Is Portland a good city to live in?

[rockydem]

[AllegroRondo]

1. Which one - Oregon or Maine?

[rockydem]

3. Oregon

[pa28]

2. It's a well kept secret.

They are not afraid to invest in big projects that improve the quality of life. It's got a creative side too.

I think you could do worse.

[Viktor Runeberg]

4. Popular with the homeless

... at least it used to be. Haven't been there in a few years.

However, has a good, well-used light rail system, free wireless Internet through part of downtown, zoning to force new housing into the city center rather than suburban sprawl - also successful....

[Katherine2]

5. I'm planning on moving there

when my son graduates from high school in June, 2006. I love it there. It's got everything anyone could need, but it's not too big of a city. It's got all kinds of outdoor activities, and it's a little offbeat, in a good way. There's a really good book about the little known strange things in Portland, called "Fugitives and Refugees" by Chuck Pahlanuik (sp).

[ArmchairActivist]

6. Please do not relocate to the PNW

It's oppressively rainy, pretty much all the time.
The people are self-absorbed, to the point of near-rudeness.
It seems like nobody knows how to drive.
Real estate market is absurd.
Unemployment always higher than national average.
Pavement spreading like disease into all the good, green places.

Move along, nothing to see here. Blossom where you're planted.

-AA

[oneold1-4u]

7. Pay no attention---

Join the state with the highest % of voter ballots returned and the one that was the closest to defeating anti equality marriage law!
It's a state you can be proud to be a part of when freedom from anarchy ever returns.

[naryaquid]

12. ...I'm considering an eventual move to Portland as well...

..I'm an SF Bay area person (currently in Chicago) who is considering Portland as a less-expensive alternative (please don't take this as a "dis" to Portland)...not saying Portland is lesser than SF, just that I have many wonderful memories of living there BEFORE it became cost-prohibitive.
..What is the climate like?..four season or closer to "moderate" like the Bay area?

Thanks.

[HuckleB]

13. Closer to "moderate," with a much longer summer than the Bay Area.

[Buck Rabbit]

14. "The coldest winter I ever spent was one summer in San Fransico"

Mark Twain

[tmooses]

15. I'm a life long Bay Area Born and Raised that has moved to Oregon..

I don't live in Portland but live in Corvallis-a college town of about 50,000 about an hour and a half's drive from Portland. I believe the weather is similar in Portland as it is in Corvallis with minor variations so let me give you my take on the Bay Area versus Portland weather. I grew up in Marin and find the summer's pretty similar, but very different than SF. Portland has a bit higher humidity and summer will have more consecutive warm days than you will find in the Bay where the fog inevitably rolls in after a couple of hot days. I moved up here late 2003 just in time for some pretty heavy (but rare) snow
which blanketed the valley floor. The biggest atmospheric change is in the skies here-very dramatic with constant changes and very beautiful
sunrises and sunsets. It may be just me, but cloud formations just seem very different than I recall living in the Bay. I was surprised when I found the annual rain totals in Portland or Corvallis are about the same or even less than occur in Marin. I couldn't figure that one out until I was here for a year or so and now I think it might be because the rains don't seem so intense (downpour-wise) as I remember in Marin.
Many days that have rain here also have sunshine and there are days of light rain which doesn't really stop you from doing anything.

I have made a few trips to Portland and my wife has relatives there
and have really enjoyed my visits there. There are areas in Portland that remind me of 24th St or Union St. in SF-but maybe that's everywhere. I get lost in Portland everytime I drive there but I'm sure that I got lost in SF when I first moved there in the 70's- but that period does not seem particularly clear to me. Anyway hope this helps you a bit and good luck!

[grasswire]

16. argh!!!

Don't be insulted, but the statements in your post infuriate Oregonians.

Don't you know that Oregon's cost of living was quite reasonable before Californians fled the state they themselves trashed? They came north, driving up our housing costs and diluting our cultural identity.

Right now it's 31 degrees in Portland, with ice in the morning. In San Francisco it's 52.

Oregon has the highest hunger rate in the country, and the highest unemployment.

The natives are not particularly welcoming, either.

[SuffragetteSal]

17. reply to grasswire

what the heck is 'they came north...diluting our cultural identity"...
What by chance cultural identity are you talking about?

and yes you have proved yourself not one of thoese welcoming types. Change happens, people move around, that is our right and one of the reasons America is such a great nation.

[HuckleB]

18. LOL!

Some Oregonians do love to see what kind of reaction they can get with this routine. That's for sure.

[0rganism]

19. "I'm not from here, I just live here"

As an immigrant-turned-resident myself, this post reminds me of a song by James McMurtry, from the Too Long in the Wasteland album...

I'm Not From Here

I'm not from here
I just live here
grew up somewhere far away
came here thinking I'd never stay long
I'd be going back soon someday

it's been a few years
since I got here
seen 'em come and I've seen 'em go
crowds assemble, they hang out awhile
then they melt away like an early snow

on to some bright future somewhere
down the road to points unknown
sending postcards when they get there
wherever it is they think they're goin'

I'm not from here
I just live here
can't see that it matters much
I read the papers and I watch the nightly news
who's to say I'm out of touch

nobody's from here
most of us just live here
locals long since moved away
sold their played-out farms for parking lots
went off looking for a better way

on to some bright future somewhere
better times on down the road
wonder if they ever got there
wherever it was they thought they'd go

hit my home town
a couple years back
hard to say just how it felt
but it looked like so many towns I might've been through
on my way to somewhere else

I'm not from here
but people tell me
it's not like it used to be
they say I should have been here
back about ten years
before it got ruined by folks like me

we can't help it
we just keep moving
it's been that way since long ago
since the stone age, chasing the great herds
we mostly go where we have to go

on to some bright future somewhere
down the road to points unknown
sending post cards when we get there
wherever it is we think we'll go 

[seasiren]

8. Hey, don't I recognize you as a member of the Lesser Seattle Society?

When I lived in Seattle, the Lesser Seattle Society worked hard to keep people from emmigrating... encouraging locals to only invite friends & relatives during the rainy season, to vigorously discuss all the negatives of life in the Northwest, and most assuredly to encourage everyone to GO HOME when their vacations were over.

I didn't realize the group had expanded membership to include Portland! Now that I've relocated here, I'll have to drop in on a monthly meeting from time to time!

I would like to warn prospective residents of Portland that it does indeed rain a lot here and it's cloudy even more often (very few sunny days each year unless you live on the eastern and central desert sides of the state). But because of all that, as my father observed while visiting, "Everything sure is GREEN here!" Somehow he made it sound like a not so good thing, but all things considered, it is beautiful with lots of quality of life elements you'll enjoy (fishing, wind surfing, skiing, hiking, camping, etc.). My Swedish husband can't get enough of it.

Having said that, I do have a SERIOUS warning. Don't come if you don't already have a job lined up. Even in good times it's hard to find decent work here (well, there is always Wal-Mart, but...). Since 2001 work is nearly impossible to find. There are literally 200 applicants for every crappy job that opens up. Even temp agencies are extremely picky and pay much less than anywhere else I have ever lived ($8-12/hr) and benefits are becoming a serious rarity. I don't want to seem negative... I love it here and do not want to live anywhere else. I just want to warn you that it is tough to get established here.

Good luck!

[cliss]

9. he heh

I've been in Portland for a long time. Every once in a while, I forget that the rest of the country does not live like the rest of us.

After about 1 week, though, I miss the place terribly. Even Hawaii can't compete. The Columbia Gorge, the coast which must be seen to be believed....

Beautiful.

[naryaquid]

11. ...In America, we often get to "plant" ourselves!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. Ex-Portlander

I left because it didn't work for me on a personal level anymore, but I miss the following things:

1. The transit system. Minneapolis brags about buses that run three times an hour. Yeah, I'm real impressed--NOT.

2. The scenery. I used to be able to see Mt. St. Helen's out my kitchen window.

3. The long spring blooming season: heather, plum blossoms, camellias, azaleas, rhododendrons, and roses. Portland is amazing in about late March, early April.

4. The compact, walkable downtown that stays alive at all hours. I was amused and intrigued by the fact that young Portlanders still come downtown to cruise.

5. Voting by mail.

I don't miss

1. The high housing prices and rents. Here in Minneapolis, I'm paying the same for a spacious 2-BR apartment in an urban village type neighborhood that I would be paying for my old 500 sq. ft. apartment in Portland.

2. The unemployment rate. I was self-employed, but I had friends who were getting pretty desperate for work.

3. The fact that, despite Oregon being one of the most secularized states in the country, the majority of the people who are religious seem to be absolutely off the charts nuts.

4. Libertarian-leaning Republicanites dominating the state legislature.

5. Paid petition gatherers. The initiative system sounds good on paper, but in practice, a) it is dominated by crackpot right-wing millionaires who pay petition gatherers to gather signatures by any means necessary, and b) the initiatives often force unfunded mandates on the state.

6. The "whatever" attitude, which seems less common here