Seeking smaller towns, where to look?

[AnthonyJ34]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

There is a reason why the Willamette Valley has about 100x more population than the coast.

There is also a reason why there are no major cities on the Pacific Coast anywhere north of San Francisco. Eureka is the largest city between San Francisco and the Canadian border and it is only about 25,000 population.

True, but a lot of that is because of topography as well. How many large population centers are on the coast between San Francisco and Santa Barbara? That coastline is fairly rugged and isolated and inaccessible in spots, with not a lot of great places for a large metropolitan area to start and grow. Monterey and Santa Cruz are fairly large but nothing like a huge, major city. Then you have Santa Barbara. But you are right that the northern California coast has much wetter, cooler weather than the southern coasts, and that likely plays a role in the lack of population on the Northern California coast.

Perhaps one day the Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna, McKinleyville areas will sprawl and become a large metro. Have a few major companies and/or industries locate in that area and things may start to head in that direction.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

Logging hasn't been a "future" in Oregon for some time now.

Like I mentioned before, there ARE people in Oregon who are forward thinking and are in it for the long haul people who aren't tourists, people who aren't retirees from California, people who are not NIMBYS, people who aren't the type of people who think that "I've got mine", and time should stand still to accommodate me for the last ten or twenty years of my life.

The tourism industry is ephemeral, generally provides very low paying jobs, and there are only so many "tourists".

With all the capabilities and growth potential of Coos Bay, it's stupid to think that just because of a few obstacles, change will never happen.
I am sure a few hotels and resorts will be built, but in the long run the future of Coos Bay will not be "tourism".

I hope I am alive ten years from now, so I can drag up this thread and have a chuckle knowing I was correct all along, and the Oregon armchair pundits here were totally wrong.

I always have fun digging up old really old threads about Portland and reading the predictions of how Portland would crash and burn.

That is the argument the politicians here use to avoid developing the tourism industry more. They say the tourism jobs don't pay enough. My response would be do you want tourism jobs, or no jobs at all? Newport has a large tourist area. But Coos Bay, almost nothing. We have a lighthouse here that tourists flock to see, but they can't even get close enough to it to take decent pictures, without renting a vacation rental, or illegally trespassing over private property. Thanks to Oregon's public beaches, without public access.

Coos Bay has had almost no growth in the last 50 years. It might grow again someday, but not in the next 10 years and not until there is a change in attitudes here.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Your mistake is believing that Newport supports itself solely on Tourism.

There is much, much more going on in Newport other than "tourism".
Plus there are many routes to get from Newport to the Valley.

Your above observations of Coos Bay are exactly why it's going to boom in the next ten years.
It has no way to go but up.

And not in a touristy kind of way.
The Jordan Cove LNG project is/was just the beginning, whether it moves forward or not.
The seeds have been sown.


You are ignoring the obvious, and sticking your head in the sand.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

I have to say, to ANYONE outside of Oregon reading this forum, if you are looking to move to a place on the Pacific Coast that has great potential, you want to live on or close to the beach, has low real estate prices, is a place to grow rich and raise your family,has tolerable weather, a place that has a smattering of small town values, a place on the Pacific coast that does not cost a million bucks to live there, a place that has definetlay has great fishing and hunting, and are trying to find a place in Oregon that has not been inundated with real estate speculators, retirees, and their kind of ilk, Coos Bay is exactly the place you are looking for.

Get there quick, before you lose out.

The only catch is..............supporting yourself.

With today's world it should not be hard to figure out the details.

I do not feel sorry letting this secret out about an "Oregon Secret Gem", because after all, IT IS a "relocation forum".

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

I have to say, to ANYONE outside of Oregon reading this forum, if you are looking to move to a place on the Pacific Coast that has great potential, you want to live on or close to the beach, has low real estate prices, is a place to grow rich and raise your family,has tolerable weather, a place that has a smattering of small town values, a place on the Pacific coast that does not cost a million bucks to live there, a place that has definetlay has great fishing and hunting, and are trying to find a place in Oregon that has not been inundated with real estate speculators, retirees, and their kind of ilk, Coos Bay is exactly the place you are looking for.

Get there quick, before you lose out.

The only catch is..............supporting yourself.

With today's world it should not be hard to figure out the details.

I do not feel sorry letting this secret out about an "Oregon Secret Gem", because after all, IT IS a "relocation forum".

Since you are Mr. Coos Bay, I'm curious. Are there any recreational boating marinas on Coos Bay, or any recreational boating/fishing on the bay? I honestly don't know myself because I've never spent any real time there since high school when we'd play football games at Marshfield and North Bend and then hop on the bus back home.

I know Newport has a large recreational boat fleet as well as a yacht club and sailing club with dinghy racing and yacht racing on the bay. Anything at all similar happening in Coos Bay? Do people keep boats on the bay and use them there? Or is the only small boat marina the one out at Charleston?

[BendLocal]

These articles might help those interested in learning more about the Coos Bay area.

A Brief Overview of the Coos Bay Area

GAMBLING WITH OUR FUTURE IN COOS BAY

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by BendLocal

These articles might help those interested in learning more about the Coos Bay area.

GAMBLING WITH OUR FUTURE IN COOS BAY

Thank you for that article. I hadn't seen that, but that is exactly what I was talking about. You walk into many businesses here and they have old black and white photos on the walls of log trucks hauling giant old growth trees. It's pretty obvious they want that way of life back, but nothing you could ever say will convince them it's not coming back.

[PNW-type-gal]

The original poster (in 2017) and the poster who then brought the thread back were looking for info on small towns - we've gone quite astray from that.