As someone with more than 30 years of history with this place — Portland has been my home for three decades, but I had visited often prior to that — I’m among the worst offenders when it comes to “getting nostalgic” about Portlandy things. But I always appreciate when folks shake me out of that “Remember when…” stupor and bring me back to reality. Which is why I loved this post from Angel Medina.
The true identity of Portland is not the “dream of the nineties”. It is not “where young people go to retire”, or some maxim we stole from Austin. It’s not even necessarily our beautiful wine country, or our world-class green spaces. It is our culinary scene that, even to this day, even after covid, even as restaurant margins have gone from 18% to 1%, far outpaces the size of this city in its quality and accessibility. Why are we complaining about the lack of tourism, and lamenting the old Portland, and then publishing entire pieces demanding that we stop calling Portland America’s best pizza city… Why?
I am going to say this again, everyone came here because of the food. Why don’t we let them? Why don’t we encourage them?
When restaurants thrive in Portland, everyone gets paid: the landlords, the hotels, the airbnbs, restaurant vendors, the builders & developers, renovation crews, the people leading excursions to so called “experiences” around the city… everyone.
I encourage you to take the opportunity to read it as well. Especially if you find yourself longing for the Portland of yesteryear.
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