Nicknames of Portland, Oregon

[5] The nickname grew in popularity after the exposition, where Mayor Harry Lane suggested that the city needed a "festival of roses.

Today, roses are still planted outside the Standard Insurance Company's home office building in downtown Portland.

The "City of Roses" nickname inspired the name for the four-year-old female Asian elephant who arrived in 1953, Rosy.

On August 23, 2008, her granddaughter Rose-Tu (the surviving twin) gave birth to Samudra, the first third-generation elephant born in the United States.

[12] The term was coined by the team's play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on February 18, 1971, the Blazers' first season.

[13] In the days prior to the three-point field goal, Blazers guard Jim Barnett took an ill-advised long-distance shot that nonetheless went in, giving the new team hope for a victory against the powerful Lakers.

[citation needed] Although licensed in adjacent Vancouver, WA, KPDX-TV's call letter reflect this nickname.

It reads, "On the Pacific coast, Portland occupies the same relative position as that of Brooklyn on the Atlantic seaboard and might well be called "a city of churches"...Wherever the stranger wanders here he will see steeples pointing heavenward, in the very midst of one of the most pleasing landscapes in all the world, embracing, as it does the comprehensive view of river and vale, hill and mountain, farm and fruit orchard, city and country—all combined.

[19] Staffers of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush used to refer to Portland as Little Beirut because of the protesters he encountered during his visits.