Astoria (Portland, Coos Bay: real estate, crime rate, hotel)

[PG77]

Can anyone give me any information about Astoria? Thanks!

[cvanripe10]

it's cool, windy, and wet.

[Aldo76]

I visited Astoria a few years back, in summer. The weather was fine, & in a general sense the city is quite attractive. In the early 20th century it was the salmon canning center of the world, & all that wealth resulted in construction of many large, beautiful homes arrayed on the bluff above the river & downtown. Much of the downtown burned in the 1930s, but it is still on the National Register of Historic Places. The Columbia River is broad & beautiful. For all these positives, I had an unpleasant time. Economically the area is not well off, & it shows. My friend & I were tailed by three young punks for several blocks, & I got food poisoning at a local restaurant! Our limited exchanges with locals left the impression that it is a very conservative town... And, I can imagine the winters are very cloudy, clammy, & damp. Just our experience, of course. Others may have had wonderful time there...

[Paddywagons]

Astoria is beautiful! It's got real people and they are wonderful. It's not a 'Disney' town full of artificial facades like some beach towns full of pumped up money. It's genuinely quaint with real working people. It's crime rate is very low. It's in an incredibly scenic location, one of the best you can find. It's not overpopulated - yet! The weather is temperate, never frigid. If you need tons of sunshine, it probably won't suit you. I've been there 5 times over the last 3 years mostly in the summer. Each time the weather was perfect, little rain and lots of sun. I've been told it's not always like that. I recommend visiting a few times at different times of the year before moving. I love it and bought a river lot there. Some family and friends followed and loved it, EVERY one of them bought a lot. Conclusion: A LOT of people love it!
Good luck.

[Larry Caldwell]

Astoria is also a pretty busy deep water port. It will probably get busier, now that the railroad has cut off Coos Bay. Most of the canneries are gone, but I think there is still some commercial crab fishing and processing, plus work at the port. There is a job corps center just up the Columbia at Tongue Point, and some farming along both the Columbia and Youngs rivers. Astoria is not totally dependent on tourism like so many other coastal towns.

[tiffela74]

Ive heard the cruise ships are making Astoria a major port stop though.....
Astoria is beautiful, and IMO, has plenty to offer unless youre into the high end, endless shopping malls and a nonstop nightlife. (well, unless your idea of nightlife includes raccoons, and other such furry nocturnal creatures! lol)
As for food poisoning, that can happen anywhere. I got it from Windows in Portland once a long long time ago. And that was off a 40.00single plate meal!
They can get some pretty wild winters there. Well, wild for Oregon. I was highly envious when reading some of their wind gusts today....we didnt get anything nearly so exciting! sheesh. lol Plus, I do believe they got a skiff of snow on the beaches last winter. That'd be cool.

[musicgypsy]

Ok,
Yea that's pretty much how I remember it to, but my heart still breaks for it's sunny summer days. I went threw there last summer part of me wanted to cry for my days of youth and the other half wanted to run from the memories of the underbelly. I hear that part has goton better though.

[little peg]

Originally Posted by musicgypsy

Ok,
Yea that's pretty much how I remember it to, but my heart still breaks for it's sunny summer days. I went threw there last summer part of me wanted to cry for my days of youth and the other half wanted to run from the memories of the underbelly. I hear that part has goton better though.

Remember the days before the Astoria bridge was built? When the Liberty was the main entertainment? The Astor Hotel? There are stories of saliors being shanghid onto ships, lovely place to be but now unfortunately not an option with real estate prices. My first choice for retirement, overlooking young's bay but unable to find something I could buy outright.

[nanannie]

I can not count how many times I have been there. It was always foggy,wet,dismal.

[RockyMtnr]

Astoria has Greek Food! Over by the view-area south of and just before you hit downtown and the "bend in the road".
From the hill where the "Astoria Column" is located, you have a fantastic view of mountains and the river to the east - and of the river and long island to the south - of the ocean to the west (okay, that one is barely fantastic) and of the bridge going all that way across the Columbia to Washington state.
Astoria seems to have about one of everything - pretty good shopping for a coastal town.
'Twas a nice, sunny day in October when we visited. Seriously considered moving there. Most towns along the Oregon coast just don't have a lot and comparatively, Astoria had more than other towns along the mid and north coast.