Atlantica - 01.04.2006, Page 55

AT L A N T I CA 53
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global Nike campaign at the ad agency Wieden & Kennedy. (Nike’s world
headquarters are in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland.) Browse the hours away
at Powell’s, one of the nation’s largest independent bookstores.
Walkability is important in the largest city in what is the bluest of blue
states, where even the beautiful people sometimes wear Birkenstocks. To
keep pedestrian traffic high and gas-guzzling automobiles parked in the
garage, the city developed the Portland Streetcar, a trolley service akin to
the streetcars running in Prague. (The cars are actually made in the Czech
Republic by Skoda-Inekon.)
From July 2001, the Streetcar has pulled passengers along a six-mile con-
tinuous loop from northwest Portland through the Pearl, winding up in
southwest Portland. The Streetcar is run by the city, and is surprisingly user
friendly. Before venturing outside on one of Portland’s endless rainy days,
riders can check the Internet to see when the next Streetcar will arrive at their
stop thanks to a GPS tracking system.
“The Streetcar was a huge step in the development process [of the
Pearl],” says John Carroll, a developer who has sat on the Citizens’ Advisory
Committee, the driving force behind the Streetcar, since the project was first
proposed back in 1989.
Portland has its share of sprawl, but Carroll insists the Streetcar allows
for urban density rather than suburban density. With plans to lay down the
tracks, the underutilized neighborhood began shedding its skin along the
proposed line of the Streetcar with martini bars, tapas restaurants, and lamp
stores growing out of the derelict gravel lots and crumbling warehouses.
“There’s 95 percent density along the Streetcar alignment.” One block
away from the tracks there’s 60 percent density, Carroll says, and two blocks
away it drops to 38 percent. More important, for every single passenger – rid-
ership exceeds 4,500 per day – that’s one less SUV sucking up precious gas.
Al Gore would be proud.
OREGON FOLKLORE states that in response to all the Californians mov-
ing north for cheaper housing and a major lifestyle change during the 1970s,
the progressive Governor Tom McCall had a highway sign erected along the
California-Oregon border that read: Welcome to Oregon. Enjoy your visit
but for heaven’s sake don’t stay.
The sign didn’t work. While the soggy Pacific Northwest winters keep
many sun-shiners away, Portland continues to experience rapid growth. One
such former LA resident is Elliot Solomon, a general partner with the invest-
ment company Intellectual Capital. When scouting out places to live in the
Rose City, his friends unanimously told him the coolest spot was the Pearl.
“Compared to LA, the Pearl is a cultural mecca,” says Solomon, who
worked in the entertainment industry before relocating north. “There are a
lot of fine art galleries, music clubs, wine bars and excellent restaurants that
would rival anything found in LA, New York or San Francisco, and it’s all
concentrated in one easy-to-get-to area.”
The cultural lifestyle of the Pearl is certainly dynamic. While the vagabond
artists long ago left for cheaper digs, the neighborhood still supports a thriv-
ing local art scene. While feeding your caffeine fix at anyone of the Pearl’s
numerous coffee shops you can admire the paintings and photographs by
Portland artists hanging on the walls. Since the work is for sale, cafés like
Starbucks and Torrefazione become de facto art galleries that also sell coffee
and scones.
“The Pearl offers the best mix of small town and big city – people are very
friendly and unpretentious yet the cultural aspects are on par with any major
metropolis,” says Solomon.
One of the Pearl’s cultural aspects is the popular “First Thursday.” When
these “Gallery Walks” started, they amounted to a smidgen of gallery own-
ers who opened a few bottles of wine on the first Thursday of every month,
bringing in moneyed art connoisseurs and looky-loos like me out for nothing
more than a free drink. The movement grew. Today, entire blocks in the Pearl
are cordoned off on “First Thursday;” street artists perform and knickknack
artisans hawk their wares.
During Gallery Walks, the Pearl’s restaurants and bars are packed with
revelers. But this is the case on most nights. At the moment, I’m drying out
inside the Bluehour, a posh Manhattan-style restaurant on 13th and Everett.
A small pack of Portlanders acting like big-shot movie moguls are mingling
with fashionably dressed women up at the bar. I eavesdrop on their conversa-
tions, drinking an expensive glass of Barolo wine from the Piedmont region
of Italy. (You see how sophisticated I’ve become.) Despite wearing Levis and
a fleece jacket, I’m not out of place amongst the wannabe studio execs and
the pretend models.
Even in the stylish Pearl District, fleece counts as a suitable wardrobe
accessory. So do Birkenstocks, if it’s not raining. a
Connect to Portland’s International Airport via Icelandair.
Direct flights between Keflavík and San Francisco start in May.
ENCLAVE a
PHOTOS AMELIA ARMSTRONG (THREE FROM LEFT) AND ELLIOTSPHOTOS.COM (FAR RIGHT)
050-53PortlandAtl306.indd 53 23.4.2006 22:57:01