Endopolis

I've always loved Portland - the city is amazingly great and getting better all the time. While we were there, the weather went from 55 and rainy to 95 and sunny in the span of two days. That was during the west coast spring heatwave that cooked everyone from Seattle to San Diego. Either way, the sun was out and, it seemed, so were all the people.

In Portland, we lounged around for a lazy lunch at Laurelwood brewery, wandered up and down 23rd Ave., then went into the Pearl District for afternoon cocktails and dinner with a friend. People were everywhere in both neighborhoods, just hanging around. Restaurants had opened their doors and windows, and tables, chairs and patrons were spilling onto the sidewalks. Everyone looked relaxed and not bothered about anything. The next day, we went back into town for a short hike into Forest Park. Joggers and hikers were all over the place.

Coming from Silicon Valley, the land of go-go-go and work-work-work, when the weather is nice people don't flock outside. But as we wandered around Portland, we wondered: What do people do here? On 23rd, it's always full of loitering hipsters. In SiliValley, the only place the hipsters (or anyone else, for that matter) seem to be is in their cubicles. Perhaps it's cultural, or perhaps it's the weather itself -- it's almost always nice in the bay area. If everyone went outside when it was warm then nobody would get anything done, and that wouldn't be very Silicon Valley, would it? Honestly, I'm not sure which is better.

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We spent a lazy, post-daylight-savings-time Sunday morning last weekend at a new park in Sunnyvale -- at least it was new to us. The park has been there for ages. It's a big, beautiful place, filled with tall, mature trees, a huge lawn area, a gigantic play structure in the middle for kids, and even a water feature that's turned on in the summertime.

As we were playing, a boy about Nathan's age ran through the sandbox waving around a big, black toy gun, like a mini M-16. We don't do guns. Until this moment, Nathan had probably never seen one before, even on TV. He'll never own a toy gun as long as we're his parents. I don't own guns -- never have, never will. I'm one of these crazy liberals that think that the world would be a better place if all the guns on earth were launched into outer space and never seen again. Explaining my politics to my toddler son is impossible, of course.

So the kid with the gun runs through the park, and Nathan and he engage in a typical two-year-old stare-down. Only Nathan wasn't looking at the kid, he was looking at the gun. He wanted to reach out and grab it, in a "that's mine" kind of way that two-year-olds do.  I stood there, watching, waiting for the gun exchange to happen, and if it did wondering how much of a fuss Nathan would make when I took the gun away. Instead, his curiosity turned to a sort of wariness -- eventually the two turned away and went their separate ways.

I'm pretty sure I had a toy gun or two when I was young. I grew up to not like guns, for no particular reason other than I think they're largely responsible for lots of unnecessary deaths and injuries.  So yeah, Nathan's never going to get a toy gun. I wonder about kids that have toy guns, parents who let their kids have them, and yes I think about gun violence even in my usually very safe town. After all, it's my duty to protect this little life that I've brought into the world, even without a gun to protect us.

I wouldn't mind seeing all the toy guns launched into space with the real ones. There was plenty of sand in that park's sandbox, monkey bars to climb on, grass to run around on, and slides to slide down. Why does a two year old need to be swinging around a fake gun at the park?

 

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Happy birthday, little man.

 

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We spent a few days in Portland, Oregon area last weekend -- a regular trip for us and our second this year. We landed, celebrated my sister's 30th birthday, stayed up too late, nursed our hangovers, let the kids play and get hugs from grandparents, and managed to get an afternoon/evening trip into a couple of downtown 'hoods, which we love to do.

We've fantasized living in Portland from time to time. It's an incredible city, small enough to walk and feel comfortable but big enough that there's always a lot going on. It's a cleaner, smaller San Francisco, if you will. There also isn't as much opportunity if you work in tech. Silicon Valley and the Bay Area is still where it's at. And, frankly, Portland (and Oregon) is still lacking in cultural diversity. That's changing, but we do love the ethnic mix of the Bay Area.

We had a glass of wine with one of Jo's remote co-workers, who lives in an incredible condo in the center of the trendy Pearl District. She's lived there for three years and had a lot to say about life as a Bay Area/Silicon Valley transplant to a city that doesn't revolve around high tech and the lifestyle that surrounds the industry. She pretty much affirmed our conflicted opinions of the city.

We finished with an early dinner at the BridgePort Brewing Co. (we're twice-yearly regulars), walked around the area, and stumbled upon Tanner Springs Park, which was probably one of the nicest urban/modern park designs I've ever seen. It was like stumbling into someone's uber-cool, serene backyard in the center of the busy city.

Portland is like that: pretty, welcoming, and full of discoverability and opportunity. That is, if you know where to look. 

 

 

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