Portland, best city in the World? Yes!

[DirtDawg]

This article is all about Linux being huge in my awsome town. Also, Linus Torvalds lives here now! Who knew? (probably a lot of you)
Anyways, just thought I'd share.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002059628_portlandlinux11.html

[mstlyevil]

I have been to Portland a dozen times. It is a nice city but I think San Diego and Phoenix has it beat overall in the nice cities category. I used to live in the Phoenix metro area. I took frequent trips to San Diego on the weekends to party and go to the beach. Portland suffers from too much cloud cover and rain for my taste. I definitely rank it up ther in overall quality of life.

[DirtDawg]

It's true, it rains here all the time. Hell, it's raining right now. The plus side of this is there's a bonafide rain forest less than an hour from here and any, I mean any, plant will thrive here.There's this (bad) joke:
Q: "What did the Portlander say to the Pillsbury Dough Boy?"
A: "Nice tan!"
Also, I found this tiny article. Our mayor uses dual boot Linux/Windows!
http://www.news4neighbors.net/article.pl?sid=04/10/01/0125223

Beat that! ;)

[futz]

I don't know if it rains in Portland as much as here, but here's how we forecast weather here (in winter anyway). Use it if it works for you there.


If you can see the mountains, It's going to rain.
If you can't see the mountains, it's already raining. :-D

[Sp@z]

I lived in Seattle for about a year and I also travelled to Portland quite a bit........personally I think they both have good and bad qualities........yes way too much rain but without it, it wouldn't be NEARLY as beautiful as it is..........but overall it beats the hell out of Florida (Yuck I HATE it here)

[saubz]

Portland, send some of your rain to the midwest. we are in a 100+ day drought!

[Iandefor]

Man, I like Portland. Primarily because Powell's Books is located there, as well as some really awesome restaurants. But I wouldn't leave wet Bellingham with it's great coffeehouses, weird-smelling used bookstores (populated by strange, but friendly people), and ridiculously good Indian food for Portland.


Portland, send some of your rain to the midwest. we are in a 100+ day drought! Hell, I think Bellingham's had more than enough rain for now. The trees are beginning to drown. Want some? I'll petition the rain gods here.

[Puptentacle]

We are seriously looking at Corvallis, Oregon. Anyone live there? Been there? Have any thoughts on it?

[aysiu]

My wife and I are actually considering moving to Portland in a year or two.

Can someone who lives there explain some specifics about what makes it the best city in the world? Sell me Portland!

[Iandefor]

My wife and I are actually considering moving to Portland in a year or two.

Can someone who lives there explain some specifics about what makes it the best city in the world? Sell me Portland! There's an independent bookstore what takes up around a city block (and that's just it's main store. They have about 5 other locations across Portland). Wifi everywhere. Beautiful gardens and an excellent downtown. Naturally sullen Northwesterners. What else do you need :-D?

[briancurtin]

Can someone who lives there explain some specifics about what makes it the best city in the world? Sell me Portland!
melbourne was named the best city in the world by some magazine or something

move to naperville, illinois. rated top city for raising kids several times, rated in the top 3 most popular places to live (#1 in midwest a few times) several times. i love it

[sabredog]

I visited Portland when I was on holdiays in the USA during 2001. Lovely city!

Reminded me very much of my own home city, Perth, Western Australia

[DirtDawg]

My wife and I are actually considering moving to Portland in a year or two.

Can someone who lives there explain some specifics about what makes it the best city in the world? Sell me Portland!

Part of what makes Portland so great relates to Powell's Books. This city is a reading city. People here read all the time. As a result, we remain one of the most independant, open-minded cities in the United States. For example, Tom Potter, our current Linux-lovin' mayor, capped all campaign contributions at $25. Meanwhile his opponent, Jim Francesconi, was raking in the cash from businesses and wealthy private doners. The result was Potter's war chest of about $60,000 to Francesconi's war chest of over $1,000,000. Most media here practically fell all over themselves declaring Francesconi the winner before voting even started. Guess who won in an "upset" (hint: it wasn't Extremo the Clown (http://home.comcast.net/~cacopics/ext4.htm)).
Add to that, a beatiful river snaking through the center of the city with no less than five bridges, one of the best mass transit systems in the country, so much foilage it makes the Jolly Green Giant blush (wait 'til spring!), a clear day view that includes both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood, the largest city park (http://www.friendsofforestpark.org/html/about_thepark.html) in the U.S, and easy access to beaches, rain forests, mountains etc, and you get the idea.
Portland has it's downsides, don't get me wrong (living in the shadow of two volcanoes makes for tense moments. If Hood ever erupts, we are all doomed), but why would I get into those? ;)
Look, I've been in a whole lot of cities in my time, but for me, Portland is the greatest.
Corvallis I can't comment on as I've never been. Sorry.

P.S. Futz: Hilarious! I love it.

[era86]

Part of what makes Portland so great relates to Powell's Books. This city is a reading city. People here read all the time. As a result, we remain one of the most independant, open-minded cities in the United States. For example, Tom Potter, our current Linux-lovin' mayor, capped all campaign contributions at $25. Meanwhile his opponent, Jim Francesconi, was raking in the cash from businesses and wealthy private doners. The result was Potter's war chest of about $60,000 to Francesconi's war chest of over $1,000,000. Most media here practically fell all over themselves declaring Francesconi the winner before voting even started. Guess who won in an "upset" (hint: it wasn't Extremo the Clown (http://home.comcast.net/~cacopics/ext4.htm)).
Add to that, a beatiful river snaking through the center of the city with no less than five bridges, one of the best mass transit systems in the country, so much foilage it makes the Jolly Green Giant blush (wait 'til spring!), a clear day view that includes both Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood, the largest city park (http://www.friendsofforestpark.org/html/about_thepark.html) in the U.S, and easy access to beaches, rain forests, mountains etc, and you get the idea.
Portland has it's downsides, don't get me wrong (living in the shadow of two volcanoes makes for tense moments. If Hood ever erupts, we are all doomed), but why would I get into those? ;)
Look, I've been in a whole lot of cities in my time, but for me, Portland is the greatest.
Corvallis I can't comment on as I've never been. Sorry.

P.S. Futz: Hilarious! I love it.

I'm sorry.. but to me Portland is a bootleg Seattle:evil: haha not really. But Seattle has the beautiful Puget Sound and it's famous piers, not to mention the many businesses geared towards engineering such as Boeing or Microsoft:mrgreen: ( makes for more job opportunities for me! ), and voted one of the most liberal cities in the U.S. And what about the University of Washington (ranked top 10 in the nation for their comp sci research/development). To me Portland just doesn't compare to Seattle!

But i have family in Portland and I like it there too.. Just not as much as Seattle.

-ERA

p.s. Go hawks!

[xequence]

One of the most beautiful cities in the world is Quebec City. Especially at night.

[Puptentacle]

Just to let you all know I'm blowing a cosmic raspberry at all of you for making me jealous.

I live in the High Desert of Southern California. Brown, Nasty, Bad Roads, Bad Schools, corrupt government, high prices and, just to make it all PERFECT, more meth labs than anyplace else in the world.

NOW do you see why I'm looking seriously at Oregon?

(I know, I know...I moved here, etc. etc. :-({|= to me.)

[raublekick]

The closest big city I live near is Philly, and besides having a few cool venues and being the birthplace of Ween and Hall & Oates, I don't particularly like Philly. Portland, on the other hand, has been on my radar as a potential place to move once I'm through with college. And now that I know it's almost the Linux capital of the world, I want to move there even more!

[aysiu]

This may sound like a random question, but does anyone know if there's a Korean grocery store in Portland?

[weasel fierce]

I rather enjoy Portland. Its closer to my scandinavian temperaments, in terms of liberalism, and it has lots of cool little places.

Bridgetown hobbies and Powells books being two :)

[DirtDawg]

I'm sorry.. but to me Portland is a bootleg Seattle:evil: haha not really. But Seattle has the beautiful Puget Sound and it's famous piers, not to mention the many businesses geared towards engineering such as Boeing or Microsoft:mrgreen: ( makes for more job opportunities for me! ), and voted one of the most liberal cities in the U.S. And what about the University of Washington (ranked top 10 in the nation for their comp sci research/development). To me Portland just doesn't compare to Seattle!

But i have family in Portland and I like it there too.. Just not as much as Seattle.

-ERA

p.s. Go hawks!

Oooohhh! I got to be honest, I like Seattle. Unfortunately for Seattle, Portland has better coffee (http://www.stumptowncoffee.com/) (I've tasted Seattle's Best and it ain't that good ;) ) and billions of microbrewers. Plus, Portland has tiny "neighborhoods" everywhere in contrast to Seattle's gigantic residental zones, making this a more "walkable" city, something I do all the time. Also the general atmosphere is a little more laid back here, less rushing around trying to accomplish this or that.
But my girlfriend and I have talked about moving to Seattle before, I really do like it. The Sound is rad, Washington State is very good, and Seattle gets even more cloud cover than we do! (a good thing) BUT, does Seattle have a Linux-lovin' mayor? I think not! Touche!
Besides, if Portlandia (http://www.brownlog.dreamhost.com/photooftheweek/2001/2001q1/20010318.htm) and The Space Needle (http://www.seattlephotographs.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=SPACa_kerrypark0044&reference=/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi%3Fsearch%3Daction%26keywords%3Dall%26s earchstart%3D0%26template%3DTemplates/SearchResult.html%26category%3DSPAC) got in a fight, I think we all know who would win! Your top-heavy monument is all talk and no walk. Not even any legs! :D

Aysiu: I'm not aware of any specifically Korean stores, but we do have several groceries specializing in Asian and Mexican fare. In fact, there's a large place called "World Market" not a block from where I live run by a Vietnamese family. I go there often, though much of the food I am not familiar with and wouldn't know how to prepare without some reading. But they have lots of delicious imported foods, including my new favorite, "sugar crackers" (who knew saltines with sugar could be so delicious?).

Oh yeah, and having been raised in Spokane Washington, I not only sympathize with the high desert living, but I also say "go 'Hawks"! I'm by no means a sports fan, but damn am I happy to see them go to the big game. I may even watch this year.

Go 'Hawks!

[Iandefor]

I'm sorry.. but to me Portland is a bootleg Seattle:evil: haha not really. But Seattle has the beautiful Puget Sound and it's famous piers, not to mention the many businesses geared towards engineering such as Boeing or Microsoft:mrgreen: ( makes for more job opportunities for me! ), and voted one of the most liberal cities in the U.S. And what about the University of Washington (ranked top 10 in the nation for their comp sci research/development). To me Portland just doesn't compare to Seattle!

But i have family in Portland and I like it there too.. Just not as much as Seattle.

-ERA

p.s. Go hawks! Ick. Seattle's a dump, IMHO. The only thing I like about it is the Wing Luke Asian Museum and some community gardens that're always happy to have me and my school stop by and do some service. I like Portland more.