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I've spent some time in Eugene, but never visited Corvallis.
Eugene seems to be great except for the student apartment areas where the antics of some of the students are a complete abomination. Other than that, Eugene is a very mellow, friendly town.
How different/similar is Corvallis: friendliness, resources....bike trails? Or anything else you'd like to share...
I do not live in Oregon (yet) but thought I would add some of my thoughts just in case..I just drove through Eugene and therefor can't offer anything helpful there...but Corvallis is a great town. I hear there are bike trails everywhere, and when i visited I noticed everyone I came into contact with was very friendly. The town had a great feel to it. I actually fell in love with Corvallis and am really wanting to move there myself if possible! Anyway, thought I would offer what little info I had! =)
I do not live in Oregon (yet) but thought I would add some of my thoughts just in case..I just drove through Eugene and therefor can't offer anything helpful there...but Corvallis is a great town. I hear there are bike trails everywhere, and when i visited I noticed everyone I came into contact with was very friendly. The town had a great feel to it. I actually fell in love with Corvallis and am really wanting to move there myself if possible! Anyway, thought I would offer what little info I had! =)
The unemployment stats came out for January and Corvallis is approx 7.5% vs. approx 11.5% in Eugene.
Does anyone have an explanation for this - Corvallis is several points below Oregon's average of about 11%.
I have visited corvallis a number of times in the last ten years-different friends have lived there during that time. It does have bike trails throughout,and is very bucolic,mellow,peaceful,without the meth and crime problems of eugene,where i also lived for a few months. Corvallis is often touted as one of the best college towns for biking. I whole-heartedly agree with this assessment. It also has two co-ops,and alot of local businesses. Last I knew,they petitioned and would not allow home depot or walmart in,and maybe starbucks as well. It's a very active,civic minded population. The river with trails along it runs through parts of town,and in the summer,bushes and bushes of blackberries run rampant-we just picked them while walking. The university campus is one of the more beautiful I've seen (others I find beautiful,for comparison, include ashland,or; missoula,mt,flagstaff,az). It's a great town-and if you are looking for a true college town experience that is truly walking it's talk,Corvallis would be it. Eugene would NOT,IMO and experience. [not anymore,anyway] Although only 30 miles away from one another,they are worlds apart in so many other ways.
Last edited by lrmsd; 03-04-2010 at 10:47 PM..
Reason: typo
The unemployment stats came out for January and Corvallis is approx 7.5% vs. approx 11.5% in Eugene.
Does anyone have an explanation for this - Corvallis is several points below Oregon's average of about 11%.
Eugene is now really a small meth city,that used to be a more bucolic college town. It has grown,and also absorbs the local areas around it,more than corvallis does,and those areas are poor,working class. I don't have specific answers,economically-except I wonder what type of industries Eugene used to rely on,that no longer exist or have declined? Also,Corvallis has a number of tech industry jobs-hewlett packard is there,for one. Eugene never has seemed to develop IT or Biotech,etc. industries.
Corvallis is not right on the 5;eugene is. you notice salem has similar issues-it's a more transient place,picks up folks passing through,and unfortunately,this includes a variety of types of people,some who will stay and not find work,or were never employed to begin with...You find this throughout the country-smaller cities that run right along a major freeway,or that have two freeways dissecting them,frequently do not fare as well as those who are situated a bit of a ways from the main routes of the state. Unless it is a major metro area,like portland,for example,and you will have enough economic diversity and potential jobs,to balance it out a bit more. Just my .02.
Eugene is now really a small meth city,that used to be a more bucolic college town. It has grown,and also absorbs the local areas around it,more than corvallis does,and those areas are poor,working class. I don't have specific answers,economically-except I wonder what type of industries Eugene used to rely on,that no longer exist or have declined? Also,Corvallis has a number of tech industry jobs-hewlett packard is there,for one. Eugene never has seemed to develop IT or Biotech,etc. industries.
Corvallis is not right on the 5; eugene is. you notice salem has similar issues-it's a more transient place,picks up folks passing through,and unfortunately,this includes a variety of types of people,some who will stay and not find work,or were never employed to begin with...You find this throughout the country-smaller cities that run right along a major freeway,or that have two freeways dissecting them,frequently do not fare as well as those who are situated a bit of a ways from the main routes of the state.Unless it is a major metro area,like portland,for example,and you will have enough economic diversity and potential jobs,to balance it out a bit more. Just my .02.
You make several excellent points:
1. "I don't have specific answers,economically-except I wonder what type of industries Eugene used to rely on,that no longer exist or have declined? Also,Corvallis has a number of tech industry jobs-hewlett packard is there,for one. Eugene never has seemed to develop IT or Biotech,etc. industries."
Cities with high-tech white collar workers alongside blue collar workers are surviving this recession: Boulder, Denver, Albuquerque, Seattle, and Corvallis has only 7% unemployment compared to 11% in Eugene (Dec. 2009 BLS).
I don't know what industries Eugene used to depend on for its survival, but I agree, they are in decline or no longer exist.
Eugene Timber and Wood Products Manufacturing is probably down, because of the far left radical anarchists who masquerade as environmentalists, getting all the media attention in their blockades of clearcut logging.
Admittedly, I was against (although never protested) clearcut logging as a student in high school, but then with college education, learned about primary and secondary succession from the great Dr. Roger del Moral. I think a problem with Oregon's environmentalists is their lack of education in basic ecology and forestry.
You make a good point about cities and where they are relative to freeways. Flagstaff and Santa Fe, Arizona attract transients, as does Tucson, Vegas, and Phoenix, and all are next to freeways. On the other hand, with your Corvallis analogy, Boulder is 30 miles NW of Denver, and has low crime, no meth, and low unemployment. Yet on the other hand, many areas of rural western Colorado have meth, all of Arizona including rural areas, NW New Mexico, and much of Utah.
I lived in Eugene for eight years, 1998-2005. I have never lived in Corvallis, but am certainly familiar with it.
My thoughts are that both cities are somwhat defined by the State universities, but Corvallis somewhat more, because it is smaller.
Eugene generally feels much larger. Corvallis still has a small-town feel to it, especially downtown. Eugene, while not Portland, feels more like a medium-sized city and metro area with an actual freeway system and thriving suburbs. While Eugene is "hippie-central" in the core, it is surrounded by the usual suburban feel you get anywhere else. The northside is especially middle to upper class, with as many conservatives as liberals, who tend to be the "image" of the city, however inaccurate.
I lived in Eugene for eight years, 1998-2005. I have never lived in Corvallis, but am certainly familiar with it.
My thoughts are that both cities are somwhat defined by the State universities, but Corvallis somewhat more, because it is smaller.
Eugene generally feels much larger. Corvallis still has a small-town feel to it, especially downtown. Eugene, while not Portland, feels more like a medium-sized city and metro area with an actual freeway system and thriving suburbs. While Eugene is "hippie-central" in the core, it is surrounded by the usual suburban feel you get anywhere else. The northside is especially middle to upper class, with as many conservatives as liberals, who tend to be the "image" of the city, however inaccurate.
I've never seen a more dilapidated city than Eugene. There are potholes, sidewalk cracks, tree roots, overgrown vegetation, and run down buildings. Clearly, the city is in economic decline, and other than Santa Cruz, I have never seen a city with as many homeless people. The unemployment is very high in these places, contributing to the homeless issues. I am sorry to see this. Eugene does not have enough of a tax base from white collar workers to support its infrastructure. Compare Eugene to Ashland - a very clean, liberal city w/ a large tax base from tourists and California retirees - and you have two entirely different worlds.
I think Eugene lost its charm sometime in the last decade. There are many other smaller up and coming places that hippies would find much more appealing than Eugene. I'm not sure if Corvallis is clean or not, does anyone know? As City Data's Senior Member "lmrsd" pointed out, they do have white collar jobs there to contribute to the tax base.
I think Eugene lost its charm sometime in the last decade. There are many other smaller up and coming places that hippies would find much more appealing than Eugene. I'm not sure if Corvallis is clean or not, does anyone know? As City Data's Senior Member "lmrsd" pointed out, they do have white collar jobs there to contribute to the tax base.
Yes Corvallis is a clean city. Corvallis has faired better than other cities because of HP and the University and there are a few smaller high tech companies in the area. Even they are having trouble keeping jobs there. A small high tech company is heading to Korea for the manufacturing. The designers will stay here, but the plant will be located overseas.
Eugene is four times the size of Corvallis so I don't think you can really compare them.
I've never seen a more dilapidated city than Eugene.
You've apparently never been to Flint, MI.
I've lived in both Eugene and Corvallis. Silverfall is right; it's really not a fair comparison since Eugene is so much larger. I'm not one to generally defend Eugene--when I was living there it seemed like it was constantly trying to define itself (Are we a college town? Are we a hippie town? Are we a timber town?) rather than just being.
The thing I realized later about Eugene is that I thought it was trying to define itself, but the reality is that few of it's residents give a flying leap about what I think, or what you think, or what anyone thinks. People who love Eugene love it for all the reasons you state--cracked sidewalks and all.
Corvallis is smaller, and different, but not different enough for it to meet your "clean" standards, CCCVDUR. In the 10 years I lived there, I was always perplexed with the city's lack of care for its public spaces. For example, lots of money went into improving the riverfront in Corvallis--removing nonnative vegetation, plantings, decorative hardscaping, nice fountain--only for it to have a trash and weeds problem the next year. I thought it was disgraceful, especially when compared to neighboring Albany (which gets a bum rap in my opinion) which takes great care of its public parks and spaces (even street medians). Couple that with a small homeless problem, lots of vacant retail spaces, and major downsizing/cost cutting it its main employers (H-P and OSU) over the last few years and you have a town that is, in many ways, a smaller version of Eugene. I'm sure some would disagree with me on this.
One more thing. I'd love to see figures for underemployment in Corvallis. There's a whole class of service workers there who serve the students, retirees, and people who work at the University, H-P, and in the medical community. Combine the underemployed with the students (many of whom aren't searching for work and therefore don't appear on the unemployment rolls) and bingo--you get a lower unemployment figure than the rest of the state.
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