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Say what you want about trend-hopping Portland: We respect our dead.
We will publicly mourn bars we haven't even been to and exhume Santa displays from stores we no longer want to shop in.
When Greek diner the Overlook announced it would sell to developers, diners who hadn't visited in a decade flooded in to sit shiva at its lunch counter. When beloved but obscure dive bar Penguin Pub closed in Westmoreland, a former WW editor declared it the end of the city: "We are destroying everything that makes Portland so Portland," wrote Byron Beck on social media (#notmycity).
But this year, nothing struck us more than the arches.
News of the restaurant's impending demise became WW's most-read story online for two weeks. On a Save Powell McDonald's page, Portlanders called for a boycott of all McDonald's if this one went down.
"Few Golden Arches McDonald's still exist. Losing it will not only be a loss for Portland, but for the entire nation," wrote an Oregonian reader in a letter.
In a city changing so fast it can be difficult to recognize a street from one year to the next, almost anything can become hallowed ground. Our love for our own collective memory is outsized, perhaps even embarrassing. But it's also how our city maintains its character. For every Overlook there is a Sandy Hut or Clyde's Prime Rib, preserved in amber light.
The McDonald's on Powell still has a week left intact. Who knows what its afterlife will be?
2. TriMet Could Soon Stop Charging Life-Ruining Fines
3. You Can Now Smoke Weed While Listening to Live Classical Music
4. Oregon's Unemployment Rate is Incredibly Low
5. Your Favorite Sports Team is Only a Short Walk Away
6. The Blazers Star in Some Weird-Ass Commercials
7. We Now Have a Mountain Bike Park in the City
9. Portland is the Playground of Japanese Architect Kengo Kuma
10. You Can Soon Stream Local Music at the Library
11. Oregon Just Became the First State to Defelonize Hard Drugs
12. East Portland is Getting an Aerial Tree Walk
13. We're the World Capital of Canned Wine
14. Portland is a Hotbed of Small Bookstores
15. Unlike any Other City, We Have Multiple Niche Comedy Festivals
16. Our Developers Are Privatizing Socialism
17. The Nation's Best Airport Keeps Getting Even Better
18. We're Home to the World's First Sneaker Design School
19. Portland Scored the World's First Dog Tap Room
20. Weed Prices are Falling From Cheap to Damn Near Free, and We Haven't Yet Found the Bottom
21. Our Local Mini-Mart Chain Makes Snickers Give You Free Candy Bars
22. The View From the MAX Orange Line is One of the Most Striking and Beautiful Paintings in the City
23. We Are Still No. 1 in Semifactual Superlatives
24. We Make Biking So Accessible
25. You Can Crowdfund Anything Here
26. We Find So Many Ways to be Anti-Trump
27. Our Malls Are Becoming Cultural Embassies
28. Our Humane Society Rescues Pets From All Over the Country