Moving from LA to Portland : Neighborhood Questions (Beaverton, Lake Oswego: apartment, mortgages)

[florafauna]

I am moving from LA to Portland.

I have three kids. Ages 9, 3, and 1. I am looking for some honest advice about neighborhoods. I'm looking for strong community and GOOD schools (both lacking in LA). Is Lincoln HS really the only way to go in Portland??

I am really trying to avoid "better than thou" attitudes as well.
Looking at around a $350k price tag. Have visited Sellwood and love it. Haven't really found much about the schools there, though. Ladd's is beautiful as well, but looks like it's a bit pricey.

Any advice? Thank you kindly!

[oldtintype]

Sellwood definitely fits your bill for strong community and a great neighborhood for kids (I worked in the neighborhood for several years and it's a really nice place for families--everyone makes a big effort to know each other). The elementary school (Llewelyn) is good and has a lot of dedicated parents. Sellwood middle school has the same. The high school is Cleveland, which is not as good as Lincoln but isn't terrible either. If you don't want "better than thou" attitudes you'd probably want to avoid Lincoln anyway. I used to live a few blocks from there and you've never seen so many kids driving BMWs to school in your life . Or actually, being from LA maybe you have! Anyway, if you're an involved parent there are many others here as well and that often makes up for test scores that aren't perfect. I know a few people who send their kids to Cleveland and are very happy with it.

[2austin]

Originally Posted by florafauna

I am moving from LA to Portland.

I have three kids. Ages 9, 3, and 1. I am looking for some honest advice about neighborhoods. I'm looking for strong community and GOOD schools (both lacking in LA). Is Lincoln HS really the only way to go in Portland??

I am really trying to avoid "better than thou" attitudes as well.
Looking at around a $350k price tag. Have visited Sellwood and love it. Haven't really found much about the schools there, though. Ladd's is beautiful as well, but looks like it's a bit pricey.

Any advice? Thank you kindly!

For your kids (1,3,9 yrs) I think a home in Beaverton School District would be best. The area called Bethany (in Beaverton School District) in NW Portland is known for exemplary elementary and middle schools. There is a lot of diversity and shopping and a lot of young families (from all over US and the world) working for Intel and other high paying employers. For $350K you should be able to find a 2000 sqft house with a good sized backyard. Good luck.

[Jen54]

With moving there in the coming year; visiting VERY often,(sometimes 2-3 times a month at one point) I have to put my 2 cents in.

I too have 3 children (3, 5, 7). I have to say that oldintype is a GREAT source of info. She has sold me on Sellwood time and again. It's everything we are looking for.

With that said, I have to say that coming from LA you are most likely going to be better off in the downtown area or across the bridge like in Sellwood area.
Don't get me wrong, Beaverton is nice. But I too went from california to eastern washington a few years back, and it was too back country for us. (moved back to california) If you grew up in LA or a big city like that, even if you're thinking that you want "down" time, or more of a relaxed atmosphere, I personally think Beaverton might be too down time for anyone coming from the LA area.

But again, this is STRICTLY my personal opinion and from a been there did that sort of perspective. grant it, that eastern washington and beaverton are different one should not compare, I am comparing the action of an LA scene compared to a more suburban type living scene.

Having visited Portland so often, we knew that eventually we wanted our kids to grow up there. You can still get that old school feeling of a neighborhood actually knowing the neighbors; tree lined streets, parks, small cafes, GREAT GREAT GREAT food, GREAT GREAT GREAT farmers market and just the whole overall atmosphere of being there. The beauty etc. That's why we are making our last home in Portland our forever home. There's still a chance in Portland. Our kids still have a chance to become a homeowner in a really great place and not have to give up what they are use to while growing up.
Where I'm from now, it was actually a nice place to raise a family at one time. We had the neighborhood and tree lined streets, and plenty of "kid" stuff to do. My husband and I had GREAT memories of growing up here. Then it became too touristy. And little by little all the kids stuff disappeared. Then the houses skyrocketed and everyone sold their homes to move someplace else bc of the profits. New neighbors moved in, but were gone all day to pay for their mortgages, and the kids left in day care. No one was around during the day except the retirees, or the nanny's. And now, (as I am well aware of everywhere else) it takes 20-30 min to get downtown when it use to only take 10-15. Too many people for too small of a place. And everyone's always in a rush to get somewhere. It's just not something we want to raise our kids in. Especially knowing that they could never buy a home here.

anyway. i've blabbed. sorry.

[chattypatty]

Lincoln is not as snooty as all that. My son went there and loved it, and we are not rich by a long shot. We lived in an apartment in NW Portland while most of the kids lived in the West Hills (very wealthy area). A number of kids who live in other neighborhoods apply to attend Lincoln for their special programs, so there is actually some diversity in socio-economic class. Remember that there is a whole different attitude in Portland than in a big city in CA or on the east coast. There is much more of a laid back feeling, and less hoity-toity stuff all around. What is nice about Lincoln is that gangs and racial violence are virtually non existent. Something like 90% of graduates attend college. Lincoln high school is known nationally by college admissions boards as having very high academic standards.

Wilson High, Beaverton High, and Sunset High, all in Beaverton, are also good schools. I actually think there's more snootiness in those places! Lincoln is urban and cool. Oh, and then there's Lake Oswego high, probably the most snooty.

[D W]

Wilson High, Beaverton High, and Sunset High, all in Beaverton, are also good schools. I actually think there's more snootiness in those places! Lincoln is urban and cool. Oh, and then there's Lake Oswego high, probably the most snooty.[/quote]

What about Grant High? The neighborhoods in that area seem very nice as well as far as family-friendly? We're looking for very similar things in a community & school as we're moving from Texas.

How does Grant High compare with Cleveland?
Sellwood versus Grant Park / Irvington / Hollywood?

Thanks!

[Nell Plotts]

Grant is a large school that includes a diverse student body. [The filming site of Mr Holland's Opus.] Kids can be as great a scholar as they want to be, or get lost in the crowd. When my husband graduated from Grant (many, many years ago) he tells me that he had never met some of the students who walked across the stage.

Today Grant may not be as large as some of the schools you mention, but it is a factor to consider, IMHO. School structures change; big schools because they want to offer lots of programs, 'pods' within big schools so kids don't get lost, middle schools or not. What is now may not be the same tomorrow.

All of the neighborhoods you mention are quality communities.

[Leisesturm]

I am not in a position to know for sure, certainly, but I don't doubt that Lake Oswego has some quality schools. Are they the only schools that merit consideration? What if one cannot afford the other intrinsics of life in a place like L.O.? Should every parent with school age children relocate to L.O.? What does "good" in connection with a school mean anyway? The best U.S. schools are probably only "o.k." when compared to the best European schools. There are no schools, none at all, anywhere in Portland that are as bad as some schools that exist in very poor areas in the Midwest and New York. It isn't easy but many do go on to college and much greater things even from those humble origins. It cannot be the right way around to move to a city for the public schooling. What about a job for the wage earners? What about affordable housing for the entire family? It is a given that an area with cachet will have some aspect of snootiness. Whether that is good or bad is an individual call but to expect that it can be avoided... ... well, I don't think so. Nor do I thnk that it would or could ever be as bad now as it might have been a couple of generations ago when class warfare was much more intense. Nowadays class warfare is economic and we know who wins that battle. Once upon a time it was social as well and there is where one's nose could really get bloodied when going up against the established gentry as an outsider or worse as a settled member of the working class trying to move up. I am not saying that any of YOU have this problem but there is, I think, a feeling that the schools are responsible for our children's education and that they can only get a good education in a certain type of physical plant and with a certain kind of student body. I think this is true at the edges of the performance envelope i.e. in the extreme comparison of a slum school vs. a suburban one. And not even all suburbs are created equally when it comes to the tenor of the student body. As much needs to be done after school and during summer vacations as during actual classroom hours to fully realize a childs potential. This can be done, I suspect, in a lot of other places than simply Lake Oswego, as has been said by others besides just me.

H

[mountnhyke]

I am also interested in moving to the Portland area, and have heard and read great things about it and the the PNW in general (I live in Dallas). I have a general question on the winter weather... I know all about the rain and clouds from October to May, but I also saw that The Dalles, only 90 miles away and past the rain shadow, gets about a quarter of the rain that Portland does. I'm wondering, if the clouds linger for weeks on end, could you just take a 2 hour trip west, soak up the winter sun for a little bit (albeit a little cold), and get back home to the rainy weather? And is 84 East treacherous in winter? Thanks!

[Nell Plotts]

Yes I-84 can often be nasty in the winter. However if you want kick back in the sun drive Hgy 26 to Kah-Nee-Ta. About 2 hours drive from Portland metro.
Warm Springs - Relaxation & Fun