Portland Gloom (Ashland: relocation, real estate, budget)

[nancy thereader]

Wonderful photos, Gucci. Thanks for posting them.

[5chevin5]

The 3rd pick from the bottom is a "upscale" Vietnemese restaurant. Its in the Pearl District....

I think an earlier comment on the "decay" of the downtown area is a little off....now I dont argue that its not NYC. Chicago, Vegas....but we know that. Its a little big city. The anchor of Oregon's industry up until 20 years ago was logging, mills and agriculture. Not a huge industrial city. The fact that the high tech industry is even there is only a 15 year old phenom...So give the town a minute to catch up! There are some great restaurants, art walks, bars (not so much meat market night clubs...but who does that after you pass your early twenties??) bookstores,a decent museum, concert venues, farmers markets...etc etc. If you like roller coasters and pro sports....Portland wont be fun

I dont really know much about central Florida, I did live in Miami...and hated it, the people were more superficial then anyone I had ever met in the NW..(very generalized).how is the public transpo in central Florida? I cant imagine that in an equal sized city to PDX it could be much improved. As far as outdoor activites....it depends on what kinda sports you like. The warm weather sportsman will not like the Pacific Northwest....that should be obvious before you ever even move there. The year round sportsman will love it!! Like a previous post said...a little rain doesnt slow most Oregonians down.....

Some places are "Night and Day" apart...I would say my opinion is that Oregon and Florida/Texas/So Cal (anyplace in the South as a rule) are polar opposites. There is little to no comparison..I hear Austin is nice, but again weather is ....different.

IMO
5

[Supernova7]

Originally Posted by aawest

Well Portland has some filthy areas too just not in the immediate downtown area. NE Portland and Gresham have crime and more of a dirty look to it. Contrary to what you read on here Portland does have problems like other big cities.

I would like to see more of those areas. What some consider "filthy" can be home to others. I can't imagine the whole city being so neat and ordered. By looking at some of the pics you can't imagine how low income people fit in to this city. It seems more like a retirement community, at least that's my impression. People ready to retire and not looking for much action and entertainment. Maybe a grocery store and bookstore to fill the time.

[Supernova7]

Originally Posted by 5chevin5

The 3rd pick from the bottom is a "upscale" Vietnemese restaurant. Its in the Pearl District....

I think an earlier comment on the "decay" of the downtown area is a little off....now I dont argue that its not NYC. Chicago, Vegas....but we know that. Its a little big city. The anchor of Oregon's industry up until 20 years ago was logging, mills and agriculture. Not a huge industrial city. The fact that the high tech industry is even there is only a 15 year old phenom...So give the town a minute to catch up! There are some great restaurants, art walks, bars (not so much meat market night clubs...but who does that after you pass your early twenties??) bookstores,a decent museum, concert venues, farmers markets...etc etc. If you like roller coasters and pro sports....Portland wont be fun

I dont really know much about central Florida, I did live in Miami...and hated it, the people were more superficial then anyone I had ever met in the NW..(very generalized).how is the public transpo in central Florida? I cant imagine that in an equal sized city to PDX it could be much improved. As far as outdoor activites....it depends on what kinda sports you like. The warm weather sportsman will not like the Pacific Northwest....that should be obvious before you ever even move there. The year round sportsman will love it!! Like a previous post said...a little rain doesnt slow most Oregonians down.....

Some places are "Night and Day" apart...I would say my opinion is that Oregon and Florida/Texas/So Cal (anyplace in the South as a rule) are polar opposites. There is little to no comparison..I hear Austin is nice, but again weather is ....different.

IMO
5

Austin is more like a small town than a city. Similar to Madisson,WI. It's more like a mini suburb with lots of bars and action for the college kids. University of Texas is right there. You need $$$ to live there and you better have a car. Chicago may well be the last "real city" that's affordable. Houston wouldn't be bad if it didn't have so much sprawl and poor public transit.

Have you been to Seattle?

[Lillietta]

I would love to see actual "neighborhoods" as opposed to a "pretty and clean" downtown.

All I know is that when I visited, I loved it, having lived in both Chicago and NYC and wanting to downscale citywise, but my daughter, having never lived in those two places, said, coming in from the airport, "I'm not liking it." It turned she didn't care for the city because she wanted beauty all around and the city is not pretty all around.

SuperNova, there is NO way you can judge this city until you visit it. No way at all. Because it is, to me, so varied, each area offering something new and different.

That area of red concrete is Pioneer Square which is called Portland's living room because many activities take place there, concerts, movies, flower shows, and mainly the lunchtime crowd just sitting, eating sandwiches out in the sun and watching the world go by.

As I said earlier in a thread, I compare it in some ways to San Franciso, physically in the hills and some architecture, a combination of San Fran's Mission District to Russian Hill so you get it all - poor to rich and in between. You definitely can't tell by a picture; it's also atmosphere and the only way to get that is to get here.

[RxMarcus]

Originally Posted by Supernova7

I would like to see more of those areas. What some consider "filthy" can be home to others. I can't imagine the whole city being so neat and ordered. By looking at some of the pics you can't imagine how low income people fit in to this city. It seems more like a retirement community, at least that's my impression. People ready to retire and not looking for much action and entertainment. Maybe a grocery store and bookstore to fill the time.

If you want a ton of pics of Portland (or anything) just go to flickr.com and search. You can search as general or specific as you want. Searching "Portland, Or" gave me over 40,000 hits, so be specific if you want a certain neighborhood.

[RxMarcus]

Since Portland's public transportation was brought up originally in this thread, I have a question...do the streetcars only provide service to the west side of the city?

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by RxMarcus

Since Portland's public transportation was brought up originally in this thread, I have a question...do the streetcars only provide service to the west side of the city?

There are two types of "rail" technology - the street car, which is only downtown, and MAX, the light rail. Max has 3 or 4 lines: the main line (east-west) from Hillsboro to Gresham is 50-something miles, the feeder line up to the airport (north on I-205), the feeder line up to the Expo Center (north on I-5, through much of North Portland), and the new line going in south on I-205 to Clackamas.

I think light rail is an excellent investment in the future - were I to complain about something public-transport-related, it would be the new ski lift tram up to OHSU, which struck me as an incredibly expensive item to benefit so few people.

[jojo4]

Originally Posted by RxMarcus

If you want a ton of pics of Portland (or anything) just go to flickr.com and search. You can search as general or specific as you want. Searching "Portland, Or" gave me over 40,000 hits, so be specific if you want a certain neighborhood.

Even on flickr, you won't see many crappy run down area pictures. Most photographers do not want to takes pictures of rundown area and mis fortunate people.

try searching for portland and homeless. There are a few pictures.

[jojo4]

Portland is trying to get an East side street car extension.
It is suppose to go from RiverPlace over the new Caruther bridge (planning) and loop up MLK and cross back on Burnside bridge.
This is just talks right now.

For now, the street cars are only on the west side.