(Consider this my introduction.)
Yesterday, I woke up and had a stark realization.
I’ve been here for 17 years.
On January 5, 1992, I drove a beat-up Chevette (is there any other kind?) into Portland from Denver. I remember it well. I actually screamed out loud when I saw the “Entering Portland” sign on I-84. I had no plan — had no idea what I was going to do but, dammit, I knew that Portland was the place for me and I was excited.
My first week here included: Tavern and Pool, Pub At The End Of The Universe (twice), The Hotcake House (at what time, I really don’t recall), Forest Park, Mount Tabor and constant hanging out on Hawthorne, where I was living at the time. The first job started a couple of weeks later. Come on, I was 22 years old and too busy having fun.
So, here we are 17 years after falling madly, deeply in love with Portland.
I now have a family and so many incredible friends here. To say it has been a blur would be an understatement. To say it has been sublime would be one as well. It’s sweet to wake up every morning and know that I live in a place where possibility is encouraged — where taking chances is appreciated. This is where you can stub your toe, maybe trip a little and have an army of people help you pick you up and shepherd you on to the next thing you believe in. The communal, entrepreneurial spirit here is unlike anything I’ve seen.
And we need it now more than ever.
As I write here, you’ll find that I’m a bit of an optimist and I think that 2010 will be something special for all of us in Portland. There are some days when it’s hard to believe — but I can feel it.
And I’m certain that I’ll wake up next year on my 18th anniversary here with just as big a smile on my face.
(Editor’s note: We’re happy to welcome Zanger to OurPDX. Happy anniversary!)
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Welcome to the OurPDX writer’s pool – the water’s been drained on accounta’ budget cutbacks, but the pretend water’s glorious.
Well, on May 13, I will celebrate my 25th year here in the greater Aloha area. That means
1. I have lived here longer than anywhere else.
2. This is my second recession.
3. I don’t vote in the City or Multnomah County elections.
But seriously, this is indeed the best place I’ve ever lived. I was inches away from leaving in 1992 and going back to the Washington, DC area. You’re right about the community, but there’s a few other things that keep me here:
1. Fresh air: unless you’ve lived in some other largish cities, you probably haven’t experienced stagnant, hot, humid summers or bone-dry heat, mixed with the breakdown products of automobile exhaust. Sure, we have some days like that, but not entire months of them.
2. The arts: even though our per-capita spending on the arts is lower than many cities, we have two new-music ensembles, dozens of art galleries, opera and ballet companies, the oldest youth symphony in the world, and what is looking like a jazz renaissance. And the Oregon Symphony. And a financially stable public-funded all-classical radio station that has listeners everywhere the Internet goes.
3. Food: I used to live near Washington, DC, and I used to say that there was a restaurant there for every nation in the world except one. I think the food is better here – a lot better. There are food carts here better than some downtown DC restaurants.
This is the sort of optimism Portland needs. In regards to comparatives with D.C. – It’s hard to compare D.C with any other vibrant city. D.C. is a bit lackluster in all the cultural compartments.
The people who live in the D.C. area will probably disagree with you vehemently. The National Symphony long had a poor reputation relative to New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, but under conductors Rostropovich and Slatkin, I think it could hold its own. Rostropovich made a number of fine recordings with the orchestra, for example. Dance of all kinds thrives in the area as well. Opera I’m not sure about – San Francisco and Houston are names I hear more often than D.C. when talking to opera buffs.
When I lived there, I was primarily a jazz fan rather than symphonic, and I think the Georgetown jazz scene was second to none in the USA. I have no idea how it is now, but I’d be surprised if it was any less than it was then.
Well, there’s nothing quite like reading through this to make me feel like my 4+ years in Portland are pretty paltry compared to everyone else’s time here, let alone those that were born and raised in the area. That said, I’ve known Zanger for about 75% of my time here (it sounds longer when I use percentages) and I’m quite happy to see OurPDX utilize his talents as a writer. While I’m something of a Pacific Northwest snob, I’ve met very few people that bring as much enthusiasm to our wonderful little city as he does. It’s good to see one of my favorite Portlanders on one of my favorite websites.
Yep, I consider it quite the personal coup to land Zanger as one of our new authors. (I fully expected the polite ‘thanks, but no thanks…’ response when I asked him, frankly!)
Yeah … I wish I had been born here, but I couldn’t afford the plane ticket to send my parents here at the time.
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