Point & Shoot: Portland
/
Back from an incredible trip to Portland for the first GOOD Ideas for Cities event. The highlight may have been when I met Mayor Sam Adams onstage (photo by the awesomePaul Searle). It was all I could do not to say, “You look familiar. Did I see you on Portlandia?”
Although as I talked to him later, I realized he probably would have gotten a kick out of that.
When I’m not hobnobbing with local officials, I absolutely love walking around Portland.
The city is so well-designed and has so many public amenities it feels like you’re in Europe.
Here’s my ridiculously awesome (and graciously upgraded) room at the Ace Hotel. I’ve now stayed in all four properties and I think that the Portland location is my favorite.
Portland always delivers on the culinary front. I had some pretty incredible Austrian food, including this gorgeous salad with candy cane beets and pretzel croutons (!) atGrüner.
And I always love sampling the food carts set up all around Portland, but I’m equally in love with the way they look: little neighborhoods of tiny, colorful, fragrant houses.
I visited PSU’s Graphic Design school to talk to some students. IN PERSON! What a happy, colorful school full of personality.
With some great advice on the wall.
Another kind of wall message. It’s meant to be a rhetorical question, right?
Everything seems to be touched by the hand of an artist or designer in Portland. Their construction barriers are beautiful (and in this case, painted by Chris Johanson).
In Portland, even breakfast can be a work of art.