Burnin’

There’s an increasingly tiresome argument being made in the corporate suits, government offices and newsrooms of Portland, Oregon. The argument goes like this: Portland doesn’t have enough top tier talent to properly grow a company, nor enough venture capital.

According to Mike Rogoway of The Oregonian, three Portland companies—Jive Software, Ensequence and SurveyMonkey—all moved their top executives out of state last year.

“It’s not about Portland,” says Dave Goldberg, SurveyMonkey’s new California-based chief executive. “It’s really just about the Bay Area.”

“My job is to shepherd this company to be a great company, and if we can’t do it in Portland, we’re going to do it someplace else,” Dave Hersh, Jive Software’s CEO, said last fall. “I’m disappointed we weren’t able to pull it all off in Portland.”

Jive and Ensequence maintain Portland headquarters, and all three companies have retained sizable contingents here. Still, last year’s executive exodus was especially dispiriting in the context of Oregon’s wilted economy.

In related news, Laura Gunderson of The Oregonian reports that Lucy Activewear is moving from Portland to San Leandro, Calif., eliminating as many as 95 corporate and distribution center jobs here. Lucy, it’s important to note, isn’t locally owned.

In addition to the lack of available capital and talent beef, Oregonians also suffer from rumors that we don’t work hard and that our taxes on corporations are too high. I’ll leave the tax argument to others more qualified to speak, but the work ethic gripe I’ll gladly mangle. First, the argument is false. This state and all the great companies, schools and cultural institutions in it weren’t put here by a genie. They were put here by the pioneering, passionate and deeply committed citizens of the Beaver State.

Plus, too many places with a notable work ethic are soulless husks of a city. I don’t want to be part of that. Do you? Work is a central aspect of life in Oregon, as it is elsewhere, but we strive for balance here. The arts are important here; we like to eat amazing food and drink local wine and beer; and we go camping, hiking, skiing, etc.

PREVIOUSLY ON BURNIN’: Does The Northwest Have The Right Climate for Business?

People tend to think of South Florida, and The Everglades in particular, as a swamp. But it’s not a swamp. It’s a massive river system that begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles wide and over 100 miles long, flowing southward across a limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state.

Last week Darby, my mom and I got to see the river up close in the Shark Valley section of Everglades National Park. The river and what’s in it—birds, alligators, turtles and fish, all easily visible despite the throngs of camera-toting international tourists. Darby kept a handwritten record in her notebook of the scores of endangered wood storks, the anhingas drying their wings, pied-billed grebes moving through the water, blue herons and egrets fishing, and roseate spoonbills on the wing.

We also learned that Everglades National Park, established in 1947, is the third largest national park in the lower 48 states, covering 1.5 million acres. And that the sup-tropical region is home to six distinct habitats: hammock, mangrove, pineland, sawgrass, slough, and marine.

The Everglades is a great place to reconnect with nature, but the ecosystem is also the sole source of drinking water for more than six million people in South Florida. Hence, the idea that The Everglades needs protective care, now more than ever, is without question.

Contact Friends of the Everglades, the environmental group founded by writer and Everglades activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969. Or reach out to Everglades Foundation, another group doing important work in the area.

For the past four years I’ve been keeping track of the various trips I take during the year as a way to celebrate (and make note of) the people and places I had the good fortune to visit.

This year I spent at least one night in the following places (other than at home in Portland, OR):

• Seattle, WA*
• Brownsville, OR*
• Carlton, OR
• Omaha, NE
• Ashford, WA
• Union, WA
• Medford, OR
• Miami, FL
• Marco Island, FL

*indicates more than one visit

Also see: 2006 | 2007 | 2008

One of the charming aspects of life in the Portland Metro is this not little thing called the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). It’s a line beyond which, “the city” can’t go.

According to Eric Mortenson of The Oregonian, Portland’s elected regional government known as Metro–which serves more than 1.5 million residents in Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties–believes the Portland area can grow by one million more residents over the next 20 years, without pushing the UGB beyond its current dimensions.

Michael Jordan, Metro’s chief operating officer, said Tuesday at the Metro Council meeting that the region can buffer prime farmland and preserve key natural areas while providing land for the projected newcomers and for the additional jobs they will need.

Jordan laid out his recommendations backed by a 3-inch stack of studies, charts and maps compiled by planners during the past two years.

Among the findings: There are 15,000 acres of vacant, buildable land within the current urban growth boundary, or UGB, for Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. That’s about 35 times the size of downtown Portland, according to Metro.

Naturally, there is opposition to this vision of Portland’s future. Mike Wells, spokesman for the Oregon Chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate development association, says, “We respectfully disagree with some of the underlying assumptions” of the Metro report. “We embrace the goal of compact development and making wise use of infrastructure, but we challenge some of the assumptions as just not realistic.”

We just spent a week in mythical lands with beautiful people. Except they’re all real. Our friends and family and the two places—Mt. Rainier and Hood Canal. These places deserve National Geographic-style write ups, but for our purposes here I’d like to focus on Hood Canal, an area of Washington that I heretofore knew nothing about.

Darby and I motored the two plus hours from Rainier on Sunday afternoon and were thrilled to land at Alderbrook Resort in tiny, unincorporated Union, WA. It’s hard to describe the magnificent setting and the breathtaking scenery at Alderbrook, but I’ll give it a go.

Alderbrook is an historic camp site on Hood Canal, a major, hook-shaped Puget Sound tributary on the Olympic Peninsula southwest of Seattle. The sign says, “Since 1913,” but the experience today is totally updated. The restaurant at Alderbrook served us consistently great meals of wild salmon, organic chicken, halibut, Nebraska rib eye and quail. Capt. Lee Geist, who we met on the dock, took us on an impromptu spin around the canal in his lovingly restored vessel, Jack. Lucy hunted for oyster shells on the beach at low tide, the hot tub and steam room soothed our aching bones and Darby went to the spa for a therapeutic massage.

When we were on the boat with the Captain we learned a bunch. First, he pointed out George Washington’s profile in the towering, jagged peaks to our West. We learned that a pod of killer whales came to the area a few years ago and ate 800 seals, decimating the local population. We also learned that the compound next to Alderbrook is owned by Bill Gates and that Alderbrook’s multi-million dollar renovation and exceptional hospitality is the work of Jeff Raikes, a longtime Microsoft Corp. executive and part owner of the Mariners. Further inquiry also turned up the Nordstrom family’s connection to this place, which despite some of its rich summer residents still manages to emit a humble, real and easy vibe.

On Monday and again on Tuesday we drove around the south end of the Canal and up the other side to Hoodsport and beyond. At the entrance to the town of Eldon we stopped to snap a pic. My grandfather was named Eldon and he would have loved Eldon, WA. The Hamma Hamma River comes pouring out of the Olympic range in to the sea at Eldon. It’s a sportman’s paradise and my grandfather was the ultimate sportsman–a quail, duck, deer and elk hunter and patient, often rewarded fisherman. We saw an Elk standing near the mouth of the river and further upstream I jumped in to a lucid pool where trout and salmon live. Along the banks of the Hamma Hamma, I felt as if we were living in another time. Romantic as it is, I felt like maybe this is our Big Two-Hearted River.

Of course, it’s not the 1920s and I’m not Hemingway. My initial research shows that the Hood Canal ecosystem is in fact fighting for its life.

Hood Canal is suffering a thousand cuts. Old, failing septic systems pollute its waters. The flood-prone Skokomish River carries agricultural runoff — including pesticides and fertilizers — into the south end of the canal. Dead chum salmon, dumped by Skokomish Indians, used to pollute the canal — until Dicks found a market for the carcasses.

To sum up, Hood Canal is a special place in every way. Old money (and new) from Seattle loves it. Boaters love it. Fisherman love it. Hunters love it. Hikers and backpackers love it. Wilderness lovers love it. Writers and environmentalists from Portland love it. Eagles and whales and seals love it. But like all places beloved it needs T.L.C.

Here’s one group working to preserve the natural beauty of this area.

For an online map and more information about Hood Canal see GoNorthwest.com.

Nau is a Portland-based active wear company that makes gear for “artists, athletes and activists out to unfuck the world.” I would have chosen a different way of expressing that sentiment, but I do hear what Nau is saying and I count myself among the people they’re trying to reach.

When you visit Nau’s Web site and click on “Collective Stories,” you’ll find an archive of videos that showcase the concerns of Nau employees and their customers. For example, here’s a piece on Salmon Nation and Salmon Nation Artists Project CD:

I like how Alexa Wiley Pengelly, one of the CD’s producers says, “Culture is alive. It is found within experiences and moments passed down and shared by our elders, civic leaders and creative communities, connecting people to the land.”

I also love the paintings of the mighty fish by Mimi Matsuda.

Mainstream journalists in New York City love to fly to Portland and report.

It’s become a quite a habit for gumshoes in the employ of The New York Times. Now The Wall Street Journal is picking up the ball.

photo by Sean Flanigan of The Wall Street Journal

The Journal’s piece is neatly framed by its title and subhead: “‘Youth Magnet’ Cities Hit Midlife Crisis: Few Jobs in Places Like Portland and Austin, but the Hipsters Just Keep on Coming” and artfully rendered by Sean Flanigan’s telling images. It’s far from a glowing report on any front. The fact that highly educated people migrate here and then find little or no work is a common, if not a somewhat self-reinforcing fact of life in Stumptown. The article picks up on that and runs with it until there’s no more track.

I don’t believe the Journal’s portrayal is wrong. You do need to be a willing and resourceful pioneer to make it here. It’s the price of passage on The Oregon Trail, now, as always.

Knowing that you have to prove yourself worthy is, no doubt, daunting for the comers, but what good materializes without a meaningful sacrifice of some sort? I can’t think of any. Can you?

For more on this subject, see the discussion at Silicon Florist.

Luzon Building, downtown Tacoma

If you’re a real estate investor with a penchant for saving important old buildings, the city of Tacoma needs you. According to Tacoma News Tribune, The Luzon Building at 13th & Pacific in downtown Tacoma is one of two remaining West Coast buildings designed by famed Chicago architects Daniel Burnham and John Root.

The unoccupied structure is being offered for sale for $400,000. Yes, it needs repairs.

Burnham and Root were pioneering designers of some of Chicago’s first high-rises. After Root’s death, Burnham designed such monumental structures as Washington, D.C.’s Union Station and several buildings at the Chicago World’s Fair.

I don’t read the Sunday Review of Books each week, but I should. There’s always something to learn in there. For instance, I just learned that Conan O’Brien went to Harvard, wrote a thesis on Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner and spoke at Harvard’s commencement in 2000.

Here’s some of what he shared with those about to depart Harvard in 2000:

I’ve dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you’re desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way.

I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I’m as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.

So, that’s what I wish for all of you: the bad as well as the good. Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally. And remember that the story is never over.

I can relate. I’m coming off a huge year earnings wise in 2008 and I know 2009 isn’t going to match up. Yet, I’m now free to write and pursue the things that matter most to me. Maybe I’ll make a mess of things as Conan suggests; maybe there’s no need for all that.

The story is never over and the music never stops.

Diego Rodriguez, partner at IDEO and blogger at Metacool, got to hang out in Philip Johnson’s Glass House with RISD’s President John Maeda and other big thinkers.

One of the topics that day was the power of simplicity.

Here’s Maeda’s video recap of the event:

In 2006 I started keeping a list of cities where I spent at least one night during the year.

Turns out 2008 was a big year in travel, made even bigger by a nine-day trip across country to our new home in the Pacific Northwest.

Places visited in ‘08:

• Boulder, CO
• Omaha, NE*
• New York City, NY
• Daytona Beach, FL
• Winston-Salem, NC*
• Austin, TX
• Orlando, FL*
• Marco Island, FL*
• Miami Beach, FL
• Moravian Falls, NC
• Red Top State Park, GA
• Serenbe, GA
• Asheville, NC
• Franklin, NC
• Lexington, KY
• Cincinnati, OH
• Chicago, IL
• Scottsbluff, NE
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Winnemucca, NV
• Eugene, OR
• Atlanta, GA
• Brownsville, OR
• Coralville, IA
• Yachats, OR
• Spring, TX
• Depoe Bay, OR

*indicates more than one visit

I read the book Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach many years ago. In the book, the Pacific Northwest secedes from the nation. I’ve been a bioregionalist ever since.

Now I see in “Sunday Styles” that the book—which sold over 400,000 copies in the 1970s—has caught on with new audiences in churches and classrooms around the nation. A fact which has led Bantam to reissue the title this month.

Scott Slovic, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said, “You hear people talking about the idea of Ecotopia, or about the Northwest as Ecotopia. But a lot of them don’t know where the term came from.”

The green movement’s focus on local foods and products, and its emphasis on energy reduction also have roots in “Ecotopia,” he said. In fact, much of Portland, Ore., with its public transport, slow-growth planning and eat-local restaurants, can seem like Ecotopia made reality.

Which must be why the copy editor of this section titled the article, “The Novel That Predicted Portland.”

Cross the Burnside Bridge into downtown Portland and you will be greeted by one of the most iconic neon signs in existence. It says, “Made in Oregon” and features a leaping stag whose nose cheerfully turns red during the holiday season.

The sign was first constructed by the White Satin Sugar Company in 1940. It was changed in 1957 to read “White Stag” by White Stag Sportswear. The Naito family, owners of the Made in Oregon chain, again rebranded the sign in 1995.

This is where it gets interesting. Made in Oregon is a brand name and prominent retail business in Oregon. But the phrase “Made in Oregon” is a mantra that all Oregonians can relate to and embrace. So, it’s a particularly positive piece of branding that has transcended commerce and become a civic landmark.

Now, University of Oregon, a tenant in the White Stag Building where the neon sign is perched wants to modify the text of the sign to read “University of Oregon.” See WWire for a sketch of the proposed changes.

According to Portland Business Journal, there’s resistance to the change from residents of Portland and city officials, some of whom attended Portland State University (presumably Oregon State grads would have a say in this, as well).

It’s hard to fault O of U for pursuing the change. It’s a bold move, but one that would clearly help build their brand after the dust up washes out to sea. At the same time, it’s hard to support U of O in this, since the existing sign works for everyone, not just Ducks.