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137
The number of statistics we believe it takes to tell the story of how life in Portland changed in 2015.
GROWTH
78,173
Out-of-state driver's licenses turned in to Oregon DMVs through November by people moving into the state. That number is more than last year but less than 1996's peak of 83,383.
5,104
New residential units added in Portland so far this year. That's five times as many as were added in 2009.
460
Number of Portland taxi permits in January 2015.
635
Number of Portland taxi permits in December 2015.
341
Applications for home-demolition permits in Portland in 2014.
396
Applications for home-demolition permits in Portland in 2015, as of Dec. 22.
1,100
Average rent in dollars for a market-rate one-bedroom apartment in Portland in January.
1,175
Average rent in dollars for a market-rate one-bedroom apartment in Portland in December.
1,888
Average rent in dollars for a market-rate one-bedroom apartment in the Pearl District in January.
2,039
Average rent in dollars for a market-rate one-bedroom apartment in the Pearl District in December.
1,357
Refugees who arrived in Oregon in fiscal year 2015.
8
Syrian refugees who arrived in Oregon in fiscal year 2015.
3,740
Airbnb listings active in Portland, a 53 percent increase since last December.
513
Short-term rental hosts (including those using Airbnb) that have applied for the supposedly mandatory city permit and safety inspection.
76,144
Reported lobbying expenditures in dollars by ride-sharing app Uber at Portland City Hall in 2015, as of Sept. 30.
22,500
Reported lobbying expenditures in dollars by Broadway Cab at Portland City Hall in 2015, as of Sept. 30.
55.7
Miles of Portland streets that remain unpaved at year's end.
27.1 million
Dollars raised by Portland web data company Janrain, the largest funding round for a Portland tech startup this year.
37.2 billion
Purchase price in dollars for Precision Castparts by multinational holding company Berkshire Hathaway, the largest acquisition of an Oregon company this year.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
800,000
Dollars paid in September to save three Eastmoreland sequoias from being razed for infill housing.
1,714,207
Number of Hawthorne Bridge crossings by bike in 2014.
1,681,445
Number of Hawthorne Bridge crossings by bike in 2015, as of Dec. 22.
128,549
Number of bike trips on Tilikum Crossing since it opened Sept. 12.
14.97
Inches of rain in Portland in December as of press time. The previous record was 13.35 inches.
39
Hours protesters spent dangling from the St. Johns Bridge to block an icebreaking ship headed to an Arctic oil-drilling site.
69,624.66
Acres of Oregon State Forest land burned in 2015 in wildfires caused by lightning.
16,992.52
Acres of Oregon State Forest land burned in 2015 in wildfires caused by people.
1.7 million
Visitors in 2015 to Valley of the Rogue State Park outside Grants Pass. It was the most-visited state park in Oregon.
170
Inches of antlers on the largest whitetail deer shot in Oregon this year. It's a new all-time record.
85
Number of wolves living in Oregon in 2015. That's a four-wolf increase from 2014.
1.3 million
Number of cows living in Oregon in 2015.
THE GAMES WE PLAY
4
Number of players who can simultaneously gobble dots on Pac-Man Battle Royale, the most popular cabinet game at downtown retro arcade Ground Kontrol.
12.6 million
Biggest Oregon Lottery payout, in dollars, in 2015, to John Cason, who purchased a Megabucks ticket March 4 at a 7-Eleven in Beaverton.
303,464
Dollars in Oregon Lottery commissions generated so far this year by the video poker and Keno machines at Shari's Airport Way No. 218 in Northeast Portland, the largest amount paid by the state to a single lottery vendor.
90
Consecutive sellouts of Providence Park by the Portland Timbers.
255
Most game minutes the Timbers went between scoring goals. They scored at the end of their game against New York on April 19, went scoreless against the Sounders and the Whitecaps, then scored 64 minutes into their match against Montreal on May 9.
313
Most game minutes the Portland Thorns went between scoring goals. They were scoreless for three games before getting a goal in the 33rd minute of their match against the Western New York Flash.
2
Major league soccer championships won by Portland teams in the past three years. The Timbers won in 2015, while the Thorns won in 2013.
38
Years since the Trail Blazers have won an NBA championship.
80 million
Dollars that LaMarcus Aldridge will be paid over his four seasons with the San Antonio Spurs.
108 million
Dollars that Aldridge could have received over five seasons if he'd signed the league-maximum contract offered by the Portland Trail Blazers.
361
Days between July 8, 2014, when The Oregonian reported that Aldridge would sign a contract extension with the Trail Blazers, and July 4, 2015, when he signed with the Spurs, ending Portland's title hopes for the foreseeable future.
602
Points the Oregon Ducks football team scored during its run to last season's national title game.
518
Points the Ducks football team scored in this year's run to the Valero Alamo Bowl.
22
Points that separated the Ohio State Buckeyes from the Ducks in the 42-20 title game blowout Jan. 12.
LAW & ORDER
31
Number of homicides so far in Portland in 2015.
24
Portland homicides that involved a firearm.
6
Portland homicides police believe were gang-related.
9
Number of people murdered at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., by a 26-year-old gunman Oct. 1.
250
New applications for concealed handgun licenses in Multnomah County in November 2014.
573
New applications for concealed handgun licenses in Multnomah County in November 2015.
15,244
Lawyers who are active members of the Oregon State Bar.
119
Oregon State Bar lawyers who identify as black.
25 million
Dollars awarded in the largest individual legal judgment in Oregon this year. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld a Multnomah County Circuit Court's award from tobacco giant Philip Morris to the estate of Michelle Schwarz.
818,366
Dollars raised on GoFundMe for the hospital bills of Christopher Mintz, a victim of the Umpqua Community College shooting. It was the biggest Oregon campaign on GoFundMe in 2015.
13.2 million
Dollars raised by the Coolest, a Portland cooler company that had 2015's biggest Kickstarter campaign in the city. Some who backed the Coolest Cooler are still waiting for their coolers with radios and blenders built in, but you can buy one on Amazon now for $379.
517,000
Dollars raised by Sweet Cakes by Melissa since the state ordered it must pay $135,000 to the lesbian couple whose wedding cake the company refused to bake.
176
Days following the state order it took the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa to deposit a check with the state, pending the outcome of their court appeal.
SCHOOLING
2,925
Number of students at David Douglas High School, the high school with the largest enrollment in Portland.
395,000
Square footage of David Douglas High School.
135
Square feet per student.
522
Number of students at Jefferson High School, the high school with the smallest enrollment in Portland.
321,000
Square footage of Jefferson High School.
692
Square feet per student.
310,731.22
Dollars spent in the race for the Zone 3 seat on the Portland School Board.
0
Salary in dollars of a member of the Portland School Board.
1,373
Number of Portland State University students studying management, the school's most popular major. That's 7 percent of the school's undergraduates.
1,022
New hair design certifications issued in Oregon so far in 2015.
123
New journeyman plumber licenses issued in Oregon through November 2015.
59
Contributors who gave $1 million or more to Oregon Health & Science University's billion-dollar Knight Cancer Challenge. The total number of donors was more than 10,000.
FOOD, DRINK AND SMOKE
71,773
Barrels of Deschutes Brewery beer sold in Oregon in 2015 through the month of October, the most of any Oregon brewery including Widmer Brothers.
901,384
Gallons sold in 2015 of the state's most popular liquor, HRD Vodka, which retook its traditional top spot from Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey.
52,000
Estimated pounds of chicken fried up at Reel 'M' Inn during the course of the year.
115
Price in dollars of the most expensive steak in Portland, a 40-ounce Tomahawk bone-in ribeye at Ruth's Chris downtown. The petite hostess swears she almost finished one all by herself.
50,067
Beers sold at the Oregon Zoo during the course of the year.
250,000
Price in dollars of the most expensive menu cocktail in Portland, a heady mix of Thunderbird and Night Train at Le Bistro Montage called the Ex-Wife. The price of the drink is payable in monthly installments for the rest of your life.
20
Price in dollars of the lamb burger at the Feisty Lamb, the most expensive hamburger in Portland since the last $20 hamburger in Portland, which was the foie gras burger at the now-defunct Gilt Club.
834
Price in dollars for a shot of John Walker, the most expensive shot of whiskey available to the public at the Multnomah Whiskey Library. ("There are more expensive whiskeys," said our interlocutor over the phone, "but those are all in private collections.")
1,200
Price in dollars for a 3-liter Jeroboam bottle of Bollinger La Grande Année 1999 Brut Champagne at Pix Patisserie, which is its most expensive bottle. By the glass, Pix's costliest bubbly is a mere $28, for a stem of the Boizel Brut Millesime 2002.
22
Percentage of Multnomah County residents with an active Oregon Trail card, our state's fancy term for "food stamps."
6,121
Distance in miles to the seventh Voodoo Doughnut, in Taipei, Taiwan.
4,839
Distance in miles to Blue Star Donuts' fifth location, in a Tokyo shopping mall.
29.72
Percentage of THC in the strongest strain tested by Cascadia Labs, a batch of White Super Skunk. (Sorry, Portland, the identity of the grower is confidential.)
14
Cannabis dispensaries along Sandy Boulevard's "Green Mile."
10.2
Actual distance in miles of "The Green Mile," which starts at Southeast 7th Avenue and ends at Northeast 153rd Avenue.
136
Dispensaries selling recreational marijuana in Portland. State lawmakers authorized medical dispensaries to sell weed to all Oregonians beginning Oct. 1.
311
Dispensaries selling recreational marijuana in the rest of Oregon.
34
Number of liquor stores in Portland.
249
Liquor stores in the rest of Oregon.
POLITICS
3.6
Number of times registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in Multnomah County. (There are 227,179 Dems to 61,806 GOP voters.)
32
Days between Gov. John Kitzhaber's swearing-in for a fourth term and the day he announced his resignation.
237,800
Value in dollars of consulting contracts accepted by former Oregon first lady Cylvia Hayes from energy groups while working as an energy policy consultant to Kitzhaber.
2018
Year by which Hayes planned to write the first of three books, according to emails leaked to WW in February.
1,502
Number of pages in the Oregon State Police report on who leaked Kitzhaber's emails to WW. The whistle-blower, Michael Rodgers, provided the emails to WW after he received an order to delete them from state servers.
56,000
Pages of former Gov. John Kitzhaber's emails released by Gov. Kate Brown in response to public records requests.
847
Bills passed in the 2015 legislative session, out of 2,641 introduced.
0
Bills vetoed from the 2015 session.
11,846
Dollars allocated for foster children that Mary Holden, executive director of foster care agency Give Us This Day, spent on Louis Vuitton luggage. A WW report in October led to a state shutdown of Give Us This Day and a shakeup of leadership at the Oregon Department of Human Services.
4.29 million
Dollars the state of Oregon has spent so far on litigation with Oracle over responsibility for the failed health-insurance exchange Cover Oregon.
404,000
New Oregon Medicaid patients who signed up since Obamacare went into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
450,000
Dollars that Wieden + Kennedy founder Dan Wieden saved on his state income taxes over five years by buying energy tax credits from TriMet at 75 cents on the dollar.
3
Former Portland mayors who announced they were endorsing Mayor Charlie Hales' challenger, Ted Wheeler, in the 2016 election.
12
Days after the former mayors' announcement that Hales declared he wouldn't run for re-election.
143,222
Campaign donations in dollars Mayor Charlie Hales accepted in 2015 before announcing he wouldn't run for re-election.
18
Years since Garth Brooks previously toured Portland.
82,000
Total fans who attended the five sold-out Garth Brooks shows at Moda Center, an all-time record for the venue.
30
Years since Madonna previously appeared in Portland.
148
Price in dollars of the most expensive ticket sold at Moda Center for the Madonna concert Oct. 17, which our reviewer called "the best arena show I've ever seen."
1989
Birth year of Taylor Swift, the most popular artist among users of the Multnomah County Library. Her album 1989 was checked out 454 times.
1
Rank of the song "Where Are Ü Now" (with Justin Bieber), from the Diplo/Skrillex project Jack Ü on Spotify's list of most-listened-to songs in Portland.
619
Copies of the Decemberists' What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World sold by Music Millennium, making it the store's best-selling album.
611,977
Twitter followers of the Decemberists, Portland's most popular account. (Nike has Oregon's most followers, at 5.65 million.)
7
Twitter accounts followed by the Decemberists. In addition to four members of the band, the Decemberists follow Rosanne Cash, NPR's All Songs Considered, and local singer-songwriter Laura Veirs.
47
Copies of Björk's Vulnicura sold at Beacon Sound records, making it the store's top-selling vinyl record.
109
Copies of Colleen's Everyone Alive Wants Answers sold at Beacon Sound, making the 2003 re-release the store's top-selling cassette tape.
21
The number of Pilots who recorded "Tear in My Heart," the most-requested song on KNRK 94.7.
1,500
Estimated minimum number of times Live 95.5 played Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk," the station's most-played track of the year. The most requested song was Justin Bieber's "What Do You Mean." (Our appreciation to staff for this disparity.)
744
Number of times singers at Voicebox Karaoke cued up Maroon 5's "Sugar," making it the most popular song sung at Voicebox's two locations.
THE LOOKS
687
Beards trimmed at the downtown Bishops Barbershop.
286
Beards trimmed at the Hollywood Supercuts.
2,658
Number of times Multnomah County Library patrons checked out Game of Thrones: The Complete Fourth Season, the library's most popular DVD.
9,500
Viewers who watched Mad Max: Fury Road at Laurelhurst Theater, making it the most popular movie of the year.
79,000
Visitors to Portland Art Museum's most popular exhibit, Italian Style: Fashion Since 1945.
200,000
Visitors to OMSI's most popular exhibit, Ripley's Believe It or Not!
WORDS
53
Stories in The New York Times published in 2015 that featured the word "Portlandia." The most recent usage, published Dec. 22, 2015, in a story about culture wars at Oberlin College: "'When you're defending the cultural authenticity of GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN, you're a living Portlandia sketch,' Fredrik deBoer, an academic, wrote on Twitter, in a reference to the IFC show that satirizes Oregon hipsters."
350,000
Price in dollars of the most expensive book at Powell's City of Books, a two-volume set of the 1814 Lewis and Clark journals.
2,774
Patrons who checked out the library's most popular novel, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
2,199
Check-outs of the Multnomah County Library's most popular adult nonfiction book of 2015, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo.
12
Pairs of socks our moms made us thank for service and then throw away after they read Powell's best-selling book of the year, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
6
President Jimmy Carter's rank in Powell's most attended events of the year, behind No. 1, nerd queen Felicia Day, followed by famously displeased feline Grumpy Cat, Elizabeth "Eat Pray Love" Gilbert, gentrification spirit animal Carrie Brownstein, and punk queen Patti Smith.
140 million
Average distance in miles between Earth and Mars, the planet where Powell's second-best-selling book, Andy Weir's The Martian, takes place.
4
Years since Powell's third-best-selling book, Wildwood by the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, was published.
82
Weeks that All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Powell's fourth-best-selling book, has spent on The New York Times' best-seller list.
1
Number of racist Atticus Finches in Powell's fifth-best-selling book of the year, Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee.
155
People who thru-hiked the 2,600-mile Pacific Crest Trail in 2011, the year before Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild came out.
271
People who thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2013, the year after the book Wild came out.
527
People who thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in 2015, the year after Wild the movie came out.
Contributors: Lizzy Acker, Martin Cizmar, Peter D'Auria, Lisa Dunn, Coby Hutzler, Nigel Jaquiss, Sophia June, Matthew Korfhage, Aaron Mesh, Matthew Singer and Beth Slovic.
Sources used to compiled this feature:
Oregon Governor's Office, Oregon State Police, Oregon Department of Justice, Oregon Health Authority, TriMet, Secretary of State's Office, National Weather Service, Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon Legislature, Oregon DMV, Oregon State Bar, Oregon Lottery, Oregon Student Access Commission, PitchBook, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Portland Housing Bureau, Portland Bureau of Transportation, Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Oregon Department of Human Services, Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, Oregon Parks and Recreation, Portland Bureau of Development Services, Powell's Books, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon Liquor Control Commission, Le Bistro Montage, Multnomah Whiskey Library, Pix Patisserie, Old Salt, Reel 'M' Inn, Ruth's Chris Steak House, the Feisty Lamb, The Oregonian, Pacific Crest Trail Organization, Nicky USA, Moda Center, Beacon Sound, Music Millennium, Jackpot Records, 94.7 FM, 95.5 FM, Portland Tribune, Twitter, Twitaholic.com, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Portland Art Museum, OMSI, TriMet, Laurelhurst Theater, Multnomah County Library, Oregon Health Authority Vital Records, Portland Timbers, Portland Thorns FC, Cycle Oregon, Planned Parenthood, mapdevelopers.com, Google Maps, Port of Portland, Oregon Humane Society, Zipcar, car2go, Bishops Barbershop (downtown location), Supercuts (Hollywood location), Oregon Zoo, Stumptown, Ground Kontrol, University of Portland Department of Public Safety, Goducks.com, Boy Scouts of America Cascade Pacific Council, Oregon Medical Board, Multnomah County Health Department, Portland State University, Cascadia Labs, Oregon Secretary of State, Center for Responsive Politics, Portland Parks and Recreation, New Seasons Market, Helium Comedy Club, Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Expo Center, Oregon Convention Center, Taxifarefinder.com, Pacific Crest Trail Association, Conduit, Polaris, Northwest Dance Project, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Airbnb, Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, Voicebox, Portland Community College, Oregon Department of Transportation, Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Portland Winterhawks, Northwest Big Game Inc.
Willamette Week