Neighborhood Notes

This is an excerpt from Willamette Week's First Annual Super-Deluxe Readers Probe, "an online poll designed to expose some dark, mossy grottos in Portland's collective subconscious."

ATTITUDES

• Call it unreciprocated love: While a majority of suburbanites would consider moving to the central city, 50.4 percent of city dwellers would suburbanize only under penalty of death.

• Surprise! While only 1.7 percent of Probesters say they live in the Pearl District, over 70 percent would at least consider moving there.

• About 70 percent say gentrification "has its perks and downsides"; only 5 percent claim the phenomenon "rocks."

• Is the eastside-westside divide a myth? Nearly three-quarters of Probesters say they have close friends on the opposite side of the Willamette.

• Strip clubs? A landslide 59 percent say, "Hell, yes!"

• Fears that the Northwest is losing its rugged soul may be overblown.

• More Probesters have been hunting (25 percent) than windsurfing (15 percent).

• Almost everyone knows who Tom McCall was.

• Nearly half have visited the distant Central Oregon burg of Prineville.

• Given a choice of leisure pursuits, a vast majority chose rafting over more urbane activities.

• Spectator sports? Who needs 'em? Solid majorities say they don't care about any current local team, much less the Seattle pro clubs, high-school sports or possible new major sports attractions.

For the full story:
Willamette Week Survey

Getting Around in Portland is a Snap
Gwinnett Daily Post, GA - Dec 17, 2005

Portland: Lost in its own reflection
OregonLive.com, OR - Dec 10, 2005