Sunny areas without ignorant/racist population (Portland, Eugene: fit in, transplants, home)

[AliStJohn]

Could anyone offer suggestions of areas that are sunnier than the Portland area and would be friendly to a non-white, progressive family? Open to rural or small towns. The Willamette Valley looks nice, but is the weather as depressing for some as Portland in the winter? Not trying to judge with the post title - We are currently in AZ so familiar with states that are home to people of all kinds, we just don’t want to end up in one of the scary parts.

[ejisme]

Going south in the Willamette Valley will add a little sunshine. Probably pick the college towns/cities for diversity. Corvallis will get a bit more sun than Portland, Eugene a bit more than Corvallis, and Ashland more. All will likely get more rain and clouds than AZ. If a smaller town is OK, then Ashland might be your best place. It's basically extra-northern California, and mostly full of transplants from Cali and other southern states, plus the small University's students. You would fit in with other "out of staters" and I doubt anyone would look at your racial mix in a negative light (people in Portland, Corvallis and Eugene wouldn't either). It's a very liberal/progressive area of the state... as is most of Western Oregon.

There are other threads on here about the suitability of Ashland, Medford, Florence, etc. that you should look at. As well as the Eugene thread.

[redguard57]

Salem, Bend, Ashland, Corvallis, Eugene, Florence, Newport, Lincoln City, Hood River, The Dalles. Although on the coast you'll get the clouds/moisture & wind. Avoid the State of Jefferson area, so the crescent from Roseburg & south curving up to La Pine. East Oregon in my opinion is less racist. The conservativism out there is more of a libertarian spirit in places like Pendleton, Baker City, Enterprise, Burns. Southern Oregon is like the West Virginia of the West. If I had to choose between, say, Pendleton and Klamath Falls, I'd choose Pendleton hands down.

There's not much of anywhere in Oregon that is "scary" in my opinion, but in some areas you'll have to put up with more a-holes than others.

Sadly, Oregon has a pretty high proportion of white supremacists/racists per capita. There are not that many in terms of absolute numbers, but they stand out where they are because of the generally small size of Oregon's population, and their aggressiveness. I don't get what it is about the PNW and Oregon in particular, but the white nationalist types here feel it necessary to be confrontational - to "take the battle" TO liberals in the state by staging parades, drive-throughs, demonstrations in the heart of liberal towns all throughout Oregon. You won't be able to 100% escape them.

I'm from Texas, where there are certainly more racists than Oregon in terms of absolute numbers. But they had less compulsion to do flag-pickup-rides through the cities & confront liberals where they are, stuff like that.

[texasdiver]

Bend is the only sunny part of Oregon that is reasonably cosmopolitan. It is also getting exceedingly expensive, like Santa Fe in your part of the world.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by redguard57

Salem, Bend, Ashland, Corvallis, Eugene, Florence, Newport, Lincoln City, Hood River, The Dalles.

Sigh. On Saturday, Florence residents will be holding a rally to mirror a larger event in our nation's capital (the one in support of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists). Those attending will be the same crowd that harassed — with obscenities and threats — a smallish BLM rally some of the local high school kids held over a year ago.

I have lived here for years and would never, in good conscience, promote the place as an option for the OP, especially since it seems they have children.

The numbers may show that Florence leans slightly blue, but those numbers are caused by California retirees, many of whom engage only lightly with the community, if at all.

There's a well-represented bad element in this town that does things like patrol the streets looking for "antifa." Ignorance and racism are rampant here. The mayor and half the city council are entrenched in conspiracy philosophy.

I'd take Baker City over Florence any day even though it looks more conservative on paper. For the most part, it's a healthier type of conservatism than what's found here.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Sigh. On Saturday, Florence residents will be holding a rally to mirror a larger event in our nation's capital (the one in support of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists). Those attending will be the same crowd that harassed — with obscenities and threats — a smallish BLM rally some of the local high school kids held over a year ago.

I have lived here for years and would never, in good conscience, promote the place as an option for the OP, especially since it seems they have children.

The numbers may show that Florence leans slightly blue, but those numbers are caused by Calironia retirees, many of whom engage only lightly with the community if at all.

There's a well-represented bad element in this town that does things like patrol the streets looking for "antifa." Ignorance and racism are rampant here. The mayor and half the city council are entrenched in conspiracy philosophy.

I'd take Baker City over Florence any day even though it looks more conservative on paper. For the most part, it's a healthier type of conservatism than what's found here.

The Dallas is also a pretty blatantly-conservative and insular place. I wouldn’t put it on any list of progressive open cities. Hood River is a much better option.

[ejisme]

Eastern Oregon (La Grande and Baker areas) are very conservative as people have mentioned, but not aggressively so. The issue for OP is that the racial demographic is nearly all white, with a fair percentage of Hispanics and much smaller Asian and Black populations. Not that anyone will overtly confront anyone, but school aged kids will certainly see very few racial peers, and we all know kids can be mean to anyone that is different. I think the Eugene area might be best. Still rainy, but not as much as Portland. Still big enough to have a big mix of the races.

[redguard57]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Sigh. On Saturday, Florence residents will be holding a rally to mirror a larger event in our nation's capital (the one in support of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists). Those attending will be the same crowd that harassed — with obscenities and threats — a smallish BLM rally some of the local high school kids held over a year ago.

I have lived here for years and would never, in good conscience, promote the place as an option for the OP, especially since it seems they have children.

The numbers may show that Florence leans slightly blue, but those numbers are caused by California retirees, many of whom engage only lightly with the community, if at all.

There's a well-represented bad element in this town that does things like patrol the streets looking for "antifa." Ignorance and racism are rampant here. The mayor and half the city council are entrenched in conspiracy philosophy.

I'd take Baker City over Florence any day even though it looks more conservative on paper. For the most part, it's a healthier type of conservatism than what's found here.

I really do not understand the confrontational approach, nor the conspiracies. I don't get how they think those tactics make anything better.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by redguard57

I really do not understand the confrontational approach, nor the conspiracies. I don't get how they think those tactics make anything better.

What I don't get is how trivial so much of it is.

I could understand if people were protesting serious consequential life and death issues like segregation, nuclear war, environmental destruction, or other consequential government policies. But these days it is just trivialities like masks in the middle of a pandemic, or obscure academic theories like critical race theory that aren't actually being taught in the schools anyway. It seems like the more trivial and silly the issue, the more intensely people get riled up.

[reneeh63]

Originally Posted by AliStJohn

Could anyone offer suggestions of areas that are sunnier than the Portland area and would be friendly to a non-white, progressive family? Open to rural or small towns. The Willamette Valley looks nice, but is the weather as depressing for some as Portland in the winter? Not trying to judge with the post title - We are currently in AZ so familiar with states that are home to people of all kinds, we just don’t want to end up in one of the scary parts.

Maybe cross a climate map with a map showing the % of voters for Biden (at least at the county level)?