Portland is supposed to be one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the nation. But after trying to negotiate the city’s skinny streets (made skinnier by traffic calming) and getting honked at by the drivers of some of its fat buses, I find it to be a pretty hostile place for cyclists. Others, too, find Portland an unfriendly place, particularly businesses trying to grow while negotiating numerous regulations and restrictions.
Is Portland a Business-Unfriendly Environment?
In 1970, Portland was the headquarters of several Fortune 500 corporations, including Georgia-Pacific and Louisiana-Pacific. One by one, they all left, claiming that Portland had a business-unfriendly environment. Only Nike, located in an unincorporated part of Portland’s suburbs, remains — and only barely, as Nike threatened to move out when land-use planners tried to force it to turn its office campus into a high-density residential development.
