"Affordable" and "cool" millennial places are still too expensive

[PCALMike]

Originally Posted by nep321

Nope, the data is as of 2014. But it is possible that rents increased even higher into 2015.

Do you have a link to these stats?

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by MDCB

I have a lot of respect for the wisdom you spout on these boards Minervah!

However, I don't think Portland, Seattle, SF have necessarily just been discovered. They are hot spots of cultural, academic, and industrial successes.
It is easier to find tech/marketing jobs in the above cities than it is in Cleveland for example. It would be easier to find a marketing company for marijuana in the cities listed above. Not in Cleveland or Louisville.

I have lived in Louisville and agree that there are a lot of "really cool people" there - but they have a different mindset compared to those that hail from a larger/"cooler" city like Chicago, NYC, or even Miami. I would argue that these cities have "cooler" people - whatever that definition is - but it is because of access to the amenities and exposure to more liberal laws.

I currently live in Portland, OR and appreciate the energy, public transportation, and melding of ideas. I met someone that waxed on about their job at Intel, and at the same party spoke to people in the arts, medicine, and ecology. I didn't have the same access in Louisville.
Portland isn't necessarily losing it's culture - it is just changing.


Bigger cities on the West/East Coast will continue to be the "cool" places to live and will continue to spur creative energy more so that smaller "undiscovered gems" in my opinion.

Thank you for the nice words. My comparisons of Portland are those of the days way back when it was a gritty little city a few decades ago very unpretentious and on no one's map. But was a very unique city and had a strong interest in the arts shared by all classes. Everyone from all walks of life participated in events like Artquake when the downtown streets were shut down for a weekend so artists could show their works and actors and singers could perform on an open air stage.

This was one of the many things that made Portland the wonderful quirky, interesting city it was once. It all changed as people began to move there and transform it to fit the stereotypical "cool city" definition of all the other stereotypical cool cities of today. Change can be good, some were, but it was too many and it made the city entirely different.

Were I to win a million dollar lottery tomorrow, I would not return to Portland not would I move to any city like it. Comparing it to what it was way back in the 80's I would say it's become more limited as a city in as far as being unique with just mediocre cultural offerings all at very high prices. It seems to appeal to what people are looking for today in a city so that's fine but not for me. I don't want to be in a city where the traffic, noise and overcrowding of neighborhoods is increasing. Not to mention pollution from the increasing traffic. Those are some of the reasons I moved from Chicago to Portland in the first place to get away from all that and Portland was the place to go. People who have recently moved to Portland don't know it was ever like that.

I am the first to say that Portland has improved in having in some things like its ballet and orchestra company as well as its Portland Center Stage. But its venues are sub par with poor acoustics and it cannot hold a candle to the excellent venues of Cleveland's Severance Hall. And OMSI is nothing compared to Cleveland's science, natural history and fantastic art museum. Not to mention we have a great aquarium and then there's the Rock Hall of Fame. And of course, we have the Cleveland Clinic one of the largest in the country.

So yes, "cool" is in the eye of the beholder. I watched the city of Portland and to some extent, Seattle become what was for me "uncool" over the years. The people I meet here in Cleveland are so much more open minded as well but that's another subject. So to me Cleveland is cool. Portland is hum drum. Everyone has their place and reasons for why those places are for them so it's nice that this is a big country and we all get to choose that which suits us best as to where we would like to live.