I can’t work up enough ire for a Pit thread, because I really do like living here. But consensus-driven, passive-aggressive Portland is making me slightly crazy. Listen up, people: it’s not confrontational to return phone calls. It only gets confrontational when you don’t.
Would it have killed the RV service desk person to return my call, even if not “right away” as she promised? Wouldn’t a rational, aspiring salesman anywhere else call back with the information I requested on motorhomes that we both looked at on the lot? Why did you send me a form letter telling me how pleased you were to assist me, when you clearly did NOT respond to my requests? I leave messages for contractors and businesses and even my so-called care provider, and nobody returns calls. I don’t get it. Is this a way of getting even for everybody trying to be so nice all the time? Do you need to form a committee to decide whether or not to return each individual call?
It’s no wonder supervisors burn out and run screaming from the place, like this guy did. Even the previous governor (who is, incomprehensibly, running again) said, on his way out the door, that Oregon is ungovernable. Well, Christ on a lollipop, what a fuckin’ surprise.
Sounds like you’re going to be doing some more traveling Chefguy.
Do you really think the coastal areas are more stubbornly passive-aggressive than the Midwest where it is a gentle, maddening artform?
I think on the coasts it has more of an aggressive edge myself. In the heartland it passes for mercy with hidden malice. You could nearly take pride in it.
Well said. I’ve experienced the genteel poison of both areas of the country. The midwest has this veneer of happiness and light, while underneath it all people drink heavily and are chronically depressed. My kids all live in Wisconsin, so I see all of this going on all around them, and to some extent within their own lives.
They’re pretty much the only game in town for Class B RVs. We’re looking to sell our Bigfoot and downsize. Hate to get rid of it, as it’s a good product, but it’s now too large for us. My questions to the salesguy: What would you offer me for it? What is the dealer’s take (percentage) on a consignment situation? How close can we get between trade-in and a Class B unit that costs about $73K? Wouldn’t you think this signals a customer who is interested in buying? I just don’t get it.
Gee, and I thought this was going to be about the Portland bicyclists and pedestrians. Now if we could only raise the point scores for each so that drivers had some more incentive remove them from the gene pool as they regularly break the traffic laws …
I’m particularly impressed by the pedestrians who walk out into the street without bothering to look either way; it makes for very stressful driving. Another passive-agressive act: standing in the middle of a sidewalk chatting with your buds, making others walk around you. One day soon I’m going to walk up to within a few inches of someone and scream HEY!! in his ear.
I’m here in Portland, too (originally from NY), and these exact things (and many more examples) are driving me up the wall. It’s like nobody takes any pride in their work or in doing something well and efficiently, and I don’t understand it at all.
Any idea why it’s like that here in the northwest as opposed to anywhere else?
I’m a bit mystified, but I’ve only been living here since last October. It might be good fodder for a sociological study. People are so determined to be cool and laid back that not much seems to get done. Decisions go unmade because everyone, not just the majority, literally everyone involved in any given process, must agree before anything can move forward. It’s like the US Dept. of State taken to ultimate absurdity. Rather than give you bad news, people just don’t return calls or answer emails. It’s very frustrating for a guy like me who has always been straightforward, direct and honest with people.
Friends who are supposed to meet you somewhere suddenly just don’t show up and don’t call. When you call them to ask them what’s going on they give you something like, “Oh, I just got caught up cleaning the house, and didn’t show up.”
Really? That’s expected behavior?
And the drivers here… nobody honks, cars stop at one corner of the crosswalk for a pedestrian just starting to cross at the other corner, they stop at a green light to let someone in the wrong lane in, causing 8+ cars behind them to miss the light… yeesh.
And quality service with a smile? Super rare. I feel like a grouchy old person, and I’m 32.
I am not a Northwesterner, but I know people there, and I’m no mean slacker myself. So IMHO, YMMV, and FWIW:
We’ve lost the knack, and the role models, of being a decent human being and still doing important things. If you ask me (not that you did), a lot of it has to do with the feeling that life is so complex, competitive, and just plain fucked up that you have to be a perfect hardass to achieve anything. Where that feeling came from, or whether it exists at all, I’ll leave to the rest of you.
That said, there will still be places people prefer being chill, and places people prefer being achievers. Life will just be more extreme in either place, with less understanding for the “other side” - never mind that both sides are necessary to a well lived life.
One of the complaints I have where I live is finding a reliable contractor. I had a tree fall in my back yard and I called several people about getting it removed. Only one called back. After giving me a quote I told him to fit me in whenever was convenient, I was in no hurry, just have it done before Thanksgiving. He never showed up.
I had a snow removal guy. He stood in my driveway and signed the contract. We had a really big snow and I waited 3 days - he never showed up. I finally went out and did half of it myself, but my snowblower broke. I called him and he said he was afraid to take his plow down my driveway (the one he was standing in when he signed the contract.) He did come out, but charged me full price, even though I had done half of it myself. Two weeks later we had a light snow. It would have melted off soon enough. He came out and cleared *that *- and charged me again. I fired him after that.
I had a lawn guy who would come out every week, even if my lawn didn’t need to be cut. He came until well past Thanksgiving. I finally wrote him a check and told him that the growing season was over, stop coming.
In other words, there are bad contractors everywhere, not just Portland. (My latest lawn guy is great, and I always recommend him to anyone looking.)
How to accomplish a task in the Pacific Northwest:
Day 1: Think it might need doing.
Day 2: Review all thinking from yesterday.
Day 3: Decide task might require some kind of list.
Day 4: Find pen.
Day 5: Wait…what?
Day 6: Go to the river instead.
About contracting: the best option seems to be if you can find a small local company. Not just a sole proprietor or two guys with a truck. Our lawncare and trash are contracted to just such outfits and they are no-drama guys. They show, they do, they pick up.
Now another thing…I don’t want to single out ethan, but when I read his post, I wasn’t surprised he was from New York. I’ve spent a lot of time in that part of the world, and where Portlanders may be P-A to a fault, New Yorkers are honestly Type A to a fault. It’s considered reasonable in that culture, but if you hold out against it, it can take a lot out of you. It’s one reason I don’t live there anymore.
I’ve driven from San Antonio down I-35 on several occasions on business. You’re right: I think living in Texas makes you both homicidal and suicidal, whichever one gets you out of Texas more quickly. The first time I tried to merge way over to the left very quickly to catch the on-ramp to I-35, people aggressively sped up and closed the gap so I couldn’t get in. After that, I would just floor it and veer to the left and the waters would miraculously part, albeit with much blatting of horns. At least once you’re on the freeway, the worst thing you have to deal with is armadillos.
Doug, I totally see where you’re coming from. But I’m actually pretty laid back for a New Yorker, and it brings up something about the term “laid back” that people use on the West Coast (both NW and SoCal/Arizona).
“Laid back” is used synonymously for not caring, at all, about the way anyone around you lives their lives or affects your world.
Flake out on an appointment? Didn’t call? It’s okay, I’m laid back.
Didn’t feel like doing your job/schoolwork by the deadline? It’ll be okay, I’m laid back.
Didn’t give your first-time customers instructions on how to prepare for your appointment for laser hair removal in your brand new business? “Forgot” to put your customer’s appetizers in with the order?
I was driving to work the other day and I saw a sign on the city bus about a local grocery chain, Fred Meyer, paid for by a group of workers who clearly feel they were wronged. It read, “You shouldn’t be fired for one honest mistake!”
Depending on the mistake, sometimes you should. There’s really very little sense of personal responsibility here, and I find that completely unacceptable. Maybe we put too much on ourselves in NY, but I haven’t lived there since 1996, and I haven’t seen this attitude in Chicago, Madison, Gainesville FL, or even Houston, TX. Just the west coast.
Your first point doesn’t seem to be the case here. People really do care about how someone’s actions affect their environment and their lives. This is a very green place and is somewhere near the top in public transit (although funding is hitting it hard these days), alternative power production, and recycling efforts.
On the plus side, people are easy to talk to, polite and helpful on a day-to-day basis. People engage strangers is conversation and greet each other on the street. I’m learning, however, not to expect prompt follow-up on much of anything unless I’m willing to make repeated phonecalls.
Exactly with your counterpoint, Chefguy. I just got back from one of the Farmers’ Markets here, and I am so happy with what I have access to. Just ate the most delicious tamale of my life, and I lived in Los Angeles and Tucson for years.
For the fact that I want to kick almost everyone in the pants here, there are also some amazing things.
There are things I hate about living in Calgary, but this isn’t one of them - people do business in a business-like fashion here, and I appreciate that.
