Comparing Jax with Portland Oregon

[rippley408]

Lem Blogiver just returned from a week in Portland, Oregon, and has come back with some choice observations for his fellow Jacksonvillians.  Read more here in "No Vegan Strip Club."

http://blogiverstravels.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/no-vegan-strip-club/

[jcjohnpaint]

I just love this blog.  So great!

[Adam W]

Lem Blogiver just returned from a week in Portland, Oregon, and has come back with some choice observations for his fellow Jacksonvillians.  Read more here in "No Vegan Strip Club."

http://blogiverstravels.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/no-vegan-strip-club/

Has Lem Blogiver ever started a thread on Metro Jacksonville that wasn't a link back to his/her blog?

[I-10east]

^^^Please, don't give them no ideas. I didn't find this blog amusing, informative, or interesting at all. Jaxonpool, WTF? Why didn't they take an one way ticket to Hippieland, OR since it's so great? Hopefully it's okay for me to have an opinion on MJ?

[Adam W]

^^^Please, don't give them no ideas. I didn't find this blog amusing, informative, or interesting at all. Jaxonpool, WTF? Why didn't they take an one way ticket to Hippieland, OR since it's so great? Hopefully it's okay for me to have an opinion on MJ?

I feel ya, man.

[I-10east]

^^^My bad Adam, I didn't mean to direct the last 'opinion sentence' to you, that's for the 'slicer and dicers' that will pull up one post five times just to disagree with an opinion that might not be so popular.

[Adam W]

^^^My bad Adam, I didn't mean to direct the last 'opinion sentence' to you, that's for the 'slicer and dicers' that will pull up one post five times just to disagree with an opinion that might not be so popular.

It's cool. I didn't take it personally and didn't think you were referring to me.

[Ocklawaha]

As one of the very few 'real' surviving hippies here in Jax, I thought your comment was funny as hell MAN!

I've lived in both cities, well, actually 'Boring' then 'Portland', Jacksonville both before and after. With the sarcasm in the bottle, Portland and Jacksonville REALLY ARE nearly identical twins, in many, many, ways. Shipyards, Industry, Port, railroad center, union stations, older infrastructure then many regional cities, in the shadow of larger 'more important' places, lumber center. There is even a WWII parallel between Jax and Portland, Fort Stevens near Astoria was shelled by Japanese Submarines, Vilano Beach, near Jacksonville, was invaded by German agents from Submarines. Both cities had a swinging time as pioneer settlements all the way through the end of prohibition. Tunnels, speak easy's, Shanghaied sailors, huge legal red light districts, and wild gangsters were all part of our mutual histories.

Is everyone in Portland as 'hip' and 'cool' as is imagined here? Are we really THAT far behind? Even with our dynamite mentality downtown, we have more historic buildings then most other Florida cities combined. Ditto for Portland, which comes across more as an old, moss covered city, then a sparkling sunny skyline. Granted our city politicians have been and continue to make bone headed decisions based on a knee jerk, fiscal conservatism that often leads to 'cheap' solutions rather then quality. We also have a bad track record for maintaining our highway medians, gardens, parks and public spaces. Both cities suffer from fairly large 'ghetto's' but the number of 'haves' and 'have nots' might surprise some.

PORTLAND

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
JACKSONVILLE

You know how many get on MJ and rave about 'so many damn rednecks?' I'm here to tell you that Portland doesn't have 'rednecks' (HISTORICALLY: a name given to poor southern farmers with sunburned necks) but they seem to have more dirty, toothless, giant, beer swilling, loggers, then we have 'rednecks.'

Hey, and BOTH cities were built on streetcars and besides, Portland doesn't have a Skyway.

[CharleyNovember]

I don't know if Portland is "better", but I have lived here most of my life and it is backwards and filled with religious zealots and good ole boy politics and an old south mentality. It has changed some due to an influx of transplants, but at the rate it changes it seems I'll be dead before that happens. Plus its hot as hell here...I lived in Atlanta for awhile and while it had some of the same issues it wasn't as backwards and it embraced culture and art more so there.

[RockStar]

That's funny. I've always said, Portland is the Jacksonville of the west coast; just like Jacksonville is the Pittsburgh of the south.

[rippley408]

Reply to Adam W: Mr. Lem Blogiver has a hangnail and so only communicates with the public through his blog.

[If_I_Loved_you]

I Love Portland Oregon and the first time I went there was the summer of 1994. And I have been back several more times since my first visit. When you fly into PDX you really don't need a car unless you leave the city. You can take the Tri-Met red line from the Airport right downtown and beyond. Portland would have been lost with out the Tri-Met Public Transit system. http://trimet.org/index.htm  And Powell's Books is the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world. Wow! The first time I went to the main store I thought it was just too big I felt lost. But Powell's has several stores in the Portland area. http://www.powells.com/locations/ Portland Oregon has the Willamette River that ship traffic from around the world docks at. So in some ways Jacksonville Florida is the same. We have the St. Johns River, and the Southeast Largest Used Bookstore Chamblins. But after that Portland is far better then good old Jacksonville Fl.

[Ocklawaha]

We have the St. Johns River, and the Southeast Largest Used Bookstore Chamblins. But after that Portland is far better then good old Jacksonville Fl.

I dunno, the last year I was in Portland, 3,121 people fell off their bicycles...

...and drowned!

[cityimrov]

How's the food in Portland?  How does it compare with the best of the best SJTC restaurants? 

When is MOSH going to have a submarine exhibit?  How about an OMNIMAX?