I love you, PDX.
Let me count the ways...
Portland is so unique.
I just found out that Portland has the most Vintage Stores (40) per capita in the USA.
2. Portland is home to more than 40 breweries—more breweries than any other city in the world! (Even more than Cologne, Germany.)
(In 1888 local brewer,
Henry Weinhard, volunteered to pump beer from his brewery into the newly dedicated
Skidmore Fountain.)
3. Portland has been named the best city in the world for street food by several publications, including U.S. News and CNN.
(Food cart pods, approaching 500 in number [2010] spread throughout the city have come to define the scene, appearing frequently on television programs & becoming popular destinations themselves.)
4. Portland has been referred to as one of the most
environmentally friendly, or "green", cities in the world.
5. Some of its nicknames are:
The City of Roses,
Stumptown,
[Bridgetown,
Rip City,
Little Beirut,
[Beervana, or
Beertown,
P-Town,
Soccer City USA,
Portlandia, and the
synecdoche PDX.
6. (This fact was boring.)
7. Soccer Team: The Timbers
8. Basketball Team: The Blazers
9.
A Great Portland Story:
In 1843,
William Overton saw great commercial potential for this land but lacked the funds required to file a land claim. He struck a bargain with his partner,
Asa Lovejoy of Boston, Massachusetts: for
25¢, Overton would share his claim to the 640 acres (2.6 km
2) site. Overton later sold his half of the claim to
Francis W. Pettygrove of
Portland, Maine. Pettygrove and Lovejoy each wished to name the new city after his respective home town. In 1845, this controversy was settled with a
coin toss, which Pettygrove won in a series of two out of three tosses.
[13]
(The coin used for this decision, now known as the
Portland Penny, is on display in the headquarters of the
Oregon Historical Society)
10.
Our three mountains (dormant volcanoes) :
Mount Tabor rises on the city's east side.
Mount Saint Helens and
Mount Hood are visible from many places in the city. (Getting a visual of
Mount Adams makes it a 4-mountain day.)
11.
Temperature:
Portland climate is described as
oceanic : mild, damp winters and relatively dry, warm summers.
It's cool, dry-summer subtropical zone = cool-summer
Mediterranean.
12.
What to wear (fall/winter):
This means light down/gortex jackets and fleece. Fleece vests, fleece zip-ups, fleece pajama pants and fleece socks if your feet don't sweat unnecessarily.
Jackets with a hood are almost a necessity and rubber boots make life here wonderful!
13.
What to wear (spring/summer):
a zip-up hoodie in any material with lots of layering t-shirts. Alot of us live in REI and Columbia sportswear, but summer (all two months of it) is when we bring out our like 1 of 2 pairs of shorts.
14. But because we're a coole town--and because Russian immigrants have made everyone embarrassed to not look more sophisticated--you will see a nice blend of cosmopolitan diversity among the ranks of Portland's casual.
From This Fare City...
15. Portland has the second largest copper hammered statue in the country. The first being the Statue of Liberty, the second being, Portlandia.
16. It is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon.
17. Portland has the filthiest river in the country running right thru downtown: the Willamette.
18. Sadly, Portland has more strip
clubs, per capita, than any other city in this country.
19. Portland has the smallest city park inside the city limits of any city in this country: Mill End Park. It is 2.5 feet in diameter.
20. The Taco Bell at 21st and W Burnside has the busiest Fri and Sat night sales out of all the TBell's in this country. (according to the graveyard shift manager in the window)
21.5 We have no sales tax in Oregon. But we make up for it with property and income
taxes. It's a great place to buy a car if you have time to drive it to your home state.
(Many people in the Portland Metro Area live across the river in Vancouver, WA. They have low income/property taxes, AND save money by shopping here in Portland. But once you cross that River, you forfeit all the poppin' Portland air and atmosphere.)
21. In 2008 voted:
#1 for Greenest
Cities (Popular Science)
#5 for Cleanest Cities (Forbes)
#1 best city to
have a baby (Fit Pregnancy)
#2 largest bicycle commuter city (Bicyclist)
22. TV Shows set in Portland:
- Portlandia uses Portland as the central subject of the show's sketch comedy, which alludes to the city being frozen in the 1990s pop culture decade.
- Leverage is set in Portland beginning with season 5. Since season 2, Leverage is filmed in Oregon, with many Portland locations playing Boston and locations throughout the world.
- Grimm (TV series) is set and filmed in Portland.
Other:
Matt Groening, who graduated from Portland's
Lincoln High School, is responsible for creating
The Simpsons and
Futurama.
Many of the character names in
The Simpsons are taken from street names in Portland (Flanders, Rev. Lovejoy, etc.)
[8]
23. My father, who lives in Portland, was the upholsterer for some pieces on the set of Leverage. Some of those pics are seen
here. Second down on the right)
24. Movies set in Portland:
|
25. We recycle--everything!
26. We love community!
(My roommate just did some gardening with the new coffee shop-on-the-corner owner--who looks like a pirate but is a man of faith--and lives two blocks from us who I later waved to when we crossed paths biking. A Typical day in Portland.)
Those are just a few facts among the many that make PDX such a great place to be. Thank you Wikipedia for all your information.
Oh some more fun facts:
from here
27. All Oregon Voting is By Mail!!! Oregon's voter turnout is one of the highest in the United States.
28. As of January 2009, all restaurants and bars in Oregon are completely non-smoking.
29. The city square downtown, Pioneer Courthouse Square, is nicknamed 'Portland's Living Room'. And no wonder! In the summer, it hosts 'Flicks on Bricks' and the whole neighborhood turns out with lawn chairs and blankets to watch the feature presentation, eat popcorn and accept whatever free stuff is passed around by event sponsers. A great time!
(Now, parks around the area have taken up the idea and are showing movies on summer evenings.)
30. Powells Book Store. It's the biggest independent bookstore in the country, at 1 city block long--3 stories high. (I love the red room.) :]
31. Portland's city blocks are half the size of normal rectangular city blocks. (Cutting them in half increased the amount of coveted corner lots, adding more value to the city's real estate, making for smart urban planning back in the day.) But Powells is still really Big!
32. There is a long and vibrant underground hip-hop, techno and house music scene in Portland.
33. Portland has a number of unique bridges. The St. Johns Bridge was the first bridge to have aviation clearance lights on its towers.
(It has beautiful gothic towers, and is generally regarded as Portland's prettiest bridge, right after the Freemont.)
34. Portland's International Rose Test Garden (from 1917) is the longest operating rose test garden in the U.S.
(During World War I, hybridists from all over the world sent roses to the garden for safekeeping.)
and some more
35. Portland is the birth place of Wiki.
36. The rum and fruit juice drink mai tai was created in 1944 by Vic Bergeron, owner of Portland tiki bar and restaurant, TraderVic's.
37. Portland's nickname, Stumptown--was apt as local residents often jumped from stump to stump to make their way along muddy, unpaved streets.[1]
(The city was built up so quickly there wasn't time to clear away the stumps of cut trees.)
38. "Portland is one of the few destinations outside of France where you can take your dog into pubs."[2]
39. Tom McCall (former Portland resident, Oregonian journalist and Governor,) signed the Oregon Bottle Bill (1971), the first legislation of its kind in the U.S. It requires cans, bottles, and other carbonated beverages -- plus water since 2009 -- sold in Oregon to be returnable and refundable.[3][4]
40. You can quench your thirst downtown with public drinking fountains called Benson Bubblers. They were originally donated to Portland by a lumberman who hoped to provide a drinking alternative to taverns.
41. Portland was named the second best foodie town in the U.S. in a 2010 study.
41.5 This Northwest city also has "the largest number of vegetarian and vegan options for diners."
42. Portland still has the remnants of its Wild West past -- Horse Rings are all over the city...yes, the ones you tie a horse to!
43. "In 2001, Portland introduced the first modern streetcar in North America, becoming a model for cities all over the country...In the 1920s, Portland had the third largest narrow gauge electric rail system in the [U.S.]. The streetcar lines formed many streets and neighborhoods that still exist today."[9]\
44. As of the 2010 Census, Portland is the 29th most populous city in the United States |
