Dear New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/Portland-Golden Age of Dining and Drinking

Dear Eric Asimov,

We love that you love our city and our amazing restaurants. It's been curious this past year to see the number of articles in your paper on Portland, and satisfying to read that most of them are favorable, and for the most part accurately describe how great it is to live here. But there is one facet of your glowing article and of the other coverage that I need to bring into sharper focus: Real estate is not "cheap" for those of us who live here and are offering the "regional" level of service in these restaurants, working behind the scenes at these farms, in these kitchens, and are the support staff for these rich and successful recent entrepreneurial imports with the European and East Coast pedigree. As delightful as it may seem to see what an "average" home or commercial property sells for here, I need to remind you that the wage compensation matches the market, and no prep cook in Northeast Portland is making what a prep cook in the East Village is making. It takes a two-income couple to buy one of these "cheap" properties here because each of the two incomes is "regional", just as the New York wage and real estate levels are "regional" to New York. And in making a full disclosure, I moved here from South Florida seven years ago and have yet to be able to afford to buy one of these "cheap" Portland properties on my own. So I encourage you to continue visiting and enjoying your time here without sales tax and with "cheap, regional" wining and dining, but don't follow the traffic pattern of all the Californians who have bought here and commute to Los Angeles and San Francisco Monday through Thursday, and are rapidly changing the flow of life here and pricing out the current residents. Who will work for you? Who will teach your kids in school, pull your shots of espresso, and wash the pots of those amazing restaurants? Will we now be earning New York wages, too? See you at Pok-Pok!

Laura (etc etc)

I just sent this to the editor. The article in this morning's paper is splendid. Photographs and a glowing mention of Pok Pok, but it sent shivers up my spine. My love for this city is fierce, and I don't want to feel forced out because I can't buy a half-million dollar bungalow as a single woman.

Am I over-reacting? Not enough coffee yet this morning?

I don't think so. Linsey and I were both struck by how many reviews and travel pieces have been featured in the Times in the last year or so, almost as if some wise-ass PSU alum went to make fame and fortune in The City and writes these bits as homesick treatment. Or their sister and brother-in-law just relocated here and they visit them just a bit too much because it's all so cheap. Because it's obvious they don't actually work or know someone who works here. Their sib & hub are maybe still living off that real estate killing they made on that 500 sq ft apartment they sold in the East Village.

"I smell bitter here" says the virtual Linsey voice in my head.

Okay, right on target, so what? I want to stay, is that so wrong? And I love New York, read the Times each and every day, continue an affair with the Old City for over 30 years, have all Jack Finney's books in hard cover, New York 1880 is like a bible to me. An old map of lower Manhattan is on the wall in the hall.

Just don't ruin this place, is what I'm thinking. Visit and go home with 5 extra pounds, a tired liver and a stack of receipts. See ya next year. Look what a mess a bunch of youse guys made of Florida---isn't that enough?