Does Portland feel stuck in the past to you? (Hillsboro: house, buying)

[take57]

Originally Posted by SyraBrian

I don't think Portland is stuck in the past.

If you want to visit a city stuck in the past, I'd like to point out that I live in a city that has based its financial future on expanding a shopping mall.

Ouch!

[PDXNative2Houston]

I never felt like PDX was stuck in the past. It's just a smaller city and therefore won't have all of the options of say a Seattle or San Fran.

[pdwpdx]

Originally Posted by backdrifter

I just hope it leads to Portland becoming more like Vancouver, Seattle, and SF.

Oh dear please god no.

[pdwpdx]

And also, backdrifter, you said the following awhile back. Have you had a change of heart?

I liked Portland when it was hippie-ish, gritty, and self-unconsciously weird. Now once-unique places like Mississippi, Division, and even Woodstock are all turning into extensions of Northwest/the Pearl. It's not that Portland isn't a nice place, it's just that it's becoming just like everywhere else which is disheartening. The bungalows are being torn down for faux-vintage McMansions, small mom and pop places are being replaced with generic mixed use developments full of fancy boutiques and luxury lofts, and traffic just keeps getting worse. But change is inevitable so there isn't any use in fighting it.

Being a small-town Oregon native, Portland was really the only "real" option for me post-high school, so the main draw was being close to family and still having big city life (though PDX is more like an overgrown small town in many ways). Having been out in the world a lot more and having lived in Seattle for a bit since first moving here, I find that it's great for some people, but for me the glamor of it has worn out. So if you like Portland as it is now, then good on you! Come enjoy it! It's beautiful and I can certainly see the appeal for people who never saw what Portland used to be like.

My other half (a Portland native) and I might be dispatched to the suburbs in the short-term because of the rapidly rising housing costs, both rents and home prices. In the longer-term, when we are making big, beaucoup bucks, we will probably move on due to wanderlust since we have already grown a bit weary of this place. I was going to list some specific faults, but there are a lot of Portland boosters who are intentionally blind to this city's problems and who castigate those of us who point out its flaws here. That said, it is easy enough, if you can afford it, to insulate yourself from the negative aspects, for the most part.

[PDXJ]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

That is something I am actually okay with. Seattle can be the international city of the northwest, Portland works best as that localized city of the northwest.

That's a really good way to put it, and informative to anyone trying to decide between Seattle and Portland - they each have their place.

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by pdwpdx

And also, backdrifter, you said the following awhile back. Have you had a change of heart?

I liked Portland when it was hippie-ish, gritty, and self-unconsciously weird. Now once-unique places like Mississippi, Division, and even Woodstock are all turning into extensions of Northwest/the Pearl. It's not that Portland isn't a nice place, it's just that it's becoming just like everywhere else which is disheartening. The bungalows are being torn down for faux-vintage McMansions, small mom and pop places are being replaced with generic mixed use developments full of fancy boutiques and luxury lofts, and traffic just keeps getting worse. But change is inevitable so there isn't any use in fighting it.

Being a small-town Oregon native, Portland was really the only "real" option for me post-high school, so the main draw was being close to family and still having big city life (though PDX is more like an overgrown small town in many ways). Having been out in the world a lot more and having lived in Seattle for a bit since first moving here, I find that it's great for some people, but for me the glamor of it has worn out. So if you like Portland as it is now, then good on you! Come enjoy it! It's beautiful and I can certainly see the appeal for people who never saw what Portland used to be like.

My other half (a Portland native) and I might be dispatched to the suburbs in the short-term because of the rapidly rising housing costs, both rents and home prices. In the longer-term, when we are making big, beaucoup bucks, we will probably move on due to wanderlust since we have already grown a bit weary of this place. I was going to list some specific faults, but there are a lot of Portland boosters who are intentionally blind to this city's problems and who castigate those of us who point out its flaws here. That said, it is easy enough, if you can afford it, to insulate yourself from the negative aspects, for the most part.

I did say that, but I've been growing, maturing, and changing just like Portland. The changes were bothersome to me at first because, like I said, it is becoming a bit homogenous. But I really have a dualistic relationship with the changes. I've come to embrace them because you can't stop change from happening. So make the best of it, eh?

What I have told people before is that I love Seattle, and much of Portland is becoming a lot more like Seattle. Seattle has also already gone through gentrification and growing pains throughout many neighborhoods. Portland is at the point where it is starting to experience those growing pains. If I hadn't known Portland "before" and came in blindly now without expectations, or holding onto the 'ghosts' in my memory, I would probably adore this city now. So, yes, I miss the old Portland, but it's just a ghost now. The new Portland is honestly nice, too.

[sorupaa]

the first thing id want to happen is extend these three lines, the beaverton line to tigard, the milwaukie linne to oak grove (by the safeway) and the town center line to clackamas (by the clackamas river).

the second thing id want to happen is have longer trains. dont know how that would work though

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by drum bro

the first thing id want to happen is extend these three lines, the beaverton line to tigard, the milwaukie linne to oak grove (by the safeway) and the town center line to clackamas (by the clackamas river).

the second thing id want to happen is have longer trains. dont know how that would work though

You might see the line in Beaverton getting an extension. The Green and Orange line go about as far as they will ever go, there is that possibility that the Orange line might extend but how the line currently ends, I wouldn't hold my breath.

As for longer trains, that will never happen.

[sorupaa]

theres a urban growth boundry but it only slows down sprall, it doesnt stop it so portland could end up like most the cities in the us soon

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by drum bro

theres a urban growth boundry but it only slows down sprall, it doesnt stop it so portland could end up like most the cities in the us soon

Actually it does prevent sprawl beyond the UGB, the idea is to allow development happen within that limit. The Portland metro has seen smaller lot developments going on throughout the metro.