"Is Portland the new Neverland?"

Abraham Sutfin in his bike repair shop.

That was the provocative headline on a Sunday Opinion essay that sprang from a brainstorming session I had with a local journalist after we had both read a New York Times Sunday Magazine article that asked, "What Is It About 20-Somethings?"

That Aug. 18 piece, by Robin Marantz Henig, asked, "Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?" and presented in great detail one sociologist's theory about "the changing timetables for adulthood." 

Shortly afterward, I met with Nancy Rommelmann, a terrific writer, and we kicked around possible approaches to a Portland-centric article that would get into the minds of local twentysomethings. The result? A very well-received article that ran in Sunday's newspaper, drew more than 600 "likes" and 52 online comments, and served as the focal point for a live chat that attracted 44 readers and nearly 80 comments during an hour-long session Monday.

It was, IMHO, the most successful live chat I've been part of in the past two years, with lots of thoughtful comments and not a single one that I, as moderator, had to hold out for reasons of profanity.

For the sake of brevity, I'll confine myself to three things:
-- A link to the article, "Is Portland the new Neverland?"
-- A link to the edited transcript of the"live chat."
-- One of my favorite quotes from the piece, spoken by Kate Williams, 23.

"I think Portland is in a way in danger of being a sort of incubator. People absorb its resources but don't recycle them. They're taking their careers elsewhere, and Portland earns a reputation of being a steppingstone rather than a destination."

Check it out.


Photograph by Torsten Kjellstand, The Oregonian