Portland Rising

Over at the Portland City Club blog, Chris Coleman notices that Portland seems to be on the rise (contrary to popular belief):

A bit more interesting is the fact that we lead the country in terms of Women-Owned Businesses (Center for Women's Business Research), and downright startling is the news that Oregon's Business Climate is ranked 9th best in the country (the Tax Foundation). How do you square that with the consistent carping you hear from our business execs? ...

In other critical areas that contribute to economic strength these days, Portland's scores continued to amaze: in terms of "tolerance" we rank second nationally; in terms of physical fitness (yes, this actually does correlate to regional creativity) Portland ranks sixth; in terms of density of high tech companies we rank 10th; in both the gay index and the bohemian index we rank 10th; and at the same time we are the most child-friendly city in America! ...

But more importantly, by [Richard] Florida's estimation, the aggregate of these factors position Portland to complete beautifully in the economic arena taking shape before us.

So, when are we going to start admitting that our star is in the ascendant? We love to complain about our problems and inadequacies so much - yet whether we are ready or not - Portland's moment on the world stage is arriving.

Read the rest and discuss over there.

[Again, comments closed here. Discuss on the blog linked above.]

May 31, 2005 Posted in elsewhere.