polarized
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12/6/2008
Oregon, and Portland in particular, have reputations for being very liberal (whatever that means). However, the truth is more complicated. Inner Portland--downtown, the inner East Side and innermost West Side--are very liberal, highly educated and affluent. The further you go from the river, the more right wing it gets...until you are in the very conservative suburbs of Gresham, Clackamas and Newport. Kind of like a set of concentric circles, the middle being downtown and the Pearl District.
The net result is a heavily democratic city (and politically mixed wealthy, inner suburbs) surrounded by VERY conservative, gun-oriented, religious suburbs. Sounds like a lot of cities, but I think it is more intensely evident here. And outside of the Portland and Eugene metro areas, Oregon and Southern Washington are extremely conservative, looking more like Idaho than California.
karl | Portland, OR