Lowdown on Californians coming to Oregon (Portland, Salem: transplants, house, college)

[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.

[j_k_k]

There are California stereotypes. Like nearly all stereotypes, they are by no means universal; also, like nearly all stereotypes, they have a minority basis in reality. If you don't act out the stereotypes, very few people will care where you're from. But as with any stereotype, there will always be people who have developed prejudices and see only those prejudices. No place is free from small-minded ignorance; it's a human tendency, it seems. If it makes you feel better, it's not like there is an Oregon Survivalist Brigade that emerges from its caves full of hoarded silver, deer jerky and ammo to burn out transplants or something.

Imagine someone moving from Kansas to New York City, which in the main knows little about Kansas and cares less--to them, it's a flyover state where people probably milk cows or something else icky and pastoral. If the Kansan newcomer were to act like a naive hayseed, that's probably how the New Yorkers would see him or her. If he or she didn't, probably not.

Same with me going through parts of Oregon wearing Husky gear. I have to expect a little friendly flak about it now and then; if I don't want that, I shouldn't have worn purple (no one held a bayonet on me and forced me to dress that way, nor to go to Oregon in the first place). How the encounter goes depends 90% on how I take it--see it for the generally good-natured kidding that it is, and I'm probably right. See it as something sinister, and it may well become so--or at the very least, will disappoint people who were just having fun with me, and had (in that event) mistakenly sized me up as someone likeable, a fellow Pac-12 college football fan as passionate about his team as they are about theirs, thus someone with common ground. In Oregon, as anywhere, most kidding means that they either like you or think they might.

[Metlakatla]

You sound like the right kind of Californian.

Years ago they built a subdivision out near Sublimity--beautiful little agricultural community close to Stayton. The residents organized and complained about the farm smells and the farm noises. The residents weren't all Californians of course, but they were clearly urban types who wanted things to change to suit them just because they moved in.

[Ryant]

Originally Posted by Christopher777

The real problem in any state anywhere is over population when you get right down to it.

Not so much here : )

From my point of view we just joke about it a little. "Don't Californicate Oregon" and such. It doesn't seem to be the place where anyone is too serious about it, except in maybe very rural areas. You could always say you're from Nevada or something..

[Steve Pickering]

Who said it was a joke?

[Silverfall]

Oregonians dislike the California stereotype of botox injected materialism. Honestly, you'll be fine in the Salem area, but I totally with Metlekatla, if you come here and complain that we don't have a TGI's or some other big chain store, you'll find that folks won't be pleased. We prefer our local mom and pop's generally speaking.

You sound like you will be totally fine. It isn't where you are from, it is the attitude that you bring with you which determines if Oregon is the right place for you.

[FVWinters]

A bigger concern than how you will be recieved would be....Do you have a job already lined up or are you sufficently well funded that you don't need one?

[GoBeavs!]

Where I live (southern Oregon) pretty much everyone is from California. I agree with the posters who say it's not where you're from, but your attitude that people will care about. Oregonians and California transplanted Oregonians all live here because they either dont want or wanted to leave sprawl, chain stores and endless housing tracts. Sometimes the ones that dislike Californians the most are people who moved here from california and wanted the door shut behind them after they left!

[signalfire]

Just don't arrive, step out of your Beamer and be yakking on your cell phone; someone self-sufficient and mostly anti-materialist will be welcomed; Paris Hilton, probably not. Where in CA you come from may play a big part of it; the northern part not so bad, LA/Hollywood maybe not. And don't brag about how you bought a house for 150K and sold it for 450K and made a lot of money sitting in it for 10 minutes. The big thing ORians feel against Californians is they made housing here so expensive when they showed up with imagined money from the boom down in CA. If you love the outdoors, most of the state will be wonderful for you; if you need nightlife, try Portland. Be prepared for a real shock by January when you haven't seen sunlight for several weeks, though.

[Smiled]

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