Take a disco nap and don’t forget to hydrate because things are getting rowdy in Portland at night, at least according to a report from The Online Betting Guide.
That website recently named Portland the second “wildest” city in the United States, which could be true though some of us wouldn’t know. Some of us go to bed before the sun goes down and wake up with the neighbor’s chickens.
What is it that makes Portland such a fun time for those who say, leave the house later than 8 p.m.? Well, the data doesn’t look awesome for us, unless you’re still young enough to make you think it makes us look awesome.
Take substance use, which features prominently here. According to The Online Betting Guide, which gathered data from City Data, County Health Rankings and The Ultimate Strip Club List, 22% of adults in Portland “heavily binge drink/drink heavily” and 21.3% of people in the city have admitted to doing cocaine while 64.2% have admitted to using cannabis.
Not great but at least we aren’t as wasted as first place wildest city Reno, where 23% of people binge drink and 22.8% of people have tried cocaine. Yes, .4% more of us will admit to cannabis though. Classic Portland.
We also appear to really excel in the strip club category, with a whopping 52 total strip clubs. That’s more strip clubs than Las Vegas (23) and Tampa (45) and only two fewer than Los Angeles. And, it is 43 more than Reno.
Why did Reno win this competition? It’s the casinos. Apparently, Portland has .48 casinos per 100,000 residents (Could that be Ilani Casino in Ridgefield?) while Reno has 7.9. But who needs casinos when there’s nearly a strip club on every corner and video poker in many bars?
At third place on this list is Traverse City in Michigan and in fourth is Las Vegas. It’s possible that while this report maintains that it is about “fun” and “parties,” possibly it is really about which cities are in most need of an intervention.
But then again, a person who takes five types of vitamins and is trying to get more fiber in her diet would say that. Go wild, Portland. I’m going to bed.
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker
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