Anything wrong with Corvallis? (Portland, Eugene: houses, neighborhoods, school)

[girlbard11]

I have been doing a lot of research on the Corvallis area and I really cannot find anything that is wrong about the area for me.
So...the question is, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH CORVALLIS?"
Dish the dirt so I can have no surprises when I move, if in fact I do leave New Mexico to be a water baby and not a desert rat!

Thanks for any info.!

KimYoung

[chrisruns2far]

I have never lived in Corvallis, but I have an Aunt and Uncle that have lived there for 30-plus years who love it and a friend of mine works for the Benton County Planning Dept. Corvallis is progressive, scenic, well-planned and thoughtfull community. It has much to do for a city its size.....the only negative I can think of is the cost of housing has gone way up, but you can say that about most places in Oregon or the western half of the United States these days. I would consider Corvallis one of the top places to live in all of Oregon.

[tablemtn]

Housing is expensive.

No malls in town.

No nearby airport with commercial flights.

[jjpop]

I live in Corvallis and like it a lot, but you want to know what is wrong, so here are a few more things:

City greenspaces (parks and median strips) are inadequately maintained.

Streets are not well maintained--lots of potholes with repairs done on the cheap or with long delays. One section of a well-traveled 4-lane street in NW Corvallis has had one lane closed for years while the city wrangles with a developer that caused the slope failure that closed the street. There's just no excuse for that.

Traffic control is poorly planned and implemented. There are several dangerous intersections in town. Some of these intersections have been "improved" by adding turn lanes and/or adding stoplights, but the solution is nearly always inadequate or makes the intersection more dangerous.

There's something wrong with the electrical grid in town. Our power went out a couple of nights ago AGAIN. We've had probably 4 power outages in the last year, only one of which was related to a weather event. Two of these occurred because animals got into a substation and fried it. The one a couple nights ago happened because of a traffic accident and 1100 customers were without electricity for 6 hours.

To sum it up, Corvallis is sorely in need of an infrastructure revamp, but I think priorities are a bit mixed up. For example, the city will spend money pursuing new projects like the Riverfront Park, but it does a poor job of maintaining those projects after they are built.

[GoBeavs]

I live in Corvallis and I can honestly say, for a college town, this place really lacks a party atmosphere

[girlbard11]

Originally Posted by GoBeavs

I live in Corvallis and I can honestly say, for a college town, this place really lacks a party atmosphere

Thanks for the input. I am a singer/songwriter and am wondering about places to perform. Coffee houses, wine tasting rooms, intimate folk clubs etc...
Is there a local "hip" newspaper about the local alternative scene in music and progressive thinking. Non-main stream?

Thanks again.
KimYoung

[LISA IN LONGVIEW]

You are right JJPop, I see that the town has not changed at all. Lived there since i was 5yrs old. Graduated in 82 and have only visited once since then. As growing up, the one thing i can remember is us kids were BORED!!!!! but i am sure they have more things to do nowadays. they other thing i really remember is the FOG. I rode my bike to school everyday, and in the winter if it was not pouring down rain it was foggy. So if you don't like fog then you won't like Corvallis or Albany.
That is my 2 cents worth, take it for what it is worth. You just have to go visit and look around talk with the locals. they are friendly for the most part, Well it used to be that way, not sure if it still is or not. But good luck anyway.
Lisa in Longview. Oh by the way the weather here is much like in Corvallis, with the exception of more rain less fog.

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by girlbard11

Thanks for the input. I am a singer/songwriter and am wondering about places to perform. Coffee houses, wine tasting rooms, intimate folk clubs etc...
Is there a local "hip" newspaper about the local alternative scene in music and progressive thinking. Non-main stream?

Thanks again.
KimYoung

Your best bet would be to check out Eugene Weekly. Although it's focused on Eugene, it does have some listings for Corvallis as well.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by girlbard11

Thanks for the input. I am a singer/songwriter and am wondering about places to perform. Coffee houses, wine tasting rooms, intimate folk clubs etc...
Is there a local "hip" newspaper about the local alternative scene in music and progressive thinking. Non-main stream?

Thanks again.
KimYoung

There is quite an active folk scene in Western Oregon, mostly centered around Eugene. If you are based in Corvallis, you won't have to drive much more than an hour to hit every winery in the valley. Winerys and vineyards typically have regular entertainment as part of their attractions, though that slacks off in the winter.

Between Eugene Weekly in Eugene and Willamette Week in Portland, you can find out about all the venues in the valley. Portland is almost 2 hours from Corvallis, so you may want to find a place to sleep if you are playing there.

There is also a Folklore Society in Roseburg that sponsors weekly concerts, and Grants Pass has a very active folk scene. I haven't seen live entertainment at the Wolf Creek Inn (state park), but it would be a great spot to play. Wolf Creek is an old timey hippie colony.

[nanannie]

We returned for another visit to our former home, Oregon. We visited Corvallis for the first time, and found it charming ! I am speaking of the immediate "downtown" which is just a few streets,but clean,friendly, and really nice. The river walk/bike trails, the wonderful NON CHAIN stores,(not to mention New Morning Bakery-yummmm) it was nicer then I had pictured (from some recent posted photos). We visited the University,our mistake. It was like being in rush hour traffic as the students,tuned out to the world with Ipods,dashed non stop in front of our car,swarmed the streets,oblivious to anyone,so we creeped along,big mistake to drive around OSU. It is in a valley,so is pretty flat,mountains were a distance away,alot of farms. We saw nice, middle class neighborhoods and not much in the area of McMansions or tear downs that we saw (nice change).Other parts of the town were just like "anywhere USA" with the usual Bed Bath Beyond strip malls etc. Eugene,nice downtown,lovely University,love the hundreds of trees througout the city,,, didnt stay long (we spent the nite in Corvallis) as we were headed to the coast. I guess this is where all the hippies moved to from the 60's. Lots of traffic,but clean,cute stores,and nice folks. I'LL BE BAAAACK