I had always wanted to visit Portland, Oregon. It seemed like a niche town, and I was a niche person. I had heard all the hype, all the "Keep Portland Weird" buzz, so now it was time to see for myself. My first impression of Portland was a bit of surprise at just how industrial of a town it looked. Last summer, I had visited Pittsburgh, and I recall from its steel-enforced bridges and skyscrapers that that city gave off a very hard-nosed, industrial vibe, and Portland did to. However, Portland did so in a more artful way. An example of such artistry came from the Pioneer Courthouse Square, a large, open, marble area where citizens walked their dogs and sunbathed underneath the warm Oregon sun. Graffiti decorated many of the walls in Portland, with so much of it echoing the previously noted campaign of the city, to "Keep Portland Weird".
Our team activity gave us a great opportunity to explore Portland. We split into groups of four and were tasked with touring the town, talking to locals, and discovering new businesses. The first place my group went to was a figurine shop called BAIT. From the instant my group walked in, we knew this was an off-the-wall shop. Loopy, dumpy figures of all shapes, colors and sizes lined the shelves of the store. Characters from Darth Vader to Ronald McDonald had a collectible to their name, each with its own quirk about it. We spoke to the co-owner of this particular BAIT store, who shared with us the vision and scope of his company. Founded on 11/11/11, BAIT describes themselves as a "brick and click" retailer, meaning that their online presence is essentially a business equal with their physical store. BAIT aimed to create multi-category assortments from a variety of premium brands such as Adidas, Reebok, and PUMA, and combine them with more novelty brands such as Domo, One Piece, and Naruto. Essentially, it was a store for both "jocks" and "geeks", the latter being what the co-owner describes himself as. The co-owner believes strongly in BAIT's business model, so much so that he informed us of BAIT's future expansion into other cities, such as Seattle, San Diego, and Denver. BAIT has a devoted following, from what the co-owner told us and what we could gather from the consistent flow of customers into the store. According to employees, some customers have spent north of $2,000 on some rare figures, and consistently they sell products that topple $100. This was all part of the business model of BAIT, for they provide products that one cannot truly find in other places. In many ways BAIT is to their industry what Portland is to the country.
We took an Uber to our next location, which was the "Freakybuttrue Peculiarium and Museum". We spoke to our Uber driver on the cross-city trip about life in Portland and how it has changed over the years. If I am being honest, and I think my teammates can attest to this, the gentleman was not very outgoing, and provided very short and vague answers. He did however, provide me, a lifelong Washington Wizards fan, with a humorous anecdote about how he once picked up three Wizards players in the city who wanted to go to "Portland's Finest". The eventual end location? A weed dispensary. The driver also did note how the amount of events to participate in in the city has grown significantly over the last ten years. From the passionate fervor of the Portland Timbers MLS team to the increased market share of the locally-placed Adidas and Nike facilities, Portland was quickly becoming a destination town with lots to do.
We were able to catch an employee for the Peculiarium right before closing time. He was a man about our age, and was kind enough to show us around the shop and give us some insight to the business. The Peculiarium was, well, for lack of a better word, peculiar. The shop contained everything one would need to decorate their home for Halloween, from dummy skeletons to spider webs galore, the shop was spooky and charming all at once. The employee told us that the shop, hatched from the creative mind of Conrad Talmadge Elwood, had become a bit of a Portland landmark, even appearing on CNN. The shop prides itself on the spooky and wacky, even going so far as to provide an Insectatarian Club, which was an "exclusive" club that was only open to people who would try a Bug Sundae, and ice cream treat with real, actual bug larvae in it. It had over 1000 members before it ended in 2015. Such is the appeal to a place like this, said the employee, which has seen a multitude of birthday parties within the walls of the shop. The shop has art exhibits, green screens, and novelty comics for dedicated customers. The business was truly one in the spirit of Portland, as the employee described it. Not a whole lot of cities would open their loving arms to a place where one can get a whoopie cushion as easily as a restaurant offers a cup of water. Although our time at the Peculiarium was brief due to the imminent shutting of its doors for the day, a surprising amount about the store stuck with me, and only about half of it was open to us at the time. I used to work with my mom at our local haunted trail, and I could not help but think how useful a store like this would have been in my town. It was a spooky delight, and one that Portland has truly embraced.
My group had a bit of time to ourselves now to explore the city. On our walk, we ran into the twenty-something year old men on the street conducting interviews using a microphone out of their backpack. If I had to guess, I'd assume that they were currently producing a podcast. The two men were quite duo, one of them, a man with short, curly red hair, was quick-witted and outgoing, constantly quizzing us with questions that I would not feel comfortable repeating to my parents. The other one was the recorder, and as such he was considerably more quiet. They said that they conduct these interviews to engage more with the citizens of the city, to get insight into their lives. They viewed it as a mutual relationship, where they gain insight and the guest will maybe get a laugh or two.
I had heard that Voodoo Donuts was the number one tourist destination in Portland, and upon arriving there, I could see why. The line was long, but according to two locals, not as long as usual. The donuts were an interesting concoction, far from the standard glazed one would find at Dunkin' Donuts. There were vanilla glazed donuts with Fruity Pebbles on top, and maple donuts with all sorts of combinations on it. In hindsight, I really wish I had gotten one, but our group was on a bit of a time crunch, so I had to back out. As the night closed in and the light from the multitude of food trucks shined our way back to our buses, I realized our time in Portland was coming to an end.
Our class ate dinner at the Kennedy Building, a unique former elementary school that was turned into a hotel. The building features everything from bars to dining halls to bedrooms, and it seemed as though behind each door was a surprise. I had never visited a building quite like it, and it was quite frankly one of the more innovative places we visited on the trip. It takes a creative thinker to see a hotel in such a place, but out on the West Coast, innovation is second nature.
The Kennedy Building not only offers visitors a peak inside the historical aspect of Portland, but it properly represents the city's fresh thinking and out-of-the-box ideas. In doing so, an out-of-towner becomes fully indulged in how the town functions and its mindset. Never take something at face value, think about what you can turn it into.
Due to the active nature of the trip, I realize that we could not spend too much time in Portland to stop and smell the roses, but I do wish I had more time to explore. I had just barely dipped my toe into the water of what this city had to offer, and, as one of the Top 5 highest expanding cities in the country, I wanted to get a better glimpse of what drove this phenomenon. Maybe I will be back in Portland some day so that I can finally eat a Voodoo Donut and go to a Trailblazers game, but until then, I must remember the funky figurines of BAIT and the multitude of street performers and street art. For those are truly the people that Keep Portland Weird.
Our team activity gave us a great opportunity to explore Portland. We split into groups of four and were tasked with touring the town, talking to locals, and discovering new businesses. The first place my group went to was a figurine shop called BAIT. From the instant my group walked in, we knew this was an off-the-wall shop. Loopy, dumpy figures of all shapes, colors and sizes lined the shelves of the store. Characters from Darth Vader to Ronald McDonald had a collectible to their name, each with its own quirk about it. We spoke to the co-owner of this particular BAIT store, who shared with us the vision and scope of his company. Founded on 11/11/11, BAIT describes themselves as a "brick and click" retailer, meaning that their online presence is essentially a business equal with their physical store. BAIT aimed to create multi-category assortments from a variety of premium brands such as Adidas, Reebok, and PUMA, and combine them with more novelty brands such as Domo, One Piece, and Naruto. Essentially, it was a store for both "jocks" and "geeks", the latter being what the co-owner describes himself as. The co-owner believes strongly in BAIT's business model, so much so that he informed us of BAIT's future expansion into other cities, such as Seattle, San Diego, and Denver. BAIT has a devoted following, from what the co-owner told us and what we could gather from the consistent flow of customers into the store. According to employees, some customers have spent north of $2,000 on some rare figures, and consistently they sell products that topple $100. This was all part of the business model of BAIT, for they provide products that one cannot truly find in other places. In many ways BAIT is to their industry what Portland is to the country.
We took an Uber to our next location, which was the "Freakybuttrue Peculiarium and Museum". We spoke to our Uber driver on the cross-city trip about life in Portland and how it has changed over the years. If I am being honest, and I think my teammates can attest to this, the gentleman was not very outgoing, and provided very short and vague answers. He did however, provide me, a lifelong Washington Wizards fan, with a humorous anecdote about how he once picked up three Wizards players in the city who wanted to go to "Portland's Finest". The eventual end location? A weed dispensary. The driver also did note how the amount of events to participate in in the city has grown significantly over the last ten years. From the passionate fervor of the Portland Timbers MLS team to the increased market share of the locally-placed Adidas and Nike facilities, Portland was quickly becoming a destination town with lots to do.
We were able to catch an employee for the Peculiarium right before closing time. He was a man about our age, and was kind enough to show us around the shop and give us some insight to the business. The Peculiarium was, well, for lack of a better word, peculiar. The shop contained everything one would need to decorate their home for Halloween, from dummy skeletons to spider webs galore, the shop was spooky and charming all at once. The employee told us that the shop, hatched from the creative mind of Conrad Talmadge Elwood, had become a bit of a Portland landmark, even appearing on CNN. The shop prides itself on the spooky and wacky, even going so far as to provide an Insectatarian Club, which was an "exclusive" club that was only open to people who would try a Bug Sundae, and ice cream treat with real, actual bug larvae in it. It had over 1000 members before it ended in 2015. Such is the appeal to a place like this, said the employee, which has seen a multitude of birthday parties within the walls of the shop. The shop has art exhibits, green screens, and novelty comics for dedicated customers. The business was truly one in the spirit of Portland, as the employee described it. Not a whole lot of cities would open their loving arms to a place where one can get a whoopie cushion as easily as a restaurant offers a cup of water. Although our time at the Peculiarium was brief due to the imminent shutting of its doors for the day, a surprising amount about the store stuck with me, and only about half of it was open to us at the time. I used to work with my mom at our local haunted trail, and I could not help but think how useful a store like this would have been in my town. It was a spooky delight, and one that Portland has truly embraced.
My group had a bit of time to ourselves now to explore the city. On our walk, we ran into the twenty-something year old men on the street conducting interviews using a microphone out of their backpack. If I had to guess, I'd assume that they were currently producing a podcast. The two men were quite duo, one of them, a man with short, curly red hair, was quick-witted and outgoing, constantly quizzing us with questions that I would not feel comfortable repeating to my parents. The other one was the recorder, and as such he was considerably more quiet. They said that they conduct these interviews to engage more with the citizens of the city, to get insight into their lives. They viewed it as a mutual relationship, where they gain insight and the guest will maybe get a laugh or two.
I had heard that Voodoo Donuts was the number one tourist destination in Portland, and upon arriving there, I could see why. The line was long, but according to two locals, not as long as usual. The donuts were an interesting concoction, far from the standard glazed one would find at Dunkin' Donuts. There were vanilla glazed donuts with Fruity Pebbles on top, and maple donuts with all sorts of combinations on it. In hindsight, I really wish I had gotten one, but our group was on a bit of a time crunch, so I had to back out. As the night closed in and the light from the multitude of food trucks shined our way back to our buses, I realized our time in Portland was coming to an end.
Our class ate dinner at the Kennedy Building, a unique former elementary school that was turned into a hotel. The building features everything from bars to dining halls to bedrooms, and it seemed as though behind each door was a surprise. I had never visited a building quite like it, and it was quite frankly one of the more innovative places we visited on the trip. It takes a creative thinker to see a hotel in such a place, but out on the West Coast, innovation is second nature.
The Kennedy Building not only offers visitors a peak inside the historical aspect of Portland, but it properly represents the city's fresh thinking and out-of-the-box ideas. In doing so, an out-of-towner becomes fully indulged in how the town functions and its mindset. Never take something at face value, think about what you can turn it into.
Due to the active nature of the trip, I realize that we could not spend too much time in Portland to stop and smell the roses, but I do wish I had more time to explore. I had just barely dipped my toe into the water of what this city had to offer, and, as one of the Top 5 highest expanding cities in the country, I wanted to get a better glimpse of what drove this phenomenon. Maybe I will be back in Portland some day so that I can finally eat a Voodoo Donut and go to a Trailblazers game, but until then, I must remember the funky figurines of BAIT and the multitude of street performers and street art. For those are truly the people that Keep Portland Weird.