CLEANING OUT THE LINK CAGE 10/27/09

russia_urals

  • Portland wins nearly every “Progressive City” award around, given that it’s a “youth magnet” with “mad urban planning skillz.” But our heroic bastion of white guilt isn’t likely to earn fist bumps from the African American community anytime soon. As Aaron Renn writes at NEW GEOGRAPHY:

    “Civic leaders in city after city duly make their pilgrimage to Denver or Portland to check out shiny new transit systems, but the resulting videos of smiling yuppies and happy hipsters are not likely to impress anyone over at the local NAACP or in the barrios.”

    Well said, Renn. One problem, though. Renn seems to write from the perspective of someone who is perturbed by Portland’s whiteness. Thus, he misses the point: it is a never-ending source of amusement that Portlanders cannot get black people to move here and discuss Gus Van Sant films and Guided by Voices music with them. This “dog chasing tail” bit never stops being hilarious. When will Caucasians of Portland learn! Sleater-Kinney music sucks! So does independent cinema, public transportation and artsy-vegan food! Black people have known this for years.

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