EMPTY AMERICA: Portland

We are now almost a month into the virus really hitting our shores and well past the calls for “shelter in place” and “stay home” mandates nationwide (well, mostly nationwide). People are getting used to the new normal, realizing they can go outside, just adjust your behaviors and be safe.  At the start of this trip, the emptiness was painful and new. As I make my way to the West Coast there seems to be a comfort setting in with “Hey, this is just what it is. Adjust accordingly.” 


Enter: Portland.


Portland is always an outside city. It’s bikes and trees and hiking and mountains and air. It still is.


Sure, the number of people walking around downtown are thinned. And sure there are no big groups of people, which probably makes it seem like more people are out because everybody hanging out so far apart. And absolutely there are gloves and face masks on about half of the city. And, sadly, Voodoo Donuts is still closed.


However, Portland almost seems...vibrant? That’s not quite the word, but it doesn’t seem dead (a horrible word choice as well). The parks appeared quite full. The riverside looked like a normal weekend afternoon. The Grotto was closed, but the Rose Garden and surrounding park, despite the warning signs posted into the grass, seemed very casual as dog-walkers and couples ambled about. 


I almost got his by a group of bikers making their way down Burnside!


The virus and the shutting down of the country is most likely far from over, but there was a sense here that we’d been through the worst of it. Portland was getting outside, inching back towards normalcy. 


I kept thinking as I drove how the PTSD of this whole crisis will affect social behaviors. How, after months of shelter-in-placing, folks might just be reluctant to go outside, hang out in groups, shake hands and hug, be “normal” for all intents and purposes. Portland made me think that, ya, it could go back to the way it was. Slowly, sure, but they seemed to be doing well with it. There wasn’t a paranoia in the air. Or fear. Or desperation.


There was sunshine and a cool breeze.


It’ll take a while to get everything back to the way it was but, make fun of Portland’s crunchiness all you want, they do know how to be outside. There’s a lesson here.