Dangerous Chunky responds to the infinitely curmudgeonly Randy Gragg pretending to be Portland here. It was started by this, Randy's latest stab at labeling Portland a village in the Stranger.

Let's get this straight Randy, Portland is a city. It just isnt one with an imperial sensibility and besides a city is defined more by its people than its skyline (I said something similar to this in my interview in Sunday's Oregonian, I wish they had printed that quote). Cities exist to do one thing and that is nurture, coordinate and expose talented individuals in close proximity to one another, the more active the better. Portland does that, so does Seattle and it's a ridiculous debate to indicate either one isn't a valid metropolis (Florence though less grand than Rome certainly was a city too, duh). But in the spirit of countering retrograde, practically moot ridiculousness Ill debate it, any time, any place... despite the fact that horse was dead years ago!

Update: Obviously Gragg's piece in the Stranger is a kind of double-edged series of backhanded compliments for both Seattle and Portland but that very odd article does make slightly more sense in light of his piece in the Oregonian today. Still, denyng Portland as a city is an outmoded crutch, besides the Oregonian's own Spencer Heinz argument about duck-transportation makes a rather hilarious case here with this quote,"Any speculation that Portland is not a major-league town collapses now that duck-themed rides have arrived." Nothing better than a silly assertion to counter another silly statement.

Brian Libby over at Portland Architecture has picked up a much more productive argument. Words like affordable and experimental should be used in Portland much more often... "Jean" & "Nouvel" aren't bad either.

Also, there are immense dangers to Portland avoiding the fact that it is a city. The size, the scope of activities and the sheer popularity and problems of Portland means it needs to take it's size and activity into account, not pass it off.

Let's end this charade not promulgate it.