Thoughts on neighborhoods with commute to WA.

[Pete999]

You are wise to avoid Longview. 'Nuff said.

[NWGirl74]

Originally Posted by mcbugginstuff

We have no desire to live in a rural/small town area. Would like to be near a major airport. We have considered either Vancouver in the Salmon Creek area or Portland, possibly the Grant Park area.

Ideally we'd like a neighborhood of older homes with mature trees where we and our children can walk or bike to friends' houses, schools, the library, restaurants, groceries, entertainment, etc. Public transportation to downtown attractions would be great.

The impression I get of Salmon Creek in Vancouver is that it's an area with good schools, newer homes/fewer trees, and fewer opportunities for children to be able to walk where they need to go (more need for carpooling, arranging with parents for seeing friends, etc.). Probably more homogenous racially which we disprefer (though I think the whole area is less diverse than where we live now so maybe somewhat unavoidable?).

Additionally, we are not religious at all and would like an area where our children will not encounter pressure/persecution for that (I mention this because we have had bad experiences with this in the past).

Originally Posted by mcbugginstuff

We don't want to live in a small town or rural area.

My friend lives in Salmon Creek and works in Longview. Her commute ranges from 45 minutes to an hour. When I worked in Woodland, it took me about 35-40 minutes to commute from NE Vancouver.

I grew up in small towns so part of why I like living in Vancouver is it has a small town feel but the big (at least to me) city is easily accessible as well. Most people do keep to themselves, but you'll find that in Portland as well. People don't seem to care whether or not you're religious, especially in Portland. My neighbors are, and it's come up once in the (almost) 9 years I've been in my house-and that was in the context that she made extra centerpieces for her Ladies' holiday tea so she brought me one. She didn't ask if I wanted to join her just "here, I have extra flowers." I know they go to church; they've probably figured out I don't. Missionaries occasionally come to the door; I usually just don't answer. You are correct in that you won't find the racial diversity you are used to in Vancouver, though we do have a large Russian population.

You've mentioned twice you don't want to live in a small town so you'd likely not be happy in Vancouver or Longview (which is in Cowlitz County, not Clark as previous posts may have implied). A lot of subdivisions in Vancouver are cookie-cutter. You most likely aren't going to find the trees you want in suburbia. Depending on what you mean by "downtown attractions," you may not find them either. I'm not sure where we have public pools, for example, other than the community centers. (I, too, grew up spending my summers at the pool). Vancouver is also not nearly as bicycle friendly as Portland is.

It does take me a lot less time to get to the airport than it does a lot of my Portland-based friends however.