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Did Portlandia ruin Portland?
It's a doozy of a question.
All I know is that the day before I moved away from Portland for college, someone on Facebook posted the season 1 opening sequence to Portlandia. When I came back four years later, widespread population growth, hip 14-year-olds, rising rents, gentrification, Blue Star Donuts and general complaining had taken hold.
I also know that correlation does not equal causation. It's just a TV show.
Portlandia is currently filming its seventh season, which is an insanely large amount of time to have people think you've been ruining their city.
According to Fred and Carrie, they didn't ruin Portland—or at least that's what they told a local newspaper in a recent interview, when asked about the issue of the show causing people to move here.
Hold up: Didn't Carrie Brownstein move to LA?
Related: Carrie Brownstein Has Left Portland
In Other Words, the feminist bookstore featured in many episodes, may disagree with Brownstein and Armisen's statements. They posted a sign on their door that read "Fuck Portlandia."
Related: Feminist Bookstore Made Famous on Portlandia Posts "Fuck Portlandia" Sign
The show was not planning to film any scenes at the bookstore for season 7.(However, it does look like an exterior shot was used.) In fact, a new IFC promo shows Fred and Carrie playing Reddit-loving men's rights activists.
Related: Portland Feminist Bookstore Explains Why They Put Up "Fuck Portlandia" Sign
Anyway, Season 8 will film in Portland in summer 2017.
This will be the show's last season.
Willamette Week