Medford -- culture, things to do? (Portland, Eugene: sales, 2015, apartment)

[joe_obody999]

Looking serious at moving to Medford from Minnesota, most likely for a year two and then decide to stay or explore other cities in Oregon or even CA. One concern is what there is to do in Medford and within say an hour, perhaps two hours away on occasion. I guess I can't expect Medford to have the culture of Portland or even Eugene, just hoping some of you living in Medford can help share ideas of things to do? My main routine would be bicycling mornings to a coffee shop to write-- so is Medford pretty level in terms of terrain bicycle friendly roads to get to a coffee shop? What about theater (stage plays)? Other stage entertainment? Pubs with music? Annual events? Wine tasting at local vineyards (did that on a trip to Eugene a few months ago, that was pretty cool and met some nice people doing that)? Drive to the beach at the ocean for camping on the dunes?

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by joe_obody999

Looking serious at moving to Medford from Minnesota, most likely for a year two and then decide to stay or explore other cities in Oregon or even CA. One concern is what there is to do in Medford and within say an hour, perhaps two hours away on occasion. I guess I can't expect Medford to have the culture of Portland or even Eugene, just hoping some of you living in Medford can help share ideas of things to do? My main routine would be bicycling mornings to a coffee shop to write-- so is Medford pretty level in terms of terrain bicycle friendly roads to get to a coffee shop? What about theater (stage plays)? Other stage entertainment? Pubs with music? Annual events? Wine tasting at local vineyards (did that on a trip to Eugene a few months ago, that was pretty cool and met some nice people doing that)? Drive to the beach at the ocean for camping on the dunes?

Medford is in a long valley/bowl - flat on the bottom, sloping up on the sides. The main bike trail, the 20+ mile Bear Creek Trail, starts at higher elevation in Ashland and then runs down along the bottom of the valley out to Central Point/Rogue River, where it goes up again. I live in Old East Medford, less than a mile up Main Street from downtown, about a half mile from one of the entrances to Bear Creek Park - we are maybe 150-200' above downtown.

There are maybe 10 coffee shops/cafes downtown - chains like Starbucks, Kick-Ass Coffee, Dutch Brothers, Human Bean (the latter two are mostly just kiosks) and then several local-only shops.

Downtown pubs:
Howiee's (has music)
4 Daughters Irish Pub (has music)
Havana (has music, more a nightclub than a pub)
Rocky Tonk (has music, country)
Johnny B's (has music, more rockabilly)
Portal Brewing
BricktownE Brewing (don't ask me why the capital E at the end)
Jefferson Spirits (has occasional music)
Beer Works

The Home | Britt Festivals is probably the biggest music event/season

Wineries (these are not downtown, but have regular weekend music)
Roxy Ann
2 Hawk
Paschal
South Stage
Eden Valley

there are probably another 10-15 wineries, all of which might have music/entertainment on a given weekend.

ETA: Oooops, underestimated the number - more like 40 or so
http://www.sorwa.org/

Theater:
The Craterian (downtown Medford)
Holly Street Theater (downtown Medford, under renovation, open in 2015?)
Randall Theater Company
The Ashland Shakespeare Festival
Southern Oregon University's performance hall

There are also other microbreweries in the valley:
Southern Oregon Brewing (my favorite)
Caldera Brewing
Standing Stone Brewing
Walkabout Brewing
Opposition Brewing
Rusty Truck Brewing
Wild River Brewing
FireCrkl (meads)
Frau Kemmling
Gilgamesh

I forget the others....

[Hawk J]

I've always loved the GoKart rides & racing.....

Go Kart Hero - HOME

Southern Oregon Karters |

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...Medford+Oregon

[PNW-type-gal]

OK, now having run through some of the good things, here are the, um, less-than-good things.

Medford has a fairly high crime rate, although it is worse in pockets and almost non-existent in others. The combination of I5 drug/transient traffic, relatively high unemployment, lack of living wage jobs mean that the drug trade (opiates, meth, other prescription drugs abuse) fuels a huge chunk of our ills. Housing, relative to the average income, is expensive in the nice parts of town. The vacancy rate is down below 3%, so the competition for nicer apartment/house rentals is fierce. Houses in nicer parts of town that are under $200,000 generally get snapped up in days by investors and house-flippers. Houses above $400,000 sit on the market before quite a while before they sell. Jackson County, by Oregon standards, has a middling property tax, around $3 per assessed thousand once all the local stuff is added in. The house assessment is well below the actual market value of the house - in my case a good $50,000 below. Amenities and services are usually directly related to tax rate, though, and you won't find some of the services you can get in Portland (where the property tax is, I believe, around $8 per assessed thousand).

Winters, from Nov to the beginning of March, are somewhat similar to the Willamette Valley (Eugene to Portland) winter. Cool, rainy, cloudy. On the other hand, Medford gets less than half the rain of anywhere in the Willamette Valley but about 70% more sunny/partly sunny days. The worst winter weather here is fog, which will be a couple days of freezing fog which plays havoc with the airport. It can snow, but not usually more than a scant inch or so (more in higher elevations) and it is usually gone in a day to a couple days. Summers are hot, with 12-15 days above 100° - usually the hot days have a RH of 20-35%, so it isn't particularly humid. Still, 102° is hot, even if it isn't humid.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

The house assessment is well below the actual market value of the house - in my case a good $50,000 below.

I'm curious - is that just a function of Measure 50, or does the city/county assess new purchases below market as well?

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by bler144

I'm curious - is that just a function of Measure 50, or does the city/county assess new purchases below market as well?

More of a state thing. Here is the link to the explanation:

Department of Revenue: Property Tax Real Property Assessment and Taxation

[bler144]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

More of a state thing. Here is the link to the explanation:

Department of Revenue: Property Tax Real Property Assessment and Taxation

Ah, interesting. MAV seems to stem from Measure 50 based on the language and year of implementation.

I was unaware that sales weren't a trigger for re-evaluation (as they would be under Prop 13 in CA), but they're not on the list of 'property events' triggering reassessment. Which has pluses and minuses.