Portland, OR sends a shout-out to Portland, ME

[Uncle Sinister]

Heya, Fellow Portlanders! (do you guys abbreviate it PDX too?)

Thanks for being the home of one of Francis W. Pettygrove, on of our founding fathers. It was either going to be called Portland or Boston, because our two founders were from...guess where.

It all began in 1843 when Tennessee drifter William Overton and Massachusetts lawyer Asa Lovejoy beached their canoe on the banks of the Willamette River. Overcome by the beauty of the area, Overton saw great potential for this mountain-ringed, timber-rich land. His only problem was that he lacked the 25 cents needed to file a land claim. So, he struck a bargain with Lovejoy: In return for a quarter, Overton would share his claim to the 640-acre site known as "The Clearing."

Soon bored with clearing trees and building roads, Overton drifted on, selling his half of the claim to Francis W. Pettygrove. The new partners, Lovejoy and Pettygrove, however, couldn't decide on a name for their budding township. Lovejoy was determined to name the site after his hometown of Boston, while Pettygrove was equally adamant about his native Portland, Maine. They decided to flip a coin, now known as the "Portland Penny," to settle the argument. Pettygrove won on two tosses out of three.

I call the naming a massive failure of imagination on both sides, but I'm glad we are not "Boston,OR"...that just sounds deeply wrong.

I've always wanted to visit "Original Portland"

So how's the political landscape out there? Pretty moribund here, we don't have our primary until May, have had no major candidate visits, virtually no advertising, once again told we don't matter.

But it must be quite a different story for you. Has Maine ever been a critical primary before? I'd like to know the feeling, just once. (and if it stays deadlocked, I might get my wish)

Anyway, what's the buzz, what's happening, how's the weather? (ours is just the usual wet and cold...nothing interesting)

How does the caucus look? Do you guys vote scan or punch or blackbox or mail?

Any critical local races? (we've got a mayor resigning and 4 of 5 city council seats contested...we don't have a horrible local govt. now, but we've got a chance to make it MUCH better...and 9 out of 13 candidates have chosen public financing (basically requires 1000 separate and valid $5 donations to prove "seriousness" then public funding after. It gives activists and progressives an honest shot...IF they have the chops and the popular base. The establishment still has the edge, as everywhere.)

Do you guys resent all the hype we've gotten lately? After all, we are the "junior" Portland. (and the hype is maybe 25% true) I swear to jesus if I see One more "most livible" or "greenest" citations I'l f*king hurl.

We've got a great city in some ways, but housing prices are among the most expensive in the nation (I can only live here because I've got a disability that qualifies me for partially subsidized housing), there are no new jobs coming in, and underneath our progressive skin, there's a real fascist core. (We were, to my disgust, the west coast HQ of the KKK until the 80's, and we were the last state to remove mixed-marriage and eugenics/sterilization laws)

I'm getting together tomorrow for the 1st time with my local DU'ers for beer. I understand they meet 1/month at a local tavern. Do you have local meet-ups there?

meant that to be a quick shout-out, the post got away from me. Anyway, the "other" Portland says hi, and hopes you have record turn-out and zero glitches in the caucus.

Rich, from Portland, OR

[Gormy Cuss]

1. Abbreviating it as PDX would be silly, since the airport code is PWM

It is abbreviated as Ptld sometimes. As a rule, people in Maine don't feel overshadowed by the namesake youngin on the West Coast. Portland, Maine is a cool little city, although the cost of housing is relatively high (200-250K will get you an older 1000 SF house, for example.) You should visit it and Maine as a way of experiencing the Atlantic coast in New England.

Greater Portland is the Democratic core in a state with many Republican strongholds. I'll let someone who lives there answer your question about hot local issues and races.

[high density]

2. Someday I will take a flight from PWM to PDX for fun

I want to go into the airport and when they ask me where I'm going, I can say "Portland" and they can look at me like I'm a nutjob.

Anyhow the national politics is kind of interesting in this state, since we get some runoff from New Hampshire in regards to TV ads and candidates perhaps peeking across the NH border for a couple of hours to stop in. The ride from Portland to Manchester, NH isn't bad so it's easy to see candidates in the primary season if you want to.

This winter has been crap for weather. We had snow all December and then so far in February it has been going the same way. January was a bit of a reprieve, but we've already hit the snowfall average total for the season with two thirds of February and all of March to go. Huge snowstorms in April aren't out of the question, either.

State politics is bad these days, I think. The state house is too much like Washington in the way they're spending our money with no regard. It's frustrating just about everybody. In times like these we simply have to look at cutting some services to balance the budget. Right now we're supposedly $100 million in the hole. I say supposedly because this number seems to swing +/- $500 million every quarter or so, leading to me believe that the state has no solid idea of their financial position nor can they produce accurate and reasonable revenue estimates. The Democratic governor isn't particularly good I don't think, and in the next election I suspect our governor will probably be a Republican after what this guy has (and hasn't) done.

[Arugula Latte]

3. Another shout out from Left Coast Portland

I love Maine! So beautiful! :bounce:

[crim son]

4. I've flown from Portland to Portland!

I live in Maine but various member of my family live in Salem, Portland. I would LOVE to move west, not because Maine isn't great - it is - but because I'm a west-coaster by nature.

[mainegreen]

5. I love living in the original Portland.

It's a fantastic little city. One thing I find so neat about it is that despite it's small size, it's very dense and urban. The peninsula is densely packed, and feels like a much larger city than it actually is.

And our politics is great! So very, very liberal!

[geiger]

6. what a great post as visited by a liberal from Ohio