It's time to wait for the Port of Portland

I have completed my application for the Port of Portland internship and will submit it shortly before the deadline later this afternoon. I am delaying in case the HR rep I spoke to gives me further information on who I should address the cover letter to.

Strangely enough I am not as excited about it as I thought I would have been. This may partly a defense mechanism on my behalf to keep a rejection from stinging like those that I received in June. It may also because I like what I am doing in Bend so much. At one point I had thought that I wouldn't like working at the local level in the city environment, but I am in fact enjoying the variety of things that have to be tackled. The environment is very dynamic and Damian told me he's never been bored there. The Port of Portland would be a bit different likely with less political intrigue and much more stability. My sense of the Port is only from the short time I was there getting a tour from my mentor, so I am aware that there's a good sense that working or interning there might be different than my initial impression.

I think a lot of what I have liked so far with being at the City of Bend is the culture of the office. The Long Range division is small and since everybody there knows what they are doing, the manager is very hands off. In terms of the political spectrum, it also seems like a good fit for me. They all have reasonably progressive values, but are not to the extreme like some in Portland can be. I also mentioned to Damian how I was taken aback at one of my professor's completely dismissive attitude towards any place that wasn't Portland and he actually was able to guess who it was. I am glad that I am not the only person that didn't think he was being a little pompous when making sweeping statements like he has.

I also have a much better sense of how the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) which is a state agency, interacts with the city. It sounds like the pendulum has swung a little too far in the direction of state rather than local control with some members of DLCD wanting to make all the other cities more like Portland. When I asked the staff in Bend if their frustrations meant that working for DLCD would be a bad gig, they insisted that it actually wouldn't be since a person's professional reputation is separate from the agency they work for. Plus, they believe that DLCD is in a transitional phase and that it will eventually resort back to its intended role of provided guidance rather than dictation to cities.