Is all of Portland really this depressingly bad? (Green, Clackamas: fit in, safe neighborhood)

[Rosiegirll]

Try driving up to the Alameda Ridge, Laurehuurst, Irvington, and Eastmoreland. All have lovely old homes. You might also visit the NW and SW hills above Portland and the area around Forest Park. The suburbs are nice too. Try West Linn, Lake Oswego and Wilsonville.They are newer and very nice.

[Todd.LA]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

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.

I'd urge you to visit LA and SF. Both have far larger homeless populations than Portland. This is explained by the fact the weather is better in California than in Oregon. Likewise, this would also account for why Boston would have fewer homeless folks than Portland, LA, or SF.

In short, I think you're giving climate based expectations short shrift.

[Raelyn28]

Wow!! I never saw any of those things and I lived in the Portland area for almost 10-years. The areas I liked are Murray Hill, Beaverton, (some parts), Lake Oswego and Wilsonville. I also loved Sandy right at the base of Mt. Hood. The Mt. Hood area is beautiful and also the small towns along the Columbia River Gorge. This is all east of Portland and awesome country. I love looking at Portland out of the window of an airplane as you descend into the city flying over Mt. Hood. Breathtaking to be sure. My mother used to call it God's Country. She used to love to visit me in Oregon and so did my sister. Unfortunately I don't live there anymore. Enjoy and good luck. There are some great posts here and some helpful advise...

[subsound]

Originally Posted by Raelyn28

Wow!! I never saw any of those things and I lived in the Portland area for almost 10-years. The areas I liked are Murray Hill, Beaverton, (some parts), Lake Oswego and Wilsonville. I also loved Sandy right at the base of Mt. Hood. The Mt. Hood area is beautiful and also the small towns along the Columbia River Gorge. This is all east of Portland and awesome country. I love looking at Portland out of the window of an airplane as you descend into the city flying over Mt. Hood. Breathtaking to be sure. My mother used to call it God's Country. She used to love to visit me in Oregon and so did my sister. Unfortunately I don't live there anymore. Enjoy and good luck. There are some great posts here and some helpful advise...

Not to be snarky, but what you are saying is that you didn't see bums rooting around in the upper middle class/upper class areas of the large surrounding suburban sprawl around Portland...well away from most bus lines (and fareless), the missions that provide social services for the unfortunate, and high density real estate that provides a majority of their income?

I do agree those areas are great in natural beauty, I'll be heading out to the West Hills/Beaverton area pretty soon to get away from this sort of thing...

[Raelyn28]

Wow you guys!! You are all now sounding like the Orange County California posts. Stop it!!! I lived in the Portland area for several years and I thought it was a very nice place. In fact besides the weather compared to southern Cal it was downright NICE!! Maybe it was just because I was happy to finally be able to afford somewhere decent to live on an average income. In OC you live in a dump in gang infested neighborhoods and pay over $1500 a month!! And maybe it was because finally someone spoke English... (No offense to anyone please)

Excuse me if I am offending anyone here but you guys are spoiled. Look around at the beauty of that place. My mom used to call Oregon "God's country". Has anyone lived anywhere else in this country? There is crime everywhere because guess what?? There are people everywhere and people have problems.

I'll tell you what... Go live in LA or Buena Park California for a few months and you will come running back to Portland.

My Gosh get over this bickering and leave the poor guy alone that happened to stumble across a bad part of Portland. It isn't all like that trust me. I never saw one bad thing in the almost 10-years that I lived there. Stay away from the downtown area if you must, but give it a chance...

The only thing that might bother a few people is the rain but then again that is why the terrain is so amazingly gorgeous... Enjoy where you are at believe me it could be a lot worse..

[Raelyn28]

You have it right. I did my research well before moving to Portland. I had at first picked Lake Oswego but it was a little too expensive for us. So then we settled for Hillsboro and then finally bought a home in St. Helens off of highway 30. St. Helens was very cheap and a nice small town feel but just too far from the city for me. My kids enjoyed the friendliness of it. I personally liked Hillsboro, Beaverton and MurryHill. Also Sandy was one of my favorites. Good luck on your move. I am sad that I don't live in Oregon anymore. Though I don't miss the rain I miss the beauty.. Enjoy the roses at this time of the year. They are amazing there.. City of Roses or something like that. We had roses over are trelais and they were so gorgeous. They like the rain!!!

Originally Posted by subsound

Not to be snarky, but what you are saying is that you didn't see bums rooting around in the upper middle class/upper class areas of the large surrounding suburban sprawl around Portland...well away from most bus lines (and fareless), the missions that provide social services for the unfortunate, and high density real estate that provides a majority of their income?

I do agree those areas are great in natural beauty, I'll be heading out to the West Hills/Beaverton area pretty soon to get away from this sort of thing...

[Raelyn28]

Rosiegirl has class and Oregon is known for it's beautiful roses.. Enjoy everyone, you live in a beautiful place. Open your eyes and look around, you are blessed to be there...

Originally Posted by Rosiegirll

Try driving up to the Alameda Ridge, Laurehuurst, Irvington, and Eastmoreland. All have lovely old homes. You might also visit the NW and SW hills above Portland and the area around Forest Park. The suburbs are nice too. Try West Linn, Lake Oswego and Wilsonville.They are newer and very nice.

[subsound]

Originally Posted by Raelyn28

You have it right. I did my research well before moving to Portland. I had at first picked Lake Oswego but it was a little too expensive for us. So then we settled for Hillsboro and then finally bought a home in St. Helens off of highway 30. St. Helens was very cheap and a nice small town feel but just too far from the city for me. My kids enjoyed the friendliness of it. I personally liked Hillsboro, Beaverton and MurryHill. Also Sandy was one of my favorites. Good luck on your move. I am sad that I don't live in Oregon anymore. Though I don't miss the rain I miss the beauty.. Enjoy the roses at this time of the year. They are amazing there.. City of Roses or something like that. We had roses over are trelais and they were so gorgeous. They like the rain!!!

Oh yeah, I have to agree there....Beaverton/West Hills/Murry Hills are some of my favorite areas in the metro area, I would love to wake up to dense fog (I see it a bit now, but Marquam and west hills get so much more).

Ty very muchly. I have to say love the rain too (maybe snow not too much when there's little snow equipment)!

[Minervah]

I just returned home to Portland from a trip to Minneapolis and Toronto where I saw a few homeless people in the crowded downtown and beach areas respectively. No surprised they are large cities. I did not see any in the many neighborhoods I visited in both cities.

While walking from the bus stop to my apartment in the Hawthorne area I encountered two homeless men stretched out on the lawn of a house with their belongings in supermarket carts. They didn't bother me and I didn't bother them. My thoughts were "Now I know I'm home."

[kagicre]

With interest I read part of the entries about beautiful Portland. We left Portland last December for more sun and lower living cost and first went to Texas - Austin and Dallas area - and we had ice storms and sunny days in the upper 80s in January, but they drive like crazy, the cost of living isn't that good, when you earn as a fence installer (my husband) 10 bucks. The pay sucks!!!! So we went to Oklahoma and now we are living in Tulsa. Nice downtown, surrounded by empty board-up houses, or houses in not to good state. I have never seen so many desolated places than here in Oklahoma. There are nice areas of course, but when you only earn 13 bucks an hour, than you have to live in the lower class part of town. We lived in a rental in SE Portland and that was a much nicer neighborhood than we live in now. The rent was a bit higher, but my husband earned a bit more too.
Once I complained a lot about the weather in Portland - winter wet and gloomy - but here I can't stand the humid heat (my husband doesn't like it either, poor bugger has to work outside) and our Labrador-mix is suffering too.
We want to return as soon as possible to Portland (luckily we have an old RV we can live in till we find a rental place again), the beautiful woods, WinCo, Trater Joe, Ikea, the German shops (I am German), Powell Books (best bookshop in the world), the little independent shops, New Renaissance Bookstore, lots of whole food stores, lots of dog parks, the recycling and lots and lots more.
And homeless people are in most big towns with decent weather, I guess. Be blessed that you are not one of them.