
Nancy Rommelmann on How Portland Traumatized Itself
From Blue City Blues by David Hyde, Sandeep Kaushik
May 25, 2026 · 59 min · Season 2 · Episode 16
About this episode
The episode discusses the dramatic changes in Portland, Oregon, and how the city has experienced both cultural vibrancy and trauma over the decades.
In recent decades, no major American city can match the sharp ups and downs of Portland, Oregon. From a poor but pretty backwater burg of white gearheads and provincials in the 1980s, Portland underwent an exceedingly unlikely – and quite radical – transformation to become one of the country’s most distinctive and culturally vibrant urban renaissance stories in the 2000s (the New York Times memorably declared Portland “cool and refreshingly unneurotic” in 2007). But then, in the 2010s, ...
People in this episode
Hosts: David Hyde, Sandeep Kaushik
Guest: Nancy Rommelmann
Topics covered
- Portland
- urban transformation
- cultural vibrancy
- American cities
- politics
- news
Keywords
- Portland
- Nancy Rommelmann
- urban transformation
- cultural vibrancy
- New York Times
- American cities
- politics
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: New York Times
Places: Portland, Oregon
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