Is Portland still Portlandia?
This week on 60 Minutes, Jon Wertheim visits Portland, Oregon, a city known for its laid back image, made famous by the show Portlandia. The show, created by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, is in its final season, which may be fitting, considering the city it satirizes doesn't really exist anymore.
Decemberists founder Colin Meloy came to the city when it was a bastion for starving artists. Meloy paid $180 per month after initially moving from Montana. Now, studio apartments average a monthly rent of $1,200.
"I think if we're at a crossroads," Meloy says, "It's, like, 'okay, now-- we're done being the cute city that everybody wants to sort of laugh about but love. What are we gonna do now?'"
The city's changes are being played out with political tensions as well. Demonstrations have attracted far-right protesters and members of antifa. And in May, police say a white nationalist stabbed two people to death on a light rail train after they came to the defense of two African-American women being harrassed.
"I think that there are cracks in that sort of facade of-- of cute and precious Portland." Meloy says, "And there-- there is a lot of people sort of frustrated and angry in the city, as there are in any city."