Can Residents Locate Multnomah County on an Oregon Map?

No.

Looking for Multnomah County. (Zave Payne)
By Aaron Mesh and Zave Payne

You are here.

Three simple words, but freighted with meaning. What is the Fourth of July, after all, but an occasion to remind ourselves where we live and why we cherish it? Perhaps, in a way, all human expression is an attempt to locate ourselves in the universe, to seek some nod of acknowledgement that we existed.

Also, without those words on a map, most people would get lost in the mall.

That was the lesson from the latest installment of Hot Mic, our touring civics quiz. Our host, Reed College filmmaker Zave Payne, hung a map of Oregon in Pioneer Courthouse Square and asked passersby to locate Multnomah County. (Hint: Portland is in Multnomah County.)

It’s harder than it looks.

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