Southern Coast (Portland, Eugene, Medford: rent, crime, buy)

[pira114]

Howdy all,

I am looking to relocate to the southern (Coos Bay and south) coast of Oregon.

I tried searching through the previous threads but got pretty lost looking for my answer, so here goes.

I'm looking for a good place to raise my children. Most of the cities don't seem to have much crime reported, but I would like real world advice.

Any thoughts on gang problems, drug problems, etc... would be greatly appreciated. I would also like to hear from some parents on what they think of the school system of any given city. I currently live in an area where the school system is in total failure status in my humble opinion.

So that's it really. Looking for information on how safe these cities are, which ones I should avoid alltogether, and if the school systems are doing their part. I'm not a parent who just drops off my kid at school and hopes. I'm involved, but the two districts I've been in so far seemed to actually fight against me being involved.

Thanks in advance.

[Nell Plotts]

In every community, all across the US, drugs are a problem. Where ever you live just assume that there is a drug problem and educate your children about the risks and the fact that 'pushers' get that name because the want to suck them in.

To the best of my knowledge gangs are not a problem.

Whether or not a school will welcome your involvement will depend in part on the personality of the school principal/teachers and how you wish to be involved. It always helps to take a soft approach until you scope out the dynamics of a school.

[tiffela74]

Hi. I live in Coos Bay, and have been raising my kids here (6-9-almost 14) for 5yrs now, plus, I work w/local youth, if you click on my screen name and scroll through my posts regarding Coos Bay, at least you'll get my experiences/opinions on the area/schools/programs/etc.
Of course, mine is by far from the only opinion, and I do like it here and have had more positive then negative, so there is that. I like it here, and my kids are thriving and doing very well, but I know not everyone is in the same boat. Feel free to PM me if you wish, Id love to be of any help.
Oh, BTW, Ive found the my kids schools have very much welcomed parents helping out and being involved. Good thing, Im a VERY involved parent!
Tiffany

[pira114]

Thanks for the replys.

One other thing I forgot to ask about is the cities closer to the California border. I know Eureka and Crescent cities have their share of problems. Do any of these problems tend to drift north to the far southern towns?

[Kathleenh54]

I've been researching places on the coast too and seem to wind up going further north to find everything we want. Medical facilities are important to us, as retirees, rather than schools. Seems like Lincoln City has more of those than most of coastal Oregon. It's ALL beautiful, though, that's for sure.

[Nell Plotts]

You might explore Florence as well. It is not far from Eugene where there is a large medical community. I think drive from Lincoln City to Portland is longer than Florence to Eugene (test it with Google or Yahoo Maps) and the Lincoln City route is congested during the summer. Really complicated medical problems are usually treated in Portland.

[pira114]

Thanks all.

You know, I kinda forgot about medical facilities. Having children makes medical facilities important too.

I also love the north coast, but with my job, I'll need to travel back to the California SF Bay Area about 3 times a month, so the north coast is getting too far for me to drive. That's why I was keeping my research to the southern coast. Figured Coos Bay was about as far north as I was willing to drive. I figured the drive would be okay from these areas. Besides distance and time, does anyone know of any specific problems driving south from these southern towns? Especially in different seasons?

[furyu]

The drive along Highway 101 to the Bay Area takes roughly 7-8 hours from the Brookings area. From the Coos Bay area, add another two hours. The route is beautiful, scenic, but for the most part it is a two lane undivided road with passing lanes from time to time. During the summer months, you have more traffic, especially RVs, along this route, but actually, any time of year you can be slowed down by RVs and road work, it seems. Cutting over to the I-5 is probably the quicker way to go, time if not mileage wise.

In the winter, snow and ice can be issue, but less of a problem along Highway 101.

From my perspective, travelling 7 to 10 hours one way three times a month is going to get 'old' pretty quickly. What with gas prices being as high as they are, it would probably be cheaper to fly out of Crescent City to SFO and rent a car. It certainly would be a lot less stressful. Although flying out of Crescent City presents its own problems!

Let's put it this way: travelling in and out of this rural, isolated area is not easy any way you try to do it!

The Brookings area does not offer good medical services, unfortunately. Sorely lacking in that respect, and getting worse all the time (we just had one medical group pull out of town and consolidate their services down in Crescent City). Many residents here travel out of town to get good medical services, either to Medford, OR or even the Bay Area. Crescent City is only twenty minutes from here and has a full service hospital, which is okay for routine things.

I don't have school-aged children so don't know first hand about the schools here, but haven't heard a lot of good things about them. I think mainly the schools have money problems, and do not have the ability to attract good teachers; there is just not a lot of tax revenue for the community/county to cover all its needs.

Crime is not an issue in this town, nor are gangs. Drugs are evident in small pockets of the population, predominately meth, but as another person here stated, you will find drugs issues ANYWHERE in the U.S.A.

[Nell Plotts]

Three time a month to SFO??? Groan.... I have driven 101 from the southern Oregon coast to SFO and it isn't easy.

Medford has air service to SFO but going over the coast range in the winter to Medford can be dangerous as several have found. In a nutshell, DON'T.

Living on the Oregon Coast can be a wonderful goal but If you need to travel that much to SFO just buy a lot for future use and move to Ashland and fly out of Medford.

If you really look at flight costs Portland - SFO is a much more competitive market. It may actually be cheaper to live on the north Oregon coast and fly out of PDX.

My $0.02.

[furyu]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

....
If you really look at flight costs Portland - SFO is a much more competitive market. It may actually be cheaper to live on the north Oregon coast and fly out of PDX. ...

Excellent point. It costs half as much to fly from Portland to SFO than from Crescent City... and you have a better chance of actually getting out on the day you plan.