Portland Open Thread

[westsider]

From Wikipedia:

Larch Mountain is a mountain in the Northern Oregon Coast Range in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located near Timber, on Oregon Route 6.

Also from Wikipedia:

Larch Mountain is an extinct volcano near Portland, Oregon. The name is misleading, as no western larch (a large deciduous, coniferous tree) can be found there. It received that name when early lumbermen sold the Noble Fir wood as larch.

The peak can be reached on paved Larch Mountain Road, 16 miles (26 km) east of Corbett, Oregon. From the north side of the large summit parking lot hiking trails lead around the volcano's caldera and to rocky Sherrard Point with an outstanding view of nearby Mount Hood, Mount Adams, Mount Jefferson, Mount Rainier near Seattle and Mount St. Helens, an active volcano. Another trail leads 6.8 miles (10.9 km) north to the foot of Multnomah Falls near the Columbia River, visiting many lesser waterfalls along the way, many of which emanate from the mountain. Larch Mountain is a shield volcano like the type found in Hawaii, with broad slopes covering tens of square kilometers.

Understandable mix up, theres two of them!

[zilfondel]

there are actually 3 Larch Mtns near Portland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larch_Mountain

[hymalaia]

Originally Posted by EastPDX

It is part of the fault line of the Cascade Range 10 miles to the West of the volcanic peaks of the Cascade Range.

Look at Mt. Hood from Portland and the tallest hill to the left and in front with the cliff (notch on the North side) at the peak. That is Larch Mountain and the Snow Gates are still closed this late in the Spring.

eP

yep, this is the one. It's a little over 4k feet tall. There is a 14 mile road to the summit off the Historic Gorge Highway, in between the Women's Forum viewpoint and the Vista House. Last year it opened May 10th. This year? Apparently July isn't even a guarantee. One of the best car accessible viewpoints of Mt. Hood, when it's open. Plenty of trails lead to the top as well, including a seven mile route starting at Multnomah Falls. The road is open up to mile ten though so I suppose that'd be shorter. Either way I imagine one needs snow shoes, which I've never used (and they sound expensive...).

I knew about the one in Clark County from looking at maps (near Silver Star and Little Baldy), but not the one near the coast. They need to come up with more mountain names! I mean how hard is this? Reminds me of Black Butte. At first I wondered why they'd have a beer from Bend named after a butte near Mt Shasta, but apparently there is a Black Butte in central Oregon as well.

[davehogan]

I work on the Columbia River, and we've had about 50 feet of the riverfront dirt (at least 2-3 feet in, 10 feet high) drop into the Columbia.

Right now judging by the trees that are nearly submerged, we already have about 10 feet more water than last year. We don't need a faster melt.

[edgepdx]

Agreed, nice slow melt out is good for everyone. The Columbia's been flowing so fast already that windsurfing in the Gorge has felt like shooting the rapids. The minute you drop into the water everything starts moving alarmingly fast.

[Dougall5505]

boooooo! i want the sun back

[PacificNW]

I guess I am one of those Oregonians who enjoy the rain!

[pdxman]

Originally Posted by Dougall5505

boooooo! i want the sun back

I'm with you on that. We get enough rain during the 8 month winter. Just let us have sunshine for this little while, please!

[Dougall5505]

Get your cameras ready portlanders. Snow is coming!
http://www.weather.com/weather/alert...=KPQR&etn=0007

[MR. Cosmopolitan]

Being 2 years already in this town I've seen quite a lot of things, not all. That have given me an impression of what Portland is, one thing I saw was the absence of black people, or Afro Americans as you like to call them. That seemed unusual to me. I thought that they were usual all around America, because they are Americans, not immigrants.

Then I saw that there were some parts of Portland that had real concentrations of black people, I studied Portland's past and I noticed that at some time it had some links with the KKK, there were really lots of racist .

I wonder how much has Portland has changed in that matter, Is Portland sane or still racist, All I know is that it's still quite segregated, are there any elder or black Portland resident in this forum?

I would really want to know their opinion on this matter.

[scleeb]

Mr. C-

To answer your question, in my opinion, Portland is a very pluralistic and accepting community. Are there racists in Portland? Undoubtedly. Is Portland a racist city, absolutely not. That being said, this region does have an ugly history of social engineering. Beginning early in Oregon's history, African Americans were actively discouraged from moving to here. Those who did were subjected to rough treatment. The modern day consequence of these deplorable practices is that the Pacific Northwest's black population is disproportionately low when compared with other parts of the country. The good news is that Portland's relatively homogeneous demographics are beginning to change. Hopefully, as decades pass, Portland should look more and more like the rest of America.

Incidentally, my job requires that I travel extensively, both domestically and internationally. In my opinion, Portland compares very favorably with other parts of the United States with respect to racial tolerance.

I assume from the tenor of your inquiry that you are not a native Oregonian? Is that accurate? Are you a U.S. Citizen? just curious...

[urbanadvocate]

i dont think portland is a racist city but it does have a strange history for a west coast city and some of that has created a distinct culture that still exists today. in general i found portlanders to not only be very openminded but also found them to be very curious about others. with that being said, it is a very white city and i being a minority definitely felt my "presence" in places. as much as i love portland, its lack of diversity did contribute to me leaving. however, i think the demographics will continue to change and the city will change along with it for the better. btw--i lived near a very african american neighborhood in the northeast and loved it

[Eco_jt]

Just to chime in on this thread...

...I think basically that what has been said is true in my experience in Portland so far (1.5 years), that Portland is very open minded, inquisitive/curious of others, and very very white. In fact, I have never seen so many white people in my life...lol...not that it really matters or anything, I just use to live in Fremont, California where it seemed that white people were in minority. I identify as Hispanic on official forms (half Guatemalan, quarter Spanish, quarter Italian) but I am completely white washed ... so I basically feel white(americanized is probably the better term)...whatever that is suppose to mean =P

I remember reading an article somewhere that Portland was one of the whitest cities in US,
In a changing World
http://www.newgeography.com/content/...the-white-city

as to racism, I haven't seen very much of it, but it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Now the police brutality of late...that could be a whole other thread...

[JordanL]

I would say that no, Portland is not a racist city, just a city that lacks diversity. And those are not at ALL the same thing, and represent entirely different problems. A lack of diversity is not in itself even a problem, it's the things that result from it that are a negative for the community.

What DOES happen in Portland (and annoys me to no end) is politicians who seem to think Portland has to compensate for being "undiverse" or else we're racist. See: Mayor Tom Potter's attempt to rename Broadway (a rather historic street) to honor a Hispanic guy who had no real impact on us at all...

[MR. Cosmopolitan]

Originally Posted by scleeb

Are you a U.S. Citizen? just curious...

No, I'm an alien I'm a legal alien I'm a Catalan in Portland.

Well actually more a Catalan Luxembourger. I was born in a ghetto. The quarter of Hollerich in Luxembourg City to be precise. The reason for my family living in a ghetto were more echonomical, it wasn't that locals descriminated me because of my origins, althought we were a bit isolated from the rest of the people.

Portland was once racist, and it can be seen by the lack of racial diversity, yet there are quite some Portlanders that do belong to a racial minority, and some of them live in ghettos while were typing. My question is what the life of dose people looks like.

People from NE Portland (where most of the ghettos are found) had said is quite good from what I've read. I'm glad it is that way, because from what I've seen on the news about that area, the shootings and other agressions, commited by and between gangs of Afro American people, gave me quite frankly another picture.

[cab]

Let me get this right, the lack of minorities can be connected with Oregon's past racist history? Seems ironic considering those parts of the country with more diversity can directly tie that to the slave trade or slave labor. The fact is, Oregon is in the boonies and a relatively new society. We are never going to have the east coast version of diversity, but we will and are seeing an influx of people of Asian decent coming for high tech jobs and Latin decent for jobs in agriculture. I'll take that over other parts of the country built on forced diversity.

[MR. Cosmopolitan]

There are black people outside the Old South because they fled the extreme racism in the area. They didn't go to Portland because it was openly racist, like the South East.

Asians were treated very badly by the locals, but they were tough like steel. They managed to progress in a completely hostile environment. But they still live in ghettos.

Most Hispanics came after the end of legal racism in Portland. I know many Hispanics here, they are not very integrated. But not many suffer from racism.

[cab]

They didn't go to Portland because it's in the extreme NW of our country. It's not like people had the resources to make the trek to an extremely tough, rainy, limited job based area. All the cities of the PNW have very low African American influx. Seattle only has higher numbers because of the military infrastructure. Not saying there was no racism, it's here, but there was NO incentive for any mass migration. What is the PNW to do, beg people to come here just to increase diversity? We a pretty open and welcoming society. We pulled the door open for anyone who likes, sustainability, good coffee, DIY mentality, Beer, wine, nature, etc. Any human who want to experience those things that the PNW offers can move here.

[Northeast79]

I've lived in different parts of the country and Portland is definitely white. Being homogeneous doesn't make a place racist, but as a whole, the people can be ignorant. If you just don't interact often with other ethnic groups, the few interactions you do have will tend to shape your view of them. So, just by a shear lack of diversity you can become prejudice. But, you can't really blame anyone for that.

As a culture, Portland is very tolerant and open. There just isn't a large minority population to inform people's ideas about race.

[MR. Cosmopolitan]

I wanted to see the opinion of the concerned people, one thing is the point view of the majority, the one that most people see on this kind of subject. And the point of view of the minority concerned by the debate, most of the time seen by very few people outside themselves.