The New York Times Loves Portland (Again)

There is nothing the Grey Lady likes more than blowing up cool spots with her "36 hours in" bits–see her coverage of San Francisco's Mission District, the Left Bank in Paris and Koreatown, Los Angeles. In 2011, it came to Portland and proclaimed it to be "a small-scale metropolis with an outsize cultural footprint."

Now that things are really heating up here (again, as usual, always), the Times has decided to take time out of its busy schedule of flying to foreign countries to expense fancy meals and happening hotels (examples Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Berlin), to visit the banks of the Willamette River once more. And this time, they are calling us "one of our national capitals of cool."

Freda Moon, who also wrote the 2011 “36 hours in,” seemed to have a great time when she was here, hitting up Kachka, Ava Gene’s and Expatriate all in one night. Most of her suggestions are pretty reasonable, though she does recommend Langbaan, a place where unless you are a writer for the New York Times, or former WW theater and special sections editor Ben Waterhouse who has a cameo in the accompanying video, you won’t be able to get a table for the next six months. She also says Powell’s is in “the West End” which is close, wrong side of the street, but one can imagine that if you’re from New York you might not understand our subtle neighborhood naming conventions and the power of Burnside Street.  

And of course, she can't refuse a good Portland cliche. Last time around, she had a section called "Put a Bird on It." This time, "Keep Portland Weird."

Hey New York Times, thanks for caring! Your sense of geography is a little strange and some of us around the office are skeptical of your actually spending 36 hours here, but okay, we agree. Sweedeedee is a great place for breakfast. 

WWeek 2015