The American Scholar: A Jew in the Northwest - William Deresiewicz: It’s like this. I fell in love with the place. I spent a sabbatical here a few years ago just for the hell of it, and by the time it was over, I never wanted to leave. Everyone was so nice! They looked you in the eye! They smiled at you! They asked you how your day was going, and they really wanted to know. (Their day? Well, their stupid roommate had taken their bicycle without permission and ended up wrecking it, so now they needed a new bicycle and a new roommate, which totally sucked.) The niceness was political, as well. The Portland planning genius, which had created a city that was neither a playground for the rich nor a decaying postindustrial shit-hole, was all about making room for other people, putting public space over private advantage. Here was a city, a real city, that didn’t make you feel like garbage.