Is all of Portland really this depressingly bad? (Beaverton, Hillsboro: real estate, apartment)

[pdxconvert]

Ew, sorry about the lack of paragraph breaks there...

[Casportsfan]

Originally Posted by pdxconvert

Just chiming in -- I've been in Portland for five years now, and it's a great city, one of the best. But you have to like things a little darker to really appreciate it, and I don't just mean a lack of sunshine. The main negatives anyone moving to Portland needs to know, in my opinion are as follows: a) Portlanders will steal anything that isn't nailed down, even the yuppies in the Pearl. Call it meth addiction, call it a hippie sense of entitlement, call it sociopathy, but it's a fact of life in Portland. Guard your bikes like they're your kids. b) Homeless people are everywhere, outside Starbucks, outside Fred Meyers, etc. just like any other big city. The difference here is they're generally friendlier. Some of them peddle Streets Roots, a tiny newspaper published by the city's homeless. When they ask for change, just say no. Homelessness is a complicated problem, but it's not going to be solved by you handing out quarters, nor is there any reason to feel harangued by it. Grow a backbone. I find the hipster canvassers for Greenpeace far more annoying than any panhandler, by the way. If you ride the MAX late at night, watch your back, but I'm a young female and I've taken the train to the airport in the middle of the night without incident on many occasions. Portland is a VERY safe city, relatively. c) Is meth a problem? You'll hear about it a lot at first, but after a while it just fades into the white noise. When we first moved here, I admit I felt like I was in a zombie video game. Now I don't notice it as much. You will almost never have problems with them unless you leave your bike outside or leave bills and personal information in your garbage can. Get a paper shredder. This is true anywhere. d) Actually visit the strip clubs for fun one night and you'll see that the girls working there are generally smart, tattooed hipster girls. They're harmless. Who cares about having a few strip clubs around? We're all adults here. e) It rains. A lot. And the bad drivers here drive even worse when it does. Be prepared to stop where there are no stop signs, clip cyclists and then honk angrily at them, and go 30mph when entering a freeway and you'll do just fine. Also, the parking meter situation downtown is atrocious. They make you move your car after 3 hours, even if you feed the meter. f) Our mayor has become emblematic of some of Portland's problems. A lot of big ideas, cute and urban, really gay, but kind of a hypocrite. As open-minded as we like to tout ourselves, Portlanders (and Portland transplants) can be very judgmental, and like to sniff their own farts. I know, I've sniffed a few of my own farts for living in a green, progressive, bike-friendly "utopia." Then the winter came and I didn't feel so smug.

Question: Where are all of these homeless people supposedly at?? I just spent the weekend in Portland, and I literally went EVERYWHERE downtown and to the Pearl from around 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday night, and I saw like one bum. I mean, I went EVERYWHERE. I didn't see any street kids or any of the stuff posted on here.

[subsound]

When you are running the gauntlet every day in order to get in and out of work, you learn pretty quick who to avoid. Some days I don't see any (rare though as I take the bus past the missions), some days they are in my face telling me how I'm mean for not being forthcoming with my wallet, other days I see some doing general hospital dramas with sock puppets or ranting about ants with a Fedex box on their head. Each day is a new adventure.

My morning consisted of the guy at Pete's asking for change (Broadway and 17th, I'm pretty sure), 2 guys on the bus who smelled like they had just rolled around in excrement (on the 9, got on at MLK) trying to sneakily beg by exclaiming how hungry they were, the random little camps around Old Town (3rd Ave near the Chinese Gardens), and the guy who's always a bit West of Burnside on 3rd digging through the morning trash of the bar.

Nothing compares to Cali for the level of it, but I can say it beats anything I witnessed in Denver/Boulder in the last 14 years.

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Casportsfan

Question: Where are all of these homeless people supposedly at?? I just spent the weekend in Portland, and I literally went EVERYWHERE downtown and to the Pearl from around 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday night, and I saw like one bum. I mean, I went EVERYWHERE. I didn't see any street kids or any of the stuff posted on here.

Did you go from 2nd and Tayor to 6th and Taylor at around 7:00am? Try it you will find them. Oh and be sure to do it on a week day morning. No one is disputing San Fransico or other cities have more street people but to say there are none here observing only one weekend is not exactly scientific observation.

The rest of us are not seeing things. I were, I would rather be seeing unicorns and rainbows.

[subsound]

Originally Posted by Minervah

The rest of us are not seeing things. I were, I would rather be seeing unicorns and rainbows.

I would dream up a fantastic place of beer and barbecue....

Mmmm, barbecue unicorn.

[Casportsfan]

Originally Posted by Minervah

Did you go from 2nd and Tayor to 6th and Taylor at around 7:00am? Try it you will find them. Oh and be sure to do it on a week day morning. No one is disputing San Fransico or other cities have more street people but to say there are none here observing only one weekend is not exactly scientific observation.

The rest of us are not seeing things. I were, I would rather be seeing unicorns and rainbows.

Lol funny you should say that, because I actually parked on Taylor and, 6th I believe? I was right next to a bistro, which in that city I'm sure gives you no point of reference (there are so many). I didn't see one bum. Not ONE. I walked from there around the pearl to a park where I saw some vagrant looking people, but gimme a break, what city doesn't have a park with vagrants???

This was such a serious non issue in this city, you guys should be trumpeting how SAFE it is rather than posting about homeless people, etc. All of that just gives the city a bad reputation that is completely unwarranted. I mean, it is a big city after all. You are going to find some homeless people in any big city.

I live in Sacramento and for crying out loud, there is a bigger problem with that here than in Portland. I get hit up at Safeway in a decent neighborhood. I am in a decent part of town and the homeless people literally dig through the garbage in broad daylight, and the norm around here apparently is that you just don't say anything about it.

And even with that, I've literally not spent more than 10 seconds thinking about it or ever considered it a problem. So many posts on here depict a scene that's just not an accurate represenation of Portland at all.

I mean, my first experience riding the lightrail, I heard more stories about people that "just got out of prison" etc., than you would believe. You know how I fixed that problem? I started driving my car to work.

All of these things are to be expected in any big city, so why even bring it up when Portland is on the extremely mild scale when compared to other big cities? All that does is give people that have never been there an image of the city that isn't accurate.

For god sakes, some people on here posted about gangs in beaverton. Then I asked locals about the dangers of Beaverton and they all looked at me confused, and the common response was "who told you that? Lake Oswego and Beaverton are the nicer, more upscale areas of Portland".

[Minervah]

Originally Posted by Casportsfan

Lol funny you should say that, because I actually parked on Taylor and, 6th I believe? I was right next to a bistro, which in that city I'm sure gives you no point of reference (there are so many). I didn't see one bum. Not ONE. I walked from there around the pearl to a park where I saw some vagrant looking people, but gimme a break, what city doesn't have a park with vagrants???

This was such a serious non issue in this city, you guys should be trumpeting how SAFE it is rather than posting about homeless people, etc. All of that just gives the city a bad reputation that is completely unwarranted. I mean, it is a big city after all. You are going to find some homeless people in any big city.

I live in Sacramento and for crying out loud, there is a bigger problem with that here than in Portland. I get hit up at Safeway in a decent neighborhood. I am in a decent part of town and the homeless people literally dig through the garbage in broad daylight, and the norm around here apparently is that you just don't say anything about it.

And even with that, I've literally not spent more than 10 seconds thinking about it or ever considered it a problem. So many posts on here depict a scene that's just not an accurate represenation of Portland at all.

I mean, my first experience riding the lightrail, I heard more stories about people that "just got out of prison" etc., than you would believe. You know how I fixed that problem? I started driving my car to work.

All of these things are to be expected in any big city, so why even bring it up when Portland is on the extremely mild scale when compared to other big cities? All that does is give people that have never been there an image of the city that isn't accurate.

For god sakes, some people on here posted about gangs in beaverton. Then I asked locals about the dangers of Beaverton and they all looked at me confused, and the common response was "who told you that? Lake Oswego and Beaverton are the nicer, more upscale areas of Portland".

I start on 2nd and Taylor at around 7:30 am or earlier. There are people often sleeping in the doorway of the abandoned building on 3th and Taylor. The cops usually are there to roust them out then. Fine, they aren't bothering anyone, just sleeping. Then you go to 5th and Taylor and all day long we have the "artist" who stands in front of Carl's Junior and "sells" his paintings by asking for money first and then will show you his pictures. One of my co-workers commissioned him to drawing a picture for her from a photograph of her niece.

That same corner often has street kids hanging out asking for money but they seem so move around a lot. Again for the most part it is no big deal. I have only been threatened twice and each time there was a cop nearby. Besides I have a tendency to yell back. No one is trying to belabor the point but there is no point in denying it doesn't exist either.

You might have not been living here long enough or don't work in the places where one sees them but they are here just like in any mid-size city. So it's not really an issue until people say they want to move here to get away from this situation in their present city where it is worse. They may not see as much of it here but eventually they will see it here just like anywhere else.

[suncat]

Originally Posted by Casportsfan

Lake Oswego and Beaverton are the nicer, more upscale areas of Portland".

I've never heard of LO having gangs, but they do exist in parts of Beaverton. Most of it is isolated around the Allen Blvd. area, west of the 217. There are also some sketchy neighborhoods around Aloha, but for the most part, Beaverton is relatively safe.

[rockybird]

I just returned from Pdx to check out the city, as I have a great job offer there. I am also considering Phoenix, where I have another job offer (I am completely torn). Portland struck me as an incredibly vibrant city. The surrounding green hills are beautiful. The restaurants diverse. I loved the walkable downtown. However, I do have to defend the OP's comments on the homeless situation. I was shocked at the high numbers of homeless people wandering the streets, as well as the numbers of aimless young people. It never would affect my decision to move there, but I could see that if the problem continues to grow, it could turn off tourists from visiting. Otherwise, it's an incredible city and you all have every right to be proud of it. Just my two cents.

[Jimrob1]

Originally Posted by rockybird

I just returned from Pdx to check out the city, as I have a great job offer there. I am also considering Phoenix, where I have another job offer (I am completely torn). Portland struck me as an incredibly vibrant city. The surrounding green hills are beautiful. The restaurants diverse. I loved the walkable downtown. However, I do have to defend the OP's comments on the homeless situation. I was shocked at the high numbers of homeless people wandering the streets, as well as the numbers of aimless young people. It never would affect my decision to move there, but I could see that if the problem continues to grow, it could turn off tourists from visiting. Otherwise, it's an incredible city and you all have every right to be proud of it. Just my two cents.

I grew up in the Boston area. A metro area with close to 5 million in its region. People in Portland or on this forum can tell me until they are blue in the face, it is the same in every city, It is not. Every city has homeless, it is the high percentage I am speaking of that is overwhelming here.

I never ever saw the amount of homeless as I see in Portland in Boston, nor the different categories of indigent people as I see here daily. From the mentally ill, to the obvious drugged out zombies. The young I don't know what they are, wandering aimlessly around begging for money or no direction in life. This type behaviour is in a very high percentage here.

There are definitely REASONS why there are so many here. Im sorry but that old standard of "The Weather is Mild Here" doesn't cut it. Anyone living here or thinking of moving here has to realize, are they comfortable with the REASONS.

I am sure there are tourist that have decided not to visit the area again. I have heard some conventions have not returned over complaints on previous conventions. I know some of the retirees that have seen Portland touted in Retirement magazines have decided against after visiting.

Beyond that it is a beautiful area, but it does need to learn to work on both its social and economic problems.