Best Portland alternatives (renting, credit, cheap house)

[DKM]

Originally Posted by psichick

Orenco Station? As in Hillsboro? If so, w/o traffic, the commute to PDX is about 30-45 mins. During evening traffic, it's taken me anywhere from 1-2 hours to get to PDX. I wouldn't suggest it as a daily commute.

I think they were asking about the Max commute. It would still be unbearably long. Max is the slowest railed transport I've had the pleasure of experiencing anywhere in the world.

[DKM]

Originally Posted by NW4me

Tucson, I could understand... but Vegas? That seems like an incredible culture clash... they're in neighboring states, yet they seem like different worlds.

You and some prior posters are making projection errors here. Not everyone in or moving from Portland wants to live in the type of culture that currently dominates Portland.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

I think they are trying to say that the Portland culture (no matter what it currently is) and the culture of city like Las Vegas are totally different.

They are two vastly different cities.
One is green and PNW, the other is desert and gambling and Southwest.

Not whether they like hippy dippy crap or whatever............

[NW4me]

I meant "culture" in a very broad sense. I haven't lived in Portland, but based on visits and reading, I'll bet most Portlanders agree that public transit is worth supporting (even those who don't use it regularly), that making streets safe for bikes is important, and that public goods like city parks are an vital part of life.
But look at Las Vegas: everything is designed for cars, public transit is comparatively minimal, and most of the green spaces in town are golf courses, not public parks. What parkland exists in the area is outside the city limits, and is mostly federal land.
People can live where they please, but I'm still surprised that someone from Portland would want to call Las Vegas home... to me, it's a desolate place, in more ways than one.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by NW4me

I meant "culture" in a very broad sense. I haven't lived in Portland, but based on visits and reading, I'll bet most Portlanders agree that public transit is worth supporting (even those who don't use it regularly), that making streets safe for bikes is important, and that public goods like city parks are an vital part of life.
But look at Las Vegas: everything is designed for cars, public transit is comparatively minimal, and most of the green spaces in town are golf courses, not public parks. What parkland exists in the area is outside the city limits, and is mostly federal land.
People can live where they please, but I'm still surprised that someone from Portland would want to call Las Vegas home... to me, it's a desolate place, in more ways than one.

Lots of assumptions here.

Well I have two friends born and raised in Portland who moved to Vegas and love it. That was many years ago. One of them in fact came back to Portland because she thought she missed it. After nearly two years in Portland she realized she missed Vegas so much more. So she returned to Vegas.

Different strokes and all that.

[MN_Ski]

The art scene in Vegas is really starting to take me by surprise. I could see how Vegas is similar to the Portland of 10 or so years ago. I went to a show there this past Spring, and most of the plates were Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and of course California. Right now it's affordable, artsy, and not pretentious...all of the unique things Portland lost in the last 5 years.

[DKM]

Originally Posted by NW4me

I meant "culture" in a very broad sense. I haven't lived in Portland, but based on visits and reading, I'll bet most Portlanders agree that public transit is worth supporting (even those who don't use it regularly), that making streets safe for bikes is important, and that public goods like city parks are an vital part of life.
But look at Las Vegas: everything is designed for cars, public transit is comparatively minimal, and most of the green spaces in town are golf courses, not public parks. What parkland exists in the area is outside the city limits, and is mostly federal land.
People can live where they please, but I'm still surprised that someone from Portland would want to call Las Vegas home... to me, it's a desolate place, in more ways than one.

Many current and former Portland natives resent being lumped in with having the views you ascribe to them. We didn't ask to become a magnet for people who came to Portland to impose their social views but it happened anyway. I thought the massive investment in light rail should not have come at the expense of upgrading freeways and guess what, turns out I was right. Portland's traffic situation is a mess. Its so bad that I chose SoCal to live and commute instead, which really is something. I know it won't get any better because I know the prevailing mood in Portland. They are more concerned with bike lanes, accepting drug culture and panhandlers than with people being able to commute to their jobs from their homes.

It is also a very odd myth that Portland somehow has this great mass transit system, the envy of the nation and just like Europe. Uh... no. It does have high usership but that's because the roads are nearly impossible to use during commuting times. Vegas has a transit system too but its not as slow as Portland's so there's that. They have bike shares and trails too. Even Vegas.... Yeah the parks aren't green because its a desert not because the people living there are not as keen on parks as enlightened Portlanders...

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by NW4me

.........surprised that someone from Portland would want to call Las Vegas home... to me, it's a desolate place, in more ways than one.

Different people like different things. I like Las Vegas for about 3 days every 10-15 years or so. But I can understand how some people like it. There is virtually limitless entertainment. There are a huge number of excellent restaurants that are very cheap. There is world class shopping. The sunshine is nearly constant. There are plenty of jobs available. Taxes are low.

Outdoors, there is golf and boating.

Some people are indoor oriented, or shopping oriented, or they like to gamble or see lots of shows. How many hundreds of thousands of people live in Las Vegas? It is suiting someone.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Different people like different things. I like Las Vegas for about 3 days every 10-15 years or so. But I can understand how some people like it. There is virtually limitless entertainment. There are a huge number of excellent restaurants that are very cheap. There is world class shopping. The sunshine is nearly constant. There are plenty of jobs available. Taxes are low.

Outdoors, there is golf and boating.

Some people are indoor oriented, or shopping oriented, or they like to gamble or see lots of shows. How many hundreds of thousands of people live in Las Vegas? It is suiting someone.

Jobs seem to be easier to obtain in Vegas. One of my friends got a job as an events co-ordinaror. No experience, no college degree but they trained her. She says there are many opportunities to work in that genre. She's worked her way up to earning a really nice living and has been able to buy a beautiful condo. Portland could have never given her that opportunity. In fact she has told me jobs are a big reason many of her friends who are transplants from everywhere have relocated to Vegas.

I have to comment on the Portland public transit system. As one who doesn't drive and took it for forty years I saw it diminish to a fraction of what it once was regarding bus routes and frequency. It's okay, better than some cities in which I've been but nothing to write home about.

[Lapaki]

Originally Posted by ncrunner77

I'd give the Raleigh area (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill) a serious look. Ignore the poster who wrote it off because it is in "the south"; that is ignorant at best, intolerant at worst. Three major research universities in the immediate area (Duke, University of North Carolina -Chapel Hill, NC State). Durham and Chapel Hill are very liberal and progressive cities nearby. Raleigh is more moderate (true) but still has a very educated, young, creative and outdoorsy population. SAS and Red Hat started and HQd in Raleigh. Lots of other tech as well as very strong clinical/medical/biotech industry.

My wife and I have lived in Portland for 20 years. We absolutely loved this city until about two years ago, for reasons that have been discussed in many other threads on this forum. She's going to retire in 2020, and the company I work for will let me telecommute from anywhere, so we've been trying to figure out where we're going to move. We've pretty much settled on the Raleigh area. We know four couples who moved there from Portland over the past decade, and two other couples who moved there from elsewhere, and they all rave about it. The only thing they complain about is the summer heat and humidity, but, fortunately, air conditioning exists. I lived in Atlanta for the 25 years previous to my move to Portland, so I'm quite familiar with the South and would be happy to live there again.

We're looking for a city that's more like Portland was 20 years ago, that's full of greenery (I could do Southwestern desert, but my wife couldn't), and with more warm, sunny days than we have in the PNW. Financially, the South makes sense. Thanks to Portland's skyrocketing real-estate values, we could sell our modest house here and get something comparable in the South for half the price. We like that Raleigh is fairly close to the ocean, the mountains, and several great cities that my wife has always wanted to visit.

Last year, my older stepson got married and moved to Louisville, Kentucky. We went out for the wedding and were favorably impressed with that city and the beauty of the surrounding area. The city that really impressed us, though, was nearby Lexington. In many ways, it reminds us of Portland circa 1997. Along with the Raleigh area, it ticks off most of the boxes on our wish list. Let's just say that, had we hit it off with the in-laws, we'd probably move to Lexington. The fact that we didn't is the reason we don't want to be close enough to feel obligated to attend their frequent family gatherings.