So, I lived in Portland from 2007-2012. I don't like it. It's fun for a weekend, but after that it's the same as anywhere else. It's also going through a housing/rent crisis, where so many people have moved there that the gentrification issue got out of control and now rents are comparable to, say, San Francisco or Seattle.
IF you can buy a house, or IF you have a job offer in hand, it might be worth it - for a lot of people, it's a great place. It's a big city with a small town feel, you can find a lot of neighborhoods where you don't have to leave a 4-block area if you don't want to, and I'll give it credit for its thriving (but insular) arts/music scene. It's also conveniently located a handy distance from a lot of beautiful nature areas - a little over an hour to the coast, right along the Columbia Gorge, close to Mt. Hood, etc.
I... have a hard time explaining the place without sounding bitter, I think. Or curmudgeonly. It's almost like a Neverneverland for middle class white people. It's homogeneous. People are very friendly - Oregonians in general are very nice and welcoming and truly interested in other people. But it's boring because so many people are the exact same.
And I know that might be judgmental, but I remember Portland back when it was not so homogeneous, and was truly weird - before the Pearl was the Pearl, before Chinatown was a cluster of boutiques and handmade crafty shops, and it was so much more interesting back then.
I'm a little tipsy so maybe shouldn't even be commenting without thinking through it more, but I'd weigh it out a little. I moved away from Portland because, and this might sound weird, I didn't LIKE the fact that 99% of the people on the bus were white. I didn't like that recent transplants made kneejerk fun of Gresham and other outlying suburbs, where the minorities live because gentrification pushed them out of the city itself. I highly encourage any cool-seeming people to move to Oregon, actually, but Portland is not the most interesting, fun, or enticing place here.
All that said, if you do have a job offer, move here because you seem cool!
Still lots of urban nature, and jobs seem findable. Dog-friendly. Trees. I think you'd like a lot about it.
Main drawbacks are skyrocketing housing prices and associated housing construction that's changing neighborhood feel, and worsening traffic congestion. (Bike/walk/transit's not bad but there's still noisy cars all over the place clogging up everything.)
The weather is better than most people think, once you understand the patterns. (cloudy doesn't always mean rain, intermittent rain doesn't mean constant rain, clouds often burn off later in the day.)
I've been in Oregon for 12 years (from Oklahoma), and in Portland for 8. I love it here, but sometimes I hate it, but then I think about it in comparison to other places and it feels like complaining about having TOO MUCH of a good thing. Yes, it feels precious sometimes - there are parts of the city, or shops or restaurants where you walk in and immediately feel as thought you're in a magazine shoot: All weathered wood and steel and people in consciously ironic hats with their hair hanging in their face.
But the people are absolutely lovely, and the heart of Portland is there as well, and that's the reason I stay, in spite of the unbelievable housing crisis the city is in right now. That's not hyperbole, either. I think Boston already went through something similar, so this is probably not a new thing to you, and I do believe that housing prices in Boston are still higher than they are here.
I won't buy a house here, that is for sure. (Unless I somehow come into a trust fund. I guess I would consider buying a house in the suburbs, but only as a last resort.) I'm not sure I'll stay here forever, but for now it is a good place for me.
If you don't have a job lined up already, I think it's very very risky. And if you're not prepared to pay pretty biggish bucks to live in the city limits, there will be some commuting that has to be done. Luckily, we have a great transit system, and it breaks down nowhere near as much as y'all's does.
The weather is amazing, and the outdoor opportunities are immense. We have a massive urban forest, and the city is green in every way. We're about an hour from the coast, from the mountains, from beautiful waterfalls. That's a huge selling point for me, personally.
It just all depends. I'd love yo have you guys out here, but I'm totally selfish in saying that - Portland isn't a city where you can just go and start over from nothing like it used to be. I feel so thankful and fortunate that it still was when I got here (with no job and no home and no money).
There's a comedy show about Portland Oregon. It makes my brain bleed.
I think you have to do a lot of drugs just to cope with the A**h***s there. I might have that backwards or something though because I don't know the States.
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IF you can buy a house, or IF you have a job offer in hand, it might be worth it - for a lot of people, it's a great place. It's a big city with a small town feel, you can find a lot of neighborhoods where you don't have to leave a 4-block area if you don't want to, and I'll give it credit for its thriving (but insular) arts/music scene. It's also conveniently located a handy distance from a lot of beautiful nature areas - a little over an hour to the coast, right along the Columbia Gorge, close to Mt. Hood, etc.
I... have a hard time explaining the place without sounding bitter, I think. Or curmudgeonly. It's almost like a Neverneverland for middle class white people. It's homogeneous. People are very friendly - Oregonians in general are very nice and welcoming and truly interested in other people. But it's boring because so many people are the exact same.
And I know that might be judgmental, but I remember Portland back when it was not so homogeneous, and was truly weird - before the Pearl was the Pearl, before Chinatown was a cluster of boutiques and handmade crafty shops, and it was so much more interesting back then.
I'm a little tipsy so maybe shouldn't even be commenting without thinking through it more, but I'd weigh it out a little. I moved away from Portland because, and this might sound weird, I didn't LIKE the fact that 99% of the people on the bus were white. I didn't like that recent transplants made kneejerk fun of Gresham and other outlying suburbs, where the minorities live because gentrification pushed them out of the city itself. I highly encourage any cool-seeming people to move to Oregon, actually, but Portland is not the most interesting, fun, or enticing place here.
All that said, if you do have a job offer, move here because you seem cool!
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Main drawbacks are skyrocketing housing prices and associated housing construction that's changing neighborhood feel, and worsening traffic congestion. (Bike/walk/transit's not bad but there's still noisy cars all over the place clogging up everything.)
The weather is better than most people think, once you understand the patterns. (cloudy doesn't always mean rain, intermittent rain doesn't mean constant rain, clouds often burn off later in the day.)
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But the people are absolutely lovely, and the heart of Portland is there as well, and that's the reason I stay, in spite of the unbelievable housing crisis the city is in right now. That's not hyperbole, either. I think Boston already went through something similar, so this is probably not a new thing to you, and I do believe that housing prices in Boston are still higher than they are here.
I won't buy a house here, that is for sure. (Unless I somehow come into a trust fund. I guess I would consider buying a house in the suburbs, but only as a last resort.) I'm not sure I'll stay here forever, but for now it is a good place for me.
If you don't have a job lined up already, I think it's very very risky. And if you're not prepared to pay pretty biggish bucks to live in the city limits, there will be some commuting that has to be done. Luckily, we have a great transit system, and it breaks down nowhere near as much as y'all's does.
The weather is amazing, and the outdoor opportunities are immense. We have a massive urban forest, and the city is green in every way. We're about an hour from the coast, from the mountains, from beautiful waterfalls. That's a huge selling point for me, personally.
It just all depends. I'd love yo have you guys out here, but I'm totally selfish in saying that - Portland isn't a city where you can just go and start over from nothing like it used to be. I feel so thankful and fortunate that it still was when I got here (with no job and no home and no money).
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I think you have to do a lot of drugs just to cope with the A**h***s there. I might have that backwards or something though because I don't know the States.
It's like overthere right?
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PDX is a bit gray/rainy for me, but after NE winters, that'd be a snap for you and the family.
Good luck whichever way you go.