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Originally Posted by andalusian
Not to rain on your parade - but I can walk from my house in the Bethany area and within 5 minutes I have access to restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, flower shops, sports bar, athletic club, open spaces, running tracks and fields. I also own one of those magical inventions called an automobile - where you put gas in it and it will take you anywhere you want really fast. Takes me 20 minutes to get to downtown when I want to get there.
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I've watched the cookie cutter houses spring up on the Wa.Co. side of Bethany since I was a kid and it was all farmland - I finished a documentary about it last year. There is really no comparison between the restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, etc. in Bethany and Portland (I'm not talking about our Starbucks-laden downtown) and to me it feels like a planned community. Drive North on Grand and once it swings into MLK you won't see a scorched-bean Starbucks until you get to Vancouver.
Quote:
Originally Posted by andalusian
but anyone that thinks that Portland's downtown is anywhere near what a real urban center like NYC, London, Tel-Aviv and the like are... is mistaken. Having lived in all of these places and Portland's downtown - I can see the advantages and excitement and convenience for younger people. I can also see where the burbs have advantages with quieter areas, more space and a better place to raise kids.
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I've spent time in NYC and London. London's downtown was filled with tourists and people who are willing to pay $20/day to drive "downtown." I was bummed out until I started taking the tubes to different parts of the city and got out of the overpriced downtown financial area. That's when the city really came to life. It's almost the exact same story with NYC. Manhattan is something to see, but it's not New York.
It's the same thing with Portland. "Downtown" seems to be where the financial district happens to be and where the tourists spend their time. Any city, be it New York, Portland, Oakland, or Vienna, is about more than the district that has the most hotels. I won't say one of those cities is better or worse than Portland, it's just about finding the right part of town.
By the way, are you from Andalusia? I've been researching Andalusian goat cheese and I think I'm going to try to make some. Seems like an amazing part of Spain.