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If you compare Portland to the major cities in the country, like New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, LA, and etc... Portland isn't too bad. Compared to places I would want to raise a family, I would group Portland as the best of the worst places. I do enjoy the weather though, being from an arid environment unending sun with smatterings of snow actually gets boring.
Having good public transit is nice, though it detracts from it when it becomes a mobile shelter and beggar focus. Pretty much every time I step on public transit I'm begged for money, and about once a week I would say the person is really aggressive. Nothing like some homeless guy trying to take your lunch out of your hand, or screaming at you to give him something because you're not generous, or even the nice public expelling of waste. The cops don't care.
I would say that you can find a nice job around Portland, or it would be nice if the cost of living wasn't a good deal higher then the mid west. In Denver I was living in a nice 3 bedroom apartment with washer/dryer, AC, nice large kitchen, pool...right on the edge of the urban redevelopments in Lowry. In Portland we have a converted 1960's 2 story slab motel with a new paint job, no parking, barely 10 foot galley kitchen, no laundry or clubhouse, about the same cost per bedroom....pretty much matches my first apartment in college. The sad thing is people have been slapping on new retreo paint jobs and landscaping to sell these as "quaint" condos.
The drug using population seems ot be more diffuse here then most places, easier to get around I think with fareless square and better services it's easy to turn anywhere to a squaler.
I came out here for a hefty raise and to gain experiance (plus we lived here before and liked it then, not anymore), and after a year I'm heading right back to Denver. It's more car friendly and aggressive on the homeless/drug users. There it's easier to drive in from the burbs and not have to dodge the gauntlet saying I have no cash. The sad thing is I'm not the first in my office to move away because of raising costs and harrassment, the whole reason I was picked was because there were no local candidates with my experiance and education.
Subsound this may interest you. A co-worker of mine moved his wife and two kids to Denver because he couldn't earn enough to support her as a-stay-at-home mom and it is very important to him that she do so. They were moving every year to a new apartment as the rent increased by leaps and bounds on the one they were previously been living in shot up out of his reach.
So he asked our company for a transfer to our Denver office. They gave him one. He had hoped that by living in Denver, he could save enough and have enough salary increases so he could move his family back to Portland.
It's not going to happen. We e-mail to keep in touch and he told me that although Denver isn't cheap, it is more affordable than Portland and he does not ever anticipate being able to come back here. In the meantime, he is beginning to really like Denver and he has had no trouble finding a place to live that is affordable and has not had his rent raised in the two years he has been living there as opposed to every six months as he experienced in Portland.
He and his spouse are encouraging me to move there now. I don't know if it's a good fit for an old geezer like me but I am going to visit them next year and get a feel for the place.
Regarding your comment on the aggressive beggars downtown, when I was out of work and found myself downtown for a job interview, I had very little money. I had to be on a careful budget to stretch the little I had. The aggressive beggars constantly hit me up for change. One day after running the beggar's gauntlet I let one poor guy have it. I screamed at him "What the bleep makes you think I have it to give you? You probably have more money on you now than I have. Why don't you give me some?"
Have you been to Florida? We saw 4 accidents in a matter of two hours while traveling on the causeway in Tampa.
Oh ****, I can agree with this as I live in FL. I wasnt driving in Oregon but from the looks of it when I was riding in Oregon, the drivers at least had a sense of emotion on the roads and would give the finger at you moreso whereas FL their dumb as hell. Unless these are the californians I witnessed or something.
I think FL is worse for driving than Oregon even. I lived in PA, FL and have been born and raised in MA, and my driving experience is in all those places and people in those other 2 states hardly ever use turn signals like they do in MA.
Portland negatives?? I've been there twice, (each for a week at a time) I've never had a problem and the people were nice to me. You want problems, try Baton Rouge, dirty, filthy, congested, crime rate off the charts, 110 degree summers, no wind, 100% humidity, and everyone there has their nose in the air. Nothing to do but drink, eat and go to the show or mall if you're a woman. Oh and there's always sitting in Tiger stadium sweating your "B's" off, putting up with obnoxious fans who have had way too much to drink. Nope anyone from down South would consider Portland a paradise.
AMEN BROTHER!! I have lived in FL 4 years and had an extended stay in Portland almost a month back and these people are lucky they are not in crappy states like LA, FL, MS, AL. Many times you dont realize how good you got it somewhere until your gone a bit.
If you compare Portland to the major cities in the country, like New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, LA, and etc... Portland isn't too bad. Compared to places I would want to raise a family, I would group Portland as the best of the worst places. I do enjoy the weather though, being from an arid environment unending sun with smatterings of snow actually gets boring.
Having good public transit is nice, though it detracts from it when it becomes a mobile shelter and beggar focus. Pretty much every time I step on public transit I'm begged for money, and about once a week I would say the person is really aggressive. Nothing like some homeless guy trying to take your lunch out of your hand, or screaming at you to give him something because you're not generous, or even the nice public expelling of waste. The cops don't care.
I would say that you can find a nice job around Portland, or it would be nice if the cost of living wasn't a good deal higher then the mid west. In Denver I was living in a nice 3 bedroom apartment with washer/dryer, AC, nice large kitchen, pool...right on the edge of the urban redevelopments in Lowry. In Portland we have a converted 1960's 2 story slab motel with a new paint job, no parking, barely 10 foot galley kitchen, no laundry or clubhouse, about the same cost per bedroom....pretty much matches my first apartment in college. The sad thing is people have been slapping on new retreo paint jobs and landscaping to sell these as "quaint" condos.
The drug using population seems ot be more diffuse here then most places, easier to get around I think with fareless square and better services it's easy to turn anywhere to a squaler.
I came out here for a hefty raise and to gain experiance (plus we lived here before and liked it then, not anymore), and after a year I'm heading right back to Denver. It's more car friendly and aggressive on the homeless/drug users. There it's easier to drive in from the burbs and not have to dodge the gauntlet saying I have no cash. The sad thing is I'm not the first in my office to move away because of raising costs and harrassment, the whole reason I was picked was because there were no local candidates with my experiance and education.
After reading this whole thing, its making me think twice for sure. I loved Portland and want to move there, but not at the cost that rent will always raise every 6 months with an old actual nice traditional city that is open minded deteriorating and making it yuppieville you can get anywhere else in this country. Its almost like, is it really worth the move from the east to go all the way out there west? Im really weighing in these factors.
A friend I know was claiming how people in the Pearl or even downtown couldnt stop staring at him because he looked so "weird" to them. It wasnt my experience but the fact this element is taking the city over and driving it expensive surely makes me think ntm the fact certain oregonian landlords may not be as friendly to out of towner tenants or they wont be as easy to rent to them. Despite the fact I really digged Portland, if this attitude does lie beneath, it may be best to look elsewhere.
I believe that Portland is a great place, i would not want to live there and raise my children there. I prefer the smaller community towns, like McMinnville, but Portland is a WONDERFUL place to visit and explore with many things to do. No matter where you go.. you will find "colorful" things.. Life is what you make of it.. Mine is half full i guess
A friend I know was claiming how people in the Pearl or even downtown couldnt stop staring at him because he looked so "weird" to them.
This one line caught my eye -- what on earth could you friend have been wearing that made anybody in the Pearl or downtown look at him funny? I say that with humor as I work downtown (PSU) and your average person strolling the park blocks may have tatoos running the entire length of his or her body, piercings on every appendage, Mohawk hair of various colors ... really, I love it.
So I'm trying to wonder what the hell kind of freak your friend must look like for anybody in PDX to take a second look!
It wasnt my experience but the fact this element is taking the city over and driving it expensive surely makes me think ntm the fact certain oregonian landlords may not be as friendly to out of towner tenants or they wont be as easy to rent to them. Despite the fact I really digged Portland, if this attitude does lie beneath, it may be best to look elsewhere.
This gives me pause because while I certainly agree that there are lots of jerkweeds in PDX (I don't mind the bums, it's the Merc SUV drivers in the Pearl I mostly want to flip off), for the most part I think it's a lovely, lovely place to live. And it saddens me to read of so many bad experiences. I don't doubt them, but at the same time I've lived here for a long time, in areas of town others have described as seedy/sketchy/etc., and ... well, PDX is really a lovely, lovely place to live.
Sure, if you hate rain and clouds, you most likely won't like it here but c'mon, that's pretty obvious on the face of things -- it rains here, people, I'm surprised at how many people are surprised by this. It's been raining here for the past several hundred thousand years, it ain't gonna stop now. Not even with global warming.
As far as the people and transients and weirdos go ... reminds me of an old story ...
A guy on a horse comes to the main road into a town, and stops to talk to an old man there.
"Hey, old man," the guy asks, "what kind of people live in your town?"
The old man looks up and asks in return, "If you don't mind my asking, where do you come from, stranger? What are people like there?"
"Oh, lots of no-goods, bums, crime. I hated it there, nobody was friendly, everybody was cold and mean."
"I'm sorry to hear that," said the old man. "Alas, I'm afraid that you'll only find the same thing here."
"Thanks for the warning, old man," replies the guy on the horse, and rides away.
A few days later, another guy on a horse approaches the town, and, funny, he encounters the same old man.
"Hey, old man," the guy asks, "what kind of people live in your town?"
The old man looks up and asks in return, "If you don't mind my asking, where do you come from, stranger? What are people like there?"
"It's a very nice town. I loved it there, everybody was friendly, I'll miss them all but I'm looking for a new job and new experiences."
"I'm glad to hear that," said the old man. "And I know you'll fit right in here, this is warm and friendly town and I know you'll make friends soon."
"Thanks for the welcome, old man," replies the guy on the horse, and rides on in.
Subsound this may interest you. A co-worker of mine moved his wife and two kids to Denver because he couldn't earn enough to support her as a-stay-at-home mom and it is very important to him that she do so. They were moving every year to a new apartment as the rent increased by leaps and bounds on the one they were previously been living in shot up out of his reach.
So he asked our company for a transfer to our Denver office. They gave him one. He had hoped that by living in Denver, he could save enough and have enough salary increases so he could move his family back to Portland.
It's not going to happen. We e-mail to keep in touch and he told me that although Denver isn't cheap, it is more affordable than Portland and he does not ever anticipate being able to come back here. In the meantime, he is beginning to really like Denver and he has had no trouble finding a place to live that is affordable and has not had his rent raised in the two years he has been living there as opposed to every six months as he experienced in Portland.
He and his spouse are encouraging me to move there now. I don't know if it's a good fit for an old geezer like me but I am going to visit them next year and get a feel for the place.
Regarding your comment on the aggressive beggars downtown, when I was out of work and found myself downtown for a job interview, I had very little money. I had to be on a careful budget to stretch the little I had. The aggressive beggars constantly hit me up for change. One day after running the beggar's gauntlet I let one poor guy have it. I screamed at him "What the bleep makes you think I have it to give you? You probably have more money on you now than I have. Why don't you give me some?"
Needless to say, he was pretty surprised.
Yeah, I have seen the increases, we are saving on transportation costs (fuel and insurance) because we take the bus and that's about it. Even water/sewer is more! Haven't had the rent raised but I'll look for it when we renew. I think it's cause housing is a lot cheaper in Denver because the housing crisis hit it pretty hard (one of the top 5), where Portland it's still increasing. Plus the landlord tenet laws are pretty nice, there's a stipulation you can break the contract within 30 days for any reason. I've used it a few times.
Boulder and surrounding areas (Louisville, Longmont, and Lafayette) are a fantastic place if you can afford it. The surrounding areas are much cheaper and are getting to be very similar. It's growth limited and has pretty much the college students from CU Boulder and old hippies.
I'm not saying I would raise my kids in the middle of Portland and expect a family friendly atmosphere, I wouldn't expect that anywhere. If there were isolated incidents, it's not a big deal...but these problems are becoming everyday items in this city (I can write up pages of them, but no one wants to read it...let alone me, it's depressing). I've never felt as threatened on a daily basis as I do here, just getting my lunch people have tried to grab it out of my hands, even in Denver where I lived near and worked on what's considered one of the nastiest streets in the city.
A friend who lived here stated once "When you come to Portland, you will have your own bum assigned to you for as long as you're in the city". It's sad that Portland is being known for it's aggressive homeless populations and sketchy areas.
A friend who lived here stated once "When you come to Portland, you will have your own bum assigned to you for as long as you're in the city".
LOL!! I have one of those downtown (not the one I yelled at in my previous post). Instead of asking me for once again money this morning he wished me a "Happy Friday."
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I say that with humor as I work downtown (PSU) and your average person strolling the park blocks may have tatoos running the entire length of his or her body, piercings on every appendage, Mohawk hair of various colors ... really, I love it. 
