Run by two brothers,
Luc Lac Vietnamese
Kitchen serves up
favorites such as pho
and banh mi alongside
creative cocktails in
downtown Portland.LIKE A LOCAL
PORTLAND
Visiting Portland,
Oregon, is a little
like taking a master
class in sustainability.
Everywhere you turn,
it seems there’s a recy-
cling bin, a bike-share
rack, or a community
garden. Whatever the
metric—tree cover,
renewable energy use,
percentage of bike
commuters—Oregon’s
largest city always
comes out at or near
the top of the list.
The city’s green-is-
good mindset was
codified in 1980 by an
Urban Growth Bound-
ary established to keep
sprawl in check. Today,
residents revel in 385miles of bike-friendly
roads and paths, more
than a dozen farmers
markets, and a host
of LEED-certified
buildings. It’s all served
with a heaping helping
of Portlandia-style
eccentricity, of course:
don’t miss the vegan
shoe stores and seed-
to-table restaurants.
With a pledge to use
100 percent clean
energy by 2050 and
plans afoot to link to
Seattle and Vancouver
by high-speed rail,
Stumptown’s future is
looking even smarter.
—Julian Smith