18/f wanting to move to Portland from NOVA

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

My grand daughter got a great promotion from a shifty Call Center in Eugene to the Enterprise Call Center in Eugene. Great job, more money. Instructions to not show tattoos. She said she was hot, rolled up her sleeves, and was terminated immediately. That was at a "Call Center". No public. Don't tell me it is accepted.

Okay, that is one job in Eugene. Ruby, an outsourcing secretary company, let's their girls be covered in tattoos and piercings.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

My grand daughter got a great promotion from a shifty Call Center in Eugene to the Enterprise Call Center in Eugene. Great job, more money. Instructions to not show tattoos. She said she was hot, rolled up her sleeves, and was terminated immediately. That was at a "Call Center". No public. Don't tell me it is accepted.

Last I looked, Eugene wasn't in Portland.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Last I looked, Eugene wasn't in Portland.

Very true - Eugene is more 'dirty hippie' (trustafarians also acceptable) to Portland's 'tattooed hipster.' More cross over than say Nashville or NYC, but still pretty different.

Edit - you will see a fair amount of ankle tats and 'tramp stamps' in Eugene, but extensive tattooing is pretty rare.

[PDXer13]

Disregard the negative comments - Nell certainly doesn't live in the same Portland that I do, and Steve doesn't live in Portland at all. His town is a whole 'nother world from Portland. So...everyone in Portland (under 40) has tattoos. Obviously that's an exaggeration, but literally almost everybody I know does, and most of them are educated professionals. SOME employers won't hire you (banks, law firms, that kind of thing), but I know lots of people who have visible tattoos in very professional positions. The places you'd want to look as an 18 year old student won't care in the least. If you can, get a job at a coffee shop or restaurant/bar. Servers and such get full minimum wage in Portland (unlike most places), in addition to tips. It's a good gig. And tattoos are pretty much mandatory.

Portland State has lots of student housing, and it's very nice, most of it built in the last five years or so - but they definitely won't allow your dog. Portland State is also relatively cheap (much cheaper than Reed, UP, L&C, and Concordia). If you know you want to live here, move out here and work for a year so you can establish residency. That way you get in-state tuition. Then start going to school. Find roommates on craigslist - you can probably find a dog-friendly house that way too. Don't live outside Portland proper, or you'll miss out on the youth culture and no one will ever want to come to your neighborhood.

Portland can be a cheap place to live and have fun, depending on what you like to do. Rent is expensive, but roommates make it cheaper. You don't need a car - public transportation is great, and biking is easy. Eating and drinking will be much cheaper than in NOVA. Hiking is free. There are lots of $3 theaters. Shopping costs the same as anywhere else (but no sales tax).

[Steve Pickering]

Originally Posted by EnricoV

Last I looked, Eugene wasn't in Portland.

The last I looked, Enterprise has a call center in Portland.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

The last I looked, Enterprise has a call center in Portland.

Feels a bit like this thread is decaying to bickering. As a practical matter, tattoos are more commonplace and accepted in Pdx vs. Eugene. That's fairly hard to deny.

If you want to cherry-pick one corporation, certainly it's quite possible the call center in Portland falls under the same corporate policy as the call center in Eugene.

But more broadly, Eugene's economy can kinda/sorta be boiled down to the University and call centers. If you strike out at a call center, you might go a while before finding other real work there. The Portland economy is unarguably both larger and more diverse. If you strike out at one call center, there are at least other things out there, some of which will care that you have a tattoo on your hand of a dragon eating a mermaid eating a Pine Street biscuit, and some that won't.

If your general point is that, in a vacuum, it's easier if you don't have visible tattoos, generally that is true (I would very, very strongly discourage my own child from ever getting a visible tattoo). But if you do have tattoos, you can still do better in Portland than a lot of places because of how prevalent and they are and the higher relative cultural acceptance.

[eric351982]

I subbed in Beaverton today and saw a teacher with a huge mermaid tattoo!

[PortlandRenter]

The Portland Metro area is expensive. Most apartments will not accept your dog, call it a mixed breed. Expect to pay a minimum of $800 a month for rent then tack on pet rent and water/sewer/garbage (rubs system). Then there is your electric. Rents are alleged to be based on $14.90 an hour for a one bedroom but the Fair Market Rents amount is way lower than the rents. I used to live in Richmond, VA. The wages and cost of living are a big problem here. It is beautiful but, you can't eat the view. The transplants are friendlier than locals. I have lived here over half my life and I am ready to leave again.