Perception #2 - Portlandia

I grew up in a town just outside of Portland, Oregon called Vancouver, Washington. When I introduce myself, I almost always tell people that I am from Portland because if I say I am from Vancouver people think I am Canadian. 

Portland is viewed as the hipster capital of the world, and when anyone pictures Portland in their mind they see the tv show "Portlandia." This show depicted a wide arrange of people that could/ might live in Portland. After living there my whole life, I can tell you that the show is fairly accurate, but it really only shows one side of the city. 

Here are a couple of false Portland-ism

While it is true that Portland is filled with hipsters, not everyone wears fake glasses and listens to obscure songs. And while there is a day where citizens of Portland ride their bike around naked, it is only a small group and it happens only once a year. Everyone's heard of Voodoo doughnuts, but we do have regular doughnut shops in the city.  Even though some Portlanders only eat tofu and salads, many people enjoy a nice juicy hamburger. And it does rain a lot (about 39 inches a year), but it rains more in New York (about 48 inches a year). 

A couple of times that I have talk to people about my home area, almost every time people have asked me about almost all of the portland-ism mentioned above. We are not all like the Portlandia show depicts. We have normal lives - well most of us anyway.