[Pdx-pm] Fwd: Portland questions

[chromatic]

Hi all,

You're all clever and highly socialized Portlandites, where I let myself out 
of O'Reilly Hillsboro once a week or so to admire the daystar before it burns 
my fair skin.  Does anyone have far better answers to John's questions than I 
do?

(If you want to forward this to a similarly geeky Stumptown-area list, please 
do.)

Please respond to John directly, unless you have a burning answer that we 
ought to know.

-- c

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Portland questions
From: John Littler <jlittler at mstation.org>

Portland, Oregon has long been one of the places you might
stop off at if you were doing the West Coast drive thing; say
traveling from LA up to the border. Along the way there is a
craggy coast, giant redwood trees and interesting small
communities.

Portland itself is on a river about 80 miles from the coast and
with a nice backdrop of Mt. Shasta. It has about half a million
people in the town proper and about two million in the whole
surrounding area. It's a nice size for getting around and the sort
of size where people haven't withdrawn into themselves for
protection against the cram-packed hordes.

Portland has also become a Liberal and alternative enclave with
all kinds of music and other activities and has the USA's
largest bookstore which takes up a city block.

Another plus is that the place is nowhere near as rainy as
somewhere like Seattle, Washington, which is a bit further
North.

Here we enlist the help of Portland resident, O'Reilly's technical
editor chromatic ...

Maybe first we can deal with where to stay: Let's say we have two
people and one is blessed with a big budget and the other with a
small one. Both like alternative and interesting places. Where
would you recommend they stay?

After they've checked in they'll look at the waterfront and the
distant mountains and wonder what to do next. Where would you point
them as far as general sightseeing is concerned?

After that they got a bit hungry and it's time for lunch anyway.
Being forward planners they're even thinking ahead to where dinner
might be had. What would you recommend?

Portland is well-known for its music and bands and for the fact
that the Dandy Warhols developed an area into a place for theatre
and music. Could you tell us a bit more about that?

What are the main venues in town? What sort of music is generally
played in them (I know this sort of info has a short usability span
generally)?

Portland is said to have more than its fair share of computer
geeks. What sort of geek-friendly activities are there?

Are there a lot of tech employers in the area?

Summing up the ethos of a place can be difficult, especially in
larger cities where ghettoization and/or cultural diversity lead
to many different places. People say that Portland has very much
an anti-authoritarian, questioning, alternative culture sort of
ethos. Is this just for three blocks in town or is it
generally true?

Cheers!
John





Please add any you feel are cool...
some links:
http://www.pova.org
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/176

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