Dreaming of the 90s in Portland

Portland is famous as the city where the dream of the 90s is still alive: a city where young people go to retire, working in coffee shops and restaurants, forming bands, wearing flannel, and generally just foregoing professional ambition (see music video below). While this city probably generally exists, Christine and I went to the established, easily-accessible, sell-out neighborhoods, stocked with fresh food ingredients, creative recipes, craft beverages, Pinot Noir, coffee, theaters, and higher prices. This urban living trend made Portland famous, but since then, it appears to me that many cities across the country are following Portland down a similar path of quality of life renaissance.

Willamette running wide and deep through Portland.

The Willamette flows from south to north, through the heart of Portland, and upriver is the Willamette River American Viticultural Area (AVA), famous for Pinot Noir. Before heading up the Willamette Valley, we explored Portland. We stayed in downtown and ventured to Hawthorne Blvd and the Pearl District, two of the first neighborhoods to be revitalized in the Portland Renaissance. Something interesting about Portland is that cool interesting Portland spills across the entire city, not just these few neighborhoods; unfortunately we didn't have more time, nor did we have invitations to more places.

A popular bumper sticker in Portland says "Keep Portland Weird." We didn't see anything super weird, but we did see a post-industrial city where urban renewal creates high quality of life with abundant service offerings. Apparently too many people are liking the lifestyle now, and some of the early wave veterans are complaining about the new hordes -- and I guess this includes the sell-out tourists like Christine and me: Portlandia is Ruining Portland.

Below are some of the things we found in our Portland adventure.

We stayed downtown in the Heathman Hotel, a historic hotel now renovated. We can only imagine the highs and lows this hotel has experienced over the years, now on a high. Above, pictured is the lobby drawing room.

Christine perusing the mezzanine library at the Heathman.

Advertising itself as the world's largest independent bookstore, Powell's Books is one of the best bookstores I've ever visited. For my personal book tastes, I'd still choose Strand in New York only because Strand carried more of the nonfiction books I prefer. I thought Powell's had a ton of fantasy-type fiction books. You can find the main store in the Pearl District, just north of downtown, a neighborhood near the port and full of old warehouses that now house the various services attendant to a post-industrial gentrifying urban neighborhood. We had brunch nearby.

The bookstore spills into many different rooms of adjacent old warehouses. This is one of the rooms containing the nonfiction books for which Christine and I searched.

Interesting to find an Ankeny St. in Portland. Ankeny is a town in Iowa where I used to live. We bought some obscure Oregon beers in the store to the left; meanwhile, on the sidewalk to the right, some filthy homeless people smoked some drugs, hopefully just marijuana.

We went to an art gallery bar, Nucleus, where they also had paper and pencils for patrons to create their own art projects. Christine created. The beer was not fresh; maybe they do low volumes here; there were surely few patrons on the day we visited.

Lounge Lizard, a funky used furniture gallery on Hawthorne Blvd.

The homeless population of Portland is very obvious. I don't know exactly why Portland has such a seemingly large homeless population. I have read that the Portland government is generous to the homeless, and that would be keeping with Portland's liberal reputation. Portland also has a lot of public drinking fountains, like this one Christine is considering whether to use. Perhaps this is indicative of a government generous to homeless. See some alarming info on the homeless here.

Additional thoughts on the dream of the 90s in and out of Portland

Portland may have the dream of the 90s, but since the 90s, other U.S. cities have become more like Portland. These days, not just Portland offers good coffee served in rooms with exposed brick walls on the same street with craft breweries, cultural amenities, and restaurants featuring locally sourced ingredients.

Like many cities, Portland's cultural renaissance took place in an urban post industrial landscape. Modern Portland was built around timber production and processing, shipbuilding, and its port. Portland is about 75 miles from the Pacific Ocean, but the Willamette River that runs through town is wide and deep and allows for a deep water port. The timber and shipbuilding industries have moved on, leaving behind old industrial buildings for hipsters to put art studios and galleries, breweries, coffee roasting facilities, vintage furniture stores, et cetera.

It seems expensive to to retire young and consume food, beverage, and entertainment services. Supposedly Portland, while offering cultural amenities like Seattle and San Francisco, has cheaper rents.

I believe Portland, Chicago, and other U.S. cities have populations of young retirees, playing in bands and dining at the local craft food and beverage establishments. I also believe it's much easier for corporate sell-outs like me to afford the prices of these places. The dream is probably holding on for some; maybe they are more strategic with their spending or just spend more of their income on services than me. I myself am tasting the dream during my six month sabbatical.




Addendum: Lyrics to Dream of the 90s

Dream of the 90s from Portlandia (watch the video here)

The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!  (Portland…)
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The tattoo ink never runs dry!
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
All the hot girls wear glasses (yeah!)
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
Sleep ‘til 11,
You’ll be in heaven.
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
(The dream is ali-i-ive…)
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
My flannel shirt still looks fly.
  The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
  DREAM OF THE 90’S
 (Song lyrics appear in italic, dialogue isn’t, and I’m not 100% sure Carrie Brownstein’s character is named Melanie, which is part of the reason I listed the dialogue under the actors’ real names.)
 FRED ARMISEN (as “Jason”):  Do you remember the 90s?
CARRIE BROWNSTEIN (as “Melanie”):  Yeah?
FRED:  You know how people were talking about getting piercings and getting tribal tattoos?
CARRIE:  Yeah?
F:  And people were singing about saving the planet and forming bands?
C:  Yeah?
F:  There’s a place where that idea still exists as a reality.  And I’ve been there.
C:  Where is it?
F:  Portland.
C:  Oregon?
F:  Yeah.
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!  (Portland…)
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The tattoo ink never runs dry!
 F:  Remember when people were content to be un-ambitious?  They’d sleep ‘til 11:00, and just hang out with their friends?  I mean, they had no occupations, whatsoever… maybe working a couple hours a week at a coffee shop?
C:  Right.  I thought that died out a long time ago.
F:  Not in Portland.  Portland is a city where young people go to retire.
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
All the hot girls wear glasses (yeah!)
 F:  Remember in the 90s when they encouraged you to be weird?  It was just an amazing time where people would go to see something like the “Jim Rose Sideshow Circus” and watch someone hang something from their penis?  You could grow up to wanna be a clown?  People went to clown school.
C:  I gave up clowning years ago.
F:  Well, in Portland, you don’t have to.
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
Sleep ‘til 11,
You’ll be in heaven.
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
(The dream is ali-i-ive…)
 C:  So, from what I can surmise, from what you’re positing, it’s like Portland’s almost an alternative universe.  It’s like Gore won.  The Bush administration never happened.
F:  Exactly.
C:  In Portland, it’s almost like cars don’t exist, right?
F:  Yes.
C:  They’ll ride bikes, or double-decker bikes.  They ride unicycles.
F:  Yes!
C:  They ride the tram, they ride skateboards.
F:  Yes!
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
My flannel shirt still looks fly.
  The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
 F:  In Portland you can go to, like, a record store and sell your CDs.
 Turn that dirty clown frown right upside down!
 C:  In Portland you can put a bird on something and just call it art.
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!
The dream of the 9—-
 C:  Hey.  I made it.
F:  Yeah.  You’re… you’re a little late,
C:  Sorry.
F:  You’re also a little San Francisco right now, if you know what I mean.  Try to… try to…  Sorry.  Much better!  Welcome to Portland.
C:  Thank you!
 The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland (Portland…)