[seldom_seen]

I was chatting with the proprietor of a coin/bullion store in Seattle. He's been around for 30 some years and is one of a few such operations.

He said that the Seattle and Portland areas buy the smallest amount of gold/silver bullion than anywhere in the US as confirmed by his wholesalers.

I thought this was interesting. He mentioned that these type of purchases are not considered "sophisticated" in this area.

If they're not buying gold/silver. I think it's safe to assume that they're probably not taking other measures to prepare for disaster or economic calamity. Because well we have a "digital economy" and bad things just don't happen here. All of the bad stuff happened in the past. It's history.

[Pablo2079]

I'm in the Seattle area, sure seems like there is an air of "couldn't happen here". With that in mind, could get pretty interesting when it does.

[Prince]

Seattle is very much a techno-fantasy land for young liberal 20- and 30-somethings. That's not to say that it's not a great area, because I was born and raised there and absolutely love it. However, with the tech boom in the last 30 years and major companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Boeing, it is no wonder why the city has enjoyed a faux-sense of reality under the guise of technological advancements.

Although there have been times of economic downturn, by-and-large people were able to keep their cushy jobs and lifestyle. I moved from WA in 2005 (moving back next year I think), and since 2002 the real estate market has exploded, further fueling the illusion that the city's lifestyle is indestructible.

Since Seattle and Portland are traditionally liberal, issues such as peak oil I don't think have really been taken seriously. Instead, people believe that expensive light-rail systems, conservation, green energy, and innovation will solve the energy crunch.

My primary love of the Pacific Northwest is not the people, but the natural beauty. It helps that all of my immediate family lives there too, hence the reason I want to return The area is just pristine and wonderful with the mountains, rivers, ocean, and forests. The people are hit-and-miss and are somewhat close-minded. Traffic in the area is absolutely abysmal and the cost-of-living is as high as California's.

The one thing Seattle has going for it is it's natural water supply. A good portion of electricity comes from hydro. I believe it is one of the few places post peak that will hold its own (of course, people will come there in droves, so my theory goes out the window).

[PrairieMule]

I'm interested in how this weeks festivities in Portland. I can't find any updates on Operation Vigilant Shield/TOPOFF4 is going.

What's going on out there in Portland? Are the recruiters busy applying camo greasepaint to kids at the face painting booth? MRE chili cookoffs? Lots of shows with pretty smoke grenades and flares? Balloon festivals and such?

[thuja]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Prince', '
')
Since Seattle and Portland are traditionally liberal, issues such as peak oil I don't think have really been taken seriously. Instead, people believe that expensive light-rail systems, conservation, green energy, and innovation will solve the energy crunch.

[holmes]

Thuja I admire your jubilation. However talk to any small business owner or business period and you will find out that the government is near bancrupt. they are doing anything and anything (see ponzi scheme) to suck the last dollars from the last bits of taxpayers that have jobs and can pay taxes. Businesses are moving out en mas that provide cash to maintain infrastructure and all those precious things we take for granted. the socialism is growing en mas in direct inverse correlation to the tax base who by the way sustains all these farmers markets and such.
portland is a sewer compared to what it was say 20 years ago. it is an abberition. it is a house of cards. Overpopulated and bancrupt. yes who are the people who sustain all these "green" movements? it a sham I am sorry to say. driving out the tax base is occuring en mas each and every year. the lazy slug socialists in the "pee" town are in direct violation of reality. Please tell me who sustains all this "green". A utopia can not be built without a strong tax base. The socialists are delusional. Reality is not their forte. Folks that do not work? the insense and paraphanalia businesses? The little hippie shops? Where? Is this a get something for nothing ponzi utopia? That tram was the biggest waste of tax dollars known to man.

[holmes]

WE ARE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE. I am sorry. overpopulation needed to be checked long ago. Portland is doomed.

[Gigashadow]

The Seattle area is doing very well economically. So far, the real estate downturn that has hit the rest of the country, has not had an impact here -- probably because Seattle was 8-9 months behind on the way up.

[holmes]

Seattle is ok for now. Portland however is scraping up by any means possible the last scraps. any way to pay for the beaurocratic positions. It truly is smoke and mirrors keeping it together. The "homeless" and the "radical" leftists do not connect dots. The downtown area of portland is filling up with "homeless". they want their public transportation. who pays for it? They want blood basically. A big suprise and letdown is in store for them.

[eastbay]

Sweet, an entire thread without any experts. How about that. I'll post a few thoughts here, if I may.

I happen to live on the edge of the Portland metro area. I have no idea how it got tagged with that totally inappropriate 'sustainable city' designation. This area will fold up just like most other urban areas. About the only thing it has going is a temperate climate.

Actually, the water isn't all that fresh either. It's better than the desert or the ocean, I suppose, but not by much. My wife and I walked across the Sandy River this morning, as we often do since we live quite closeby. Today, it had this freaky white froth floating on it. I mentioned as we crossed that when the tap water stops flowing this is the place we'll be dipping out 5 gallon water buckets. My wife advised me that none of that nasty looking water will ever enter our house. The source is Mt Hood glaciers and we were about 40 miles from the source. It doesn't take long to get filthy.

Very, very few people have gardens. Almost no one composts. In our area we're the only ones. True, there are quite a few farmers markets, but they're overwhelmed by an ever-dwindling number of small locally operated farms, few of whom sell to the public and many focus on Christmas trees. Development is quickly spreading and destroying the few remaining fertile farms to the south and west of town.

370+ bicyclists have been killed on Portland area roads in the past 10 years. Yes, there may be more bicyclists here, but it's VERY dangerous and the penalties for killing a bike rider are small. A ticket at most. It seems as though almost everyone has SUV's. I'm the only one in my area regularly riding a bicycle or scooter and I've had many close-calls on the bike.

I'm not sure how this ridiculous greener-than-thou image got started. Interesting what marketing nonsense people will believe.

[thuja]

Actually yeah I agree- Portlanders aren't very environmentally conscious at all- that's why I am moving to either Phoenix or Las Vegas- I can't pick. Now those are places that at least know how to attract good business and are completely "Green" minded. I have heard they are pretty smart about water conservation and I'm sure they'll be getting ready to create bike friendly lanes any day.

Most people I have met from Vegas say they love to garden and usually compost and recycle. They're not too worried about the warm weather because they'll probably get some rain coming in these next few years. Anyways- if you guys have some pointers let me know- would you pick Phoenix or Vegas?

[cynthia]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'I')'m interested in how this weeks festivities in Portland. I can't find any updates on Operation Vigilant Shield/TOPOFF4 is going.

[threadbear]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', ' ')

370+ bicyclists have been killed on Portland area roads in the past 10 years. Yes, there may be more bicyclists here, but it's VERY dangerous and the penalties for killing a bike rider are small. A ticket at most. .

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cynthia', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'I')'m interested in how this weeks festivities in Portland. I can't find any updates on Operation Vigilant Shield/TOPOFF4 is going.

[eastbay]

Seldom_seen,

I think it's safe to assume that they're probably not taking other measures to prepare for disaster or economic calamity.

Where I volunteer, almost no one believes there is a need to prepare for a post-oil world or an economic slowdown/ meltdown. When I mention oil depletion or peak oil they give me the same 'huh?' look I used to get elsewhere across the country. It's a look meaning 'avoid this topic'. So I rarely bother bringing it up anymore. The attitudes here differ very little from the mostly desert rain-free areas my earlier work took me. Neighbors are still getting second mortgages and buying costly gas-consuming toys much like they do across the rest of America... and maybe even more. Here, gosh, I've never seen so many quads in my entire life. Everyone seems to have one.

When I first moved here I was amazed and struck by the huge number of SUV's! On this street there is at least one SUV or a large minivan in front of most houses. My brother-in-law, who has heard plenty of my PO speeches bought a RAM PU truck yesterday! It seats five and he's retired too! It's so typical around here. It'll take a lot more than $3.00 gas to change attitudes around here. Oh, there certainly may be sub-groups who are very PO conscious in this town, but for day-to-day interactions with people it's generally still a topic holding very little meaning. I really didn't expect this to be the case when I moved here either.

Oh, and I'm not at all surprised to read that few here are buying bullion. I'm not either. Maybe I should, and I may at some point, but first things first. The house is paid for, and for now it's energy investment only. Maybe next year.



Hi Thuja, glad you have a nice sense of humor. Did you get my pm? It'll be important to keep humor alive in the days ahead. I've made a few efforts to hook up with PO conscious groups but there doesn't seem to be any nearby and I ain't driving 15 or 20 miles from the S River to the W River to attend a meeting. If it isn't within a few miles of our compound I'm not going. And sitting around listening to a bunch of liberals gab is not my idea of a good way spend time.

I'm a few blocks from Mt Hood CC, but nothing cooking there either, at least not that I've found. My area of expertise and skill-sets wouldn't be of much value in a PO group study anyhow. They'll certainly come in handy after the disaster hits, but definitely not right now.

[eastbay]

Seldom_seen,

I think it's safe to assume that they're probably not taking other measures to prepare for disaster or economic calamity.

Where I volunteer, almost no one believes there is a need to prepare for a post-oil world or an economic slowdown/ meltdown. When I mention oil depletion or peak oil they give me the same 'huh?' look I used to get elsewhere across the country. It's a look meaning 'avoid this topic'. So I rarely bother bringing it up anymore. The attitudes here differ very little from the mostly desert rain-free areas my earlier work took me. Neighbors are still getting second mortgages and buying costly gas-consuming toys much like they do across the rest of America... and maybe even more. Here, gosh, I've never seen so many quads in my entire life. Everyone seems to have one.

When I first moved here I was amazed and struck by the huge number of SUV's! On this street there is at least one SUV or a large minivan in front of most houses. My brother-in-law, who has heard plenty of my PO speeches bought a RAM PU truck yesterday! It seats five and he's retired too! It's so typical around here. It'll take a lot more than $3.00 gas to change attitudes around here. Oh, there certainly may be sub-groups who are very PO conscious in this town, but for day-to-day interactions with people it's generally still a topic holding very little meaning. I really didn't expect this to be the case when I moved here either.

Oh, and I'm not at all surprised to read that few here are buying bullion. I'm not either. Maybe I should, and I may at some point, but first things first. The house is paid for, and for now it's energy investment only. Maybe next year.



Hi Thuja, glad you have a nice sense of humor. Did you get my pm? It'll be important to keep humor alive in the days ahead. I've made a few efforts to hook up with PO conscious groups but there doesn't seem to be any nearby and I ain't driving 15 or 20 miles from the S River to the W River to attend a meeting. If it isn't within a few miles of our compound I'm not going. And sitting around listening to a bunch of liberals gab is not my idea of a good way spend time.

I'm a few blocks from Mt Hood CC, but nothing cooking there either, at least not that I've found. My area of expertise and skill-sets wouldn't be of much value in a PO group study anyhow. They'll certainly come in handy after the disaster hits, but definitely not right now.

[thuja]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', '
')
Hi Thuja, glad you have a nice sense of humor. Did you get my pm? It'll be important to keep humor alive in the days ahead. I've made a few efforts to hook up with PO conscious groups but there doesn't seem to be any nearby and I ain't driving 15 or 20 miles from the S River to the W River to attend a meeting. If it isn't within a few miles of our compound I'm not going. And sitting around listening to a bunch of liberals gab is not my idea of a good way spend time.

I'm a few blocks from Mt Hood CC, but nothing cooking there either, at least not that I've found. My area of expertise and skill-sets wouldn't be of much value in a PO group study anyhow. They'll certainly come in handy after the disaster hits, but definitely not right now.

[eastbay]

I stand corrected. Silly me. Here's why the Sandy River is so murky. It should be back to its natural condition in a few months. Nice.

[Ferretlover]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('holmes', 'T')hat tram was the biggest waste of tax dollars known to man.

[eastbay]

Yikes!!! Where on earth did you get the idea that I 'hated' Portland. I don't 'hate' anything. That's exactly why I don't like meeting up with issue groups. PO groups included. There're always too many unkind personal remarks. I'm not talking about joking around like we're now doing with Aaron either. That's all in fun and everyone knows it. Thanks anyhow, but I believe we'll avoid the Portland PO groups, and stick to tending our organic garden, community volunteer duties, and our temple groundseeping.

Anyhow, Portland is going to be a monstrous train wreck just like most other places. That's why we moved near The Gorge, which will also be a huge mess, but at least we can avoid most of the teeming masses of hungry and grow some food which, by the way, will be tough to do along Burnside.

How Portland got tagged as such an eco-friendly greener-than-thou city is hard to understand. Maybe it's because of all the PO Google hits, or all the hybrids, or because it rains so much and things look 'green' all the time. It has little to do with results and preparation.