Did I say next week? Oops, I meant next month.

So what's Portland's buzz about? The immediate answer from a lot of folks no doubt would be bikes and biking. Cyclists are newsmakers and set the zeitgeist in Portland. Cycling is so prevalent in Portland that, like the hackneyed cliché about eskimos and snow, we make dozens of distinctions in the category. Anymore, it's not enough to tell someone you ride bikes. Today in Portland you say how you ride. Racers, commuters, recreational road, recreational mountain, and “fun” are all unique self-identified types of cyclist here. Further, “fun” is sub-divided into several different clubs and cliques: Shift, Zoo Bomb,  Chunk DCLXVI, Axles of Evil (bike polo), and the Sprockettes are but a few of them. Even saying your job is with cycling is not going to be specific enough in Portland. In any other town a job in cycling would mean working at a bike shop, or maybe in a big city being a messenger.. However, in Portland retail bike shops are but one part of a much larger whole. We also have jobs in manufacturing, from artisan frame builders to mass volume manufacturers; jobs in product design from clothing to soft and hard accessories; jobs in infrastructure planning; jobs in tourism and event promotion; and more.

Yet, all the last paragraph notwithstanding, and as with every interesting question, the immediate answer is usually wrong.

Portland's buzz is not about cycling. Many of us may hear “we could be doing more cycling, we should be trying harder to ride our bikes,” but that's just a manifestation of our chosen activity.

Portland's buzz is about having fun, however you chose to personally indulge it. Certainly for a lot of people, bikes are how they indulge their fun. It should be obvious I am one of those, as are most of my friends. But not all of them. So one has to think a bit broader and consider the whole city. There are a lot of hiking, camping, climbing, and boating types in Portland. Portland is also a notable foodie town. Progressives railing and rallying against one injustice after another come out every spring like robins and bees.

So what do cyclists, outdoor types, foodies, progressives, and all of the other esoteric sub-cultures rampant in Portland have in common? (In fact, Portlanders identify themselves to each other invariably in one of two ways, either by their neighborhood or by their sub-culture activity.) They are all doing their thing for fun. They do a lot of it. They  wish they could do more of it. And they feel guilty that they don't do more of it.

That my fellow reader is buzz. “You could be doing more fun, you should try harder having fun.” Of course you can hear it! It is unmistakable in “a hundred subtle ways”, from the casual dress codes wherever you go to the endless fests, festivals, and expos that dot the calendar all year long.

Indeed, the fests, festivals, and expos have gone completely over the top in Portland. We have festivals for beer, movies, music, and food. To be precise, we have multiple festivals for each, and more than a few hybrid festivals combining two themes into one fest. It has now gotten such that if there is something fun happening anywhere else, Portland will soon ape it and put one on ourselves.

Cycling is typical. In 2002 Portland hosted Bike Summer, the biggest and best Bike Summer ever. But Bike Summer is necessarily a traveling show. So Portland, not content to be potentially out-funned by some other city, put on a Mini-Bike-Summer the following year and every year since (now Pedalpalooza). When the North American Handmade Bike Show came to town, and then left as fast as it arrived, Portland decided to organize the Oregon Handmade Bike Show the following fall and every year since (now Oregon Manifest). Oh, and each year these events grow and out-do themselves from the year before. The World Naked Bike Ride that was started in Portland by a bunch of visiting Canadians is bigger here than the whole rest of the world combined. This ride has had exponential growth for 6 years. If it continues such growth a seventh year it will have some 10,000 riders! How amazing is that, I ask you?

Finally, lest anyone still think Portland, Great City, buzzes merely over bikes instead of fun, consider how the various bike sub-cultures themselves rate in the zero-sum game that is status mongering, the inescapable aspect of the human condition. Zoo Bomb, Shift, and Sprockettes rate above commuters which rate above racers. Among racers, cycle-cross rates above track which rates above road. And why does the status hierarchy measure this way? Because the buzz is driven by “fun”. If it were something like sustainability or eco-friendliness commuters would be above the goof-balls only having fun and racers would not get a mention at all.

So did you get the answer right? Tell us what you think.