What is the downside to living in Oregon? (Beaverton, Dallas: apartment, mortgages)

[jiffin4java]

Originally Posted by tenacity

Ok now for Oregon.. I grew up in the foothills above Sacramento, which is wall to wall homes now. EEK!

Tenacity

Where up there are you from? My husband was raised up in Georgetown above Placerville. We just moved from there and Pollock Pines a year ago for him to go to school in TX. I have to say, I'm really missing those trees and mountains. I hate the way they built those cookie cutter neighborhoods in El Dorado Hills and Elk Grove! My husband said in '98 when he left there for college those weren't there and he was really disappointed to see it when we moved there in '03. I'd love to be able to go back up towards Tahoe but the only FAA control towers are down in the valley...don't wanna go there.

[ladysrodgers]

To Tenacity:

I lived in southern Oregon for 3.5 years. The only forms of medical treatment people or doctors in the area recognize or recommend, are the traditional types.

I am familiar with the type of treatment you're talking about and was treated that way by a chiropractor in northern California.

In December of 04, I rolled my car twice, but thought I was just fine until 2 weeks later. I started experiencing pain starting in my upper right arm. Gradually it spread to my neck, shoulders, then my whole upper back, both arms, and upper chest.

I had no health insurance and had already signed off on my insurance claim, due to needing a replacement car. Finally after nearly a year, I went to a doctor who prescribed a pain med. It didn't help in the slightest.

I could tell it was muscular/nerve damage but do you think I could find "one" doctor in the area who did any kind of nerve stimulation? NO! Everyone thought I was nuts and referred to those treatments as a hippyish form of medicine.

Out of desperation I started going to a chiropracter in Grants Pass who repeatedly "cracked" me, but it never fully alleviated the problem.

I bought a TENS unit which helped quite a bit. I had 2 trigger points that obviously needed direct pressure.

"Finally" after several months I asked the doctor if he didn't do anything but crack patients. He didn't, but said he would do it for me, but it would really hurt. (I've never had pain involved in ANY direct pressure) He did do direct pressure after I requested it, but pressed WAY harder than necessary and wound up bruising my back terribly! However, after 2 more weeks of excruciating pain, it subsided.

I don't know why that area of the country is so backwards that they refuse to acknowledge alternative forms of treatments. It's nuts if you ask me.

[Kathleenh54]

We moved to Ashland in 2006, after having lived five years in SoCal and originally coming from New York. Here's my take on pros and cons of living here, fwiw.

Pros: Scenery, weather (yes, in Jackson County the weather is quite nice), slower pace of life (once you get used to it). Costs of living and taxes are less than anywhere we've lived. Another pro is the lack of keeping-up-with-the-Joneses attitude. It's hard to impress people with a new Mercedes or a designer handbag, unlike in SoCal where my daughter's classmates used to paint the Louis Vuitton logo on their fingernails. The watchword for apparel: Casual!

Cons: Schools, of course. Our high-school age daughter goes to a private school and will attend college out of state. We are retired so the lack of high-paying jobs doesn't affect us from a financial standpoint, but wish the economy were diverse enough to offer some. The community would itself be more diverse if that were the case. Shopping ain't so great in our area but that's where the internet comes in handy.

Overall, we're happy here and glad we made the move.

[RuralSeeker]

Originally Posted by Fat Eddy

I agree with Larry Caldwell about the "McMansions" popping up everywhere. I am not against people from Ca. or Nevada moving into the state but it seems that they bring in a ton of cash, buy up property and double the price in hopes of making a quick buck. This has caused the price of property to go through the roof making it impossible for average Joe's to purchase a home...
-Fat Eddy

Guess What? Not ALL Californians are rich! Some of us are low or middle income and were priced and crowded out of California by all the richies ourselves! And by the way, Most so-called "Californians" are not even from California originally! Stop being state-ist and blaming Californians for everything, okay?!

[ladysrodgers]

Originally Posted by RuralSeeker

Guess What? Not ALL Californians are rich! Some of us are low or middle income and were priced and crowded out of California by all the richies ourselves! And by the way, Most so-called "Californians" are not even from California originally! Stop being state-ist and blaming Californians for everything, okay?!

Amen! If Oregon builders built homes with selling them to natives in mind - as opposed to making a killing off of what they think are "rich Californians," it wouldn't be such a problem.

The income ratio compared to cost of homes is WAY out of whack......in southern Oregon anyway.

[freedom]

Originally Posted by ladysrodgers

Amen! If Oregon builders built homes with selling them to natives in mind - as opposed to making a killing off of what they think are "rich Californians," it wouldn't be such a problem.

The income ratio compared to cost of homes is WAY out of whack......in southern Oregon anyway.

How much money do you think a builders average profit is on a 3/2 1800-2000 s.f. home?

How much do you think the land cost is, verses the construction cost, verses the gov't permit and development fees.

freedom

[tiffela74]

"Stop being state-ist and blaming Californians for everything, okay?!"

some of us have lived in Oregon our entire lives and have not once, ever blamed Californians for everything.....nor has my family or a lot of my friends. Generalizations like this hurt my feelings too when Ive never been anything but friendly, welcoming, and treated everyone equally. I think, from things ive heard, that there was that "blame California for everything" mindset and rudeness back in like the 70s, but I think its pretty much over. Of course, theres going to be a few rude people who insist on continuing, just like theres a few rude people who insist on being outwardly predjudece against the Irish...or someone from Florida...but come on, please please please, stop lumping everyone in Oregon as spiteful enough to blame a California for all the troubles....or for building houses...or whatever. It gets so tiresome and hurtful on this end too.....to be generalized and blamed for something I have never ever done....
tiffany

[Tesaje]

Well, Tiff, from what I've read from your posts, I'd bet you are a really nice person. There are obnoxious people native to every state. There are really nice people native to every state. In the 70's, I and 3 friends took a long bike tour thru OR and found people to be almost uniformly nice to we 4 young Californians on bicycles. We encountered people who not only let us camp on their lawn, but invited us to eat with them and take showers (heaven!). I think we only encountered one person who growled at us to get out of there when asking for water to fill our bottles. And even he let us get the water. So, I would say that even in the 70's Oregonians were pretty nice people overall. We had feared the anti-California sentiment we heard about but didn't encounter it.

The anti-California sentiment is widespread in the western states and based on a few encounters with Valley Girl type brats but mostly from the shear numbers from the nations most populous state. In Colorado, the state to hate is Texas. But while stereotypes have a grain of truth in them, they invariably paint much too broad a brush for individuals. There are lots of Californian migrants but there are also lots of variation in Californian people and their economic status.

[DavePautsch]

Ya know...I never fail to be amazed (sadly) at how often this subject comes up (Californians)...and takes the discussion completely away from what the person who started the thread was asking or looking for.

For those people who have some sort of a grudge against folks from California...get over it!
For those people FROM California who fear being mistreated here...be a good person, treat others as you'd like to be treated, get involved in your community...and it truly won't be a problem (and if it is a problem, it will be with an individual who is probably not worth your time worrying about anyway!)

Now...what was this thread about again?

[tiffela74]

Thanks Tesaje....I really appriciate that. And I appriciate your thoughtful post too. Im glad you and your friends had a good time and met up w/good people while on your adventure... Bike trips still seem to be popular, we met the neatest older guy on his bike w/a homemade pullalong trailer doing the Tour Oregon thing last summer. He was a pretty neat character w/some cool stories. We thought it was a good trade to hear some in exchange for a meal and blanket for his traveling companion. (the cutest little dog!)

well Dave, I believe this thread was "what is the downside to living in Oregon" I guess this does kinda cover that...to me, it is a downside to living here when Im generalized in a hate group kinda thing....but anyhow..I know I shouldnt make this thread personal for me, eh?
I think the 2 downsides in Oregon are....
1) healthcare...neither my husbands, nor mine, employers provide healthcare, and this seems to be a growing trend. And where we do have the Oregon Health Plan, you have to make a bit less than nothing to qualify for it. We make just barely enough to make it month to month, but we are WAY over the amount to qualify for any Health Care. Even my kids.
2) the amazing and sickening amount of strip joints and "adult entertainment" establishments we have here in Oregon. IMO there are way way way to many.
those are a couple downsides to living in Oregon. At least to me they are....
Tiff