Insufferable Portland?

In January, The Washington Post declared that Portland had jumped the shark and that Pittsburgh was now the "hottest" city in America.

Not so fast. 

Here are two pieces of evidence that Portland hasn't lost its mojo. First, the news reported last week that Portland will be featured in a 10-day exhibition in Paris, courtesy of the Pompidou Center and La Gaite Lyrique, an honor awarded only two other cities, Istanbul and Berlin. (Conflict warning: MusicfestNW has been asked to do some of the music curation.)

Second—a rather snarky send-up, courtesy of The Weekly Standard, a neo conservative magazine published by News Corporation(Correction: In 2009, News Corp., run by Rupert Murdoch, sold The Standard.) and edited by William Kristol, perhaps this country's leading neo-con intellectual.

In "Insufferable Portland," online editor Mark Hemingway argued that "smart growth" isn't, that Portland is "quietly closing in on San Francisco as the American city that has most conspicuously taken leave of its senses," and that public corruption rivals that of Chicago.

Bill Kristol's mag taking on Portland? Take that, Pittsburgh!

WWeek 2015