Portland, where young people go to retire (Mission: live, costs)

[Beenhere4ever]

Save-a-lot isn't "big brand". SuperValu has been in trouble (they headquarter just west of my city). They own Albertsons which is just a wee bit bigger than Save-A-Lot. I just checked and Portland has a bunch of Albertsons. I think "leaving town" is more about the retail industry than about Portland.

[Kevin98103]

Originally Posted by AndyAMG

Hopefully, that will deter people from coming here....

That sounds like fending away new people to me.

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

The object isn't "fending away new people", it is aimed at fending off people who have failed other places and think magic will happen in Portland. Believe me, I started my work life in Portland, and at that time I was number one candidate to be shed. And had it happen more than once. But one job I got became a way to slip into a job in a town with better employment circumstances. I thought many times about coming back to Portland, but I doubted I would do any better. Plus I met my wife who has spent here entire life here. So I visit Portland, but I don't knowingly dive into unemployment there. When you are economically solid some place, it takes deep thinking and realism before you let it slip. That being said, Portland has to have opportunities for people with needed skills. Just don't go there with nothing to offer and assume "it will work out". Portland businesses are like those anywhere. They want to hire people who add value to the staff. They don't want to rescue castaways.

So this article and thread is about college educated young people who are content working for less pay than they would somewhere else, because they like Portland. Why would you assume Portland businesses wouldnt want them, and what does your "object" and mini life story have to do with it?

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Kevin98103

When I lived in Portland in the 90s, there were strangely similar stories. And how precious there are still people trying to fend away new people with a bad attitude, how 1980s

I think this article is about as good of an outlook as Portland could hope for, given the circumstances. New graduates just don't have the same outlook they did in prior generations, this country is going to be a mess for a long time, regardless what happens in this election. Debt, debt, and crumbling infrastructure. Young, educated, and creative enough to see Portland's potential despite the current job market is a recipe for future success, it just won't be tomorrow or the day after.

I actually lived in Portland in the 1980's and still do. What I observed was just the opposite. Young people moved here wanting jobs and they wanted them at a good salary. People already living here often did not welcome them because they felt that there were not enough jobs to go around. I experienced this attitude first hand when I was transferred by my company from Chicago as did the person who was transferred before me. So did others I met who had moved here from other cities as well.

The concept of young people moving here to "retire" I think is fairly new. It began perhaps in the late 90's or early 2000. The concept of young people willing to take a job that would pay more elsewhere is understandable when you realize that's the price they know they have to pay to live here. They are willing to accept that and make do.

Of course these are mostly young single people or couples without kids. Once the families begin to grow, this situation may change.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Of course these are mostly young single people or couples without kids.

I have thought that instead of Portland being a place where "young people go to retire", young people go to Portland because it's a place that doesn't make them grow up and deal with the realities of life right away.

They can "play around" before the responsibilities of families, jobs, and maturity hit them hard.


The time that they spend in Portland is like a buffer between school and real life.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Minervah

I actually lived in Portland in the 1980's and still do. What I observed was just the opposite. Young people moved here wanting jobs and they wanted them at a good salary. People already living here often did not welcome them because they felt that there were not enough jobs to go around. I experienced this attitude first hand when I was transferred by my company from Chicago as did the person who was transferred before me. So did others I met who had moved here from other cities as well.

The concept of young people moving here to "retire" I think is fairly new. It began perhaps in the late 90's or early 2000. The concept of young people willing to take a job that would pay more elsewhere is understandable when you realize that's the price they know they have to pay to live here. They are willing to accept that and make do.

Of course these are mostly young single people or couples without kids. Once the families begin to grow, this situation may change.

There is a lot of people who move here in there twenties(and thirties) as a way to have a cheap bohemian lifestyle and sort of get by on the cheap while having fun. However, whenever the local or national media wants to do a story about people in the 18-35 age group in Portland, they're going to only focus on this certain section of the demographic.

I moved here, like many of my friends in my mid 20s. All of us at this point in our early 30s have some sort of "real" job, many of us have kids, are paying off mortgages or so on--and we all live in inner Portland and like to go out to eat and drink and see shows occasionally---though we're not the free-living hipster stereotype. Everyone I know is like this. However to read media articles you'd think everyone under the age of 40, just spends all day at a coffeshop on a laptop. It's not a cool story for journalists to interview a 29-year-old guy who's a manager at a Trader Joe's or commutes to Hillsboro to work as an engineer or someone who works at a bank or someone who's a stay-at-home parent. It doesn't fit the approved stereotype of "Portlandia" that both sides want to portray.

[Minervah]

To add to the last two posters, there are also plenty of young people who are in earnest about working and building careers here. My last job working for a large insurance company was to train entry level people in an overview of tasks so they could go on to the next levels of opportunities in the company. We got them from a temporary agency that paid virtually nothing. The majority had college degrees and were in their twenties.

I never saw young people work so hard. They were all eager to learn and without exception moved up to bigger and better jobs within the company. I was always so proud of my "whippersnappers." I am retired but some of us still keep in touch and go to lunch on occasion. But as the previous posters stated, these aren't the people the media wants to portray because they don't make good stories.

I don't know if Portland has more of the type the media likes to portray or if it just appears that way because they like to portray them over any other.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

When it comes to Portland's self promotion, that cool hip twentysomething image is everything.

Like you guys upstairs of me have said, very few people outside of Portland want to hear about the boring normal part of living in Portland.

They want to know more about the stereotypical Portland, which exists, but is such a tiny small part of actually scratching out a living in this town.

[Minervah]

Just thinking , many cities have stereotypes thrust upon them. Maybe this is just going to be Portland's. Years from now people will ask how did Portland come by this reputation when it no longer exists. But people will always think of it as the "city where young people go to retire."

After all, there are still those who think it was Lake Erie in Cleveland that caught fire in the 60's. And that Chicago got its nickname "The Windy City" because of the wind.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by Minervah

Just thinking , many cities have stereotypes thrust upon them. Maybe this is just going to be Portland's. Years from now people will ask how did Portland come by this reputation when it no longer exists. But people will always think of it as the "city where young people go to retire."

After all, there are still those who think it was Lake Erie in Cleveland that caught fire in the 60's. And that Chicago got its nickname "The Windy City" because of the wind.

And some people still believe San Francisco is all free-loving hippies all these years later... Though it's tough to be an easy-going hippy these days in a town where even studios rent for $2,000 a month minimum and Google and Facebook millionaires are driving up the price real estate even more.

[NWGirl74]

Originally Posted by Minervah

To add to the last two posters, there are also plenty of young people who are in earnest about working and building careers here.

This was me. I moved here right out of college in 1996. It wasn't because of any reputation Portland had; it was because I'm from a small town in northern Idaho with no opportunities and wanted more out of my life than what I would have had had I just gone back home. Boise had no appeal to me, and at the time, there was a lot of crime against women in Spokane. So I came here hoping to make a good life for myself, and I have. I didn't cross my fingers and hope for the best. I secured a job first and was very fortunate to have a sorority sister whose family was kind enough to take me in for a couple of months until I got on my feet.

I didn't read the article about businesses leaving the area but I agree with those who've said it's financial within those companies vs location. Some of the retail/big box companies are really hurting right now.