Conservative Oregon cities? (Portland, Eugene, Salem: transplants, neighborhood, high school)

[tacomaboundtoo]

Originally Posted by jmharvey

Grants Pass!! You will not see one Obama Biden sticker!!

Like I said, I didn't mean politically conservative. I'm not even registered to vote in this state yet. I don't really follow politics anymore, I feel more human for it.

[Larry Caldwell]

If you didn't mean conservative, then you need to come up with a word that describes what you are looking for. Much of Oregon outside the Willamette Valley is about 20 years behind the social problems of more populous areas. It's not that they don't have their own social problems, they just don't map to mass media perceptions. The '50s are gone forever, but you will still find some people living in the '50s, just like you will find people living in the '60s, and '80s. The '70s not so much. I don't think polyester leisure suits will ever make a comeback.

Instead of describing how you want other people to live, why don't you focus on how you want to live? Then live that way. There are a lot of factors that could get in the way, but very rarely is one factor the neighbors.

[tacomaboundtoo]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

If you didn't mean conservative, then you need to come up with a word that describes what you are looking for. Much of Oregon outside the Willamette Valley is about 20 years behind the social problems of more populous areas. It's not that they don't have their own social problems, they just don't map to mass media perceptions. The '50s are gone forever, but you will still find some people living in the '50s, just like you will find people living in the '60s, and '80s. The '70s not so much. I don't think polyester leisure suits will ever make a comeback.

Instead of describing how you want other people to live, why don't you focus on how you want to live? Then live that way. There are a lot of factors that could get in the way, but very rarely is one factor the neighbors.

I love this post. I don't know if you know my story from previous posts Larry but my husband and I feel very out of place here in Coos Bay. So we've decided while we search for "our" ideal environment, we will make the best of what Coos Bay "does" have to offer, which all in all isn't too bad depending on where you choose to spend your time. After all, there are some very beautiful places here regardless of the weather, people, wal-mart, what have you. We consider ourselves lucky and are very grateful for the opportunities that have been given to us. In light of such horrific events plaguing the world right now we should all consider ourselves lucky.

[msapdx]

The conservative areas in Oregon are also the least educated, poorest ones with the highest unemployment.

Census Bureau Home Page

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by jmharvey

Grants Pass!! You will not see one Obama Biden sticker!!

Originally Posted by GoBeavs!

Grants Pass, where the library was closed for years and is now barely open, where the sheriffs office has one officer on duty at night because funding is so low, no public transportation, huge meth problem, super high unemployment, super low wages, but there sure aren't many Obama stickers to be found! Hmmm

Hmm, as I recall Josephine County voted 42% for Obama. 17,338 people in in the county (a large chunk in Grants Pass, too, probably) voted for him. My parents in Grants Pass and their friends voted for him (as well as for funding the libraries) AND they even had an Obama sign in their yard...

Hmmm...

Also there is public transit--JCT (Josephine County Transit)--though it's a small town so it's not really feasible to have a good transit system. And I might add that Oregon as a whole only went 57.1% for Obama. And meth is bad even in Portland. I see meth freaks at my work (in Portland) daily.

That said... What the OP is looking for is basically as Brenda-by-the-Sea described.

[Humanandneedtobeloved]

Albany, I wouldn't say it's conservative, but it's blue-collar and politically neutral.

[msapdx]

Originally Posted by Brenda-by-the-sea

Just about anything outside the Willamette Valley. The absence of a major university will seal the deal (much more difficult to remain captive to conservative ideals once you've been exposed to the illumination of higher education and use reason, rather than tradition, as a basis for your world view). The biggest cities that are somewhat conservative would be Medford, Grants Pass, Klamath Falls, Redmond, Baker City, Coos Bay and Pendleton.

Almost any town with a population under 10,000 will be quite conservative (provided there's no institution of higher learning there).

Coos Bay is not conservative and it has a college. Every single precinct in Coos Bay/North Bend voted for Obama, DeFazio and Wyden. Bandon is consistently Democratic too, but the rest of rural Coos County is heavily Republican, (go figure, the most backwoodsy-type places like Powers, which reminds me of "Deliverance.")

[Hometown Josie]

Perhaps eastern Oregon?

Originally Posted by Humanandneedtobeloved

Albany, I wouldn't say it's conservative, but it's blue-collar and politically neutral.

The more I think about it, the more I agree with this. Albany itself is probably pretty neutral (though you're certainly more likely to see confederate battle flags and such flying there). However, the surrounding smaller communities are very conservative and that tends to spill over into Albany because all those people have to go somewhere to shop/work.

[Mr.SmithW]

Conservative parts of Oregon:
1. Jackson County (minus Ruch/Applegate/Ashland)
2. Josephine County
3. Umpqua County (bit mixed)
4. Many parts of East Portland past 122nd Ave
5. Many parts of Gresham minus the Hispanic population
6. Deuschutes County (Bend is mixed)
7. Wasco County
8. Marion County
9. Washington County (mostly, minus the minority populations)
10. Most of Eastern Oregon

I'm not being racist here, but this is a true assessment. The minorities in the regions generally lean to the left and skew statistics of the area. Also, many ethnic groups are congregated into specific neighborhoods of these counties, so you will experience a different cultural and political leaning from one neighborhood to the next. My views are in the listed counties, the Caucasian population leans politically to the right, and they do comprise a majority of the populations in these areas. However, the mixed of ethnic groups do skew the statistics more than can be expected, giving people wrong view of the politics in the area.

In general, Oregon is a conservative state minus the liberals concentrated in West and Inner SE Portland were like 30-40% of the population of the state lives. Oregon's rising Hispanic and Asian population also has contributed to the more liberal political leanings. However, these populations generally live concentrated in specific neighborhoods and do not interact too often with people outside their ethnic group. Meaning, these may not be the people you find yourself interacting with if you live in this part of Oregon.