According to today's Oregonian newspaper, by the year 2060 the population of Portland will have doubled, reaching 3.85 million. Of course, I'll be dead by then (or, less likely, 106 years old), but before I die I want to add to that total by a mere 1. Just one more person. That's not asking too much, IMHO.I arrived in Portland today for a week of business development and marketing preparatory to my eventual relocation here, contingent upon my selling my house. It will be a busy week - I've already got a half dozen appointments lined up - and I return to Atlanta next Sunday.
Leaving the urban sprawl of Atlanta behind and arriving in this well-planned and picturesque city nestled between the Cascades and the Coast Range, and taking Portland's excellent light-rail system from the airport to my downtown office, I'm reminded of the words in a recent letter to the editors of The New Yorker: "Elevators, which draw us together in densely populated cities, require a little bit more etiquette but amply reward us with efficiency, convenience, a much smaller carbon footprint, and the seeming magic of serendipitous encounters. Cars spread us out and isolate us, encourage rudeness, destroy the beauty of our landscapes and the health of our environment, and kill us with shocking frequency. And yet Americans love their cars, and feel annoyed and fearful about elevators" (thanks, and a tip of the hat to Mr. Daniel Levinson Wilk of New York City).
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