DONE with Portland, but want to stay in Oregon (where go?) (Eugene: transplants, rent)
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DONE with Portland, but want to stay in Oregon (where go?)
I moved to Portland from Nashville, TN 6 years ago expecting a little San Francisco. What I got was a great facade. YES, the city is easier to live in than most cities I've been to and does has GREAT transit and stuff to do. BUT, I cannot stand the hipster/fakeness and general social intolerance of most of the people I encounter. (Pdx is the only city where a vegeterian who raises chickens in the backyard for eggs wouldn't let a vegan roommate move in because the vegetarian biked and the vegan drove a car... in MOST cities I've been to {and I've been all over the country}, these two people would just be happy to know anyone similar to them, but not here, people just want to talk to clones.
That being said... I've been looking on the Coast (Astoria, Seaside, Cannon Beach) - and this area seems pretty much what I'm looking for. Unless there is something about them I missed.
I also have been to Eugene for a weekend and liked it, but I don't wanna be around a bunch of college brats.
I've seen really cheap rent in Klamath Falls, Cave Junction, Lincoln City, Port Orford, Bandon, and Cascade Locks... although I've never been to any of these places.
In short, what I'm looking for is VERY cheap rent (im on disability), and want to live some place small and quiet, but still within walking/bus distance to a library and decent grocery store (I still like a variety of foods but I don't drive) -
In short - quiet/nature/cheap/library/food... I can order anything else I need online.
Thanks! tiredofpdx
I'm sure Cannon Beach has some kind of library and you might be able to find a bungalow near it... your world would be kind of small... someone who asks so little out of a town should be able to make it just fine in Portland. I mean... seriously... do you think there aren't intloerant vegetarians in Astoria? For a non-driver who cannot use a bicycle Portland is the only city I can wholeheartedly recommend.
I get from your post that you are somewhat liberal-minded, but find Portland over the top. Eugene doesn't have to be college brats. Just get outside that circle and you will see a different Eugene. Medford/Ashland/Grants Pass? More conservative, but drier and still offering some larger city amenities, especially Medford.
I went the coastal route (Rockaway Beach), and haven't looked back thus far. Libraries? I got the whole blasted Internet, a mountain of books in my own right, and spent today poking through some ancient (100+ year old) books in a Tillamook bookstore (from where I was presented with a neat gift recently - a compendium of choice sci-fi stories from the Golden Age of the genre... 1928-1936, noted and narrated by Isaac Asimov).
Long story short? I'm not hurting for reading material.
There is a regional bus system here in Tillamook county, called The Wave ( Welcome to the Tillamook County Transportation District. Ride the Wave! ) - it does a pretty good job of getting you up and down the coast, and even to and from Portland a few times a day if you want/need that.
Rent can be as cheap as $500/mo for a tiny studio, up to $1200/mo and up for a house on the beach. I'm paying $900/mo now for a 4-bdrm about a 1/2 mile inland, surrounded by forest.
Folks are generally friendly, and recent events (see related moving thread below) showed me that folks were a LOT more kind and caring than I could ever hope for.
OTOH, unless you already have a job, it's not going to be easy finding anything outside of seasonal work out here, though if you do look deep enough there are jobs to be found.
There are other parts of Portland, maybe you should try one of them. Outside of the trendy areas the city is a bit more real and definitely not as "stereotype-y". In reality, the type of people you describe are definitely not in the majority in this city. You probably know all this already. Maybe you just happened to be unlucky?
There are other parts of Portland, maybe you should try one of them. Outside of the trendy areas the city is a bit more real and definitely not as "stereotype-y". In reality, the type of people you describe are definitely not in the majority in this city. You probably know all this already. Maybe you just happened to be unlucky?
When I moved here in lived in Nopo off Interstate (near the New Seasons, and a girl who I was staying withs car was broken into, also stayed in a lot of those motels on that strip...)
I've lived on and around PSU campus.. which wasn't bad but way to expensive...
I've lived in the inner SE near Bside and Grand..
stayed in Hollywood
and now live off 82nd
I've hung out in Hillsboro, Beaverton, Gresham, - and I cannot stand Belmont/nw23rd/or Hawthorne... so I've been all over - I was also homeless here for a year - so I saw everything from street level...
it's not the town or the things to do.. Flicks on the Bricks, The libraries, the brew theaters, Mike Clark's Movie Madness, Hollywood Theater, all the unique local stores... the naked bike run, the rose fest, I LOVE THAT stuff,
it's just the people I meet are wholly artifical, and talking to them is like talking to a wikipedia article... they may KNOW about art/culture/ect... but I can tell they only retain this information to be able to engage in conversations, and don't really give a flip about it ... in my experience most of the people I meet are transplants, much like I was.. but a lot of them come from podunk places like Iowa, and having been to Des Moines, I get the impression they may have been the only outcast/"cool person", in their area so they moved here to find like minded people.. so they may LOOK they part... but they are the equivelent of a highschool kid of wears the shirt of a band he's only heard 1 or 2 songs from or who learns to play guitar (and only the most popular songs), to get girls.. basically a poser.
Eugene did seem MUCH more organic, and real, so I may look into that...
also been hearing good things about Ashland.. so looking into that as well... if I do remain anywhere near pdx.. Mt. Hood looks kinda interesting... I would love to live in a cabin studio type thing.. and be able to get a bus into town and still have a good selection of foods...
Your problem seems more like you then the people you're meeting quite honestly. I'm not sure you're going to be happy anywhere. Perhaps you need to go to places "like" Portland - Austin and Brooklyn both are trying to claim that.
I have family living in south Florida. One of them (stuck there because her business is located there) had the most interesting complaint... the natives (in general, not all of them) are extremely friendly towards you, until they find out that you're a local as well - then it's like they drop any pretense of being kind unless they know you well enough. It's like the folks there had two personalities: a "customer service" personality, and their real one, with the real one being a bit more abrasive.
I'm thinking the guy (gal?) here may have seen something similar, where everything is all smiles and unicorns until they other person realizes that you live here too, whereupon they slip a bit and let the real self show through, and he (she?) may find it less than appealing.
I know from personal experience that this is generally not the case out here in PDX, but sometimes you do stumble across a person or two who are like that, and with enough bad luck, it can leave a bad impression.
(Pdx is the only city where a vegeterian who raises chickens in the backyard for eggs wouldn't let a vegan roommate move in because the vegetarian biked and the vegan drove a car... in MOST cities I've been to {and I've been all over the country}, these two people would just be happy to know anyone similar to them, but not here, people just want to talk to clones.
The only one? My, that was some specific survey you did of the world to determine that.
But I do find it funny that you think people in Portland only want to talk to clones, yet you're complaining that the people aren't like what you want them to be.
As for expecting Portland to be a mini-San Francisco, that was a mistake. All cities are individual. If you want San Francisco ... move there. If you don't like Portland, best of luck finding the perfect place, inhabited by the perfect people, where you'll have a perfect life.
Your problem seems more like you then the people you're meeting quite honestly. I'm not sure you're going to be happy anywhere. Perhaps you need to go to places "like" Portland - Austin and Brooklyn both are trying to claim that.
Actually I spent last summer in Austin, and the people there were actually really cool.. BUT.. the transit was garbage and it was 100 degrees every day I was there... and I just couldn't do it... other than that it wasn't too bad socially...
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DONE with Portland, but want to stay in Oregon (where go?)
