Thank you and repped. Man do I miss Portland. When I tell most people around the country that I live in Denver, their response is, "You're lucky. Denver is one of the best places to live in the US." While I always say, "Yes, it's very nice", in my heart I really think, "Yeah, but it doesn't hold a candle to Portland."
One of your "Portland Facts" is wrong, Fez. Portland was not dusted with volcanic ash during the May 18th, 1980 eruption. The winds were flowing northeast at the time, and Yakima and Spokane got decimated. It wasn't until later in May, and to a greater extent June, that the Portland area saw any ashfall from the volcano. Sometime later, a study was done to determine what the impact would have been to the city HAD the winds been blowing towards Portland on May 18th, since Portland is considerably closer to Mt. St. Helens than Yakima: something like 4 1/2 feet of ash dumped on the city. Imagine New Orleans after Katrina for the level of disaster that would have caused.
Huh? I remember quite well ash coming down in my yard that day, to the tune of about 1 1/2 inches in LO. Coming from New Jersey, the "brown snow" reminded me where I was born. And if it came down in LO, it certainly fell in Portland. The majority headed east, but it blanketed a radius around Mt. St. Helens.
NorthEast Portland got a ton of ash that day. My parents still have the coffee containers I filled up! We used to have to wear those dust masks to school for a least a few weeks.
Not on May 18th. Later in May, yes, but ash did not fall on Portland on that particular day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens The ashfall that you are probably remembering was on May 25th.
Description: The flag of the City of Portland is an offset cross of light blue, edged by white-yellow-white stripes, with a white four-pointed star in the left center, all on a background of Kelly green. The official size, proportions, and color elements in the City Flag are specified in the Portland City Code 1.06.010 (http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?&c=28155). History: In 1969, at the suggestion of Mayor Terry Schrunk, the Portland Art Commission established a special committee to select a designer for an official city flag. It chose Douglas Lynch, former president of the Art Commission and a prominent local graphic design professional and teacher. After extensive research and consultation with art commission members and city commissioners, he proposed a design in a process he called “as much diplomatic as it was artistic”. The Portland City Council adopted the flag in January 1970. In 2002, with the encouragement of the Portland Flag Association, Mr. Lynch simplified and improved the design, and the revised version was adopted by Ordinance 176874 on September 4, 2002. Symbolism: Green symbolizes Oregon’s forests, which surround Portland. The intersecting vertical and horizontal blue stripes represent the Columbia and WillametteRivers, with the central white star (technically, a “hypocycloid”) signifying Portland at their confluence. The yellow stripes symbolize the harvest of golden yellow grain (Portland is a major exporter of wheat) and the gold of commerce. The white stripes are merely decorative. The offset cross is not intended to resemble a Scandinavian cross. The design inspired the logo of the Port of Portland. Locations: The City Flag flies in front of the PortlandBuilding (5th Avenue) and City Hall (4th Avenue), in Pioneer Courthouse Square, and on many other commercial buildings around the city. It also hangs in the City Council Chamber and the PortlandBuilding’s 2nd-Floor Auditorium. Previous flags: Portland has used three previous flags, with the first proposed in a flag contest sponsored by Mayor H. R. Albee in 1917 but never officially adopted. [Source: AmericanCity Flags, North American Vexillological Association, ©2004: “Portland, Oregon” by Mason Kaye.]
