Pro and Cons on Klamath Falls (Grants Pass: neighborhoods, school, to live)

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by looking21

I am a single person in my thirties considering a solid job opportunity in Klamath Falls, but am concerned about a number of the social-related "cons" listed in this string. I have to say they may have swayed my judgement against the job and relocating to KF. I now have the impression that KF is really "out there" socially rather than in the main stream. Perhaps it is an ideal location if someone is married, 55+ yrs old (retired), lives at the Runnning Y and ready to leave the 'rat race' of typical city life. As far as someone who is not in the golden years, and who does not have friends or family in the area, it would be a difficult place to start from ground zero in terms of getting socially "plugged in." If anyone disagrees with this assessment, pls feel free to chime in.

Depends on where you are coming FROM - if you currently live in a big city and want to do "big city" things, KFalls is probably not the place for you, because it isn't a big city, and expecting it to BE one would be a mistake.

As far as "out there" - KFalls is in line with any other small Western town, especially in the western agricultural belt. You can find towns like it in the California Central Valley, in Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona.

There are a lot of young professionals associated with OIT and the OHSU/OIT/Merle West expansion, so the city is certainly not 100% "cow town" - but most of the area is agricultural and the interests of the population can definitely be described as outdoors, rather than indoors. The hiking opportunities are incredible, with just about every terrain nearby that you can think of. But if you don't care about the outdoors and would rather kick back in a trendy blues bar and sip Cosmopolitans (obviously I exaggerate), KFalls is not that place.

[jkzml]

Now I am new to this and I am not going to quote any one person in particular but I have live in K-Falls or Ktown or Klamath Falls, or whatever you choose to address it as for my whole life, and I hear all of you saying I am so sorry but don't be. I love it here as to why I have yet to move away. The crime rate really is not that bad, everywhere you go there is crime big or small its there sorry to say but it is. Yes as a 28 year old there is not a lot of "night life" to speak of but it is a great little town and it is booming and here lately it is really booming. It is a fantastic place to raise a family or a wonderful location to retire if you like to see ALL 4 seasons! We have warm summers with the exception of a few hot days, we have a crisp cool fall with the colors of the leaves and the fabulous autumn smells, we have a snowy white winter some years with a lot of snow and some years with very little, and in the spring the flowers bloom and we have our April showers. Sometimes the winter is the longest season and if you are a person who does not care for that Klamath is not for you. We have a great schools with fantastic teachers, there are jobs, they are scarce at times, its a smaller town. Jeld-Wen is a large corporation that has many jobs as well as Skylakes, formerly Merle West, and with all the new businesses that are coming in there are bound to be more. Yes we have some issues with water for farmers depending on the winter months, and we have issues with air quality but first of all we are at 4500 ft elevation so that is the first consideration, and its cold so people burn their fireplaces and wood stoves, but any place you go that has winters like that will do that, and in the summers we have forest fires, we are surrounded by mountains and acres of timber, that is one of our major resources so it's not a surprise it gets smokey. Again it is so beautiful here and you are not far from a lot of places that do have "night life." Reno is only 4.5 hours away, Medford a little over an hour, San Francisco is about 5, the coast is a couple, Portland is 6 hours. If you are into outdoor life this is spectacular, there is camping, fishing, hunting, bird watching, swimming, hiking, etc. If you do have a family our town is very family oriented, they have all kinds of fun things that you can take your kids to do, they have a 4th of July parade and street fair, every 3rd Thursday in the summer they have a street fair, they have a week in the winter for the snowflake festival, the new winter wonderland at the park, they have free concerts in the park, all kinds of sports starting at age 3, all kinds of things if you are interested in that.

Sorry to go on and on I have just heard a lot of cons and not so many pros so I wanted to throw some out there.

Thanks

[lisnlex]

Has anyone heard of Round Lake Golf Resort? If so what do you think of it?

[T.C.]

I was born and raised in Klamath. It used to be a small friendly little community. The influx of Southern Californicators has ruined my town. Most all the freaks that someone spoke of in previous thread, are non-native. If you don't like our little community, leave. It was a much nicer place without you whiners.

T.C.

[FLTammy]

Wow, it may be attitudes like yours that ruin the town. I'm not a native CA but I will be a transplant. I hope I don't come across a whiner like you that ruins it for me. I'm looking for a small town that's close to camping, hiking, etc. Don't be so fast to discriminate against the non-natives, we may be the best thing for your little community.

[inkymonk]

Originally Posted by T.C.

I was born and raised in Klamath. It used to be a small friendly little community. The influx of Southern Californicators has ruined my town. Most all the freaks that someone spoke of in previous thread, are non-native. If you don't like our little community, leave. It was a much nicer place without you whiners.

T.C.

I'm wondering who is doing the most whining? Funny thing about that

You say you were born and raised in Klamath, wondering where your ancestors came from?? Were they Native Americans? Or did your ancestors move from somewhere else and displace the original residents? My point is that this is America, everyone here came from somewhere else except for the original residents. Californians are fleeing CA......why?......in a very large part, because our borders aren't being responsibly regulated. (I'm not from CA so don't start in on me).

I did live in CA for a substantial time and watched it change as people from other states and other countries came and displaced long-time residents. I could have bought a house less than 15 yrs ago for under $200k in a sleepy little hamlet called Baywood Park (near Morro Bay). If I had bought it then, I could easily sell it now for over a million, simply because of it's location.......and I'd probably be selling it now to someone who is escaping southern CA.

It's called the population explosion, if you haven't heard. We boomers were products of the greatest economic boom in American history. And we had babies......babies now that are having their own. It's LIFE. And nowhere is sacred or safe, people need places to live and nice people want wholesome places to raise good children. It's not a crime, it's common sense. And it's HISTORY.

I also lived in Oregon for several years, from Lake Oswego to Government Camp, from The Dalles to the wheat fields of Condon. At one point, I worked as a social worker who held 90 (this was just in one year) of your abused, unwanted children in my arms as a foster mother/evaluator and they came from all the corners of OR. I left because it was a waking nightmare, for every dozen children we accepted, we turned down at least one hundred more. This was some 30 years ago, before the "grand migration" of Californians into your state (so you can't blame them).

I have a friend who has moved from CA to the Klamath area. He and his wife bought a 200 acre farm with a literally crumbling Victorian house a couple of years ago. The property had been on the market for over a year, no one wanting to take on the project of restoring the house. He and his wife are both in their late 50's. They have restored that farmhouse themselves (their hands) to it's original glory. Oregon has a piece of it's history restored only by their willingness to work very very hard.

I'm coming back to Oregon (am now living in Baltimore). I've taken what I call "an attitude of Gratitude". Being positive, having a hopeful outlook.......sure beats any other mindset. After 55 years, I've come to terms with LIFE.......everything changes and becomes something else. You cannot put the very best things into a box and keep it there, hoping it will not change. I'll be sure to bring this attitude with me, seems like some of you could use a good dose of it!

[Imperial1904]

Originally Posted by T.C.

I was born and raised in Klamath. It used to be a small friendly little community. The influx of Southern Californicators has ruined my town. Most all the freaks that someone spoke of in previous thread, are non-native. If you don't like our little community, leave. It was a much nicer place without you whiners.

T.C.

Yeah, I'm sure it was the Californians who put trash in people's front yards and let their property turn ugly.

So, would it be fair that if you moved to another town/city/state, that you should get blamed for "messing it up"?

[nanannie]

Originally Posted by inkymonk

I'm wondering who is doing the most whining? Funny thing about that

You say you were born and raised in Klamath, wondering where your ancestors came from?? Were they Native Americans? Or did your ancestors move from somewhere else and displace the original residents? My point is that this is America, everyone here came from somewhere else except for the original residents. Californians are fleeing CA......why?......in a very large part, because our borders aren't being responsibly regulated. (I'm not from CA so don't start in on me).

I did live in CA for a substantial time and watched it change as people from other states and other countries came and displaced long-time residents. I could have bought a house less than 15 yrs ago for under $200k in a sleepy little hamlet called Baywood Park (near Morro Bay). If I had bought it then, I could easily sell it now for over a million, simply because of it's location.......and I'd probably be selling it now to someone who is escaping southern CA.

It's called the population explosion, if you haven't heard. We boomers were products of the greatest economic boom in American history. And we had babies......babies now that are having their own. It's LIFE. And nowhere is sacred or safe, people need places to live and nice people want wholesome places to raise good children. It's not a crime, it's common sense. And it's HISTORY.

I also lived in Oregon for several years, from Lake Oswego to Government Camp, from The Dalles to the wheat fields of Condon. At one point, I worked as a social worker who held 90 (this was just in one year) of your abused, unwanted children in my arms as a foster mother/evaluator and they came from all the corners of OR. I left because it was a waking nightmare, for every dozen children we accepted, we turned down at least one hundred more. This was some 30 years ago, before the "grand migration" of Californians into your state (so you can't blame them).

I have a friend who has moved from CA to the Klamath area. He and his wife bought a 200 acre farm with a literally crumbling Victorian house a couple of years ago. The property had been on the market for over a year, no one wanting to take on the project of restoring the house. He and his wife are both in their late 50's. They have restored that farmhouse themselves (their hands) to it's original glory. Oregon has a piece of it's history restored only by their willingness to work very very hard.

I'm coming back to Oregon (am now living in Baltimore). I've taken what I call "an attitude of Gratitude". Being positive, having a hopeful outlook.......sure beats any other mindset. After 55 years, I've come to terms with LIFE.......everything changes and becomes something else. You cannot put the very best things into a box and keep it there, hoping it will not change. I'll be sure to bring this attitude with me, seems like some of you could use a good dose of it!

great attitude

[FLTammy]

Good point Imperial1904; it's usually the people who have been living in the same place who don't appreciate it. The transplants usually come in and want to have beautiful place to live in because its a beautiful area.

[T.C.]

Please take your "holier than thou" attitude and settle somewhere else. Come to grips with that.