The Economist Takes on Portland

Well, Portland, you know we've hit the big time when The Economist decides to write us up. This week's paper (yes, they call it a "paper") has a profile on our fair city entitled, "The New Model: Is Oregon's metropolis a leader among American cities or just strange?" And while the title rivals the word count of the article, it's pretty interesting to see all of this national and international buzz that Portland has received for being green, bike-friendly, and sustainable (whatever that means).

I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes:

"But on the whole, Portlanders not only love their city but believe that it is, and ought to be, a model for the rest of America."

"Mr Adams has a vision of progressive urbanism: a city where most people cycle or ride the streetcar, recycle what they consume, exist in harmony with nature and live in communities rather than the suburban sprawl of cities like Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix or Atlanta."

"In Portland, 'business casual' means wearing a fleece. The area’s main industrial cluster is 'activewear', led by Nike and Columbia Sportswear and including thousands of smaller companies."

"Mr Adams says Portland’s success is 'totally replicable'."

"Joel Kotkin, a Los Angeles-based demographer and author, thinks that places like Portland, San Francisco and Boston have become 'elite cities', attractive to the young and single, especially those with trust funds, but beyond the reach of middle-class families who want a house with a lawn. Indeed Portland, for all its history of Western grit, is remarkably white, young and childless. Most Americans will therefore continue to migrate to the more affordable 'cities of aspiration' such as Houston, Atlanta or Phoenix, thinks Mr Kotkin. As they do so, they may turn decentralised sprawl into quilts of energetic suburbs with a community feeling."

"Adam Davis of Davis, Hibbitts & Midghall, a Portland polling firm, says that Oregonians like to consider themselves leaders but also exceptions. They are likely to remain both."

I hope The Economist realizes that, according to their reading of Portland, we hate this article. The most pointed Portland-y distinction brought up is our generational legacy. The big question for Portland's culture and economy is, will all the young people stay and plant families in the city? The article somewhat argues that we won't be able to keep our young people because it's just not a city for families. The reporter obviously didn't go to Eastmoreland, Alberta, or any of our suburbs. I know we have more dogs than children in the urban core, but I think that after you live in Portland for a year, you realize it really ain't a bad place to raise your tots.

Conquered Words: March

This is my monthly post where I tell you what I have read and (ever so briefly) what I thought about each work. If you haven't read these books, then read this blog and pretend that you did!

March is a month that I always look forward too. It is also a month where I tend to believe that I will read 900 books (Ok, no, not literally, don't be that guy). But I normally finish my finals pretty early and end up getting close to two weeks off. I plan on reading a lot. But something always comes up, and also, I always forget how much I LOVE COLLEGE BASKETBALL. I cannot give that game half of my attention, it must take it all. Beyond that, Ali always comes home and we spend a lot of time together. This year, wedding planning decided to be the Godzilla of my peaceful Japanese city that is Spring Break.

But you know what? Contrary to much of my belief as a human, books are not everything. That took a lot of effort to write, so tell me you're proud. Also, over break I started two great books that I'll certainly write about in April. For now, here's what March looked like:

1) Finally Alive by John Piper (Christian Focus, 160 pages). This took no time at all to read and I'm happy for it. This is certainly not Piper's best work. Ok, duh, it absolutely is theologically sound and is able to articulate Biblical exegesis well, but it just wasn't my favorite thing to read ever. It wasn't literature. I'm sorry. The book is Piper's explanation of what Christians call "the new birth," which is a trasformational process done by God and for God's glory to the benefit of his creation. It's a radical process and no other faith system or worldview has anything like it. The new birth, or "regeneration" to theologians, is a doctrine that must be defended and marked because of its uniqueness to the Christian worldview.

2) Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis (Harvest Books, 168 pages). OH WOW CHRIS READ ANOTHER C.S. LEWIS BOOK BLAH BLAH BLAH. You know what, I did. Hadn't read this one yet and I needed to because it's been a great resource as I look into the biblical idea of worship, which is what I'm teaching to high school students over the next number of weeks. C'mon now. Lewis + the Psalms = BOMB.

3) Unceasing Worship by Howard Best (IVP, 226 pages). This was a resource for me as I launched the worship teaching series at Willamette Students High School Group. Best is a scholar on biblical worship and has been a long time Wheaton dude. He's an incredible mind and finally sitting and reading through the first half of this book served me well theologically and philosophically. The second half is more focused on the arts. I didn't have time to delve into it.

4) Portland Noir edited by Kevin Sampsell (Akashic Books, 300 pages) Ahhhhh what a treat Akashic has been to the great cities of the world and they finally put Portland on their little map. Akashic books has been running a series of short story fiction set in the great cities of the world. Portland Noir is another notch in their belt of great, localized fiction work. It's taken me a while to knock out each story, but I conquered. Each book is filled with short noir stories set in the particular city written by authors of that city and edited by a writer from the same city. They've done Seattle, Boston, Dehli, and numerous others and they've been a treat to each city. I heard about these books because one of my academic mentors Dan DeWeese was published in this book. He has an awesome story in there. He also looks like Kevin Spacey. Kevin Sampsell of Powell's Books and author of the memoir A Common Pornography got the editing job and he wrote a very solid introduction to a wonderful compilation of writing that certainly gives great insight into our city.

March turned out OK.

Keep reading, friends.

Sharing

Ah yes, gospel tracts: "share the good news" by handing someone a piece of paper that says everything you're too scared to tell them yourself in a far less personal and more theologically incorrect way! It's just so...oh, what's the word...easy!

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Douthat on the News

Ross Douthat gave an interesting take on cable news in yesterday's New York Times. Like him, I became interested in the poor practice of cable news corporations when John Stewart gave the "Crossfire" guys some friendly fire. Not sure if I'm pitching my tent in Douthat's camp, but he certainly solidified the fact that CNN needs help, and Stewart isn't just making potty jokes, he's giving America the news:

What cable news needs, instead, is something more like what Stewart himself has been doing on “The Daily Show.” Instead of bringing in the strategists, consultants and professional outrage artists who predominate on other networks, he ushers conservative commentators into his studio for conversations that are lengthy, respectful and often riveting. Stewart’s series of debates on torture and interrogation policy, in particular — featuring John Yoo and Marc Thiessen, among others — have been more substantive than anything on Fox or MSNBC.

Good Friday

"We begin at the real beginning, with love as a Divine energy. This primal love is Gift-love. In God, there is no hunger that needs to be filled, only plenteousness that desires to give...God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing – or should we say 'seeing'? there are no tenses in God – the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath’s sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a 'host' who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and 'take advantage of' Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves."

- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, pg. 126-127


I hear it so often said by my atheistic friends that the cross was God's "Plan B," the backup to his original idea of a loving relationship with creation. This is so incredibly far from Orthodox Christianity. At the dawn of time - no, before time - God, in his Triune nature, was and is still in a perfect love relationship with the Three. Creation was an act of pouring out that love, the giving love he simply is. And as Lewis writes here, this Creator's one and only plan was to make a universe that would mirror that Triune Love: an unending giving love. Yet it could only be done so dramatically: a Son's life was the way to display this absolutely radical and unfair love. He needs nothing in return.

The purest of love is the being who doesn't just ask for nothing in return, but doesn't even think of a reciprical love. "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters." This type of love is impossible when you are apart form God. We are not Divine. We need to feel loved, but, "this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us."

The last year or so of my prayers and meditations have been centered around a couple of things. One of which has been this question: "Does my love look like the cross?" Or, put another way, "Does my love really hurt?" So often, my relationships are easy. People laugh at my jokes, make me feel better about myself, and make me look credible and cool. This costs me nothing, I'm simply receiving love and good feeling. I have very few relationships where giving love hurts. But what are those relationships that make me hurt? That cost me something? My prayer is that God would make me a sacrificer, a giver to people. And for the forgiveness and grace for my selfishness. In these prayers, I have found God to be gracious: showing me where to give, how to give, and to always keep the gospel at the center of my prayers for those I know.