Parents Moving to La Grande (Portland, Ontario: low income, for sale, 2015)

[bubbles84]

Hey all! My parents are moving to La Grande in the early part of next year and I thought I would gather up some information for them. Their concerns are that they'll have to do a lot of driving in and out of town to see and do things (their only experience with eastern Oregon has been Ontario). Granted they've been "spoiled" living in Boise and NY but like I said, I'm trying to ease any concerns they may have

My parents are originally from Boise, and they spent a couple years in upstate New York for my dad's job. Now his job is transferring him to La Grande. Basically my parents are hoping that La Grande is a fun place to live and work in. My mom is of course into shopping, so are there any malls in the area? If not, how much of a drive is it to the nearest one? I saw that there's not a Target anywhere close by which will disappoint her. What grocery stores are in the area? They love Albertsons if you happen to have one

My parents also really love going to the theater (movies and plays). They are also big fans of the outdoors; when they lived in Boise they would walk/bike the Greenbelt practically every day and go hiking, float the river. What kind of recreational activities does your city/area offer?

It looks like there is a university there, so does the town have a good college town feel, like Boise? Also, what are home prices or rent look like on average?

Is there a fairly good choice of restaurants as well? A good ratio to cheap to expensive date night locales? Also, is there a Quizno's? (Mom's fave sub shop)

What is the weather like in this area? They are used to basically everything, living in both Boise and upstate NY. How hot do the summers get? Is there a lot of snow in the winter? Are thunderstorms pretty common in the spring/summer?

I really appreciate all of the helpful comments. If they ask me anything else I'll come back here. Thank you!

[karlsch]

I don't think anybody here lives in La Grande. I live not far in Baker City. I will tell you what I know.

Shopping is limited. La Grande has an Albertsons, a Safeway and a Walmart Supercenter. There are various stores around town but nothing remotely like a shopping mall for a long, long way. There Amazon Prime.

There is a movie theater and a drive-in in case your parents want to make out in the back seat.

I'm not familiar with the restaurants. There is usually a locator on chain restaurant Web sites.

It snows but not a whole lot except in the mountains. There are occasional thunderstorms. Go here and scroll down to see a weather summary: http://www.city-data.com/city/La-Grande-Oregon.html

La Grande is on the edge of the huge Wallowa Whitman National Forest which includes the Wallowa and Elkhorn mountains. Outdoor recreation abounds and there are no crowds. They might have to drive a little – it just takes a few minutes to get out of town and there is very little traffic on the roads and highways so the driving is easy.

Click on these links to see what I am talking about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallow...ational_Forest

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest - Recreation

Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort

Elkhorn Crest an alpine paradise for backpackers, bikers

Wallowas, one of 7 Wonders of Oregon: add Hells Canyon to Wallowas itinerary | OregonLive.com

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest - Special Places

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest - Special Places

Wallowa-Whitman National Forest - Special Places

Hells Canyon Adventures Home

[bler144]

La Grande is definitely no Boise. But aside from the lack of shopping it's not a bad little town at all.

They should consider a drive up through the mountains to Enterprise sometime. Despite being smaller if I recall Enterprise actually has better restaurants being more of a tourist destination.

But I agree with Karlsch - unless Walmart is their thing they'll be reliant on Amazon. That's the main reason I've passed up opportunities there. It's a pretty area, though.

For what it's worth, in the PNW Fred Meyer is generally as good or better than Target anyway. In my opinion. Though that still doesn't help as the nearest FM is in Tri-cities (2 hours) and the nearest Target would be either in the Tri-cities or in Boise (2.5 hours).

So...Amazon it is.

[karlsch]

Boise metropolitan area population in 2010=616,561. A lot of people.

Corner of Oregon, Union, Baker & Wallowa counties, where La Grande is located = more than 8000 square miles with a population less than 50,000. Hardly anybody there.

The two areas are going to seem different. I prefer the hardly anybody there.

[patches403]

Originally Posted by bubbles84

Hey all! My parents are moving to La Grande in the early part of next year and I thought I would gather up some information for them. Their concerns are that they'll have to do a lot of driving in and out of town to see and do things (their only experience with eastern Oregon has been Ontario). Granted they've been "spoiled" living in Boise and NY but like I said, I'm trying to ease any concerns they may have

My parents are originally from Boise, and they spent a couple years in upstate New York for my dad's job. Now his job is transferring him to La Grande. Basically my parents are hoping that La Grande is a fun place to live and work in. My mom is of course into shopping, so are there any malls in the area? If not, how much of a drive is it to the nearest one? I saw that there's not a Target anywhere close by which will disappoint her. What grocery stores are in the area? They love Albertsons if you happen to have one

My parents also really love going to the theater (movies and plays). They are also big fans of the outdoors; when they lived in Boise they would walk/bike the Greenbelt practically every day and go hiking, float the river. What kind of recreational activities does your city/area offer?

It looks like there is a university there, so does the town have a good college town feel, like Boise? Also, what are home prices or rent look like on average?

Is there a fairly good choice of restaurants as well? A good ratio to cheap to expensive date night locales? Also, is there a Quizno's? (Mom's fave sub shop)

What is the weather like in this area? They are used to basically everything, living in both Boise and upstate NY. How hot do the summers get? Is there a lot of snow in the winter? Are thunderstorms pretty common in the spring/summer?

I really appreciate all of the helpful comments. If they ask me anything else I'll come back here. Thank you!

I assume you're aware that La Grande has a population of around 15,000 while the Boise metro area has a population of over 600,000?

On the plus side, La Grande is a beautiful place with great mountain views and there should be a lot of outdoor activities for them to choose from. If they've lived in Boise and New York, the weather shouldn't be much of a problem for them, but overall will likely be cooler than Boise and probably more snow in winter, but nowhere near as much snow as New York.

On the negative side, there are no malls, there is no Target, there won't be much to choose from for restaurants besides fast food and the typical greasy spoon diners, especially not gourmet restaurants, there will be no Quiznos, and there won't be much to choose from for movies or plays besides Netflix and Redbox. There does appear to be an Albertsons. The main place for shopping will be Walmart. To give you an idea of the lack of decent options, my relatives that live there save all their going out money for their frequent trips to Portland/Seattle - they spend zero money on restaurants/entertainment in La Grande and use Amazon for shopping for anything more than basic groceries. Being able to get to Portland/Seattle 1 - 3x a month is the only reason they've been able to survive living in La Grande for so long.

My relatives moved there a few years back and had a very hard time finding a decent place to rent or buy. There wasn't much inventory and what was available tended to be pretty crappy and more geared toward low income people and college students. They ended up having to buy rather than rent just to get into a decent, not rundown place and the place they bought was about the only decent place in town in their price range for sale at the time. I have no idea what the housing market is like now, but probably not much better as far as available inventory.

I don't know if it feels much like a college town since the on-campus student population is only about 1,000.

To sum up, I expect your parents, especially your mom since it sounds like she won't have a job to keep her busy, will mentally struggle a lot with life in La Grande. More than likely, they will want to spend a lot of time driving back to Boise to get their "city" fix. When the weather cooperates, they should take advantage of one of the main benefits La Grande has over Boise, outdoor activities, and they should try to frequently get into the mountains near La Grande as there are some beautiful places up there, such as Joseph, Oregon. I also highly recommend they try and find a house with a great view; having a great view might help them deal better with the isolation and boredom they are undoubtedly going to feel at times.

[bubbles84]

Thank you all for your help. I've given them all this information. It seems like it will be quite an adjustment for them, especially my mom. Before Boise they actually lived in a small town in Ohio where it was 2-3 hours to get to a mall/theater so I know that's not something they would be jazzed about doing again. (They have Amazon Prime but they still enjoy going to the actual mall and getting things, especially when some shops don't have their wares available on Amazon. Plus, who wants to buy something to wear, it doesn't look good or fit, and then you have to deal with the hassle of returning it?) So it looks like they'll be coming down here to Boise a lot to "stock up" or going to Kennewick

They are coming here soon though so we can drive up there and they can see the area for themselves, so maybe the trips for shopping will just be a slight inconvenience for them once they see the area

[Larry Caldwell]

They could always drive to Joseph to go art shopping. It's the finest artist colony on the West Coast. The Grand Ronde River is right there, and the Snake is not far away. The Wallowa Mountains are known as "America's Alps." Your mom will have to get used to shopping online, because everything around LaGrande is free.