What is the downside to living in Oregon? (Salem, Medford: mortgage, credit)

[DavePautsch]

tiffela,
I happen to agree with most everything you say...and I'm on your side in this...100% (I'm from PA originally, have lived in SoCal, but moved here from Hawaii).

Thanks for all your positive posts. I think that is what this board is about.

Dave

[Tesaje]

Originally Posted by 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

We did have fun on that adventure!

1. This is a big problem all over the country, not just in OR.
2. I've traveled all over the state except for the southeastern portion and I never noticed that. I was appalled, however, at how many and how prominently they were displayed and advertised all over the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. They call them "Gentlemen's Clubs" as if that makes it all better...

[RuralSeeker]

Originally Posted by 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

Sorry, I didn't mean to overgeneralize. Don't take it personally. Most people I have met here are very kind and friendly, and my experiences living here have been good. I was really mostly responding to a couple of the posts on this website which were talking about "rich Californians" who drive up the mortgages and build McMansions. I am just as sensitive to this subject as you are, because I think I am a pretty decent person and I don't want to be lumped in with all "those" Californians. BTW, I am actually a native Californian, not one of the millions of people from everywhere else who give us a bad reputation. We're all in the same boat called planet Earth.

[tiffela74]

thanks for all the postive post folks! And ya RuralSeeker, there really are some buttheads that just cant keep their mouths shut if they think theres something rude to say....sigh.

Maybe my judgement of the overload of stripjoints/adult clubs is limited too, since Ive only lived in oregon. Ive been to California (beautiful state, but the driving TERRIFIED me! lol) Arizona, (loved it!!!!! but missed the ocean!) and Nevada (great fun to visit, dont think I could handle living there, at least in Vegas!) but it just has always seemed like theres more of those places than there are Starbucks! sheesh! What really ticks me off, is when they are within walking distance/sight of the grade schools.....
I must say too, I wish the PD here would focus more on things like crimes against children and less time/$$ on traffic violations. Seems like you go 6mph over the speed limit, boyo but the cops are there!!! Yet a person can beat their child half to death and then some and nadda. Again though, like Tesaje said about health care, maybe this is a problem all over our states.
Tiff

[sstarrx3]

I put up with it for 10 years and finally got out. Oregon has allot of very nice attributes. The beautiful coast and mountains and rivers. If you don't mind rain the weather is pretty temperate. People for the most part are very nice. I do feel sorry for the folks that live in the rural areas because their political vote is pretty much worthless. The excessivley liberal Potland drives the poltitcal machine. They are good about throwing money at social problems but fail to see many of those social problems would be less prevalent if they would try spending a little on the education of their children. While I was living there a substiture teacher from Arkansas I met mentioned in passing how far behind the schools were in Oregon, and she was teaching in the Beaverton school district, which is one of the better ones. When it came time for my children to go to school we sold our home and moved out of state.

[ORexpat]

As an Oregon native, there are many people I just wish wouldn't move to Oregon, but I would be delighted to see Tenacity there. Oregon has its faults and deficiencies, but one thing it does excel in is the holistic, alternative care field for both humans and animals.
It sound as if what you're doing would be a wonderful addition, and should be received well in many areas, eastern Oregon excepted.
Although I have many reservations about returning to Oregon, I am probably going to, simply because of a chiropractor who uses a technique I can't find elsewhere, and will take the time to do it.
In general, the holistic, innovative, alternative approach is well received there.

[Leisesturm]

What I have determined from a week of reading the various threads in the Oregon section is that there is a very real "me" mentality at work. Friends, the entire country is facing all the things that you are! In many places a fixer upper in a very, very bad part of town is approaching $300,000. One million gets you a livable two family in a nice part of town and mansions begin at three million. In California, celebrity mansions go over $20M.

Illegals are calling Iowa home, North Dakota, Utah, Montana anywhere there is land and work and many places where there isn't. It's better here, anywhere in the U.S. than in Mexico, Guatamala, the Phillipines, Somalia, Sudan, Ivory Coast, etc. etc. The U.S. citizens that employ illegals and encourages them to send for friends and family and prefer their labor over legal citizens labor are the ones creating the current climate of instability. The stock market is a greater source of income and profit for just about any organization of any size than sales. Companies please their investors and investors like to hear that their companies are being run lean and mean. If this means mass layoffs, so be it. If 10 workers can be coerced into doing the work of 30 with the payroll of 7, get it done. Jobs are now a privilege bestowed on the minimum number of personnel necessary to make a company look viable in a prospectus. Oregon does not have more or less jobs than anyplace else, the unemployment percentages are identical across the country. There is nowhere else to go where things are any better!! Maybe if the legal citizens of this country stop whining and beating down the places they call home and look to greener pastures there will be a change.

I am looking towards Oregon because as an avid cyclist and hiker and all round eco-warrior I like the things Oregon has to offer. I haven't been able to find work in NYC that befits my experience and training and when I do the wages will not be any higher than 15 years ago but rents are now quintuple what they were five years ago so effectively wages now are far lower than 15 years ago. Again, this is happening all across the country. Its just that for a variety of reasons Oregon's housing and food etc. cannot rise to NYC levels because you would have mass starvation and rioting if Oregonians had to pay NYC rents. Mind you, NY'ers pay NYC rents on salaries that in many cases aren't any higher than Oregon wages!! They live four to an apartment to do it. Again, that hasn't happened in Oregon.... yet. Why shouldn't it. Thanks to Craigslist any building manager in Duluth can see what building managers in Hartford, Conn. charge for a 1000 sq/ft single bedroom apartment and greed if nothing else motivates them to achieve parity, sooner if not later.

Someone said it in this very thread, it isn't Californians, or NY'ers or Chicagoans or anyone who should be blamed, it is the collective greed that afflicts all humanity that causes those that supply to price what they have beyond the point of pain for those on the consumer side. I fear it will take a Parisian style French Revolution, complete with beheadings and civil anarchy to let the ruling classes know just how far over the line they have taken things.

H

[nanannie]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

What I have determined from a week of reading the various threads in the Oregon section is that there is a very real "me" mentality at work. Friends, the entire country is facing all the things that you are! In many places a fixer upper in a very, very bad part of town is approaching $300,000. One million gets you a livable two family in a nice part of town and mansions begin at three million. In California, celebrity mansions go over $20M.

Illegals are calling Iowa home, North Dakota, Utah, Montana anywhere there is land and work and many places where there isn't. It's better here, anywhere in the U.S. than in Mexico, Guatamala, the Phillipines, Somalia, Sudan, Ivory Coast, etc. etc. The U.S. citizens that employ illegals and encourages them to send for friends and family and prefer their labor over legal citizens labor are the ones creating the current climate of instability. The stock market is a greater source of income and profit for just about any organization of any size than sales. Companies please their investors and investors like to hear that their companies are being run lean and mean. If this means mass layoffs, so be it. If 10 workers can be coerced into doing the work of 30 with the payroll of 7, get it done. Jobs are now a privilege bestowed on the minimum number of personnel necessary to make a company look viable in a prospectus. Oregon does not have more or less jobs than anyplace else, the unemployment percentages are identical across the country. There is nowhere else to go where things are any better!! Maybe if the legal citizens of this country stop whining and beating down the places they call home and look to greener pastures there will be a change.

I am looking towards Oregon because as an avid cyclist and hiker and all round eco-warrior I like the things Oregon has to offer. I haven't been able to find work in NYC that befits my experience and training and when I do the wages will not be any higher than 15 years ago but rents are now quintuple what they were five years ago so effectively wages now are far lower than 15 years ago. Again, this is happening all across the country. Its just that for a variety of reasons Oregon's housing and food etc. cannot rise to NYC levels because you would have mass starvation and rioting if Oregonians had to pay NYC rents. Mind you, NY'ers pay NYC rents on salaries that in many cases aren't any higher than Oregon wages!! They live four to an apartment to do it. Again, that hasn't happened in Oregon.... yet. Why shouldn't it. Thanks to Craigslist any building manager in Duluth can see what building managers in Hartford, Conn. charge for a 1000 sq/ft single bedroom apartment and greed if nothing else motivates them to achieve parity, sooner if not later.

Someone said it in this very thread, it isn't Californians, or NY'ers or Chicagoans or anyone who should be blamed, it is the collective greed that afflicts all humanity that causes those that supply to price what they have beyond the point of pain for those on the consumer side. I fear it will take a Parisian style French Revolution, complete with beheadings and civil anarchy to let the ruling classes know just how far over the line they have taken things.

H

Agree, good post.

[freedom]

Originally Posted by chrisruns2far

I would say, and I have met with quite a few, many original proponets of Measure 37 feel that the negatives of Measure 37 far outweighed any pre-conceived benefits that they envisioned, thus the complete revisial of thinking on a statewide basis. But yes, you are still left with 39% of the state that could care less about sustainability and responsible long-term growth.

I think it is a leap to say that people that wish to have property rights that M37 returned to them, means that they don't care about sustainability and responsible long term growth.
There is no new private land being created in Oregon. We still are a 5% footprint. Dividing up existing private lands does little if no harm to the state, it is a red herring to say the least.

freedom

[little peg]

Originally Posted by freedom

I think it is a leap to say that people that wish to have property rights that M37 returned to them, means that they don't care about sustainability and responsible long term growth.
There is no new private land being created in Oregon. We still are a 5% footprint. Dividing up existing private lands does little if no harm to the state, it is a red herring to say the least.

freedom

chris you sound alot like you may be on the political end of this argument, what about all the claims that are up in the air now?