Lowdown on Californians coming to Oregon

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by Smiled

Of course those Oregonians would be HAPPY to SELL you their house at top dollar!

And then move on to Montana and repeat the cycle, wherein the Montanans will cash out on THEIR equity and have to ditch for Alaska and then... I don't know where the Alaskans will go, but...

Seriously though, to the original poster, no one really cares anymore where the heck you're from. My parents moved up to Oregon in 1978 from Los Angeles, to a small town. They were expecting a bunch of hicks and bigots and found few, if any. Although they had expectations, they still treated everyone they met as just people and got a respectful reciprocity. It's not much different today or anywhere in that if you have a good attitude towards others, you'll get a good attitude back. You sound like you will do just fine in Oregon.

[Larry Caldwell]

Everybody in Oregon is from somewhere else. My ancestors that arrived in 1845 were from New York, the ones that came in 1846 were from Ohio, their daughter married a guy from Scotland via New Zealand, their daughter married a guy from Pennsylvania via Colorado, my mother came from Nebraska and my brother-in-law is from Connecticut. I have good friends who are members of the CoQ'il tribe, but their family names are Polish and Russian. I have another friend who is Paiute, but which state her ancestors are from is kind of vague. The Paiute only ended up at Warm Springs because the army put them there.

[ca_north]

Originally Posted by Christopher777

I would really appreciated some straightforward answers on how peopole in Oregon feel about people from California coming to live in Oregon. I have read many conflicting views. We are conservative, quiet people. We like growing our own food and being somewhat self-sufficient. We like being resourceful and not wasteful. We are looking at the Salem area. I had relatives that lived in Stayton for many years. Great place. I am drawn to the agricultural aspect of the area. I guess I am concerned about making the effort to move and finding out it is difficult to live there if people are against us living there. My family has been in California since the early 1900's. I could complain about all the people that have migrated from other states and filled up California but it won't change anything. The real problem in any state anywhere is over population when you get right down to it.

You are very right about the root cause in that last sentence. It's not just interstate migration, it's gross numbers of people. Many people complain about growth's impacts, then turn around and claim it's necessary for the economy. Says who? That's just all they've known. It comes down to personal decisions about family size all over the world, but it's crowded to the point where those decisions aren't just personal.

Also, people seem to forget that "United States" means there should theoretically be no prejudice against people who just happen to cross a man-made border. If someone lived in the rural town of Dorris CA (at the northern CA border) and moved up Hwy 97 to Klamath Falls OR, they wouldn't be entering a vastly different place or lifestyle. I don't think they'd meet much resentment.

I think it comes down to the types of people entering an area clashing with the longstanding quality of life there. Or the sheer volume of people, i.e. noticeably more sprawl. My strategy would be to minimize talk of what state you came from and just find a place where you don't rattle cages (in a negative way).

[Brenda-by-the-sea]

I'm puzzled by these kinds of questions also. We moved here from Arizona over 20 years ago. How did people here respond to us as "Arizona immigrants?" Well...we never had the word ARIZONA embossed into our foreheads, so how would anybody even know? It was a complete non-issue. They also didn't know anything about my past jobs or my medical history. Your past life exists in your memory alone and is only as obvious as you decide to make it.

I'd have to wager that those who make it evident that they're from California must carry some kind of Californicator Complex around with them that announces their displeasure with non-California ways and "outs them" to the general public.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by Brenda-by-the-sea

I'm puzzled by these kinds of questions also. We moved here from Arizona over 20 years ago. How did people here respond to us as "Arizona immigrants?" Well...we never had the word ARIZONA embossed into our foreheads, so how would anybody even know?

Brenda, obviously you also didn't start every conversation with, "It's so rainy here! In Arizona it would be sunny and 85 degrees right now!"

I think when people move to a new place because they want to, they're ready to accept the place and integrate with the locals. Most mature people have the presence of mind not to tell their neighbors how much better the weather (roads, homes, culture, etc.) was in their old town.

[tablemtn]

There also may be a bit of generalized frustration with people who move to Oregon without any employment lined up, and then proceed to complain about how dire the economy seems to be.