Willamette Week’s Finder 2009-2010 13

It’s a strange and slippery task to try to encapsulate an entire city in 152 pages, to capture both the spirit and the speci� cs. It’s particularly tricky to generalize a city that’s changed as drastically and rapidly as Portland has. One must ask: Where will we be in a year?

We’ll see, I suppose. This is certainly not the Portland I was born into 25 years ago. This isn’t even the Portland of 2006: a rattling boomtown � ooded with young, skinny, creative white transplants, where condos popped up like dandelions. As we’re constantly reminded, this is New Economy Portland, squeezed by recession.

But while economics ebb and � ow, overall, Portland’s tide is rising. Despite spiking unemployment, people keep moving here. And Portlanders seem generally happy, riding their bikes, walking their dogs, drinking their beer. Perhaps because the good life in Portland isn’t about wealth. It can’t be—too few of us are wealthy. We turn our noses up at money, and whether that’s out of impov-erished necessity or a virtuous rejection of materialism doesn’t really matter. Either way, it’s acceptable—hell, respectable—to just get by in this town.

Finder is a map to Portland’s peculiar lo-� brand of the good life. Every writer, designer, artist and weirdo who touched it lives in and loves Portland. Finder is our guide to our city. We scoured every inch inside the Urban Growth Boundary to bring you the most comprehensive and discerning coverage possible. Whether you need to know which neighborhood is right for your kids or where to � nd a hot dog at 2 am or where the largest and hairi-est gay men congregate—or all of the above—it’s in here.

Finder is also spiced with some easy-to-digest running elements. Like the stats scribbled in the margins (see the

bottom of this page), which illuminate everything from prostitution arrests or the number of pho restaurants in the city, both of which cluster around 82nd Avenue.

And since we grudgingly admit Finder doesn’t cover everything, we’ve tapped a few of our favorite online resources in “Blog� nder.” Each section of the guide has a colored box (like the one below) highlighting a few blogs that focus on some Portland niche, be it local politics or hamburgers. We’re also bringing Finder to the Web. Check out expanded listings and features at wweek.com/� nder.

So take your Finder, use it, keep it, wear it ragged, write on it, spill fair trade organic coffee on it, confess your deepest and weirdest thoughts to it. That’s what we did.

Thanks for reading,Ethan Smith, Finder Editor

The Way We Get By

Blog� nder: PRIMER

CAFE UNKNOWN cafeunknown.comDan Haneckow’s history blog is a love letter to Oregon’s past.Exhaustively researched posts cast even the most familiar landmarks in a new, fascinating light.

JACK BOG bojack.orgLike it or not, Lewis & Clark law professor Jack Bogdanski is Port-land’s most notable solo blogger: politics, sports and music—with a wicked ax to grind.

PORTLAND WATER BUREAU BLOGportlandonline.com/water/blogThe Water Bureau blog is a surprisingly offbeat take on the city’s H2O scene. Follow @Portlandwater on Twitter.

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