as fashion/bike design&fabrication/cartooning/writing/dance/theatre/furniture/graphics/etc. This talent is far in excess of what would be expected given our economy and our underfunded education system. It is the result of immigration... people choosing to live here.

I compared this to Florence, circa 1400. HOWEVER, unlike Florence, (lets overlook the fact that politics in the city at that time resembles the gang warfare of today), Portland's wealthy, and powerfull have failed dismally to support this "Creative Class" in a substantive way. We lack the Medici's and Rucellai's and other great patron families.

Your magazine has done a great job of covering the Oregon Manifest and Fashion Week, both concurrent examples supporting my basic thesis. I have attended many of the Manifest events, and find it remarkable that there are few to none of the city's aristocracy in attendance. I wonder how Fashion week's events are faring? As an architect, I have witness this city's client base consistently chose conservative and established firms for major work, shunning the young talent, let alone the avant garde.

SO, while I think Portland has the creative potential to spark the next "renaissance" I have grave doubts that the political and financial support (jobs and contracts) exists to foster such a rebirth.
Further, with the dearth of affordable housing, our Creative Class, as it matures to become the next generation of young families, may be forced to pick up and move on...

Again, I agree with your basic premise. Portland is way too high on itself. And this is bluring our ablitiy to reach the potential our citizens embody.
But we need to get the Portland that has the financial and political resources to invest in our potential.

Richard Potestio, Architect (& founder of the Cross Crusade cycle cross series.)

you buried the story, Matt. none of this made sense until you got to the part about Byrne. i remember listening to Randi Rhodes interview Molly Ivins once - and Ivins got to speak about 15% of the interview. i never gave Rhodes much time after that, and i would have pissed to have spent good money to not hear Byrne talk. how disappointing that had to be for everyone (except those on the panel).

and having lived in as many places as i have, including 5 years in England, it's an easy truth: Portland is the best city i've ever lived in. we ain't perfect, but i could not be happier to have landed here in 1981.

This is great, I'm putting this one up!

I've lived in Portland for 13 years, and I am well aware of the P-hole - it can be incapacitating both for people and civic involvement. Portland is one tough town.

But this city doesn't beat you up or "rip the bones from your back" - it lulls you to sleep in that it seems like paradise and you can do whatever you want. The flipside is that many people in Portland are lazy and passive, and that you'll get no help whatsoever.

If you can create with small numbers of people who are committed, you can get things done. Once you open it up, you run the risk of falling into the P-hole - you have to be on your toes to not be contaminated by the air of entropy and self-satisfiedness that envelops Portland.

This self-effacing article, and the chorus of support accompanying it, certainly proves to me that Portland is perfect.

No... seriously.