Mark & Karyn are LIVIN'

Downtown Portland May 10, 2008

We spent our final day in Portland walking around the downtown area. The weather was gloomy and overcast again, with a spattering of sprinkles throughout. After almost 12 days in the state, we had only seen the sunshine for two and it was beginning to wear on our mood. But, we attacked our exploration of downtown Portland with vigor. Each Saturday and Sunday downtown Portland hosts an outdoor art fair with prime vendor booths safely protected under one of the many bridges spanning the Willamette River. The market included the usual collection of soap vendors, henna tattoo artists, jewelry vendors, artwork, and food. We meandered around the stalls for awhile and then took a leisurely walk along the Willamette River. Downtown Portland resides on the west side of the river, while the east side of the river includes a few bohemian neighborhoods, the Rose Garden where the Trailblazers play, and a host of industrial looking buildings that are part of the functioning commercial port. We walked from the river to Union Station and through the very cool looking Pearl District. The Pearl District, a restored warehouse district, has beautiful residential lofts, wonderful shopping, and lots of restaurants. The Pearl District houses several of the local breweries in Portland and we wound our way through the streets until we found the Bridgeport Brewery, whose tagline is “Keep Portland Beered” (a takeoff of the famous “Keep Austin Weird” tag). The brewery was housed in a wonderful building with exposed interior brick, the food was pretty darn good, and the flight of beer was fun to sample (we found that we both do not like IPA beers – too bitter – and the Porter beer was pretty good). After lunch we started to walk back across the city to the Cultural District. On the way there we decided to stop at one more brewery for another sampling experience. The Deschutes Brewery was originally founded in Bend, Oregon and a friend of ours knows the brewmaster who helped Deschutes get its start (and he now works for ODells in Fort Collins). We found most of these beers to be too bitter for our taste buds, but we still enjoyed tasting something new. Now our bellies were seriously stuffed and we need to finish our walk across town just to walk off all that beer we had just imbibed. But one last Portland landmark stood in our way to the Cultural District – the Powell Bookstore. The Powell Bookstore is the largest used and new bookstore in the world and occupies a full city block. This bookstore has the most amazing collection of books that could keep anyone busy for days on end perusing their inventory (check them out online too!). We had to force ourselves to leave after an hour of looking at real estate appraisal books (Mark’s new career?), cookbooks (always looking for some easy recipes that can be made in the camper), and books on the environment. And that was just a small, small part of this enormous place. We finally arrived in the Cultural District which houses, as one might guess, several museums. Our destination was the Oregon Historical Society Museum so that we could learn a little bit more about the state we had just lived in for the past few weeks. Oregon’s history begins with the exploration of Lewis and Clark in 1805, the occupation of the area by the British after the War of 1812, the advent of fur trading by the Hudson Bay Company which attracted the “father” of Oregon, John Mcloughlin, and the many Indian Wars that forced the Indians from their lands as more and more white men descended on the area. The Oregon Trail brought thousands of pioneers from Missouri in search of land and a new life. Britain ultimately ceded the Oregon Territory to the U.S. in 1846. Oregon’s primary industries have included timber (and related industries like paper), fishing and canning, wool production (there are still a lot of sheep in Oregon to this day), hops production, hazelnut production (Oregon produces 95% of the hazelnuts consumed in the U.S.), and, today, the “silicon forest” or high-tech industry, which has helped to replace many jobs lost by the decline of the timber industry. Oregon has always prided itself on its attention to environmental issue, has passed the most extensive land use regulations to ensure that urban sprawl does not overtake agriculture, and has always said that businesses looking to headquarter there must do it on Oregon’s terms or not at all. Oregon was the first state to pass laws limiting the number of hours that women could work to 8 per day, allowing for doctor assisted suicide, providing for refundable deposits on aluminum cans, and providing for voting by mail. The most interesting part of the museum was a section that allowed you to listen to discussions by Oregon residents regarding some of their more pressing issues such as the land use laws (most seemed to be in favor of these and changes to these laws have been voted down three times), Indian casinos (many were against it due to objections to gambling in general, some thought the Indian casinos should be taxed, and others had no objection to the casinos), and taxation/education. Oregon has income and property taxes only, no state sales tax (which is a great thing for people like us who are visiting). Obviously, this impacts the revenue available for education. Most Oregonians interviewed seemed to agree that increasing taxes to improve education is a good idea, but they were against levying a state sales tax. I guess the lack of state sales tax explains why things like carpet maintenance at the Capitol Building or the silver service for the USS Oregon are paid for through resident fundraising. But, it seems like Oregonians always open up the purse and get it done.

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