Can you take this Portland forum seriously? (Green: coop, loan)

[Nell Plotts]

Anyone who takes a forum such as this as gospel about anything is making a mistake, it is not (or at max lightly) moderated. Like political commentators in the broadcast media folks with very strong opinions abound and the reader has no way to evaluate the quality of the point of view.

Forums such as this should not be anyone's sole source of information.

[PNW-type-gal]

As seriously as any other source of internet opinion, sure.

As to the idea that people aren't reflecting that city correctly - the city isn't one homogeneous thing and neither are the people who live here. Depending on your beliefs, your background, where you live and where you work, your opinion and experiences can be radically different from someone else's, yet both versions are relatively true.

[sayulita]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

As seriously as any other source of internet opinion, sure.

As to the idea that people aren't reflecting that city correctly - the city isn't one homogeneous thing and neither are the people who live here. Depending on your beliefs, your background, where you live and where you work, your opinion and experiences can be radically different from someone else's, yet both versions are relatively true.

Amen to that!
Portland is paradise! No wait - it's a dump!
The weather isn't a problem! No wait - it's killing me!
Portland is cutting edge progressive! No wait - it's a podunk backwater with tons of social problems!

It's all in what you bring to it and what you want from it. Not working for you? Try someplace new.

[lawmomma]

To the OP... do you have a job yet? If so, did you have it before you moved? Or did you find it quickly after moving? If not, are you looking, and do you think others assessments of the job outlook are accurate?

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by sayulita

Amen to that!
Portland is paradise! No wait - it's a dump!
The weather isn't a problem! No wait - it's killing me!
Portland is cutting edge progressive! No wait - it's a podunk backwater with tons of social problems!

It's all in what you bring to it and what you want from it. Not working for you? Try someplace new.

[steel7]

Originally Posted by riverbird

When I lived in Northern California, I rarely visited the CA forum. Why should I? I already knew all about it! ;-)

I appreciate the people in the state/city forums, including this one, who do live in the places and are willing to share what they know with others. Now that I'm living temporarily in the midwest, I post in my state's forum to help others who are considering moving there. I've been lurking in the Portland forum because I'm planning my next move.

I'm the opposite of steel7. I prefer cloudy weather, like Democrats, and don't need a job because I'm retired. ;-)

I dont dislike cloudy weaher but a month or so straight of it would depress me. I so miss the pa summer rains, fall, first frost & first snow.

If i had the money & means i would move back to western penna. At least during the fall & winter the sun comes out.

[tablemtn]

Portland isn't a huge city, but it's also not a small town. It is large enough to where someone can spend days, weeks, or months in the city and only see a relatively few areas, or only end up interacting with a few particular groups of people. These may not overlap much at all with the social circles or hangouts of other Portlanders.

I've met downtowners who have rarely been across the Willamette, and east-siders who rarely go downtown, and so on.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by tablemtn

Portland isn't a huge city, but it's also not a small town. It is large enough to where someone can spend days, weeks, or months in the city and only see a relatively few areas, or only end up interacting with a few particular groups of people. These may not overlap much at all with the social circles or hangouts of other Portlanders.

I've met downtowners who have rarely been across the Willamette, and east-siders who rarely go downtown, and so on.

This is so true. I don't know why people have the impression that Portland is just one thing. It is many things. You may find multitudes of hipsters on Hawthorne for example but you won't find that many actually living in the area. There may be a good percentage of African Americans or other ethnic groups visible downtown but you don't see a great mix in individual neighborhoods. There is a pretty good variety of lifestyles, ideas, and people here. Just like anywhere else.

There is more than likely something for everyone in Portland because it's a large enough city to have many opportunites. Trying to pinpoint it to having just one or two main traits or features is not being accurate.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by tablemtn

Portland isn't a huge city, but it's also not a small town. It is large enough to where someone can spend days, weeks, or months in the city and only see a relatively few areas, or only end up interacting with a few particular groups of people. These may not overlap much at all with the social circles or hangouts of other Portlanders.

I've met downtowners who have rarely been across the Willamette, and east-siders who rarely go downtown, and so on.

Goodpoints. And Portland is a fairly large city in area---from the border with Gresham to the end of the West Hills and Washington County, you are travelling a pretty far distance. And when you get to the entire Metro area you have a lot of inner-Portland residents who would have no idea how to get around Hillsboro or Gresham.

I used to work on SE 122nd and Division a few years back, and that whole area felt like a completely different city compared to the inner Eastside neighborhoods I've mostly lived in. And you really hear very little about Portland east of SE 82nd. Same thing with much of SW Portland--the wooded, hilly neighborhoods are closer to the suburbs in Lake Oswego and Beaverton than the rest of Portland. And I've taken people up to St. Johns who were surprised to learn that neighborhood even existed.

The most visible face of Portland is the downtown and NW area---and then maybe the Hawthorne and inner-SE Portland neighborhoods. If you are a tourist or a potential transplant visiting from outside the city these are most likely going to be the areas where you get your opinion of the city from.

[NativePortland]

I am a native Portlander since 1972 when I was born in Emanuel Hospital. My family has been in the Portland area since my father came here in 1957 after the Hungarian revolution. I used to love Portland and be very proud of the direction our city was growing in. I have lived on NE Alberta, Happy Valley, and the Lloyd Center district each for about ten years. My wife and I lived in LA for a year and moved back to the Alberta area. Since my family has owned property all over the East side we got to be involved in neighborhoods of various kinds over the years in a very hands-on way. When we moved back to Portland we noticed a change in 2006 and has progressed rapidly. It was almost like Portland had turned into some kind of joke. The next thing we knew all these people were walking around in clogs and hillbilly overalls and spewing about eco this and vegan that. Now people are keeping goats and chickens in the city limits as pets(not just a few people this is a major trend). We started to notice that a lot of this new stuff was from people moving here trying to create a utopian bicycle eco city that they had read about before they moved here. So, the Native portlander is becoming extinct. My wife and I like to go to places like Stark Street Pizza which has been here since 1965. It's hard to give you a real idea of what Portland is like because of all the changes. It's rainy and gloomy, yes. The weather goes through cycles. Some years it will be warmer and dry for a few years and then cloudier for a few. But, this is the first year I can remember that it didn't reach 100 Degrees. The homeless population is really bad and getting worse all the time. We are thinking of moving back to LA because we don't recognize Portland anymore and the priorities of the city are getting really silly (Bike lanes & pro-homeless politics).