November 02, 2003
'Oregonian' Examines The State's Diverse Regions
Today's Sunday Oregonian included the start of a new series the paper is calling The Nine States of Oregon, which argues that, contrary to the traditional view of the state's east/west, rural/urban divisions, Oregon "can now be seen as nine separate regions, each with a definable political outlook and economic approach."
Courtesy The Oregonian
The series began today with an examination of the Portland metropolitan area:
To many Oregonians who live far from Portland, the metropolitan area is a hopelessly liberal, tree-hugging welter of congested suburbs and big-city wickedness.
But love it or hate it, Portlandia drives the state's economy. Its taxes pay for most of the state budget. Without its left-leaning voters, Oregon would be a conservative, rural Western state.
This installment looks at Portland's brand of urban development ("compactness over sprawl, livability over economic growth at any cost") and the tensions that have arisen as a result of economic downturn and business woes, and at the influx of young people into the metropolitan area despite those economic tensions ("because of factors ranging from the access to outdoor recreation to a lower cost of living compared with other big West Coast cities") -- an influx which in itself impacts the region's unemployment rate.
The "nine states of Oregon" as defined by the paper are: Portlandia, Southern Oregon, Cowboy Country, Central Oregon, Columbia Corridor, Timber Country, The Coast, The Valley, and Edutopia. See the series link above as the month progresses for articles on each region, which continues through November 18.