Why has Oregon (thank God) not become as crowded as California? (Portland: appointed, transplants)

[iPwn]

I think it has to do with the fact that outside of the interior valleys such as the Willamette, Rogue and Umpqua, the climate is very snowy or extremely rainy in the winter. Also there's not a lot of good harbors on the coast, like in Washington state.

[Fiddlehead]

Yes, the weather was not so much a draw, nor have jobs been much to rave about for the last century or so. Or perhaps Oregon was just the shy, but quietly beautiful wallflower between two gorgeous and tarty sisters (CA, WA).

No matter what the reason, I love her!

[Ryant]

A agree. I didn't know that much about Oregon before I moved here. I didn't know what it looked like etc. They don't even say "Oregon" right in other places.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by iPwn

I think it has to do with the fact that outside of the interior valleys such as the Willamette, Rogue and Umpqua, the climate is very snowy or extremely rainy in the winter. Also there's not a lot of good harbors on the coast, like in Washington state.

Two reasons. You nailed the first one: the climate in the western part of the state, which is where most CA transplants would choose to live, is not exactly uplifting much of the year. Another is that, while the reality is somewhat less pronounced that is generally perceived down south, there is a streak in Oregon (and in Washington) that considers CA to symbolize everything they don't want their state to become, and a California license plate part of the vanguard.

If I could describe the Oregon mentality in one phrase (and if it's possible to generalize about a diverse state), I would describe it as "down to earth," in every sense you can apply that. The stereotypical self-obsessed, Hummer-driving, litigious, vapid, omnisexual, effete, wasteful, glitzy, stupidly smiling, HOA-loving, entitled fashion freak is in fact fairly rare even in its limited CA hotbeds (and the PNW does grow a few of its own), but it does exist. When it does come to the PNW from down south, it expects immediate deference from the benighted yokels because of its sheer California fabulosity. It learns that Oregon doesn't work that way, not in just about any corner of the state.

Like most stereotypes, there is just enough truth in this one that some people will make it icily clear to some Californians that they are welcome to go back to hell or California, not that they see much of a difference. Certainly enough Californians have returned home disappointed (after burning through six months of savings and somehow not getting hired) from the PNW to spread the perception. I think the perception has had an impact, even though it greatly overstates the reality.

[Fiddlehead]

Great post J_K_K!

I am going to steal some of your great descriptions to add some fabulosity to my next anti-Californian rant. I don't think we have been so successful in keeping them out, as that we have never been as big of a national or international draw as California. We lack the sun of California and the jobs and jaw dropping beauty and uber hipness of Seattle/Puget Sound. Californians who don't need local jobs, especially boomers, are coming here in droves, but that is not what made California the largest state in the Union.

[skinem]

Good post j_k_k.

I would add a couple more reasons...gold, geography, and the initial inhabitants.

Cal got a big jump on Oregon with the gold strike.

Much of Oregon is virtually non-farm-able. Much of the area that doesn't lend itself to farming is even too dry for much range land, thus lending itself to widely scattered ranches.

Finally, the initial inhabitants put up an heck of fight letting go of it. Much of Cal's initial inhabitants had either already been subjugated or pushed out by the Spanish who had a couple hundred-year head start on settling the state over Oregon.

[karlsch]

A better question would be: Why has (place state name here) not become as crowded as California?

The answer is easy. It’s in countless books, songs, movies, TV shows, mythology, peoples fantasies, and so on.

It’s The California Dream. California Dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UcQ...eature=related

The privileged lived on the East coast. Ordinary people, to make their dreams come true, moved to California. Quite often the dreams did come true.

It’s the weather, the ocean, the mountains, agriculture, Hollywood, etc, etc.

Some say the old Hollywood movies, which depicted an idealized America, much of it in California, created The American Dream. They were watched by hundreds of millions around the world.

The great mystery for many people is, how did the state that had so many things going for it end up in its present condition.

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by karlsch

A better question would be: Why has (place state name here) not become as crowded as California?

The answer is easy. It’s in countless books, songs, movies, TV shows, mythology, peoples fantasies, and so on.

It’s The California Dream. California Dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0UcQ...eature=related

The privileged lived on the East coast. Ordinary people, to make their dreams come true, moved to California. Quite often the dreams did come true.

It’s the weather, the ocean, the mountains, agriculture, Hollywood, etc, etc.

Some say the old Hollywood movies, which depicted an idealized America, much of it in California, created The American Dream. They were watched by hundreds of millions around the world.

The great mystery for many people is, how did the state that had so many things going for it end up in its present condition.

Nice summary, and good points. I think you might be right that California was the ticket. Tom Joad and the gang did not head to Boston!

I too wonder why if Californians are so darn smart, why is the state such a mess. And I'll be darned in they can build a nice town/city in that state. Most are absolutely wretched, flavorless places surrounded by beautiful scenery. Go figure.

[Larry Caldwell]

You can thank Senator Wayne Morse, who managed to irritate the Powers that Be in Washington so they closed almost every military base in Oregon after WWII. Morse was elected as a Republican, but was so outraged by Eisenhower selecting Richard Nixon as VP that he became an independent, and later joined the Democratic Party.

"When the Eisenhower Administration took office one of its first objectives was to riddle the tax code with favors for big business and it did so with the help of the Senator from Massachusetts. We need a candidate who will reverse the big money and big business domination of government. We need a courageous candidate who will stand up and fight the necessary political battle for the welfare of the average American. Kennedy has never been willing to do that."

All the federal blessings, and the headaches that came with them, went to California and Washington. Oregon was left with the Hermiston Ordinance Depot, and we are glad to see that last of that. Without the stimulus of defense spending, Oregon stayed rural and relatively unspoiled until Californians started fleeing their state in the 1970s.

[Deezus]

When people talk about California, I feel the instant image for much of the country is Los Angeles and the Southern California sprawl stretching almost continously from Ventura almost all the way down to the Mexican border. As someone who has family in Northern California that goes back 150 years--I can say that where most of my relatives lived north of Sacramento was for much of history much more similar to Oregon than the current image of urban California.

If you look at the current population of Oregon, it's about the size of California in the 1920s--which was the era when Los Angeles and the surrounding region really boomed and began it's transformation from a medium sized city and a region built on farming into the large crowded urban area it is today. At that point in history Los Angeles and San Francisco had about the population of Portland proper today and cities like San Jose, San Diego, and Sacramento were about the same size or smaller as the current size of a Portland suburb like Hillsboro or Beaverton. So to look at a time when California had a population level and density comparable to Oregon now, you'd be looking back over 80-90 years ago in an era prior to the age of freeways, cars, and suburban sprawl. Going back further before that, California was dominated by San Francisco the same way that Oregon is somewhat dominated by the size of the Portland metro--and most of the state was fairly rural.

But California has for most of it's history been seen as a big destination for emigration. It's economy has been built on big boom/bust industries and events---the Gold Rush, land speculation, oil, Hollywood, the defense industry, and Silicon Valley high tech. It's been pro-growth from the first 49ers who landed in San Francisco. And it's always been the most well suited to growth in the West--unlike Oregon you have several well-protected, large bays that serve as perfect harbors. While Oregon has the Willamette Valley, California has both the large Central Valley and large flat inland basins right near the Pacific that provide both excellent farmland and an easy location for large scale development. Much of California's quick growth relied on the mild warm climate of most of the state. The only thing Southern California lacked was water and that was solved by stealing from the Owens Valley and Colorado River. Oregon on the other hand has relied on timber and agriculture for much of it's history. Sure, there were small gold rushes in parts of Oregon, both nothing to compare to the madness of the Sierra Nevada during the 1850s. The Oregon Trail(and later on) attracted people looking more for quality of life than get-rich quick schemes--and it's a trend that continues on even today. So going back 150 years, much of the character of the two states was already being developed.

The problem with California is that it never really figured out a way to manage all that growth. Which is why California is in the state it's in...it's just too damn big. When it falls it falls hard. There was an article recently about how California still has one of the largest, most diverse economies in the world, however the state doesn't really need 37 million people to maintain those industries---so where do those people go now? It should have been two or three states to begin with. There are cities in Southern California only incorporated in the 1980s, that would be the second biggest city in all of Oregon.

Which is why an economically stagnant Oregon still looks like a more attractive option than much of California to many--even with the huge challenges this state currently faces, it's still much more managable on some levels than California. So California both serves as somewhat of a litmus test and precautionary tale for much of the growth of the West. Which were lessons places like Phoenix or Las Vegas failed to learn from.