Portland–Seattle rivalry
The United States West Coast cities of Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon have a city rivalry going back over a century. According to various authors, the Portland–Seattle city rivalry is comparable to that of Charlotte and Atlanta, Cincinnati and Columbus, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, San Antonio and Austin, St. Louis and Chicago, or San Francisco and Los Angeles. Bases for competition include city sports teams, food and drink, regional economic dominance, and even preference for local volcanoes. 19th century origins Maritime trade The West Coast's economy was initially based on maritime trade, at first dominated by sailing ships with the San Francisco–East Coast trade, but then joined by Portland and Seattle as they began to develop their own regional resources and contribute to a national economic network, with "intercity rivalry on the Pacific Coast [that] mirrored rivalries that had grown between other groups of cities at earlier dates" such as Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Railroads The advent of transcontinental rail transportation completed the break from San Francisco's dominance and strengthened the economic rivalry between Portland and Seattle: The Portland Oregonian newspaper compared Seattle unfavorably to a peaceful Portland when anti-Chinese riots erupted in the 1880s. Portland prided itself as a