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Old 05-27-2016, 02:54 PM
 
Location: The beautiful Rogue Valley, Oregon
7,785 posts, read 18,759,101 times
Reputation: 10783

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Quote:
Originally Posted by wolfdog View Post
THAT'S pretty liberal. And absurd. And I'm not a smoker.
Ashland, CA
I think it isn't as much about smoking as it is that the city is trying to target certain populations (ie: homeless/homefree) without running afoul of major civil liberty and constitutional rights. The last couple months it has seemed like they've made a dent in the problem, at least from my point of view, and I am generally in Ashland a couple times a week, usually at night.
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Old 05-28-2016, 08:44 AM
 
958 posts, read 1,140,543 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal View Post
Airport first: the Rogue Valley "International" Airport (there are no international passenger flights, there might be international air cargo) in Medford has multiple daily direct direct flights to Portland, Seattle and San Francisco. There are also daily (and, seasonally, more than once daily) flights to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Mesa, Denver, Las vegas and Salt Lake. As is true with smaller airports, flights are more expensive. You can fly from Portland to Los Angeles for a bit more than half of what the flight costs from Medford. It is about a five hour drive to Portland's airport and a little over 6 hour drive (depending on traffic) to San Francisco's. If you fly via United/Skywest your default connection is via SFO, which can be a dicey thing certain times of the year due to fog there.

Ashland is still expensive by Southern Oregon standards, comparable houses in Ashland run about $150,000 more than Medford (average house price in Medford is currently $258,000). More of Ashland's housing stock is on the high end, million+ houses are not uncommon. There are a lot of very well-heeled retirees and second-home owners in Ashland. The housing market is tight, supply is at an all-time low, so it is frequently a multiple bidder situation in Ashland.

If I pull up a popular home listing site and draw a circle around Ashland, I get about 160 houses for sale. If I put an upper limit of $400,000 on price, I get 17.

Rogue Valley weather, while sunnier than the Portland area, is still in a similar pattern. Winters are wet, cloudy and cool. Ashland's average rain is abound 19-20" a year, compared to Portland's 40+, but the rain still falls mainly in the winter, from about the beginning of November to about March. Ashland (and the Rogue Valley in general) is much hotter than Portland in the summer, highs into the 90s are not uncommon and it can hit 100 and above, depending on elevation. Ashland is built into the foothills, so the climate/temp varies by location. The tradeoff for cooler summers would be icy, sometimes briefly snowy roads in winter. Lower elevations are hotter in summer but snow/ice is unusual.

Someone who can't stand Portland's winter weather may not like Ashland's either, even though there is a bit more sun and less rain, it is still a cloudy winter.

I have no kids in school, but most of the people I know in Ashland who have children are mostly satisfied with the public and private schools.
Twice as much rain is "not a similar pattern." Ashland has much better weather than the willamette valley. Not even close...
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Old 05-28-2016, 08:48 AM
 
958 posts, read 1,140,543 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boulder2015 View Post
Twice as much rain is "not a similar pattern." Ashland has much better weather than the willamette valley. Not even close...
But other than that, pnwtypegals posts are right on the money on everything else. Sums up ashland nicely.
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Old 05-28-2016, 03:48 PM
 
Location: The beautiful Rogue Valley, Oregon
7,785 posts, read 18,759,101 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boulder2015 View Post
Twice as much rain is "not a similar pattern." Ashland has much better weather than the willamette valley. Not even close...
Yeah, actually it is. It's not as much the amount of rain as it is the lack of sun and the number of grey, cloudy, damp days. Sure, Ashland has fewer of those days than Portland, but, in the winter months, the skies are predominantly grey and it is cool and dampish. Just for a somewhat shorter period of time.

For instance, in December and January, Portland is cloudy 80-85% of the time and gets about 6" of rain a month. In Medford, Dec and January are cloudy 70-80% of the time and the average rain is about 3" each month. So Portland gets twice the rain in those two months but is only a little bit cloudier.

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Old 05-29-2016, 12:29 AM
 
Location: Whidbey paradise
859 posts, read 1,053,867 times
Reputation: 878
Quote:
Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal View Post
I think it isn't as much about smoking as it is that the city is trying to target certain populations (ie: homeless/homefree) without running afoul of major civil liberty and constitutional rights. The last couple months it has seemed like they've made a dent in the problem, at least from my point of view, and I am generally in Ashland a couple times a week, usually at night.
At least in that case, it makes sense.
Drove around Bandon today. Got the same feeling I get about Ashland.
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Old 11-03-2016, 10:42 AM
 
22 posts, read 51,198 times
Reputation: 33
I am interested in Ashland as well. Currently we live in Bend, we do like it but my husband isn't completely convinced of it. There is a homeless population here in Bend, but the city does a great job regulating it. Most of the homeless camps are set up on BLM land and most begging is on the east side of town.

Schools are great here in Bend. The town is beautiful. Lots of families. The weather is great! We would prefer a smaller town, but Bend doesn't feel huge.

My favorite towns are Sisters, Bend, and Hood River. Sisters is adorable, but slammed with tourists in the summer.

We are going to Ashland on Saturday for the first time.
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Old 11-03-2016, 11:05 AM
 
Location: The beautiful Rogue Valley, Oregon
7,785 posts, read 18,759,101 times
Reputation: 10783
The homeless issue in the Rogue Valley is a fairly big thing. The difference between Ashland and much of the rest of the Rogue Valley is the type of homelessness. Ashland attracts a lot of the "Traveler" subgroup - young people (teens to 30ish) who travel in larger groups with large dogs for "protection." They CAN be (but of course are not always) pretty aggressive.

The same thing that attracts tourists and well-heeled second home owners to Ashland attracts the Travelers/homefree but there is no "affordable" long- or short-term housing in Ashland (by local income standards), there is nothing even close, so some people live outdoors, in cars/vans/buses or anywhere they can scrounge.

The city of Ashland is well aware of whom they rely on for the city's income so they've tried various strategies over the years - it seems as though they've been doing a bit better lately (from my non-Ashland-native point of view) although my local friends tell me some of it has moved off the Plaza and Lithia Park and into the surrounding neighborhoods.
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