Having spent our summer vacation in Oregon, I can vouch firsthand for Portland being Nirvana when it comes to that which is "local." So I wasn't particularly surprised when the following appeared in the New York Times the week after we got back:
Portland is confronting the contradictions that come when keeping it local makes for global success. As the city’s corner coffee shops, indie bands and handmade bicycles have gained national and international renown, becoming — gasp — brand names, cries of corporatism have followed them.
In another city, it might seem a quaint debate. Not here.
You might think that consumer trends toward local (authentic, "real"), no matter where, would be stunted by the country's economic woes, preciousness supplanted by pragmatism.
You'd be wrong in Portland's case:
While other states lost workers, Oregon’s labor force grew because people kept coming. The livability crowd led the way: young, white, well-educated people drawn to an outdoor — and local — lifestyle.
“We get people who self-select,” said Joe Cortright, a longtime economist here. “And there’s no fervor like the converted.”
That does not mean the local economy has figured out how to absorb the stream of newcomers: the Portland area’s unemployment rate was 10.2 percent in May, compared with 9.7 percent nationally.
In its song “Portland Sucks,” the local band White Fang pokes profanely at everything from the city’s joblessness to its self-obsession and sometimes counterintuitive rigidity, from “angry vegans” to outspoken disciples of do-it-yourself (“DIY”) culture — localism in the extreme.
More. Earlier.
