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Wildsam Field Guides: Portland
Wildsam Field Portland reveals this unique Oregon city through local stories, travel intel and modern lore, seeking out the real and rooted things, what's truly authentic and sharing the soul of a place, for travelers and locals alike.
Explore the Rose City,
Explore the Rose City,
- GenresTravel
144 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 17, 2020
The most innovative and unique yet still useful and informative guide book I've ever read. This guide book does more than give recommendations for where to eat and stay. It offers a sense of place, letting the reader feel like they are really coming to know the city even before they step foot there.
May 7, 2020
Part travel inducer, part whimsy collector. It's a big reusable shopping bag.
Portland gets gentle nods for being a cozy little big city in this contribution from Wildsam. The book is the perfect size – pocket placee, made of tough paper, absorbent-ready for your pen, pencil, crayon or glitter. Even though I’m a native, I starred the organic applesauce out of this thing, wrote “Just Do It” at the top of the “Essential” pages at the start. So Portland.
The worst guides make all cities seem the same, or adhere to stereotypes so you never get past the shiny wrapping paper to find out your present is actually different from the others. Overworked travel writers, go figure. But this Wildsam guide relies heavily on locals for content, adroitly using all the nuggets to paint a deeper picture you won't see elsewhere. This book gets you out there so you can open your own doors to more. And a sampling of some of the best local recorded music and books? Nice. This book is a fabulous conversation starter, with just enough maps.
The book is broken up into the major sections “Bests” (hello Broder Café, Rose City Rollers and Blue Collar Wrestling), “Almanac” (hey look, there’s the racist Vanport era and the best dive bars coming around the bend), “Maps” (a ‘bests’ section with drawings… give me an elbow bump, Ape Canyon and Coco Donuts), “Interviews” (nice to meet you writer Mitchell S. Jackson, food critic Karen Brooks and city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty), and “Stories” (you’re getting misty-eyed over mayor Vera Katz too? I remember meeting her smile decades ago).
My Corona coop-up only increased my desire to read this thing cover to cover (and to buy the field guide to San Francisco to stay ‘on the road’). Pages and pages of empty graph paper after the index beg for words, hand-drawn art, stapled receipts from strange soaking tubs and food cart smears.
The following list of suggestions comes in the same spirit of a Pink Martini or Jet Black Pearl concert goer yelling “encore!” at the end (as they fumble with the flashlight feature on their iPhone):
• Give out some bragging rights! Every city-goer collects these. Portland as the bike capital of the U.S., as Tango dancing central, with the highest per-capita library check-outs? You’re kidding! Nope, nerds and proud of it. Don’t say Powell’s has a million books – say it’s the biggest bookstore in the world! Don’t say Forest Park has 5,200 acres – what does that even mean? Either let it be know that New York’s little ‘ol Central Park has only 840 acres, or just give Forest Park the ‘biggest in the U.S.’ mantle. And what about best city drive-ability, most polite drivers, best mass transit? C’mon now.
• Take out the “Caught in Railroad Cut” story (could happen anywhere) and Marco Farfan interview (not enough perspective, soccer is elsewhere) and add lists of the best places to dance, volunteer, learn Spanish and have a first date. I’ll get you started: take your OK Cupid discovery to the Clinton Street Theater without knowing what’s playing. You’ll have PLENTY to talk about!
• Portland is closed-minded about race – yes, and gentrification, and mental health, and about inexplicably allowing dangerous ‘Proud Boys’ rallies – so diversify the topics by mentioning the Japanese Interment memorial on the west side esplanade, recommend an underground walking tour to learn about the many poor young men who were kidnapped to work at sea. Go positive too by mentioning Portland’s sanctuary city vibes (Portland hosted the first "Occupy ICE" protest that temporarily shut down a federal building where local ICE officers work), the hundreds of high school students walking out of class to protest Trump’s border wall and the many, many vivid and vibrant installations addressing race at the Portland Art Museum. Free Last Fridays anyone?
• Suggest doing crazy things to let Portland stand out. List questions to ask Portlanders so you can hear things you wouldn’t hear anywhere else. Such as: go to Portland’s huge Rose Garden and, amongst row after row of wafty relaxation, ask five people if they know of any recent California transplants. Or – If Portland was at the end of an underground railroad, what would people be coming here for?
• There’s a decent pull-out map coming out from the back cover. Go all symmetrical with one in the front. How about “Best areas to get lost in”?
You will find creativity everywhere in Portland, walkers and bikers out all year long. And people who would love to talk, open up. Get this book out to broach some of the best topics, to experience some of the best sights. Put a clearer definition on what this city means to you.
Portland gets gentle nods for being a cozy little big city in this contribution from Wildsam. The book is the perfect size – pocket placee, made of tough paper, absorbent-ready for your pen, pencil, crayon or glitter. Even though I’m a native, I starred the organic applesauce out of this thing, wrote “Just Do It” at the top of the “Essential” pages at the start. So Portland.
The worst guides make all cities seem the same, or adhere to stereotypes so you never get past the shiny wrapping paper to find out your present is actually different from the others. Overworked travel writers, go figure. But this Wildsam guide relies heavily on locals for content, adroitly using all the nuggets to paint a deeper picture you won't see elsewhere. This book gets you out there so you can open your own doors to more. And a sampling of some of the best local recorded music and books? Nice. This book is a fabulous conversation starter, with just enough maps.
The book is broken up into the major sections “Bests” (hello Broder Café, Rose City Rollers and Blue Collar Wrestling), “Almanac” (hey look, there’s the racist Vanport era and the best dive bars coming around the bend), “Maps” (a ‘bests’ section with drawings… give me an elbow bump, Ape Canyon and Coco Donuts), “Interviews” (nice to meet you writer Mitchell S. Jackson, food critic Karen Brooks and city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty), and “Stories” (you’re getting misty-eyed over mayor Vera Katz too? I remember meeting her smile decades ago).
My Corona coop-up only increased my desire to read this thing cover to cover (and to buy the field guide to San Francisco to stay ‘on the road’). Pages and pages of empty graph paper after the index beg for words, hand-drawn art, stapled receipts from strange soaking tubs and food cart smears.
The following list of suggestions comes in the same spirit of a Pink Martini or Jet Black Pearl concert goer yelling “encore!” at the end (as they fumble with the flashlight feature on their iPhone):
• Give out some bragging rights! Every city-goer collects these. Portland as the bike capital of the U.S., as Tango dancing central, with the highest per-capita library check-outs? You’re kidding! Nope, nerds and proud of it. Don’t say Powell’s has a million books – say it’s the biggest bookstore in the world! Don’t say Forest Park has 5,200 acres – what does that even mean? Either let it be know that New York’s little ‘ol Central Park has only 840 acres, or just give Forest Park the ‘biggest in the U.S.’ mantle. And what about best city drive-ability, most polite drivers, best mass transit? C’mon now.
• Take out the “Caught in Railroad Cut” story (could happen anywhere) and Marco Farfan interview (not enough perspective, soccer is elsewhere) and add lists of the best places to dance, volunteer, learn Spanish and have a first date. I’ll get you started: take your OK Cupid discovery to the Clinton Street Theater without knowing what’s playing. You’ll have PLENTY to talk about!
• Portland is closed-minded about race – yes, and gentrification, and mental health, and about inexplicably allowing dangerous ‘Proud Boys’ rallies – so diversify the topics by mentioning the Japanese Interment memorial on the west side esplanade, recommend an underground walking tour to learn about the many poor young men who were kidnapped to work at sea. Go positive too by mentioning Portland’s sanctuary city vibes (Portland hosted the first "Occupy ICE" protest that temporarily shut down a federal building where local ICE officers work), the hundreds of high school students walking out of class to protest Trump’s border wall and the many, many vivid and vibrant installations addressing race at the Portland Art Museum. Free Last Fridays anyone?
• Suggest doing crazy things to let Portland stand out. List questions to ask Portlanders so you can hear things you wouldn’t hear anywhere else. Such as: go to Portland’s huge Rose Garden and, amongst row after row of wafty relaxation, ask five people if they know of any recent California transplants. Or – If Portland was at the end of an underground railroad, what would people be coming here for?
• There’s a decent pull-out map coming out from the back cover. Go all symmetrical with one in the front. How about “Best areas to get lost in”?
You will find creativity everywhere in Portland, walkers and bikers out all year long. And people who would love to talk, open up. Get this book out to broach some of the best topics, to experience some of the best sights. Put a clearer definition on what this city means to you.
April 25, 2023
Although it's been updated, the risk to this (or any) travel guide is that venues for music, entertainment, and eating change so much, especially now post-Covid, and so it is in Portland.
What I liked most about the guide were the essays by Tom Wolfe on Portlandia, Jesse Katz on his mother, Vera Katz, mayor of Portland for twelve years, and Rachel Saslow's on rain.
However, to get a true picture of Portland, this book should be partnered with Andy Ngo's UNMASKED about antifa (The Portland/Rose City branch is the biggest base) and with visuals of city workers constantly cleaning sidewalks (you can guess why), tents in the doorways of now-shuttered stores that closed after being broken into one too many times, and the dozens of boarded-up ground-level windows downtown.
What I liked most about the guide were the essays by Tom Wolfe on Portlandia, Jesse Katz on his mother, Vera Katz, mayor of Portland for twelve years, and Rachel Saslow's on rain.
However, to get a true picture of Portland, this book should be partnered with Andy Ngo's UNMASKED about antifa (The Portland/Rose City branch is the biggest base) and with visuals of city workers constantly cleaning sidewalks (you can guess why), tents in the doorways of now-shuttered stores that closed after being broken into one too many times, and the dozens of boarded-up ground-level windows downtown.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews