Portland, OR

Sometimes, I really need to remember that not everyone is interested in “what we do in Portland…”

Not only am I a proud Portlandian, but I tend to talk about it too much when I visit people in my home state of Michigan. I need to learn to just shut up, but it’s not like I am bragging per se, but instead, I see many things that Portland does as neat and cool and that most of the people I know would really like Portland. But, most people I know in Michigan are stuck there, for lack of a better term. I just happen to be one of those people that has no qualms about moving across a continent, but most people like living close to home and family and friends — or at least that is what they say. Not that I think that anyone is envious of my nomadic lifestyle, but I remember when I was stuck in Michigan and how eager I was to get the heck out.

Not that Michigan or any home state is a bad place, but some people, like myself, feel a need to explore other lands and experience different lifestyles. We need to move away from home. We are not running away, like my uncle accused me of, but rather we are not content staying in one spot our whole lives.

However, not everyone is impressed with what we Communists and Hippies are doing out West. Most people are polite about it, and simply look bored when I bring up Portland’s propensity for gardening, our city’s incoming gay mayor, our many farmers markets and how everything is organic and local, how I can go to the store in my pyjamas and slippers and no one even bats an eyelash, how I can ride my bike almost everywhere, and how polite everyone is on our bio-diesel buses and our electric streetcars…

Yeah, I’d probably get annoyed with me, too. And since I am in Brighton, Michigan (outside of Detroit), I stand the risk of getting a ticket for annoying people with my incessant “in Portland” sentences.

I try to keep my fondness for Portland in check, but it is hard because I am and have been a little eco-nazi for years, and with Portland being such a green city (in more ways that one), I usually point out that Portland is a good place for someone like me, and then I try to work in an environmental lecture into my conversation. I would find that annoying, so I really need to find other ways to answer the question, “How’s Portland?”

From now on, I will politely say, “Come see for yourself.”

Portland, Oregon, Michigan, Brighton, Detroit, farmers markets, organic, biodiesel, environmentalists, communists, hippies

I always seem to miss Portland’s coldest weather. Not to say I am sorry about that, but as I am in Michigan, where it is always a snow day or should be considered one, it’s not like I am missing out on the cold and snow. I just really wanted to experience a Portland Snow Day.

First, this is a classic video of another snow day from 2007. It is just too funny.

For all those bundled up indoors, here’s some random weather facts courtesy Oregonphotos.com. Mostly.

The absolute coldest temperature recorded in Oregon was 54 degrees below zero (and yes, that’s Fahrenheit). And get this, that temp was recorded not once, but twice in two different places (Ukiah and Seneca), though the dates were consecutive days, February 9th and 10th back in 1933.

That’s about as cold as Antarctica’s coastal areas get in the winter. Granted, the elevations of Ukiah and Seneca are much, much higher than Portland, so I doubt that kind of cold could come to Stumptown.

However, the lowest temperature on record for Portland is 19 below zero, which occurred on February 2, 1950. That’s more like an Antarctic summer…

And for those of you lamenting the snowfall Portland received yesterday and coming later this week, just be glad it’s not 1892. That winter, Portland received more than 60 inches of snow.

According to the National Weather Service, the heaviest snowfall that Portland received in one day was 8 inches. Gee, that’s not so bad, but it was during the winter of 1950, and in that January, Portland had 22 inches during that blustery blizzard. The NWS has it that Portland had 15 inches as the greatest snow depth that month. My question is what happened to the other 7 inches (ha, that’s what she said — wow, cannot believe I wrote that).

Anyway, Portland, enjoy the snow. At least you are not in Minnesota…for more reasons than just the snow, right. Sorry, Minnesota.

Portland, weather, snow, snowfall, winter, temperature, cold, snow day, Oregon, Antarctica, Ukiah, Seneca, National Weather Service, Minnesota

So I’ve been in Florida for two weeks now, and I have one more to go before I get to return to Portland. I am literally counting the hours.

Allow me to digress for just a moment…Something that I do like about Portland is that it seems as though many people I have met there are not from Portland, but rather are people who chose to move to Portland (usually after one visit). I have lived many places now, and most of those cities were cities where people just seemed to grow up there or near there, or it was the closest big city to their hometown. Not to say that every city doesn’t have it’s fair share of people who actively seek out and choose to move there, but in Portland, it seems that many people move there because something compels them to live there. In that most newbies didn’t move to Portland for a job per se, instead moving to a beautiful city and hoping to find a job once there. That is a sign of love.

I kind of feel like a broken record talking about Portland while I am staying in Florida. One, I am not a Florida fan. Sure, I like the Gulf and the Atlantic is cool, but the interior is a like a blackhole of culture. I’m sorry if I have just offended a Central Florida resident, but come on…I’m right. Admit it.

And two, I really like where I live, so I tend to gush…that’s right, gush, and I am not a gushing kind of gal. I know that everyone around me is tired of my talking about how much better Portland is than Orlando. I sort of feel like an obnoxious New Yorker.

But anyway, there is a point to this post today. Portland is a very “green” city. Yes, yes, there’s trees and it’s lush in foliage, but I also refer to the treehugger definition of green. The trash receptacles around town have these little cages on the side for recyclables. Everyone rides the TriMet or rides a bike. I feel like people are giving me dirty looks when I forget to bring my re-usable shopping bag to Trader Joe’s. I love it.

I grew up in Michigan. You know that state with the ten cent deposit on soda cans and bottles. Guess what you never see as trash or litter in Michigan? My parents recycled before it was cool. I remember filling up the station wagon with the bins and bags full of glass, tin cans, and newspaper to take to the one grocery store in town that had these what looked like train cars with a few holes along the side with signs that designated what stuff to put where. Maybe because I was a kid, I thought it was kind of fun. And it seemed like a lot of people were always there. So you see, I have just always recycled. It is so ingrained in me it is a subconscious act for me to separate garbage.

In Portland, yes, there is generally a very “granola” vibe about town. In Florida, I feel like I have entered a Bizzarro World in which everything, and I mean everything goes in the trash. I keep trying to find ways to casually ask about recycling, like, “Oh, hey, where does this big plastic soda bottle go?” I get strange looks, and then the answer, “Um, the trash.”

I looked up some statistics for Osceola County, Florida. They only recycle one percent (yeah, that’s right, 1%) of all steel cans here. Like I titled this post…Culture Shock. They start fires with gasoline down here. Everyone drives an SUV or big pick-up truck. No streets are planned out for pedestrians. 151 hours to go…

Portland, Florida, Orlando, New Yorker, Giuliani, green, treehugger, TriMet, bike, Trader Joe’s, Michigan, recycling, granola, bizzarro world, trash, Osceola County