Portland: A nice place for thinking about the rest of the U.S.

It’s exactly the type of locale that gets developers going, Maine’s most bustling city. Portland even beats out San Francisco in restaurants per capita, ranking numero uno nationwide in the metric of how much people like to have a good time. Beer guzzlers have their pick of breweries, too, and though the music scene needs some promotion, the rise of rent and influx of apartment complexes would seem to indicate that what’s essentially a large town could soon be even more of metropolitan hub, with all the benefits and headaches.

Portland also happens to be home base for Blueprint, giving a useful perch from which to observe other bustling locales.

Though, a caveat. Blueprint tries to eschew the types of stories with promising headlines—say, the top 10 reasons why you should go someplace or do something—that are so popular. Most often, you will find instead stories that give a behind-the-scenes, grounded portrayal, a good example in this edition being the profile of Building Abatement Demolition Company.

It would be tempting to write a story on all the development in Austin, the self-proclaimed Music Capital of the World that continues to grow in population and popularity. But the folks at Building Abatement might point out that, for all the newcomers, there must be courthouses and municipal buildings, and that many of those buildings are in need of repairs that do not eliminate their full Texas flavor. Moulding, stonework, original glass—all must be preserved while lead paint and asbestos is removed.

You might also consider the story on Hometown Heating and Air Conditioning. Based in Concord, California, the company appreciates those customers with attention to detail.

“We like to call ourselves sort of the Nordstrom of the home service industry,” says Gabby Lichtig, Hometown Heating’s marketing coordinator.

“We like to call ourselves sort of the Nordstrom of the home service industry.” – Gabby Lichtig, Hometown Heating’s marketing coordinator

Sure, sounds goofy, but have you ever complained that your air conditioner isn’t rattling? And it’s a mentality that works, with the Walnut Creek-based company growing its client base, and other companies expressing time and again that no millennial these days—no retiree, for that matter—wants to put up with subpar service or products. That may be especially true of the hyper-growth, hyper-competitive areas that keeping cropping up in Blueprint stories.

That’s certainly something that Ross Alder understands, being the president of New York City-based Alder Windows.

“A lot of times architects design as if it’s a vacuum,” he says. “We help them understand the pricing, timing and permits associated with these types of projects.” That includes the strict guidelines of NYC’s Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC), the government agency responsible for protecting buildings the city considers architecturally, historically and culturally significant, with plenty to say about windows, the likes of which are replaced by Alder’s company.

In all, if there’s a lesson, it’s “go above and beyond,” but go especially out of your way for young people in vibrant areas.

After all, Blueprint staffers, plenty of them millennials, were keen to see their hallways recently repainted. And that HVAC system… well the air conditioning is a work in progress, something the building manager has heard plenty about. No matter how much a trades person cares about his or her trade, no one cares more about the results than the person who experiences it 40-plus hours a week.

Read more here, in our latest edition.