Portland, we have a bone to choose with you.
Yeah, we’re speaking to you, buddy. None of this passive-aggressive “who, me?” conflict-dodging. Let’s be sincere: You are mad at us, and we’re mad at you.
The opposite day, considered one of our editors was speaking to a newcomer—freshly arrived in Portland from California. What did she consider our honest metropolis? “Everyone is indignant,” she replied. “Portland is not bizarre. Portland is mad.”
Looks like we might all use a kvetch.
In 1999, WW launched Kvetch Fest, our seasonal airing of civic grievances. It isn’t a pageant we yearly observe; we pull it out of mothballs each time we expect Portland might use a bitch session and a good-natured chuckle at our personal pettiness. That is the sixth prevalence—and, in a cheerful coincidence, the primary to fall throughout Hanukkah. (“Kvetch,” for many who do not know, is Yiddish for complaining. Do not even take into consideration accusing us of cultural appropriation, you schmucks.)
This 12 months, we requested a couple of of our favourite common writers to inform us what’s annoying them. We requested a couple of civilians, too—you will discover the visitor kvetches scattered all through the next pages. You’ll be able to be part of the refrain by writing to kvetch@wweek.com.
It is simpler to search out hash oil than hash browns on this city. Portland prides itself on a fantastic brunch—or not less than one pretty enough to post on Instagram—so possibly that is why each breakfast plate comes with an artfully organized batch of roasted potatoes. Roasted potatoes are for dinner. Shredded hash browns are for sopping up runny eggs. Sure, they’re a ache within the ass to cook dinner and take up area in your griddle. However they’re superb. I do know just one joint in Portland that persistently serves hash browns such as you’ll discover at any first rate Waffle Home. I am not telling you the place it’s. You’ll be able to’t have my hash browns. AARON MESH.
What a racket. I do not thoughts an additional deposit to safe an condominium that can take my fluffy buddy and her gentle dander drawback. That is principally insurance coverage for the owner, and I am going to vacuum further vigilantly to get it again. However pet lease is only a surcharge with a brand new, serious-sounding identify, tacked on as a result of landlords know individuals with pets are determined and keen to pay. Including 50 bucks every month or my feline has to go feral? That is principally blackmail. Subsequent factor you already know, some glass tower on the Central Eastside goes to start out charging “youngster lease” for every child. Really, that is cheap. Each cats and kids pee all over the place—however youngsters are louder. AARON MESH.
NBA author Dane Delgado put it finest: “Actual Blazers followers aren’t frightened as a result of actual Blazers followers are already lifeless inside.” However let’s be actual: If the Portland Path Blazers immediately turned a league-dominating juggernaut, most of y’all would not know what to do with yourselves. A way of myopic self-pity has ingrained itself so deeply into the fan base, I am fairly positive the town would spend the championship parade ready for the float carrying the staff to fall right into a sinkhole. Certain, loads of unhealthy shit has occurred—destiny-altering accidents, failed draft picks, fourth-quarter collapses, Rudy Fernandez—however the followers who run to Twitter to performatively bemoan each loss as some sort of cosmic futility ought to keep in mind that many franchises would kill to have only one championship, not to mention a number of finals runs, a world-beating backcourt of Dame and CJ, and the fitting to place Rasheed Wallace on T-shirts and declare him as their very own. MATTHEW SINGER.
The Portland Harbor Superfund website is a tiresome fiction. In 2000, the feds designated the downtown mattress of the Willamette River an environmental catastrophe and ordered the accountable events to scrub it up. Eighteen years have handed and, apart from some regulation companies and consultants who’ve made good-looking livings operating out the clock, nothing has occurred. The pretense of regulation could also be worse than no regulation in any respect. NIGEL JAQUISS.
Streetcar Tracks within the Bike Lane
Virtually nothing annoys me after I’m on a motorcycle. In actual fact, my trip to work is my outlet for obliterating the stresses of balancing work and household. Ought to some fear come to thoughts, I simply pedal just a little more durable—not less than till I hit the streetcar tracks of the Pearl District. They are a terror.
There’s analysis behind this criticism: Streetcar tracks have been deadly for cyclists throughout the nation and, for many years, a significant explanation for accidents for Portland cyclists. One nationwide research confirmed the left flip throughout tracks was probably the most harmful—and so it’s for me. The left end up of the Pearl onto the Broadway Bridge throughout bumpy asphalt and streetcar tracks is the scourge of my commute. Go bye, streetcar! RACHEL MONAHAN.
I hate the truth that meals carts are disappearing in massive numbers and the town appears to don’t have any plan to protect them. In Singapore, the place actual property is much more costly than in Portland (and the meals is even higher), the federal government way back realized noodle cooks and satay males could not compete with funding banks for area. So that they put aside massive “hawker facilities,” the place a universe of tiny foods and drinks distributors function in the course of the town. Let’s get all these planners to do one thing helpful for our stomachs. NIGEL JAQUISS.
The “White Fragility” Billboard
It is time we speak about this “Portland…Is Your White Fragility Displaying?” billboard that popped up on Southeast Belmont Road and twenty sixth Avenue final April. The billboard was mounted by an nameless racial-justice group known as Portland Fairness in Motion to carry consideration the deaths of Larnell Bruce Jr., who was killed by white supremacists in Gresham, and Terrell Johnson, who was killed by police on Southeast Portland MAX tracks. In line with PEA’s web site, the billboards had been supposed to “disrupt the rampant complacency on this metropolis relating to problems with white supremacy.” One drawback: I did not know that is what the marketing campaign was about till I went residence and Googled it. Decreasing the deaths of Bruce and Johnson to “white fragility”—an instructional time period that describes how white individuals change into unhappy after they find out about racism—is not any higher than explaining racism as “financial nervousness.” Bruce did not die of white fragility. He died as a result of two items of shit did not see his life as having any worth. That appears fairly simple to placed on a billboard. CRYSTAL CONTRERAS.
Restroom Keys at Eating places
Nothing makes me lose my urge for food quicker than going to clean my arms earlier than a meal and having to deal with a restroom key hooked up to a spoon—or a scuffed-up piece of wooden, or half of a French press, or no matter cumbersome germ lure the supervisor determined to affix it to. And for what? To verify everybody who makes use of your treasured bathroom bought a pizza slice? I’ve labored within the service trade, and might say with certainty paying prospects are not any cleaner or extra courteous than most of the people. If ensuring solely individuals who pay can piss in your commode is your hill to die on, not less than have a restroom code—4 digits, max. The one factor worse than having to memorize a five-digit restroom code is the disgusting key. CRYSTAL CONTRERAS.
There’s Nonetheless No MAX Practice to Vancouver
It is insanity. It takes, I dunno, like three days to drive residence should you dwell wherever north of downtown Portland, and that is as a result of each resident of Vancouver is sitting alone in a automobile, listening to a Geese soccer replay on the radio. The reply to the issue is staring us within the face: a MAX line to Vancouver.
As a lifelong son of Clark County who does not drive, I’ve lengthy been deeply irritated by this absence. In fact, it goes with out saying that my Clark County persons are suspicious of taxes and of scruffy-looking individuals arriving through practice, however they’ve to acknowledge the visitors state of affairs is untenable, and an honest-to-God practice line is a sublime resolution that principally each different suburb within the Portland metro space has already carried out with no dangerous unwanted side effects.
It is getting so congested that some individuals have been speaking a few ferry—a ferry, for pity’s sake—connecting Vancouver and Portland. Like in a James Garner film about riverboat playing! This resolution appears like a colossal waste of time for commuters and a plainly absurd train in sending a ship chugging alongside for a distance of lower than a mile. Simply construct a brand new bridge and put some practice tracks on it! CORBIN SMITH.
Grown grownup human beings pedal round this city sporting helmets coated with stegosaurus plates, or rows of spikes, or satan horns. Do you actually need to have your head crushed whereas sporting a helmet painted like a watermelon? As a result of I am telling you now: If that is what you are sporting when your time comes, there will likely be jokes.
How dare I be imply about bike security? Cool it, pal—I really feel the identical about individuals who put these festive pink noses and antlers on their automobiles. Think about a witness being interviewed by the police and saying, in a somber tone, “That is right, officer, the Rudolph automobile was attempting to show left throughout visitors when it bought T-boned by the semi and burst into flames.” CRYSTAL CONTRERAS.
Each social media app is horrible and must be flung immediately into the ocean. However most of them really feel like well-meaning experiments that simply went awry. Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t attempting to destroy democracy, any greater than Dr. Frankenstein needed to freeze to loss of life within the Arctic in search of a murderous corpse. Generally issues simply do not work out.
However NextDoor? That is the one app that appears designed out of pure malice. And it feels significantly insidious in Portland. Why? In Portland, each third put up is somebody expressing concern for his or her life as a result of somebody poor breathed of their path, and they’re fairly positive they have been uncovered to Spanish measles. You need to simply name the app “Oh no, I simply noticed a homeless particular person!” NextDoor is a cauldron of middle-class paranoia. If Portlanders needed to pay a greenback each time they logged into NextDoor, we might construct flats for everybody. AARON MESH.
Generally the anger is justified. However then once more: This summer season, individuals began protesting and harassing an Egyptian meals cart as a result of the proprietor had been arrested for attacking a buyer after allegedly calling her a racial epithet. Except they protested the wrong food cart. They blended up the names of two Egyptian meals carts. This can be a super method to protest racism.
What’s it about Portland that makes eating places such a simple goal? I believe it is largely as a result of this metropolis is stuffed with liberal white individuals who depend on social media clout for subsistence and feed themselves by yelling at different white individuals for being bigots. CRYSTAL CONTRERAS.
Who might presumably give a shit that we’ve got to share the highway with e-scooters? Who seems at any individual experiencing pleasure and feels the urge to smash their trip? I do not care if scooters pile up on the sidewalks, or if riders aren’t sporting helmets. I am not 10 million years outdated and constipated, that is why.
It is way more alarming to be taught that in Portland throughout the four-month experiment with scooters, individuals lit them on hearth, dropped them off buildings and threw them into the river. How little self-control should it’s important to really feel a must toss scooters into timber? It is making me suspicious of my fellow residents. What number of of you might be one beer away from ripping aside my bicycle? CRYSTAL CONTRERAS.
You Cannot Smoke Weed on the Motion pictures
Being stoned on the movie show: You prefer it, I prefer it, everybody likes it. The one drawback is logistical: Staying correctly lit for a two-hour, 30-minute Marvel film is sort of exhausting! You can do edibles, however these candies are unreliable as hell. You are not attempting to be straight for half of Ant-Man, then means too stoned for the second half. You can vape within the theater, however you are not a monster and, extra importantly, you do not need to get caught.
It is time for film theaters to supply patios the place you’ll be able to step out midway by means of a film, take a fatty rip off a J, and step again contained in the theater, the place you should purchase some popcorn and sit back together with your good pal Rocket Raccoon. The truth that this is not authorized (editor’s notice: It positively is not authorized) is simply one more reason Portland’s progressive repute is faux as hell. CORBIN SMITH.
Now that the governor’s race is over, I can lastly say this: Nothing drove me so loopy this 12 months as Republican nominee Knute Buehler and his ever-changing facial hair. Each time I turned on a Blazers recreation, there was Knute in some business, chatting with small-business homeowners about placing hobos in jail or one thing, and his goatee was in a special place. Generally it modified shade and site from shot to shot. No continuity in any respect. The GOP spent some $20 million and could not get him a constant shave. It was like being requested to vote for an Etch-a-Sketch character. We’d have a brand new governor if he’d simply grown a pleasant beard like a standard particular person. AARON MESH.
Bus Riders Who Do not Preload Their HOP Playing cards
It drives me loopy when passengers get on the bus with out loaded HOP playing cards, faucet their playing cards on the scanner, get that little bwah-bwah noise, notice they forgot to load their playing cards earlier, say “Oh, sorry,” stand close to the doorway of the bus whereas everyone seems to be attempting to get on, add a measly $5 to their card, to allow them to discover themselves on this pickle once more on the soonest attainable second, retap the cardboard whereas everybody waits for them, get a ding, and sheepishly thank the bus driver, as if this weren’t the third time they’ve carried out this up to now week. Do not they know ample auto-load choices can be found on the web site and the app? Are they actually so exhausting up they cannot simply auto-deposit 10 bucks after they’re operating low? It drives me particularly loopy as a result of: I’m the one who does this, on a regular basis, greater than anybody on the earth, and I do know my vile irresponsibility is driving everybody I meet to insanity. It is me. I’m the kvetch. CORBIN SMITH.
Further Kvetch! We requested a few of our favourite Portlanders to share what ticks them off. They’d lots to unload:
“The rattling noise air pollution attributable to individuals transferring from cities the place honking is a factor. It is contagious and certain unstoppable.” — Zia McCabe, Dandy Warhols
“Portland is a metropolis that may have a look at an enormous quantity of homeless individuals and assume, ‘I ought to construct a canine resort.'”— Corina Lucas, comic
“I hate when individuals say they’re from Portland, however actually they’re from like Vancouver or Gresham or the westside. That is not Portland. Half one million individuals dwell on the market. You’ll be able to’t simply say you are from Portland, you are from Beaverton. It is a large enough metropolis, be happy with it. And everyone smokes American Spirits, I hate that. I run out of cigarettes and I am like, ‘Hey, can I bum a cigarette?’ They usually hand me a crusty-ass American Spirit that takes quarter-hour to smoke.” — Dee Casey, supervisor at Laundry PDX
“My greatest P-town peeve is that there does not appear to be a peak restriction on the ugly-ass, janky condos that appear to breed like genetically faulty rabbits round right here. Are these builders paying somebody off? Have they got to be the most affordable, nastiest-looking ones?” — Courtney Taylor-Taylor, Dandy Warhols
“I am trying ahead to the pothole-filling ninjas this winter. I spilled espresso on my lap yesterday after a bump on Albina and bought a coronary heart hard-on imagining the rogue hole-fillers after a very good season of frozen avenue spoliation.” — Matt Brown, Bunk Sandwiches
“Individuals in Portland like to be as uncomfortable as humanly attainable. Each restaurant is the scale of a fucking storage unit. And for some purpose, all of us have to sit down collectively, at lengthy, bizarre picnic tables, linking arms and attempting like hell to not calm down your legs an excessive amount of, lest you immediately make three-point contact together with your neighbor. If there even are chairs, they’re made out of recycled bicycle components or oil drums or no matter else they discovered within the alley. For those who’re charging $17.98 for a hummus plate, you’ll be able to afford particular person tables. I’ve seen them shits at IKEA for 50 bucks apiece.” — Becky Braunstein, comic
“Severely, whose brilliant thought was it to have avenue names printed on just one aspect of our avenue indicators? Was it a monetary resolution? As a result of I might be blissful to assist increase cash to complete the job. I am unable to inform you the variety of almost-accidents I’ve witnessed stemming from indecisive drivers looking out in haste for nonexistent avenue names.” — The Unipiper
“All my life, Portland has been speaking about how essential all-ages music is. In the meantime, apart from some uncommon and short-lived exceptions to the rule, we have at all times determined to promote alcohol as a substitute of getting locations for the following technology of music to chop their collective tooth alongside the final. Perhaps it is a huge conspiracy in opposition to the children by the Oregon Liquor Management Fee. Extra probably, it is as a result of Portlanders don’t love music as a lot as we like ingesting, and we cannot admit it as a result of all of us need to appear smarter than that.” — Bim Ditson, musician
“Why are you outdoors jogging within the rain? Why are you jogging in 40-degree climate? Knock it off!” — Shain Brenden, comic
“Californians, we do not hate you for being Californians—we hate that you just’re performing like Californians. It isn’t sufficient that you just’re driving property values as much as the purpose we won’t afford lease, and visitors is insane at 1 pm, however I can guess at any gathering you will level out the streets you pronounce incorrectly, giggle and say, ‘I assumed it was Wil-la-MEHT-tay!’ For those who’re significantly boring, you will ask if I have been ‘retaining it bizarre.'” — Belinda Carroll, comic and Portland Dyke March organizer
“I hate how each bar and restaurant makes use of these old-timey classic gentle bulbs—just like the one place Portland is not going to be progressive is whenever you’d wish to see the $13 drink you ordered. We get it, the ’20s had been a high-quality decade. Transfer on.” — Jake Silberman, comic
“I’ve an actual drawback with the girl in North Portland who arms out fliers on the risks of local weather change and encourages me to trip my bike to the grocery retailer—whereas additionally attempting to prepare unvaccinated youngster play teams and tells me I did my children a disservice by getting them pictures. I perceive individuals choosing and selecting their science in the case of sure subjects, however please get your children vaccinated. Tussin cannot treatment pertussis, and your crystals cannot both.” — Leigh Feldman, occasion promoter
“I usually see drivers cease at an intersection with a two-way cease signal and so they have the straight away. For a couple of minutes, there’s this interchange of ‘you first’ or ‘no, please, after you’ whereas automobiles on your entire intersection come to a whole cease—a waste of treasured jiffy of journey time.” — Zari Santner, former director of Portland Parks & Recreation
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