Portland is Literate - Sometimes.

Portland has, for the second time, been included in the top ten on a nationwide survey of "Most Literate Cities."

This survey of the "Ten Most Literate Cities" was made for the years 2004-2008. The procedure was designed and conducted by Dr. John W. Miller.

The survey relates only to cities with populations in excess of 250, 000 (There appear to have been 71 US cities of that size in 2008.) The survey method considers several research categories relative to the number of people living in the city. The categories are : number of bookstores, educational attainment, internet resources, library resources, newspaper circulation and periodical publishing resources.

The cities that read themselves into the Top Ten is of interest . Over the time period surveyed, the cities that appeared in the top ten included Minneapolis, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Madison, Cincinnati, Washington DC, Denver, Boston, San Francisco, St. Paul, Atlanta, St. Louis and Portland. Seattle and Minneapolis vie, regularly, for first place. Washington, DC is a solid middle-field contender as is Denver.

In 2008 nine of the also-ran cities were in Texas. with four cities in the bottom ten. Those four were: Arlington, San Antonio, Corpus Christi and El Paso. California had ten cities among the also-rans with four in the bottom ten of the list. They were: Santa Ana, Anaheim, Bakersfield and Stockton.

Portland tied for tenth place in 2008. It was in position ten in 2006.

The Doser, of course, is convinced that Portland is not rated higher because of Powell's Book Store which counts for only one bookseller. (Except in gem-class worth, of course.)