Howdie From The East

[Mini-apple-less]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

Most of my friends have come from where I have worked and went to college, and sometimes a combination of both. I actually didn't realize you are so young, that makes sense to want to move if you were a transplant here during your teen years. Is this where much of your family resides? And have you figured out where you are moving to yet?

Yeah, most of my family lives near Salem and my brother lives in Eugene. I have no idea, but pretty sure it's going to be back East somewhere! I'll miss my family but honestly I can't afford to visit them much as it is, and if I move to a cheaper place I could fly over during the holidays and spend long periods of time with them.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by valsteele

Yeah, most of my family lives near Salem and my brother lives in Eugene. I have no idea, but pretty sure it's going to be back East somewhere! I'll miss my family but honestly I can't afford to visit them much as it is, and if I move to a cheaper place I could fly over during the holidays and spend long periods of time with them.

If most of your family lives within Oregon, I have a feeling you will miss them a lot more than you think you do when you don't have them nearby. If anything, it would make more sense for you to live down in Salem if the cost of Portland is an issue for you. Just picking someplace on the East Coast or where ever isn't going to make things cheaper for you or even any easier, especially when you are moving so far away from family.

Heck, if you are looking for affordability, Spokane is a great option. You can get an apartment for a fraction of the cost in Portland and have that place be in Browne's Addition which would give you a fairly walkable neighborhood to live in. Plus the cost of living in a place like Spokane is very easy to handle for just about anyone.

If it is just the cost of living that is the issue, then I don't think you need to look that far to find someplace cheaper to live, especially when you are thinking of moving somewhere on the East Coast, that tells me that there is no particular place that you are looking at, which makes me question if this move is actually going to happen in the next 20 days or so.

[Sherwoody]

I don't recall any discussion of the type work or income valsteele has. It seems to me the focus needs to be on increasing income so he/she can achieve a more stable lifestyle wherever you live.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by Sherwoody

I don't recall any discussion of the type work or income valsteele has. It seems to me the focus needs to be on increasing income so he/she can achieve a more stable lifestyle wherever you live.

There seems to be a lot of holes to this story that don't make much sense. It would be nice to know more detail, but we might know more in 20 days or so.

[Mini-apple-less]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

If most of your family lives within Oregon, I have a feeling you will miss them a lot more than you think you do when you don't have them nearby. If anything, it would make more sense for you to live down in Salem if the cost of Portland is an issue for you. Just picking someplace on the East Coast or where ever isn't going to make things cheaper for you or even any easier, especially when you are moving so far away from family.

Heck, if you are looking for affordability, Spokane is a great option. You can get an apartment for a fraction of the cost in Portland and have that place be in Browne's Addition which would give you a fairly walkable neighborhood to live in. Plus the cost of living in a place like Spokane is very easy to handle for just about anyone.

If it is just the cost of living that is the issue, then I don't think you need to look that far to find someplace cheaper to live, especially when you are thinking of moving somewhere on the East Coast, that tells me that there is no particular place that you are looking at, which makes me question if this move is actually going to happen in the next 20 days or so.

I actually extended my stay a few months. But it's not just affordability. I've wanted to try living in other places for a while, it's only been lately that it's become a need rather than a want. I've thought of Spokane but I dunno. It's not like I'd live back East forever. I'm also tired of being a burden on my family and if I lived further away, they would feel less compelled to help me. I know that's sort of sad, but that's how I feel.

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by Winnyard Bletch

No, you actually can make freinds with strangers. You just have to learn the basic give and take of human interaction, something NW people generally just dont have a firm grasp on.

I lived in Boston and Montreal for many years before moving back west and the degrees of friendliness and/or politeness vary a lot depending on who you're talking too even in those places, but I don't find Portland that unfriendly. You can make friends with completely random strangers though if you're day to day happiness is dependent on everyone you meet being nice and taking to you, one would be better served in a small town. I have friendly encounters with a lot of strangers but I don't know how many times that leads to long lasting friendships rather than just a general recognition.

My neighbors in my current neighborhood seem pretty friendly when approached for the most part upon us moving in and they're mostly older people who grew up here or transplants who've been here a while.

On the other hand when I had a condo closer in there were a lot if transplants who complained about people not being friendly and then just came off sort of whiny and not exactly friendly themselves. People who talk about how the grass is greener nonstop somewhere else but then never invite you do anything or make pleasant conversation as it is...

Originally Posted by Mini-apple-less

I find people here are especially snooty, though. Pretty much all of my friends are transplants like myself (Though I have lived in Oregon since 2001, when I was 11 years old). I know going to high school in Oregon people never warmed up to me because they always "have" their friends. You get that vibe going out and working in Portland too.

Also, if you're not making friends in public - where the hell do you make friends?

I've made friends with co-workers, neighbors or housemates, through friends I've already had, people I've met climbing or skiing or other common interests and then through other networks or social events. I'm just saying that randomly making good friends from someone you meet at a park or something is nice, but I wouldn't worry about the absence of it. When I was younger and single I'd occasionally meet people at bars(hopefully single girls) but now I'm older and married. Though I don't think any of my longest lasting friends I met through random conversation on the street.

[RipCityBassWorks]

There's diversity, but not as much as other cities. Though there aren't really any areas divided by race, Portland seems much more divided by income. A lot of mixed race people hang out and work together and there is very little prejudice based on race. Overall people are friendly here.

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by Tahdah

Is Portland like Santa Fe NM, populated by new age-y white, trust funders who claim to be "friends" with their Latina housekeepers?
Is there diversity? Are there Jewish people, South Asians, Muslims, African Americans there, and if so do they all hang out, or are they all sequestered to their "areas", or does every body hang, except for African Americans???
Is it one of those places where the people are "nice" but cold?
What's going on there? Please let me know.
Interested to hear from everybody, especially those familiar with Oregon and Portland, but not from there.

To answer your initial question in a word: no.

New agey? Not so much. At least not anymore. The artsy, hippie, radical elements have been priced out and, I think, moved on to cheaper places like NOLA and Detroit. White trust funders? Yes, increasingly so. Latina housekeepers? I think the housekeepers are more diverse here due to the relatively low Latin@/Hispanic population. There are all those groups of people you mention, but not a lot of any of them, and not a lot of mixing between the groups like you see in some places (California, Seattle, Toronto come to mind). Portland has historically been very segregated racially, but lately it has been by class, which means a lot of people of color are clustered together (along with poor whites) by virtue of being stuck in the generational cycle of poverty/institutional racism. Portland proper has been becoming a whiter city over time as minorities move to the suburbs. People here are nice, but cold (a la 'Seattle Freeze'), but I think that is a common big city phenomena and not at all unique to Portland.

I am not sure what is up with Portland, but it's a weird place. It has its redeeming qualities, but it has its bad too. Just my two cents, but I am a non-metropolitan Oregon native who has lived here in Portland for a while, so my opinion may not be the one you seek.