Arctic Blast 2008

There is nothing like a big snow storm to remind a person the power of the weather. This is the first Christmas I will spend away from my family. After spending six hour fruitlessly waiting in a train which was delayed, because another train was frozen to the tracks, I have decided to settle down and spend Christmas in Portland.
Blanketed in snow the city has for a few days radically changed. There are very few cars on the roads, most people have chosen instead to walk. The street, instead of being dangerous dividers, have opened up into a new community space. So far I have hitched two rides downtown, I've meet and talked with more people than I would have if there had not been any snow. I strangely feel united with my Portland comrades, we are all having to change our habits to confront this change. Instead of waiting for the bus with a few drunken hobos the bus stops are filled with every Portlander, many of who have never ridden the bus before. Instead of traveling around the city I have been forced to remain close to home and discover the places around me. It has been a truly local experience. Many of the assumptions that I had made about Portland seem to have been false. People don't need cars to go everywhere, and we can use spaces in our community to benefit the community. The city is relatively quiet, instead of rushing around people seem to be taking it easy.
In a couple of days the snow will melt away and things will return to the way they were before the Arctic Blast of 2008. The most inspiring thing for me was watching how it is possible for people to change their habits and the way we see our city. While it took a snow storm for this to happen, perhaps someday we might be able to make this change happen without a storm. Seeing the city differently gave me hope that we can make a city that works for people instead of working for the sake of working.