Portland 2028
Orecon II: Portland, OR
Endgame
Greetings from the Rose City! I am proposing my home city of Portland for the annual NPL bash in 2028. The Con hasn’t been been held in the Pacific Northwest since the last Portland Con in 2012, nor on the West Coast, home to several hundred Krewe, since 2015, so it’s our time.
Portland has a great deal to offer the Krewe. It is centrally located on the West Coast and easily accessible by ground, air, and ocean. We have a mild climate in summer, rarely reaching over 80°F, and it’s usually dry with occasional morning showers. The landscape is lush and green, due to our notorious rainy season, which generally ends by May. The region is quite diverse; we are nestled between the Coastal and Cascade Ranges, with beautiful, undeveloped beaches (by state law), the Willamette, Columbia, and Clackamas Rivers, the spectacular Columbia Gorge with its impressive waterfalls, Mounts Hood, Adams, Rainier, and St. Helens, the high desert, and the Wild West town of Pendleton. Farther afield, Seattle, Vancouver (BC), San Francisco, Las Vegas, the acclaimed Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Crater Lake are quite accessible by plane or rail. (Incidentally, our recently renovated airport consistently ranks among the nation’s best.)
We have plenty of attractions and activities to explore, such as active nightlife, lots of bookstores (including Powell’s City of Books, the largest independent bookstore in the nation, encompassing an entire city block), lots of parks and green spaces, a nationally recognized library system, some 75 escape rooms, an active LGBTQ+ community, several summer music festivals, and notable foodie, craft beer, wine, and (legal) marijuana cultures. The city is, unlike many Western cities, eminently walkable, and our public transportation system (buses, streetcars, and light rail) is highly visitor friendly.
Our political culture is tolerant and welcome; we are known (some might even say notorious) for our progressive politics.
I am currently negotiating with several hotels in and around downtown for the best deal. The city has had some undeserved negative press recently; certainly we have had our share of protests, but they have been confined to a single block around the ICE facility, miles from downtown. In any case, the bad publicity is to our benefit, as hotel rates and other prices are depressed because of it. The range of prices I am being quoted is mostly about $125 to $150 per night, even at the best hotels in town. The ones I am considering all are downtown or close to it, and feature the standard range of amenities. In addition, Portland has an excellent array of restaurants and food cart pods to choose from.
It looks like the fourth weekend in July (July 21–23) will be the optimum time for a Orecon II. I hope to gain your support for our bid. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at endgame@puzzlers.org. Thank you.