BEST OF PORTLAND: By the People, For the People

[July 23rd, 2008] This is America. And in America, dammit, we vote. For presidents, idols, dogs, city commissioners, you name it—we live and breathe and sweat beautiful, shimmering beads of democracy.

And with WW’s annual celebration of everything that makes this burg such an invigorating, amazing and sometimes bizarre place to live, we asked you to vote once again.

Every other week of the year, we tell you what we like (and loathe). But this week is different. Because nobody knows this city better than you. So we’ve made the heart of this year’s Best of Portland our improved, expanded, hyper-local readers’ poll.

We carved up our city into 12 districts (look right) that we figure are a good match to the city’s geographical and cultural diversity. Then we asked you to name the best your district has to offer, along with city-wide questions about the big stuff: media, politics...hair removal.

You sure rose to the challenge: 2,674 of you filled out the online ballot. The top turnout, with 433 voters, came from Neglected Southwest—apparently the hills aren’t so neglected after all. We’re throwing a Voter Appreciation Party at the Dublin Pub (6821 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway, 297-2889) on Thursday, July 31.

You’ll find all the results of our cultural election here, organized by topic with the winners listed by district, in alphabetical order.

One more thing. We can’t resist offering our own opinions, so we’ve also included some of own, far more idiosyncratic Bests. They’re inside the dot boxes with the big headlines—from Ruby the turkey vulture to Brittan the Barber Babe. Enjoy and celebrate the Best of this city we call home. —Ben Waterhouse.

^BY THESE PEOPLE

CONTRIBUTORS: Elianna Bar-El, Byron Beck, Tiffany Lee Brown, Kelly Clarke, Anna Dukehart, Jeremy Gillick, Whitney Hawke, Hannah Hultine, Kat Hyatt, Casey Jarman, Matt Korfhage, A.P. Kryza, Laura Shinn, Michael Mannheimer, Amy G. McCullough, Richard Meeker, Aaron W. Mesh, John K. Minervini, Carin Moonin, Sara Moskovitz, Hanna Neuschwander, Corey Pein, James Pitkin, Jonah Sandford, Beth Slovic, Ethan Smith, Hank Stern, Mike Thelin, Leigh Van der Werff, Ben Waterhouse, Joseph Watts, Marianna Hane Wiles

COPY CHIEF: Kat Hyatt

COPY EDITORS: Matt Buckingham, Sarah Smith, Leigh Van der Werff

ART DIRECTORS: Maggie Gardner and Ben Mollica

PRODUCTION STAFF: Brian Brown, Snow Blackwood, Nicholas Curtin, Soma Honkanen, Tom Humphrey, Christie Wright

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Erik Bader, Darryl James, Vivian Johnson, Brian Lee

WEB EDITOR: Ian Gillingham

WEB PRODUCTION & MAP MAGIC: Rob Adams, VIctor Graf