I absolutely love this. We need more efforts like this not only because it’s a cool and creative project but because it draws out the collective voice of our neighborhoods.

…and, yes, Matt did put my name up there…gotta love good friends.

It’s so important that we not only look to highlight what we value about our neighborhoods (rather than always identifying what needs to be fixed) but it’s crucial that we find more and more ways to draw out our neighbors voices. This is especially true in Vancouver where we have a major image problem. Our danger is to understand ourselves only in relationship to who we are not. In opposition to Portland’s mantra you often see bumper stickers that say “Keep Vancouver Normal”. We’re better than Camas and Battle Ground, but we’re still just the bastard child (suburb) of Portland.

Who are we?

Some people dream that downtown Vancouver might one day be Portland’s second ‘pearl district‘ which once again just says that we don’t know who we are apart from other cities! We live in a city whose name is overshadowed by our northern neighbors, in a county more well known by our gambling friends down south, in a state more well known as our nations capital!

Who are we?

On the east and north ends of the city you’ll find big box stores and sprawling suburbs. Downtown you’ll find lots of old empty churches, meth heads, and beautifully quaint neighborhoods.

Who are we?

It’s time we decided. And it starts with presence. Like those maps at shopping malls it starts with finding the arrow that says “you are here now” because unless we’re willing to pause long enough to value where we’re at–right now–we’ll never be present enough to move forward anywhere else with purpose, intentionality, and creativity.

So maybe a better question to start with is not “who are we?” but “where are we?” and once we’re willing to answer that question with some pride and awareness then we’ll have the wherewithal to look around and identify what we love about our developing city, it’s neighborhoods, its history, and most importantly each other.