In Afterthoughts: Next Stop, Portland in the latest edition of Honolulu Magazine, writer Kathryn Drury Wagner ponders why everyone is moving to Portland, Oregon.

I ran into a friend at Whole Foods the other day, who cheerfully told me she was about to relocate to Portland. Then our coworker announced he was pulling up stakes and heading for Portland. And local burlesque artist Violetta Berretta? She, too, was off to shake her tail feathers in—everybody say it with me, now—Portland.

She tracks down Randy Gragg, of Portland Monthly, for his opinion on why everyone is moving to Portland.

Though he fails to bring up the biggest reason, his explanations are relatively sound.

“It’s the golden era for Portland,” he said. “There are lot of writers, art, music and performance. There’s an extraordinary food scene.” And, he added, “It’s still the cheapest West Coast city.”

But, of course it’s not all rainbows and unicorns . . .

“Our unemployment rate is really high,” says Gragg. “We’re befuddled because people keep moving here and there’s no place to work. And, people drive really slow here. Slowly and sloppily.”

[Huh. I’ve lived in Honolulu, and I’ll take Portland’s “slowly and sloppily” over Honolulu’s furiously and insanely driving style any day.]

Read the whole article to find out the Portland’s dating scene, hipster dudes, and Proust: Afterthoughts: Next Stop, Portland.