Pointless to compare Portland to anywhere else, even Seattle. I've been around the country and this place is so far out in left field... the best and worst of every city is here, filtered through the odd, native DNA of this area. Maybe that sounds vague, but I know I'm right... For better or worse, Portland is it's own animal.

No city is its own animal, unless it's isolated enough to keep the gene pool limited (metaphorically speaking.) I think Portland and Oakland are almost identical

Portland and Oakland? Not even close. Or has Oakland undergone a radical transformation in the past two years? Berkeley's more like it. Actually Portland has always struck me as a kind of baby SF.

Do we really have better art than Seattle? And if so, where is it?

According to the NY Times, which is the publication I turn to for inane predictions about the New Whatever, Philadelphia is the New Brooklyn.

For what it's worth, I moved here straight from Seattle over a year ago. My Seattle friends who headed east to Brooklyn are now about to move to Portland. While I don't know if the "new" titles mean anything, the migration patterns certainly seem to fit the phrases.

I've heard Bloomington is the new Portland, without the whole ugly Pacific Northwestern fashion. Boys, enough with the beards. Girls, wear a fuckin dress for once.

Girls, enough with the beards. Boys, wear a dress for once.

It's the new Brooklyn, except without the history of evil developers controlling the way it grows. Oh, hang on. It's just the new Brooklyn.

Once we get a few more awesome things torn down and shitty condos put up, and all the creative people are run out of town because housing costs are too high, we'll be the spitting image of present-day Seattle.

See everybody out in gresham!

I'm forever amused by the way someone is always trying to characterize Portland by styling it The New and/or Next (Blank), filling in the blank by whatever city it will most be like when it finally "arrives" on the scene.

My wife related the anecdote to me of someone who visiting the PNW and was told, multiply, that "YOU JUST HAVE TO SEE SEATTLE, YOU JUST HAVE TO SEE SEATTLE!!!!!". They saw Seattle for two days and skived down here just to visit OMSI. They wound up staying four or five days.

Portland is Portland. That's why people come here. I mean, our Brooklyn could fit into the real Brooklyn 100 times over. Industrial areas are charming. We're a seagoing port but we're not on the ocean. Close to everything-but comfortably far away. Our A-list includes names like Alexakis, Storm Large, Peter Jacobsen, and Chuck Palaniuk, and it's revised more or less weekly, or to taste.

Sure, we have some of the atmosphere of Seattle (or does Seattle have some of ours?) but outside of that, Portland is Portland. It's like no other place.

yeah, i'd disagree. i live and work in brooklyn and it's being developed like crazy right now. the population just keeps going up, as do rent prices. none of the hipsters who are crowding into brooklyn think brooklyn is over. they think this is the best/coolest/most artistic place in the country. and no one in new york is talking about portland, or. or oregon at all, for that matter. unless they're into the few cool bands that portland has to offer right now.

so, that's my take on it.

and, as a general rule, new yorkers are an incredibly self absorbed bunch. once people live in new york for a few months, the whole rest of the country melts away and they develop this mentality that this city is the only city/place in the country that matters.

"Once people live in new york for a few months, the whole rest of the country melts away and they develop this mentality that this city is the only city/place in the country that matters."

Sounds a lot more like Portland than you're suggesting.

Portland has far too little ethnic diversity to be the new Brooklyn. And is the poorer for it.

No way, the "Brooklyn" that hipsters speak of as "theirs" is as white as it gets. been to Bed-Stuy lately? How 'bout Williamsburg? It's whiter than Pierce Brosnan's family reunion

If people move here because Portland is the New Seattle or Brooklyn, does that mean that, once the intoxication of this 'newness' wears off and the hangover kicks in, those folks are going to move somewhere else?

Portland IS Portland, nothing more nothing less. For those of us that grew up here its just plain home. If you have, or would like to move here, because there's something about this town (and it still really is more of a town than a city in alot of respects- like it or not)that catches your fancy, fine- settle in and appreciate it, you'll like it.
Every locale has its history and lore, PDX is no exception (Poison Idea, et al come to mind)and there's quite a bit to take in once you scratch the surface. Too much to get into here.
But the whole thing about sticking a marketing label on our fair burg such as the "New This or That" is the kind of thing that Donnie is talking about regarding bulldozing the exisiting cool stuff in this town to make way for a city with a more superficial, 'it's the latest thing' kind of vibe. The common denominator may wind up being nothing more than a shallow and glancing appreciation of this place- as if nothing here existed before PDX became the 'in' place to move.
Having said that, if we ever wind up elbow to elbow at the bar, cradlin' our beers, I'd be happy to give you the rest of my two cents.
Cheers!

Good points, Mort, but saying "Portland is Portland" is like saying "butter" when somebody asks you what butter tastes like; it's lazy and it's not necessarily true.

Just passing along this little tidbit: Portland's had it's own Brooklyn for over 150 years (156 years to be exact).

Although not necessarily focusing just on Portland, I liked this quote from Metropolis Magazine:

"Portland, Oregon. Seattle, Washington. Vancouver, British Columbia. In these three Pacific North­west cities, the progressive power of urban planning is taken very seriously, and concepts like livability and sustainability dominate the local civic culture to such an extent that to visit all three in rapid succession, as I did in October, is to drop in on another country. It’s not the United States or Canada, but a more highly evolved combination of the two."

Portland is Mark Wahlberg. Seattle is Donnie Wahlberg.

Portland is Alec Baldwin. Brooklyn is Daniel Baldwin.

Portland is self obsessed in the same way New York is. Portland has never really cared what the rest of the country thinks about it. Portland has always tried to be the best city it can be for its citizens, which inadvertently made it one of the most unique and best cities in the country. This is what makes Portland the opposite of Seattle which has always tried to be a “major city.” They had a Worlds Fair and built the Space Needle. Portland built a light rail system, and Pioneer Square.

I agree with the person that said Portland is similar to Oakland. Portland and Oakland look identical in certain areas.

Portland:
78 percent white, 6.6 percent African-American, 6.8 percent Latino, 6.3 percent Asian, 5 percent other

Oakland:
31.3 percent white, 35.7 percent African-American, 15.2 percent Asian, 21.9 percent Latino

The buildings and streetlights might look the same...

isn't st. johns portland's brooklyn?

Does that make Gresham Portland's Jersey?

Alan,

Portland is Portland wasn't meant to be a description, just a simple answer to whether or not we were the next Seattle or Brooklyn.
But, it turns out I was mistaken. Portland is really Spokane.
Which I think actually makes Gresham our Cour d' Alene.

i moved to portland because i couldn't afford brooklyn. seattle sucks.

for kathy: i live in bloomington, indiana. when i tell people i'm from portland, they tell me word on the street is "portland is just like bloomington!" i do a lot of smiling and nodding. bloomington is more like corvallis. or the eugene of indiana.
god help me.

Umm... yah but no.
Not to sound repetitive, since a lot of good points have already been mentioned, but Portland is Portland. Brooklyn is Brooklyn. SF is SF etc. There are similarities and differences between all of these cities but one thing to remind us all of is the fact that we are SMAAAAAAALLLLLLL as fuck compared to these other massive metro hubs. We have less people, less jobs, and less pollution compared to our larger hip American city counter parts. When I first moved here (four or so years ago) I totally felt the Portland honeymoon hard core and would easy get up in a crowded room and chant "Portland's the best place on the planet!" Not to say that I don't think that anymore, but, well, other places have their own bad ass culture happening and are totally alive just like we are.

To agree with "Jennifer" above: "no one in new york is talking about portland." It's true. I've gone to NYC/Brooklyn, SF, LA, Chicago, and San Diego since I've lived here, and I didn't ever get the sense that many people in those other cities really cared about anywhere else but where they were at the time. Yes, people are moving here, but people leave here just the same.