Portland and sense of place

As I started paying more attention to the local comic book scene, I had become very appreciative of the richness of Portland. I know that this is not the only concentration of comic book artists (Los Angeles, New York, Toronto), and not even the only concentration in the Northwest (Seattle), but this seemed like a really good one, and as a local this was exciting for me.

Therefore, two of the scheduled events that I was really anticipating were the film screening for Comic Book City, Portland, OR, USA, a documentary directed by Shaun Huston, and the panel discussion, Comics in the Pacific Northwest, with Megan Kelso, Greg Rucka, Chris Roberson, Jonathan Case, and T. Edward Bak.

The movie was pretty much what I had been hoping for. Here are all these names that I have been becoming familiar with, and now I am seeing their faces and hearing their voices and they are being recognized, and I adore that. It is definitely worth checking out:

http://olympus_mons.typepad.com/pdxcomicsdoc/

The panel started out on a much darker note than I anticipated. I was thinking about this green wonderland of creativity and fresh air, which I admit is an oversimplification anyway, but suddenly it was all about the remote spaces where you can cook meth and hide bodies, and the role of the I-5 corridor in human trafficking, and how people love the nature but it does not love you back. The gentlest part was that at least the frequent rain makes it easier to stay inside and work.

Sadly, I had to admit they were right. Well, I never really worried about whether nature was indifferent to me or not, but I guess I can see the point.

Also, the movie had brought up a couple of points that were not necessarily harped on, but stuck out, of how the area lacks in racial diversity, and there was some talk also of what things might cause people to move away, like bad legislation or something like that.

Things did turn around, and it might possibly have been my question that caused that to happen, but one thing that is worth noting is that none of this happens by accident. A key cause of many artists moving here is that Dark Horse brought them here. Not everyone from that crop is still here now, but once you build the community, it is easier for others to come. Having a lot of artistic talent in the area is probably pivotal in the buildup of smaller companies, like Oni Press and Periscope Studios, and that may in turn attract others. Maybe not every result is anticipated, but there is a logical progression.

This reminds me of two things that relate to racial diversity. One thing is that it reminds me of finding so many Laotian people in the San Joaquin Valley, and so few in the Willamette Valley. That is not an accident. As the refugees left the camps, they went to where their extended family or neighbors were. Some of this was because that was how they got sponsorship, and some of it was moving later to find familiar faces.

Up here around Portland we have more Cambodians and Vietnamese. There are a lot of Cambodians in Fresno and Modesto, but few Vietnamese. I imagine there was a similar process. How the first families that came over ended up in the spots they did, I don't know. There were probably factors that made a lot of sense, and maybe some that were relatively random, but the growth from that starting point makes sense.

For racial diversity in the area, yes, I do not remember having any black people at my grade school until 4th grade when Derek moved here. The number slowly crawled upwards through junior high and high school, but it was still a pretty small amount, and that included two brothers and their cousin.

(Those are Sid's cousins, actually, though I didn't meet him until my senior year. That is a great family.)

Anyway, a few years ago, that started changing. I started seeing more black faces around, and I was thinking, hey, maybe we are breaking some of the old barriers. An article about how the city was really white, though, and you needed to come to the suburbs to see people of color, made it seem like, no, we haven't really solved anything; we've just switched things around.

Actually, it appears that two of the big factors in the increased integration of the suburbs, which, truth be told, are still pretty white, were an influx in transplants from Hurricane Katrina as well as increased housing costs within the city boundaries due to gentrification. So, the historical problems are still there, and built on a foundation of very logical and rather disheartening progressions. A lot could be said here about the VanPort flood, but that's not really my area of expertise.

So, I guess the panel started out horrifying me a bit, but it didn't break my heart. It did turn around, and for all the bad here, there is good too, and it is legitimate good. Also, there are lessons in what goes right and what goes wrong.

So, tomorrow is going to be about what has gone right with the Portland Metro area, and I will save the tangent on community and culture and what we choose to celebrate for next week, going with the review of three new comic books for Wednesday. That makes tomorrow the last actual day of ICAF writing, because while those thoughts will inform next week somewhat, next week is more about some comments from a person who obviously pays too much attention to Fox News, and also my time in Italy. Comics will still pop up in other spots though, and that should include July 8th.

For now, Oregon does not have a great racial history, starting with laws against black people living in the territory going back to 1844 (though that did mean slavery wasn't allowed); Portland has been notorious for Shanghai-ing sailors, and while that no longer seems to be an issue, human trafficking still occurs in other forms; and honestly, while the climate is very mild in some ways, it can be rough on those with Seasonal Affective Disorder.

We are that, but that is not all we are.