Walking Around A Different US City
On vacation we spent a day in Portland. And like a lot of US cities, the hotness of the takes about the city create a blurry sense of the place from the outside.
One hot take (cool take?) is the somewhat too cool for school take of Portlandia. Another is a city drowning in chaos, as claimed by this Los Angeles Times article from four months ago. Like nationwide stats, Portland’s murder rates are actually down by a large amount this year.
I think the reality comes clear pretty quickly, though. This is a city built, for better and worse, by capital — filled with roads, offices, housing and retail. It’s overwhelmingly not twee or chaotic, it’s business.
We stayed near downtown, and in its core the city has kept a lot of its late 19th and early 20th Century buildings, like this apartment building…
… and this building converted to the Portland Center Stage. You can see how both buildings are bordered by much newer buildings, though.
Commerce
Portland has a healthy amount of brick and mortar retailers. Fitting the hipster stereotype, there’s a Doc Martens store.
You can tell another subset goes for outdoor rec, and I took my daughter to their big REI that evening.
And their rival, Patagonia, is nearby.
But Portland’s biggest landmark of retail, of course, is Powell’s Books.
Powell’s is huge and wonderful. And of course, you can spin all kinds of themes around it. Survivor of Amazon. Uneasy relationship with organized labor. Anchor of downtown. Opponent of corporate taxes…. the rhetoric practically writes itself. If you were a Ron DeSantis looking for corrupt, woke lit, you can certainly find shelves devoted to African American writers, LGBTQ subjects, you name it.
But there are also tons of books on gardening, military history, kids classics, cookbooks, and pretty much any subject under the sun. And as you can see by this pillar by their front door, they embrace the classics.
My wife and daughter camped out here for the good part of the afternoon, and the cash registers were buzzing.
Something Was Up
By late afternoon, I noticed something was going on. Streets were getting shut down and there was a growing police presence, including these bicycle cops.
It didn’t feel like some kind of protest was brewing. And then I noticed things like this written on the sidewalk.
People were setting up folding chairs and the local news was camping out.
And then I finally was clued in to what was going on. The annual Starlight Parade was going to launch in a few hours, and everyone was gathering to watch.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see it, but it looks like it was a lot of fun.
…could just be me…but I feel like if you got a massive bookstore, a big REI & a big hardware/DIY store & kind of stacked them together…it’d be pretty close to a hamleys for grown ups?
I had to look up Hamleys, but yes.
…figured that might happen…haven’t been there in years & always suspected they might be lying about being the biggest toy shop in the world…possibly becaus bigger ones are toy stores or something
…but it’s supposedly world-famous so I thought I’d give them the benefit of the doubt about that part
We just got back from Portland for a wedding in Dundee at a winery. Beautiful area overall. I did get lost in Powell books.
I was impressed by how much they kept the focus on just books. It’s been reported this year that Barnes and Nobles has pulled its physical stores out of a tailspin by acting more like Powell’s — dumping a lot of their trinkets and junk, and pulling out of promotional agreements with publishers so they can just sell what customers are asking for.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/07/1161295820/how-barnes-noble-turned-a-page-expanding-for-the-first-time-in-years
…so…to pull the hamleys thing again…kind of like waterstones & daunt books…except maybe not giving the little guy direct control of your massive bookselling operation?
OMG Daunt books – I could live there, please?
Powell’s is legendary. There are few bookstores in the country that can match it in terms of its reputation among…the literary version of foodies, whatever that is. I’ve never been, even though one of my best friends lived in Portland for years. I have been to the Tattered Cover flagship in Denver and that’s on par. We still have some independent bookstores in New York that are wonderful, but we’ve lost 10 times as many as we had when I moved here, so that’s a shame. Not that I’m any help. I mooch free books off my publishing friends.
I’ve had to go to Portland for work or for travel several times, and it’s … fine? It’s a big city on a big river and it’s not far from the coast.
I love Portland bust mostly for the beer & food scene. Powell’s is amazing & in summer the farmers market near there is pretty cool. Somehow Seattle ranks higher for bike friendly cities but I think Portland is WAY more bike friendly. We have a friend in North Portland and we stay at his house and ride to breweries all around. On Fridays the bikers will take over certain street routes and if you are in a car you will not get down those streets. Any city whose motto is “Keep Portland Weird” is okay with me. If you find your way there again, go to the Alberta St. district, one of the coolest areas for foodies/craftbeer junkies in the area. Or head north to Seattle & I will buy you a beer!
Shake Shack?
I’d like to try one. Please don’t be disappointing like In’N Out. The burgers are fine, but the fries… I’ve had better.
You will be disappointed.
Aw damnit.
Another over hyped chain?
We’ve got the World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto.
My friend worked there as a dept manager. Still miss visiting (not paying for parking though.)
Most of the books I buy now are e-books to be read on break, but I try to buy from non Amazon sources.