What is the downside to living in Oregon? (Portland, Eugene: attorney, tornado)

[haggardhouseelf]

I just thought of a downside today. Since we have begun living in Oregon, our desire to travel around and see the rest of the world has diminished. Perhaps living here, and enjoying everything that this area has to offer, sorta makes you a homebody... a bit insular perhaps... or a bit of a "location snob". (There are "food snobs" so there's gotta be "location snobs", no?) We even moved a bit north for one year, to Washington state, and couldn't stand it. We thought that since it was still part of the Pacific Northwest it wouldn't be much different - but we were wrong. It was depressing and awful. We moved back to Oregon within a year. So... that's my downside. It's the kind of place that, once having lived here, you never want to leave.

[Blindtom]

What was the big difference between OR and WA? Were you in similar areas (size and weather)?

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by Blindtom

What was the big difference between OR and WA? Were you in similar areas (size and weather)?

The things we did not like about WA - too many people cramped into too small a place, too expensive, stressful ultra-competitive business culture as well as the schools putting a lot of extra pressure on the kids (because the parents pressured the schools to push the kids), lots of flooding issues because developers are clearcutting too many trees too quickly without caring about local area farms - farms are having more problems with flooding as well as more predators because the development (there's no place for the wildlife to go), the traffic was awful. Awful. The people in WA (we were in the outskirts of Redmond, WA area... near Duvall) were very career-driven and just very rushed. Nothing wrong with that for a single person, but we were a family with kids trying to enjoy life. Everything was rush-rush-rush, and it was just stressful being there. You have a lot of Microsoft employees who are antisocial. A lot of people hyped-up on caffeine. A lot of road rage. Even my doctor there warned me about it. The coffee culture is bad there. Very bad manners, I've never experienced rudeness from people like I did there. Gangs are becoming a real problem. High crime. Very high cost of living. Horrible commute to the more affordable areas to live.

I could really go on, but it's just more negativity. We were really unhappy there, even though we worked it out so that we could walk to both job and school - we only had to fight the traffic when it was time to go grocery shopping. Even then it was too much.

The kids are out of control. Because both parents generally must work in that area in order to maintain the lifestyle - cost of living is very high - there seemed to be a lot of kids just left to fend for themselves. We saw this when we lived in California, too. My kids and I came across middle school and high school kids frequently in the parks with their pants down. We also found lots of drugs paraphernalia and used condoms - this was in a very new and very expensive development just outside of Redmond. There were lots of car break-ins and garages getting broken into. We also received three letters home warning us of attempted child abductions in the area. It just didn't make sense to us to pay so much money to live in such a supposedly nice part of town in what was supposed to be one of the best school districts in the nation (Lake Washington School District) to be under that much stress. Our kids had absolutely no "down-time" because of the pressure from the school, and our family time almost disappeared because of how busy everyone was.

I think for a single person, wanting to focus on and advance their career or pursue college... that area (The Seattle/Redmond/Bellevue area) would be great for them. But for a family, it's stressful living there. You spend too much money on simply living, and too much time fighting traffic or dodging tourists in the Seattle area. There are just weird things that happen, even in the nicest areas of town. My son went on a field trip and as they were driving by an apartment building a lady jumped off her balcony, killing herself. Suicides are so common there it's not a big deal, until they try to spend money installing suicide fences on the bridges because people get tired of the jumpers landing on their cars...

Or maybe it's just that we had already lived in other places so we knew there were better places for families to be. If we had only ever lived there, we might have been used to it so it might not have been a problem.

Oregon is very comfortable, way more laid-back, much more affordable, and just peaceful by comparison. We feel that we breathe better here. We were so happy that we were given another opportunity to move here. It's a much better fit for our family. There are still problems, but on a much smaller scale. I also missed the Oregon coast. It's way nicer than the Washington coast because it's protected - and it's also much easier to get to. In the Seattle/Eastside area you have to go all the way around the Olympic peninsula. In Oregon it's just a straight shot and you're there. It's so nice. There's nothing like the Oregon coast and the lakes in Oregon are much cleaner and nicer, too.

[nanannie]

I have to give my grandpas story whenever I hear such generalizations,,,You usually get the attitude from a town/city/state what you bring . No place is all one way-negative or positive.

Guy moving to a new town asks a guy who lives there "whats this town like, and the people"? He is then asked by the town resident "what did you find in your previous town? "oh. ,,all mean, rude, awful folk -all of them". Well then ,said the resident, I am afraid thats what you will find in this town as well."

[Topaz]

Originally Posted by nanannie

I have to give my grandpas story whenever I hear such generalizations,,,You usually get the attitude from a town/city/state what you bring . No place is all one way-negative or positive.

Guy moving to a new town asks a guy who lives there "whats this town like, and the people"? He is then asked by the town resident "what did you find in your previous town? "oh. ,,all mean, rude, awful folk -all of them". Well then ,said the resident, I am afraid thats what you will find in this town as well."

Cute story but I don't think it is accurate. Different geographic areas do tend to have vibes. The area surrounding Microsoft is high stress.

[tiffela74]

Originally Posted by nanannie

I have to give my grandpas story whenever I hear such generalizations,,,You usually get the attitude from a town/city/state what you bring . No place is all one way-negative or positive.

Guy moving to a new town asks a guy who lives there "whats this town like, and the people"? He is then asked by the town resident "what did you find in your previous town? "oh. ,,all mean, rude, awful folk -all of them". Well then ,said the resident, I am afraid thats what you will find in this town as well."

well, Id agree with you, if she had said the same things about where shes at now. But she was pointing out differences, and has said that folks here are more friendly and all that then what she experienced in Washington.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by nanannie

I have to give my grandpas story whenever I hear such generalizations,,,You usually get the attitude from a town/city/state what you bring . No place is all one way-negative or positive.

Guy moving to a new town asks a guy who lives there "whats this town like, and the people"? He is then asked by the town resident "what did you find in your previous town? "oh. ,,all mean, rude, awful folk -all of them". Well then ,said the resident, I am afraid thats what you will find in this town as well."

I'm from Texas, and know all about hasty generalizations. Believe me... when people hear I'm from Texas they automatically assume I was raised on a ranch, have a rich cowboy daddy who drives a truck or Cadillac, and wonder where the heck did my big blonde hair go? They also ask me why I don't have an accent. (Not all Texans have the accent. I don't.)

Like I said, though, the Seattle/Eastside area would be great for single people trying to go to college or trying to climb that corporate ladder. It's just really stressful for simple families - like us. We still like that area for visiting, it can be a fun place to go as a tourist as there is lots to see and do, but living there is hard unless you have a lot of money or have very few responsibilities aside from yourself. I think probably 20 or maybe even 10 years ago it was probably really wonderful for anybody, but now it's just not for us. That's all. We were saddened by all the deforestation that was going on, all around us, and all the little farms on the outskirts of the towns being bought up and chopped up and sold as smaller lots for future million-dollar McMansions. It was just really depressing and sad. But that' all I'm going to say about this... because it's negative and we're supposed to be talking about the downsides to Oregon here, not Washington. I'm sure Washington has a thread on this somewhere over the in Washington threads..

It snowed yesterday in the Willamette Valley! Downside? It didn't stick.

[MBel]

Have lived here "only" 58 yrs, split between Portland and southern Oregon. Have also traveled a lot by RV and car. Everywhere you go is the same. The difference is: Oregon is beautiful. There is still a lot of open space that isn't scary (don't know what made me say that). I like not having sales tax and don't mind property tax because it's all I know and therefore seems fair.

You can get from here to there without undue stress on any road in any city. Traffic is traffic. Oregon's isn't too bad. You can ski, surf, or go rockhounding on consecutive days and stay in first class hotels or camp.

The only other state that came close was North Carolina, but they get those pesky hurricanes. We have 4 good seasons. Just buy an umbrella and goretex boots.

[1208]

I would normally say the 7 month long winter, but it really hasnt been bad this year.


I wish there were more interesting cities.

everything south of Eugene and north of Sacramento could disapear for all I care so that California could actually seem close by. As it is there as an unreasonable distance to anywhere of note from any Oregon city.


We have no NFL team.


The job market is horrible. Just awful, even before the recession.


hmmm. Thats it I guess.

[Dean Trails]

Originally Posted by 1208

I would normally say the 7 month long winter, but it really hasnt been bad this year.


I wish there were more interesting cities.

everything south of Eugene and north of Sacramento could disapear for all I care so that California could actually seem close by. As it is there as an unreasonable distance to anywhere of note from any Oregon city.


We have no NFL team.


The job market is horrible. Just awful, even before the recession.


hmmm. Thats it I guess.

Don't forget Oregon will soon have the most expensive beer on Earth!!!!gulg glug!