His new book, By Fiona McCann 4/30/2021 at 11:27am Willy Vlautin counts cranes. Or at least he used to, when they first started springing up across the Portland skyline. âFor a few years, there was between 10 and 15 cranes going at a single time, and at the same time in St. Johnâsâmy favorite place in the worldâI started noticing all these weird mom and pop shops start to disappear,â he says. Those that owned their buildings were selling up in the property boom, but if they were tenants, âtheir rents suddenly doubled and they got kicked out and they couldnât navigate the next level of gentrification.â