I also grew up in Portland. When I was a kid, 45th and Hawthorne was made of meth-heads, my mother didn't like me to stay the night at my friend's house on 19th and Prescott, you didn't get off the #4 bus in Columbia Villa unless you had an invite. Not the worst city of all times, but definitely not the Disneyland of now. The reason that all of those things are not true today is because of a gradual influx of good people. Transplants slowly changed the culture of this city from the hick tweakers of my youth into the amazing social champions of today. Good on them!

I am not a crazy artist. I am also not lazy. I am however, bitter. I spent years doing the things I needed to do: education, skills, real life knowledge. And I cannot afford to live here now. What I have a problem with is the speed with which things have changed, the lack of infrastructure, and the pushing out of local families for the love of condos built, bought, and owned by people who don't even live here.