And the KKK had a huge presense, and the Oregon Citizens Alliance was a national embarrassment, and a million other things.
Eugene and Portland are progressive in their own way, but I think we invented the saying, “I’m not racist because I have a black friend.”
“Oh, ever met an Indian?”
“Yeah, a went to a pow wow a few years ago!”
(I punch myself in my own eye socket)
Not just PDX. This article stuck with me years ago.
The WA 7th district (i.e. Seattle) is the most Democratic white majority district in the US, and we live in just about the whitest bit of that.
Likewise. I work in and live near a similarly sized city. 15-20 minute commute to work with no waiting, and I go home to trees and farms. Internet access is a reasonably consistent 20Mbit/s, which is adequate for my purposes. Wages are lower, but so is cost of living and accommodation. If I lived in a city I’d only be desperately doing overtime to get the cash to access the countryside I can just walk to for free …
But I live in New Zealand and in comparison to most of you, the whole country is “rural and remote”!
Sigh. I remember the great Thatcher-fueled London exodus of the late 80s.
I don’t really think of London as even being in UK any more. It’s not representative and nothing like living almost anywhere else in the UK. As others have mentioned seems odd to equate leaving London as having to leave the country. It’s like leaving the USA because you don’t like the high prices of New York. I’d never consider living in London as a born and raised Brit so it amazes me so many people equate UK/England/London as all being the same thing. Literally thousands of options and different ways of life to try compared to London without leaving the country.
Where? They need to go.
I am gonna tread very closely to… What do they call it, positive racism? Like when people say Asians are good at math, and don’t realize that is deeply racist even if you are using it as a compliment?
You have been warned, and I expect to be chastised.
One of the most popular restaurants here in Eugene is called Papas Soul Food kitchen. The guy, Papa ran portable smokers and food trucks for years, till he set up a restaurant in a beaten down neighborhood… That was slowly but surely gentrifying. From day one it had the best soul food in the city. Hands down.
His chef’s, prep, sous chef’s, and wait staff are easily the most diverse in any restaurant in Eugene
(And this is where it veers into uncomfortable, for me, territory). The black bar tender is outstanding, and the super white chicken fry cook makes the best fried chicken… Anywhere.
The collards and mustards are better than anything I have ever made, and the ribs/brisket approach the quality of my own. My Cole slaw pistol whips theirs >:)
So I guess in a roundabout way I am saying I don’t want diversity here for the sake of diversity, but because it makes everything better.
Who do I trust to help me grow okra, someone from Montreal or Georgia? When I wax poetic about rib tips do I talk to someone from St. Louis or Antwerp?
I’m just rambling, and I hope to FSM we get a larger northern Indian or kashmiri population here. I am going crazy.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
One day in front of a class of art history students at Cornish College of the Arts, I say, “Raise your hand if you’re a racist.”
raises hand, looks around the room
You know you are all liars, at least to yourself, right?
All I am going to say about this, is to wish Cory and his family the best of luck no matter where they move.
Sure, everyone in Portland has a black friend. Problem is, it’s all the same guy.
Safari And Makerland digs (and cold press tutorials) FTW; bad news is you’re giving rhinos political power and adaptations for the place they live, good news is that as a grand prize you can get legal ivory in 88-140 years and rhino isn’t a backronym.
Cory: “We’re leaving London because it is soulless, caters to the shallow rich, and not a good place to raise a family or walk around.”
Boingboing readers: “Cool. Where you moving to?”
Cory: “LA”
Boingboing readers: “BWAHAHAHAHAHA!”
UK understatement; CA no understatement, nope. Pasadena orthodoxy is just too up. New Zealand does too much Facebook then Keas run off with everything. Where my expat bellwethers at?
welcome to this part of the world, we need you. please consider Lawrence, Kansas.
I think this might be some of what GlyphGryph was referring to.
Total side note, for which I apologize, skip this paragraph if you want to stay on topic: I found that article earlier today while googling to see if the news had picked up that a guy was marching around with a confederate flag in downtown PDX yesterday. They hadn’t. The guy “helpfully” put up a blog post, which I won’t link to here (don’t want to give him the clicks), where he crowed that 1) the black people he saw hadn’t engaged him verbally and thus were not offended (hmmmm), 2) he explained to some Hispanic people who asked that this was a flag about representing the downtrodden oppressed.
"The short version is, we want to live in a city whose priorities are
around making a livable place to work, raise our family, and run our
respective small businesses. "
As a resident of Los Angeles, I am afraid I must respectfully disagree with all of these ideas.
California is considered to have the worst business climate in the United States. LA has the worst air quality (ranked as an “F” as of today) which (according to an NPR article I was listening to in my 1 hour, 20 minute / 9 mile commute) is being made worse by the fact that the severe drought/lack of rain results in a serious decline in air quality. And God have mercy on your soul if you ever try to take the bus anywhere.
Don’t get me started on “livability”; “livable” is absolutely the last word I would ever use to describe this city. Obviously this ship has sailed for you, but if I were a common-wealth resident, I would be in basically any Canadian city. In terms of American cities that I think are a lot more livable, may I also recommend Austin, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, NYC, Beloit, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Concord, Charlotte, Chicago, Montepelier, and my god, even Houston would be better than L.A. (not Dallas though. That place sucks).
All of that being said, welcome to the neighborhood!
Y’know, the funny thing is that I’ve seen more somewhat-rainy days this year than I’ve seen in a while. But no downpours, no deluges, just lots (that is, something like eight or nine) drizzly days, and a handful of genuinely wet ones. But with this winter’s snowpack at 5% of its normal level, the drought is still hitting hard. It just feels less droughty on a day-to-day basis… it’s not like we’ve had 200 straight days of uninterrupted sunshine and heat.
No!! Don’t go. We need you!
London seems to be in a lot of trouble. I was reading [this][1] just yesterday. Mirrors the story here.
You should come to Edinburgh like that author. There was a great doc on Scottish TV last month about the amazing tech and game firms in Edinburgh. Us Scottish rebels need all the good people we can get against the Tory government!
EDIT: Excerpt from aforementioned doc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMuleyHbOpM
[1]: https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/london-its-over-and-its-not-me-its-you
Guess he should have gotten that Green Card instead of UK citizenship?
(I say this in the nicest way. I like Cory.)
