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Thank you SO much for the fantastic inputs esp. on figuring out places in proximity to grocery stores. I will definitely check out the Westmoreland complex which sounds just perfect for me..do hope they have an opening. Thanks for the Padmapper tip, had not heard of that one..
Prefer to be far away from the undergrad lot-as I will be teaching and working on my doctorate so need a lot of quiet time when I get home..
We are looking to move to the Eugene area from Trinity, Fla. I posted to Craigslist to ask people from the area their options. I received several negative comments telling me to stay in FL they don't need anymore transplants. I appreciate that you made the move then put your thoughts on it here for others like myself. My husband really will move there without even scouting it first. I myself need to be sure I will like the area and be happy to live there the rest of my life because I am not moving again!
I would like to know how most deal with the drizzly winters and if there is nice dining in the area and fast food places for my daughter? What about shopping areas or grocery stores? When we first moved here is was very isolated and now it has built up so much and still building.Pretty soon I will be living in a major city like down town Tampa! We would like an area that is not so built up but have a decent accent to shopping and dining areas.
We are looking to move to the Eugene area from Trinity, Fla. I posted to Craigslist to ask people from the area their options. I received several negative comments telling me to stay in FL they don't need anymore transplants. I appreciate that you made the move then put your thoughts on it here for others like myself. My husband really will move there without even scouting it first. I myself need to be sure I will like the area and be happy to live there the rest of my life because I am not moving again!
I would like to know how most deal with the drizzly winters and if there is nice dining in the area and fast food places for my daughter? What about shopping areas or grocery stores? When we first moved here is was very isolated and now it has built up so much and still building.Pretty soon I will be living in a major city like down town Tampa! We would like an area that is not so built up but have a decent accent to shopping and dining areas.
Craigslist has an unhelpful, sociopathic community; I'm shocked by the site's popularity. I just moved from the northeast to Eugene myself, as of this writing, and will probably write about it after I have a bigger sample size of experience.
Of course it has grocery stores and fast food. If that and "not built up" is what you seek, why not move to a small town somewhere?
This seems like a rude response. Eugene is not built up. I'm from Portland & Portland is built up. For a city its size Eugene feels very much like a small town environment. Check it out. It's worth it. I now live in San Francisco simply because I can't handle the gloomy winters that I grew up in.
This seems like a rude response. Eugene is not built up. I'm from Portland & Portland is built up. For a city its size Eugene feels very much like a small town environment. Check it out. It's worth it. I now live in San Francisco simply because I can't handle the gloomy winters that I grew up in.
Eugene is more densely populated than Trinity, FL. It isn't a massive city, but it isn't a small town either. The previous poster was unhappy with the level of development in their community. There are a lot less developed places than Eugene that still feature grocery stores and fast food joints.
My family relocated to Eugene in February 2015. We'd never lived anywhere west of the Mississippi, and before moving here, I spent a lot of time reading this forum, absorbing all the information I could.
Now that 10 months have passed, I thought I'd post up with my impressions of Eugene. I wanted to address a few oft-stated things about Eugene in the hopes that my experience might be valuable to anyone else moving here.
First, 3 things I read much about here before arriving—and my thoughts about each after 10 months:
1. The Weather: compared with West Virginia (and Mid-Atlantic weather generally) Eugene weather is mild. It's warmer in the winter, and cooler/far less humid in the summer. When I arrived in February, I braced myself for nonstop rain for months. I genuinely thought I wouldn't see the sun for months. Well, the entire month of February was sunny and beautiful, with temps in the 50s and 60s! Many locals have told me "February is usually nice," and March and April were, in fact, cloudier and rainier. But I quickly learned another truth about weather here: it can change very rapidly. It's not unusual for there to be 4-6 hours of daylight with rain, and 4-6 hours (on the same day) with sunshine—all mixed up.
Summers in Eugene are glorious: sunny and dry every day. I'd heard this before coming here, and it's true. In fact, there is so little rain during the summers that by August, I found myself really hoping for a shower (our yard had gotten miserably dry and half-dead-looking, because we don't believe in using water just to keep a lawn looking beautiful). This past summer was also very hot at times, with temps in the 90s (hot, but still nowhere as miserable as typical East Coast summer days where it feels like 100 degrees in a rain forest because of humidity).
One wonderful thing I found about living here (which is probably true throughout the PNW): people just ignore the rain. I can't say how many days it was pouring rain, and I'd see kids out on the playground at school, soccer games still happening, people out playing bocce ball and walking their dogs, and people commuting on their bicycles. I found this incredibly uplifting. Back east, everyone acts like they'll melt in the rain—activities are canceled and everyone flees indoors. Here, people just go about their lives. I love this!
--- 2. The Homeless: before coming here, I read many, many threads here about all the homeless people around Eugene. What I found is that it does seem as though there are many homeless people here. But I also suspect they are simply more visible than on the east coast, where they are far less tolerated. In Eugene—like the rain—people ignore the homeless for the most part. You see them everywhere—in the parks, on streetcorners, hanging out downtown. But I've found them to be 100% harmless. Never once have I had an encounter with a homeless person that I'd even remotely describe as threatening or worrisome.
There are two obvious "classes" of homeless (and yes, I'm oversimplifying): those who are genuinely homeless and struggling to get by (who tend to be older, but not always)...and young teens and 20-somethings, who sometimes describe themselves as "travelers." These kids, while often looking bedraggled, hardly ever appear as though they're starving, and strike many here as people who have simply made the lifestyle choice to "check out" and "not work for The Man." (One friend calls them "HBC's," or Homeless By Choice.")
The homeless are an ongoing source of low-level debate in Eugene (for example, there is much discussion about whether they should be tolerated downtown, where they're always seen hanging out in groups on the sidewalk and other public areas, though these tend to be more of the young "travelers"). But I've found them to be a part of the local landscape that after a while, you don't even really notice much.
--- 3. Bicycle Theft: I also read many threads about bicycle theft. In short, after 10 months, I haven't found this to be an issue at all—and I often commute to work by bicycle. Bicycling in Eugene is huge—far more people commute daily by bike here than any place I've ever seen on the East Coast. Bikes are everywhere, and Eugene has an excellent system of bike paths and bike lanes along the streets. Everyone who bikes (that I've seen) uses U-locks, including me. And they seem to work fine.
While I certainly wouldn't say no bikes have been stolen in Eugene over the past 10 months (I have no idea), I can say that reading many of the threads here, I was expecting to arrive and find bike racks sawed through, bikes with missing wheels and seats, and everyone carrying their bikes into their offices and chaining them to their desk chairs! I've found it to be no worse than cycling in any metropolitan area nationwide.
In short, in my experience here, the bike theft thing is grossly exaggerated. Use a good bike lock (like everyone in urban areas does nationwide) and you'll be fine.
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Here are a few other random observations from 10 months' experience:
• Cost of Living: Eugene is an expensive place in my opinion, but this may be because I came from West Virginia. There, we owned an 1800sf, modern, custom-built home on a beautiful 1-acre lot. We sold it for $160,000, and that amount won't even begin to buy a similar home in Eugene. Not even close. We'd be looking at spending $350,000 minimum for the exact same house. So to us, Eugene is expensive!
We are currently renting. I looked long and hard to find our rental home. It's an old home (1960's split-level) in a nice neighborhood in the South Hills, and it's very big (2400sf with a 2-car garage). We pay $1400/mo, and that's a VERY good deal for the size home and the neighborhood. (Most similar rental homes go for $1800-2200/mo.)
We have found groceries to be VERY expensive at the healthy grocery stores—of which there are many in Eugene (examples: Market of Choice, Sundance Market, Capella Market, the Kiva). Thankfully though, groceries are reasonable at Albertson's and Safeway, which is where we shop now most of the time.
• Neighborhoods: The entire Eugene/Springfield metropolitan area is big. It's highly likely that if you moved here, you'll never even see most neighborhoods in the urban area. That's simply because you'll concentrate your housing search in certain areas (depending on where you work), and you'll live and recreate in those areas too. We live in Southern Eugene, and in 10 months, I've barely ever set foot in the northern half of the city. Not because I don't want to go there, I just don't have any reason to.
I love topography and wanted to live in the hills, which is why we ended up in Southern Eugene (which is hilly). The central and northern parts of the city are flat. I also work at the University of Oregon, so my life is generally oriented around that part of the city.
The one observation I can offer is that I've yet to see any neighborhoods in Eugene that are obviously "bad." Even the Whiteaker neighborhood (which some here describe as sketchy) is harmless compared with many big-city neighborhoods back east. Eugene is a place where things change quickly from block to block. You often see ramshackle, run-down homes with yards full of junk right next to beautifully-maintained, nice houses. (Not everywhere, but in many places.) There are definitely neighborhoods that are obviously upper-class (every house is beautiful and costs > $500,000)...but you'll often see tiny, run-down homes very close to the really nice ones.
In general, I haven't noticed anywhere near the level of stratification that are common in comparably-sized cities back east. Eugene looks to me like a mish-mash. Which means you can find nice housing almost anywhere.
The other thing I found really wonderful about Eugene is that there is no dominant architectural style. Back east, cookie-cutter, developer-built homes are everywhere (and I hated them). I've seen almost none of that here (at least not in the southern half of the city). The architecture might best be described as "individualistic." Every house is different from the ones on either side almost everywhere you go. It's common to see an arts-and-crafts-style bungalow right next to an ultra-modern geometric home right next to a typical 1960's brick-and-wood split-level home. In certain areas you'll see more of one than the other, but it's nothing like the "every house is exactly the same" of residential subdivisions back east.
• Outdoor Recreation - I'm a huge outdoor recreation fan, and I've found Eugene to be a mixed bag in this regard. There are many wonderful parks throughout the city, miles of paved bike paths, and lots of places to just get out and walk, play with the kids, etc. Amazon Park is great, and the paved bike/walking paths along either side of the Willamette River are fantastic (one of our favorite family bike rides on nice days is to ride a few miles down one bank of the river, cross to the other bank and ride back up).
There are also some fantastic hiking opportunities right on the edge of town—notably the Ridgeline Trail System, Baldy Peak, Mt. Pisgah, and Spencer Butte. The views from the tops of Mt. Pisgah and Spencer Butte will blow you away the first time—guaranteed! And it's remarkable that you can be 15 minutes from downtown and feel like you're in an old-growth, Pacific Northwest wilderness.
On the other hand, I'm an avid mountain biker, snowboarder, and flyfisherman—and I've been a bit disappointed at how far away the really excellent places are to do those things are. Don't get me wrong: Eugene is in a fantastic location geographically—equidistant from the coast and the Cascades. But to actually get to the coast or the Cascades is pretty much an all-day commitment. Living in Eugene, you can't leave work at 5pm and do a quick mountain bike ride on the McKenzie River Trail—that's a "weekend only" thing requiring at least 3 hours of round-trip driving.
This is probably a silly nit to pick, and likely reflects my naive belief (before coming here) that towering Cascade volcanoes and spectacular Pacific coasts were just on either side of town. They aren't. But that doesn't diminish the fact that some of the most spectacular scenery on earth is an easy weekend drive away.
And there is a HUGE outdoor community in Eugene—tons of people who are hardcore whitewater paddlers, fishermen, climbers, mountain bikers, etc.
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Okay, that's about it for what I wanted to post. If anyone planning to move here has questions, feel free to post up below and I'll try to check this thread over the next few days/weeks!
Scott
We relocated from northern Kentucky to Eugene in 2015, Scott. Your whole post is spot-on...I agree with every sentiment and should be considered a fair primer for those coming here from the Midwest or East.
Those "inexpensive" grocery stores you mentioned are not cheap at all. Go and discover WinCo and the Grocery Outlet. And about the dry Summers, it's July 8th and it's been raining steadily all night.
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