Portland Questions: Terrain, Jesus, Military, Motorcycles, Booze (Eugene, Salem: home, stores)

[smoking357]

What's flatter, Portland or Seattle?

How Bible-Belty is Portland, compared to Dixie?

What military installations are in town, and does the military dominate Portland's social and political culture?

If it rains so much in Portland, how active is the motorcycling?

Does Oregon have Sunday alcohol sales?

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by smoking357

What's flatter, Portland or Seattle?

How Bible-Belty is Portland, compared to Dixie?

What military installations are in town, and does the military dominate Portland's social and political culture?

If it rains so much in Portland, how active is the motorcycling?

Does Oregon have Sunday alcohol sales?

Flatter - hmmm, probably Portland, barely. But neither is flat.

Bible-Belt - the Northwest has the lowest church attendance in the US (or second lowest, I forget).

Military - there is a National Guard base at PDX and that's about it. Oregon has no large military base, per se (leaving out Umatilla and the Coast Guard).

Motorcycles - I see people out in the rain. Not as many as in the dry months, but my neighbor had a ballistic nylon jumpsuit that was waterproof and rode to work every day it wasn't icy or snowing (it snows two or three times in winter, usually not much of an accumulation).

Alcohol - grocery stores (and corner marts) sell beer and wine 7 days a week. Hard alcohol is a state-run franchise and keeps short hours, although I believe there are just a few in the PDX area that are open Sunday.

[philwithbeard]

US Army has a base in Washington, last I heard, a Ranger Battalion called it home (2nd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment?) Ft. Lewis?

Of course there is the whole US Navy submarine bit in Puget Sound that nobody talks about.

The main thing to know about: Portland is a very Left-Cost politics community. So is Seattle to some extent. Oregon's politics is dominated by the I-5 corridor from Portland to Eugene. Very heavy and strong Democratic Party voting. Rest of state is hard core red-state Republican, but not enough voters to overcome the high population and voter turnout of Portland, Salem, Eugene.

Don't forget, the Pacific Northwest is a tucket away corner of the lower 48, and we are mostly forgotten about by Washington DC. We're isolated by geography (mountain ranges, ocean) and distance to our very large neighbor to the south, California. That allows Oregon to go it's own way, and not be bothered by all the East of the Mississippi stuff.

Oh, and it actually only drizzles, not heavy rain and it only rains a lot for 8 or 9 months out of the year. July- Oct the weather is dry, many days of clear sky, and low humidity.

There are part of Portland that is very flat. A 1000' ridge just West of Downtown. Portland is left over of an ancient Lava Field -- Google: Boring Lava Field, Wiki.
Several very old volcanoes make up parts of Portland. Nearby Mt. Hood is active Volcano, just like Mt. St. Helen, sister mountain to Mt. Hood, and Mt Rainier up by Seattle.

Not uncommon for Motorcycle clubs from SF Bay area to road trip up I-5 into Oregon. Many Reasons.

[backdrifter]

Portland Bible-belty? Military in Oregon? Haha. That's funny.

I'd say Portland is much flatter than Seattle, if we're just talking about the cities proper. Seattle is probably hillier than every city in the country besides Astoria and San Francisco. Portland, however, has vast expanses of pancake flat, and really only has a couple large hills (besides the West Hills, which are away from the center of population and on the very edge of the city).

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by backdrifter

Portland, however, has vast expanses of pancake flat, and really only has a couple large hills (besides the West Hills, which are away from the center of population and on the very edge of the city).

I wouldn't call Portland flat at all - not until you get out into Washington County or down into the Willamette Valley proper, past Woodburn, does it get flat. West Hills, Mountain Park, Mt. Tabor, Alameda Ridge, Mt. Scott, Oregon City, West Linn - trust me, if you bicycle Portland, it's not flat.

[pathrunner]

backdrifter, you're crackin' me up! Too funny. And true.

[beenhereandthere]

Both are really hilly, but Portland is slightly flatter.
The only major West Coast city, that isn't hilly, is Sacramento.

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

I wouldn't call Portland flat at all - not until you get out into Washington County or down into the Willamette Valley proper, past Woodburn, does it get flat. West Hills, Mountain Park, Mt. Tabor, Alameda Ridge, Mt. Scott, Oregon City, West Linn - trust me, if you bicycle Portland, it's not flat.

Hey, I said a couple large hills in the city proper. I wasn't lying... But you're right, on bicycle, its definitely anything but flat. It's not Sacramento or LA Basin flat by any stretch of the imagination.

Originally Posted by pathrunner

backdrifter, you're crackin' me up! Too funny. And true.