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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Finally a fair comparison compared to previous thread comparisons with both of these cities. I prefer Portland, but I really like St. Louis a lot. St. Louis has an edge on history, urbanity, architecture, diversity with a bigger black community, and definitely a much bigger and more passionate sports scene. But for a western city Portland offers great urban amenities and I think has a bit more comprehensive mass transit coverage and probably has a higher Asian presence. Both have great food. The thing that I prefer most about Portland is its location and setting in the beautiful Northwest with the mountains and nearby Oregon Coast as opposed to the middle of the country on a muddy river. I've heard downtown St. Louis is on the rise recently though I'd venture to say downtown Portland is quite a bit more vibrant. However the last time I was in St. Louis was 2005 so it may be different now.
Last edited by Champ le monstre du lac; 06-12-2013 at 07:32 PM..
Interesting comparison. Both cities are very different but here's my 2 cents....
STL
pros: nice sized city and metro area, white castles, nemo's pizza, one of the coolest landmarks (arch), riverfront, fairly diverse, very respected colleges and universities, decent sports culture, its metro area crosses state lines(very few large cities do that),only 5 hours from Chitown, in the middle of the country making traveling in either direction easier
cons: segregated, higher crime rate than Portland, cold winters, muggy summers, flat terrain and no mountains and skiing nearby
PORTLAND
pros: great outdoor culture with skiing, hiking, biking, rafting, and other fun outdoor recreation activities, youthful population, close to the beach, close to Seattle, huge college sports fans
cons: smaller city and it does things on a much smaller scale (con for me at least since I'm a big city person), sucky NBA team, isolation from the rest of the country, not very diverse
Close one. I think I would chose Portland just because the Pacific NW location and proximity to Seattle, Vancouver BC etc gives it the edge and Downtown Portland is just quite a few notches ahead of Downtown St Louis despite StL having some really amazing urban core hoods outside of Downtown.
StL wouldn't be a terrible choice either. I think the city has more to do, a bit more culture and feels like a larger, more established city and metro. Plus, StL may not be in the most desirable part of the country, but it's a great place to live if you travel the country a lot as you can drive or fly to any part of the country easily from there. While Portland is very isolated from the rest of the country, especially anything east of Denver.
Interesting comparison. Both cities are very different but here's my 2 cents....
STL
pros: nice sized city and metro area, white castles, nemo's pizza, one of the coolest landmarks (arch), riverfront, fairly diverse, very respected colleges and universities, decent sports culture, its metro area crosses state lines(very few large cities do that),only 5 hours from Chitown, in the middle of the country making traveling in either direction easier
cons: segregated, higher crime rate than Portland, cold winters, muggy summers, flat terrain and no mountains and skiing nearby
PORTLAND
pros: great outdoor culture with skiing, hiking, biking, rafting, and other fun outdoor recreation activities, youthful population, close to the beach, close to Seattle, huge college sports fans
cons: smaller city and it does things on a much smaller scale (con for me at least since I'm a big city person), sucky NBA team, isolation from the rest of the country, not very diverse
Lol. Yeah (highlighted), that's something St. Louis has going over Portland. Unless, of course, you count the fact that Portland's metro area crosses state lines into Washington. Oh, and yeah, Portland doesn't have a riverfront, either.
And Portland's NBA team sucks, hm. How's St. Louis's doing in the standings.
As for sizes of the two cities ... let's try some facts.
Population of the city proper Portland 583,776 --- St. Louis 318,172
Population of the metro area St. Louis 2,795,794 --- Portland 2,289,800
Area of the metro area St. Louis 8458 --- Portland 6,684
Population ranking of cities over 100K Portland #28 --- St. Louis #58
Area in the city proper Portland 145.07 --- St. Louis 66.2
Population change (from 2010 - 2012) Portland +3.31% --- St. Louis -.35%
I think it's pretty clear that Portland is not a smaller city, nor does it do things on a "smaller scale."
Portland is not significanty smaller than StL, but it is smaller and it feels smaller too.
I was too lazy to look up info but true that Portland and its metro area is not much smaller than STL but St Louis has a larger metro area land area wise which is why it feels a lot bigger (to me at least) than Portland.
All the larger metro area means, is that they extended the MSD out much further in St. Louis, and included many more counties, than in Portland. The two cities, St. Louis isn't even half the size of Portland.
All the larger metro area means, is that they extended the MSD out much further in St. Louis, and included many more counties, than in Portland. The two cities, St. Louis isn't even half the size of Portland.
All the larger metro area means, is that they extended the MSD out much further in St. Louis, and included many more counties, than in Portland. The two cities, St. Louis isn't even half the size of Portland.
City population alone is useless. Metro area population is the number that really matters.
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