Washington and Oregon Compared (Portland, Pendleton: houses, construction, military)

[5gables]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7ox...z9dPsmzbw&t=1s

[texasdiver]

Kind of superficial. There are other dramatic differences between the states.

1. Washington has the military, Oregon does not. Washington is a major military state with a major Army base (Fort Lewis), several major Navy Bases (Everett, Kitsap, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and several major air bases (McCord, Fairchild, and Whidby Island). The number of active duty military, civilian military and dependents in WA exceeds 200,000. Oregon hasn't had an active duty military base of any kind since WW-II. That fact alone has dramatic influences on the character of each state.

2. Boeing? How can you talk about Puget Sound and Seattle without mentioning Boeing? It isn't all just Starbucks, Costco, and Amazon. Although they are doing their best to flee Puget Sound now that the economic advantage of proximity to cheap hydropower and aluminum is basically gone. Aluminum smelting requires MASSIVE amounts of electricity which is why so many smelters historically located along the Columbia near the big dams.

3. Oregon has beach towns, Washington has sea ports. Other than Long Beach and Westport there are basically no real beach towns in WA. Most of the outer coast of WA doesn't even have road access. Oregon has dozens and dozens of beach towns all along the entire coastline. On the other hand, WA has two massive container terminals in Tacoma and Seattle. At present, Oregon has none. Since the unions in Portland managed to shut down container shipping it's impossible to dock a modern container ship anywhere in Oregon. There are no modern ports anywhere along the Oregon coast just small fishing ports. If you want to ship a container of anything from Asia to Oregon the closest place to dock is Tacoma.

4. Washington has cities in the eastern half of the state: Spokane, the Tri Cities, even Pullman and Walla Walla. Oregon has what? Baker City and La Grande and Pendleton? All 3 of them combined barely add up to Walla Walla or Pullman and would barely account for a single suburb of Spokane.

That's just off the top of my head.

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

Kind of superficial. There are other dramatic differences between the states.

1. Washington has the military, Oregon does not. Washington is a major military state with a major Army base (Fort Lewis), several major Navy Bases (Everett, Kitsap, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and several major air bases (McCord, Fairchild, and Whidby Island). The number of active duty military, civilian military and dependents in WA exceeds 200,000. Oregon hasn't had an active duty military base of any kind since WW-II. That fact alone has dramatic influences on the character of each state.

2. Boeing? How can you talk about Puget Sound and Seattle without mentioning Boeing? It isn't all just Starbucks, Costco, and Amazon. Although they are doing their best to flee Puget Sound now that the economic advantage of proximity to cheap hydropower and aluminum is basically gone. Aluminum smelting requires MASSIVE amounts of electricity which is why so many smelters historically located along the Columbia near the big dams.

3. Oregon has beach towns, Washington has sea ports. Other than Long Beach and Westport there are basically no real beach towns in WA. Most of the outer coast of WA doesn't even have road access. Oregon has dozens and dozens of beach towns all along the entire coastline. On the other hand, WA has two massive container terminals in Tacoma and Seattle. At present, Oregon has none. Since the unions in Portland managed to shut down container shipping it's impossible to dock a modern container ship anywhere in Oregon. There are no modern ports anywhere along the Oregon coast just small fishing ports. If you want to ship a container of anything from Asia to Oregon the closest place to dock is Tacoma.

4. Washington has cities in the eastern half of the state: Spokane, the Tri Cities, even Pullman and Walla Walla. Oregon has what? Baker City and La Grande and Pendleton? All 3 of them combined barely add up to Walla Walla or Pullman and would barely account for a single suburb of Spokane.

That's just off the top of my head.

Very interesting points. Thank you.

[Larry Caldwell]

Washington has the advantage of the Puget Sound, a vast inland sea that provides protected deep water seaports everywhere. It's why the Navy located so many facilities there, and why most shipping goes through the Sound rather than up the Columbia. North Slope oil gets refined at Anacortes, because they can bring the big tankers in.

Washington also has the Grand Coulee Dam, and all the irrigation water. The Yakima Valley was dry land farming until the Grand Coulee was completed. Washington got all the irrigation water, and Oregon got none. The Palouse is also much more productive than most of Eastern Oregon, thanks to weather patterns that shove the rain that makes it up the Gorge north.

On the down side, Washington has Hanford, that giant, purulent abscess on the North American continent.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

Washington also has the Grand Coulee Dam, and all the irrigation water. The Yakima Valley was dry land farming until the Grand Coulee was completed. Washington got all the irrigation water, and Oregon got none. The Palouse is also much more productive than most of Eastern Oregon, thanks to weather patterns that shove the rain that makes it up the Gorge north.

You cannot overstate this point. In the mountain west (the vast area between the Rocky Mountains and Cascades), water is EVERYTHING when it comes to development. Eastern WA has a lot of it with the Columbia and other major rivers that flow into it such as the Yakima and Spokane. That's what makes Spokane, Yakima, Wenatchee, and the Tri Cities possible. Oregon has the Deschutes which is east of the Cascades but technically still in the western half of the state. And that's about it. That's why SE Oregon has about the lowest population density of any part in the lower 48 outside of maybe central Nevada.

[Nurse Bishop]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.1c8d7407e8a5

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

You cannot overstate this point. In the mountain west (the vast area between the Rocky Mountains and Cascades), water is EVERYTHING when it comes to development. Eastern WA has a lot of it with the Columbia and other major rivers that flow into it such as the Yakima and Spokane. That's what makes Spokane, Yakima, Wenatchee, and the Tri Cities possible. Oregon has the Deschutes which is east of the Cascades but technically still in the western half of the state. And that's about it. That's why SE Oregon has about the lowest population density of any part in the lower 48 outside of maybe central Nevada.

it's not just the water, the soil in the Palouse - wind-driven loess from the Missoula Flood events - is a thick layer of very rich soil. Those deposits exist in Oregon mainly in the West Hills behind Portland (where they make the steep slopes pretty unstable for construction).

[sorupaa]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

You cannot overstate this point. In the mountain west (the vast area between the Rocky Mountains and Cascades), water is EVERYTHING when it comes to development. Eastern WA has a lot of it with the Columbia and other major rivers that flow into it such as the Yakima and Spokane. That's what makes Spokane, Yakima, Wenatchee, and the Tri Cities possible. Oregon has the Deschutes which is east of the Cascades but technically still in the western half of the state. And that's about it. That's why SE Oregon has about the lowest population density of any part in the lower 48 outside of maybe central Nevada.

California gets water from the clackamas river and the Colorado river. Then they build houses that get burned in fires. 2018 there’s got to be some way to reuse water and not turning into nasty water. Oregon was a state before California was. California is a nice place but there’s also a lot of things that’s wrong with it. The only thing wrong with Oregon is we keep building houses that will ruin the state someday.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by sorupaa

California gets water from the clackamas river and the Colorado river. Then they build houses that get burned in fires. 2018 there’s got to be some way to reuse water and not turning into nasty water. Oregon was a state before California was. California is a nice place but there’s also a lot of things that’s wrong with it. The only thing wrong with Oregon is we keep building houses that will ruin the state someday.

FYI California became a state in 1850. Oregon became a state in 1859. The rest of your post I agree with.

[Thom52]

Washington is far superior to Oregon.
Move to Washington, not Oregon.
Please.