Forever young

BACKSTORY: Future movers and shakers find inspiration in Bee Gees, bikes

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Feb 13, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

DENISE FARWELL / PORTLAND TRIBUNE

For the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s Michelle Poyourow (above), Portland is the kind of city where small change can make a difference, and where it’s easy for young people to meet and make connections.

Maybe it has something to do with the year she was born — 1977, the same year “Saturday Night Fever” was released. Maybe she just loves men in sparkly spandex.

Whatever it is, Ellen Osborn caught Bee Gees fever several years ago and couldn’t shake it.

Having moved to Portland from Seattle, Osborn loved the infectiousness of the arts and music scene here. She thought about how cool it would be for someone to form an all-female Bee Gees cover band. Then she thought, why not her?

So she rounded up three friends and learned to play the bass. They started practicing together in the summer of 2005.

The Shee Bee Gees, as they’re called, now have a huge underground following, and Osborn — an office manager by day — is just another perfectly contented member of the so-called “creative class.”

“There’s a conception we’re lazy or don’t have the same drive our parents did,” said Osborn, 29, who was raised in Reno, Nev., and studied French at the University of Washington.

“Instead of thinking of us as lazy, (it’s that) there’s more desperation to hold onto a dream. You’re not willing to give up the chance you might (have to) be an artist. No one’s throwing in the towel.”

It’s common knowledge that Portland is a mecca for the creative class, a term often used for the 25- to 34-year-old, college-educated set that continues to move here with or without employment.

Portland-based economist Joe Cortright put a finger on it two and a half years ago with his study “The Young and the Restless,” which spelled out this age group’s migration trend and cited Portland’s draws and drawbacks.

Now, Cortright has another spin on the data with a national report called “City Vitals,” published on the Web site www.ceosforcities.org

The report uses 20 indicators — surveying a city’s talent, innovations, distinctiveness and connectedness — to measure the vitality of the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. Of that list, Portland ranks in the top 10 in more than half of the categories.

Among the city’s more interesting rankings: No. 3 in how much our movie-viewing preferences differ from the rest of the country’s; No. 4 in the ratio of ethnic restaurants to fast-food joints; and No. 8 in the ratio of participation in cultural activities to cable TV use.

Portland also ranked No. 7 in voting rates, No. 4 in wireless Internet access, No. 7 in community involvement, No. 8 in transit use and No. 6 in small business.

Carol Coletta, Chicago-based president of CEOs for Cities, a national nonprofit that studies urban issues, says Portland’s quality of life has kept college-educated people coming here, despite the economic downturns of recent years.

“Now that people can work anwhere, they’re choosing to work where there are smart people,” Coletta said, “and one of the reasons smart people are attracted to places is there’s a quality of life they prefer, a lot of smart people, and a culture that encourages them to take risks. That’s what you see reflected in Portland.”

It’s not surprising, if you ask those who observe this population at work and play on a regular basis. “Portland draws young, creative types in part because we’re known for biking and creativity and beer,” said Evan Manvel, 35, executive director of the nonprofit Bicycle Transportation Alliance. “Biking is a symbol of being playful, active and living in community and protecting the environment.”

Biking isn’t the only way people in their 20s and 30s are clinging to their youthful spirit. You’ll find them playing dodge ball, kickball and Ultimate Frisbee, at craft circles and skate parks and trivia nights, and hunched over their laptops at Wi-Fi spots around town, catching up on the latest YouTube videos and composing their own blogs.

Unless you’re part of the culture, it’s hard to get a peek into it. Here are five people under 30 who typify their generation in the ways they recreate, communicate and innovate. Unlike the slacker Gen X-ers portrayed in “Reality Bites” in 1994, these go-getters are all about making things happen. Their pursuits just might surprise you.

Mike Merrill, 29, The Blogger

To the uninitiated, the term “Urban Honking” might describe the cacophony that might be created by a gaggle of geese let loose in the city.

To a growing circle of bloggers, UrbanHonking is the name of a collection of blogs written by a bunch of different people about topics ranging from food and politics to pop culture and neighborhoods — anything, as long as it’s interesting, says its co-founder, Mike Merrill.

What quantifies interesting? “If you’re writing with an audience in mind, or an audience that’s not just your personal friends,” says Merrill, a cheery Alaskan who moved here in 1998 after a 2 1/2-year stint in the U.S. Army. “I accidentally joined the Army after high school,” he explains, almost apologetically.

Now, he works at a Mac software company in the Pearl District, rents an apartment with a roommate on Northwest 23rd Avenue, and estimates he’s connected to the Internet just about every minute of the day, except when he’s sleeping or in the shower.

When he’s not near his laptop, he carries a small Canon digital camera and his T-Mobile Sidekick — which acts as his phone, Internet, camera, e-mail and text messaging system — everywhere he goes. Oh, and he also carries a small black leather notebook, for taking notes the old-fashioned way.

After all, the content on the site he runs with a few friends isn’t limited to words. He thinks of it as a community where people — here and worldwide — can showcase their visual art, music and movies they made.

The site also sponsors an annual Ultimate Blogger contest, in which the public votes on dozens of entries. And Merrill runs his own special page to celebrate everything he considers to be “awesome” in Portland, such as the Portland Aerial Tram, to counter what he calls the cynical “grumpy old man syndrome” that sometimes permeates local politics.

“I would like to call it idealism with a dash of realism,” he says of his own take on society. “You have to keep trying to change things, but you get frustrated because it goes so slowly.”

Michelle Poyourow, 29, The Educator

Michelle Poyourow makes it clear off the bat: She’s not one of those sign-waving or bandanna-wearing activists who cause a ruckus at every downtown rally. She’s more of an educator, with a message to share with those who want to listen.

Her mission is to spread awareness and information about her passion, bicycling, which is easy to do in a city now famous for its bike culture.

As the events and outreach director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, she helps run the Bike Commute Challenge, held every September, and the annual fundraiser called the Alice Awards & Auction, set for March 10.

She’s also working on the BTA’s campaign to create more bike boulevards around town — streets that allow cyclists safe passage with limited and slower vehicle traffic.

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