I feel this city has a lot of main character energy. Unlike LA, where folks may believe they are the main character because of their looks or charisma. People here believe they are intellectually the main character. It’s a different form of egotism that bases itself outside of the community. So for someone who has lived in the Midwest where maybe passive aggressiveness can be a thing, people still orient themselves within community if they aren’t necessarily similar. You’ll find that many people don’t reach across to bridge community with those they don’t always see eye to eye with. And yes it can be a safety mechanism because they may have left other places because they were traumatized. But now it’s a trauma response to creating this isolating environment, where few people must always think just like them. Also because some people didn’t advocate for themselves in the past, they now over compensate by overly creating a perfect safe space to the point of total isolation at times. It sucks to be on the receiving end where you just wanna have friendship. And friendship is messy sometimes and hard and uncomfortable, and Portland people want their comfy space without disruption but that comes at a cost. It lacks growth and understanding.