What's rural Oregon (outside Salem) like?

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by KJMac

Currently in extremely rural NW GA Mts. It's beautiful but the average folks around here are VERY conservative, fairly zenophobic and not well educated. ...........ignorance abounds!

But why in the world would they fear an acne treatment???
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[want to move somewhere]

You may try Eugene. Very liberal, lots of live music and very open people..not to small

[Silverfall]

I would suggest Silverton, OR. It is probably the most liberal of the small towns. Monmouth, Independence, and Dallas are conservative, but not like what you are talking about.

We do have a anti-Hispanic sentiment from some members of the population. It is a very segregated community here in the Salem area.

Silverton is a very active community for a town of 9,000. I think they have a festival every month. As scone said, there is not a great jazz presence out here, but there isn't a great music presence in general. That is my perspective coming from the Chicago area. There are several wine and jazz festivals in the mid-Willamette valley due to all of the vineyards that we have here.

So, I would consider South Salem, West Salem/Bethel Heights area, Silverton, Turner (not much to the town, but only 5 minutes from Salem), Sublimity, maybe Stayton.

Stayton has typically been conservative, but due to the affordability was drawing more commuters to the town. Coming from what you are describing our small conservative towns sound pretty blue. Small town America in general tends to be more conservative.

Check out Silverton.

[ORexpat]

Very good comments by Scone and others. Remember, however, that there's a lot of rural Oregon outside the Willamette Valley. I've lived many years in both western and eastern Oregon, and these days rural western Oregon feels to me as though the vitality had been sucked out of it. The towns look tacky, many of them, and the people seem aimless, except where directly affected in a positive way by the wineries. Also, it isn't that easy or cheap to buy a nice little farm in western Oregon, because of demand and land use laws. Eastern Oregon is more like Idaho in feeling.

[wannabe1]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

We do have a anti-Hispanic sentiment from some members of the population. It is a very segregated community here in the Salem area.

Really? That's unbelievable and really sad.