Matt

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:00:34 -0800

I think Stadler might be on to something. I grew up in Beaverton in the 80s and had Cambodian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Nigerian, Moldovan, Vietnamese, and Russian friends in my neighborhood. When I went to college in Portland proper and lived in a close-in neighborhood, all my neighbors were white upper-middle class folks, who dismissed the suburbs as soul-less, monochrome places full of Barbie soccer-moms. (But damn, they sure loved those malls.) I ached like hell to get out of the 'burbs, but find myself reluctantly leaping to their defense now that I live in the city. The snobbery about suburbs often present in hip city dwellers is still snobbery -- a desire to belittle people different from oneself.

Seattlest: You're Our Little Zwischenstadt, Yes You Are

Matt