Is it really true that Oregonians hate Californians? (Portland: job transfer, vs.)

[jjpop]

As I read through these posts, I wonder how many people have regular contact with California transplants that have actually made these statements or otherwise acted holier than Oregonians. Or are we just talking about fashioning a story about a group of people that happen to be able to afford a $700k house to demonize them?

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by jjpop

As I read through these posts, I wonder how many people have regular contact with California transplants that have actually made these statements or otherwise acted holier than Oregonians. Or are we just talking about fashioning a story about a group of people that happen to be able to afford a $700k house to demonize them?

I talked to family who live in Vancouver B.C. who said that similar generalizations and prejudice is happening in their area against the Chinese. Portland is not unique but many of its long timers tend to believe they are the only ones in the world that is experiencing urban renewal and gentrification. I am fine with CD posters hating CA transplants as its their choice to feel anyway they want. I hear a lot if deragatory comments about Oregonians being stupid, toothless, fat and unattractive when there are no "natives" around. In mixed company everyone stays quiet. The Internet has created a living rom where people can say what they really think without looking the person in the eye while they offend him. I think many people on CD live this way and don't get out to open their minds and hearts.

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

There is a housing shortage. Remove the Urban Growth Boundary so Portland Can Sprawl Like Los Angeles. We like the nice local vegetables and the pretty forest, but it won't hurt anything to pave it all over with little tract houses.

Interestingly enough though, the most vociferous arguments I've heard against the UGB have actually been from longtime Oregonians with rural property outside of the boundaries, who'd like to sell and/or develop the land if they could though the UGB prevents them. I had a co-worker who blamed Californian transplants for supporting the UGB. Though of course not all people living outside the UGB are necessarily against it either, it's a fairly complicated issue in terms of who supports it or not.

[j_k_k]

My qualification on this: only a few months actually in Oregon, but nearly half my life in Washington within half an hour of Oregon, including growing up in the 1970s watching channels 2, 6, and 8 and think the ultimate bliss would be to get KGON 92 on my radio. (Or, for that matter, anything but KACI FM in The Dalles, which was then a light pop station. I was so hickish I didn't have any idea that having a DJ named LaTrell probably meant she was African American.) Plus sixteen years in Seattle, where attitudes about California are/were not so different.

There's a long list of annoying California stereotypes. I think everyone already knows them, but they all come down to either getting in the door and then slamming/bolting it behind one, or believing that one's Californianess makes one special, or litigiousness, or emphasis on appearance over substance. Everyone has seen examples of them, but everyone has also seen far more non-examples of them. When people are behaving in the ways Oregonians tend to respect, in other words not living up to any negative stereotypes, no one is noticing. The friendly guy at the lube place on Cornelius Pass who helped me figure out where the DEQ station was? For all I knew, he might have moved up from Bakersfield last year. It didn't come up. Only a person obsessed about the subject would even have raised the question, on either side, and most people are not.

The whole thing is based upon brief snapshots here and there of people who exemplified the stereotype. The many who did not, it never came up, and one never knew. I moved from a fairly heavily stereotyped state, and kept its tags much longer than I was supposed to, but I never noticed any reactions based on them. If you hang around long enough in any of the three NWmost states, you'll run across people who will exemplify the CA stereotype--but you will also have run across a great many who qualify by origin for the stereotype, yet never portrayed it, thus you never noticed them.

If someone lives up to the stereotype, I have no problem with them taking the heat for it. The problem, and it is a problem one creates for oneself, is living as if the majority will behave to the stereotype. In that case, it's the stereotyper who suffers most. I don't know if any of my neighbors here in Aloverton are from California, since none of them act stereotypical, and that's the point. Good relations with neighbors are what I want, and that's a lot more important than where they might be from. Especially since I'm the out-of-state noob here, and don't have much ground for bringing the whole thing up even if I wanted to. If I did, I'd be screwing myself for no gain. Same for every other situation I might encounter.

The good news for visitors or transplants from California is that most Oregonians have the sense to view the matter much as I do. Anyone not acting stereotypical, with or without CA tags, won't stand out.

[AndyAMG]

All of the little convos in the previous post are actually conversations I have had. There is a guy at work who we call California Bill. Hes this weird tight Holister shirt wearing 40 something who cant can't act his age. He went to UC Berkeley. Went... You would think he single handedly ran UC Berkeley at some point. He tells the same stupid stories about the 89 earth quake some fire and the Joe Montana led 49ers.

My wife's bosses daughter (a friend of my wife) always talks about when she lived with her dad in Newport Beach.

My neighbor is weird and intrusive they came from California. The first thing he ever said to me is "Hey man is this fence on your property or mine?" Nice intro.

A new family at church was the one I had the strange conversation where they reassured me they could afford California.

Last weekend I was at Paulina Lake and had a conversation about how the cascades are just not up to snuff with the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

I have never met a non-pretentious person who told me they were Californian. Never.

I may have met people from California, but did not know because they did not say, and I'm fine with that. Those are not the people I have issue with.

I have only met a hand full who are not sad they had to leave California.

I agree with Oregonwoodsmoke but did not want to get political.

It's not to say that Oregonians can't be pretentious. Any person can. I met a guy the other day who said his name was James something retired Colonel Marine Corps. uhhh okay.

Also... saying conservative Californian is like saying liberal Texan.

[jjpop]

Thanks for relating those stories, Andy. Some people are annoying. You mention the 40-something guy that wears the Hollister shirt, and it reminds me that a friend told me a story of when he was working in So Cal and one of his co-workers was a guy pushing 50 sporting a serious faux hawk. He said the guy had a hard time being taken seriously as a manager (I wonder why?)

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by jjpop

Thanks for relating those stories, Andy. Some people are annoying. You mention the 40-something guy that wears the Hollister shirt, and it reminds me that a friend told me a story of when he was working in So Cal and one of his co-workers was a guy pushing 50 sporting a serious faux hawk. He said the guy had a hard time being taken seriously as a manager (I wonder why?)

There is truth in stereotypes but at the end of the day...they are what they are. People are annoying everywhere. That is the truth. CA and OR are not special. The states border each other so there is going to be issues. Got to keep growing and moving forward. This thread has just gotten childish.

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

There is truth in stereotypes but at the end of the day...they are what they are. People are annoying everywhere. That is the truth. CA and OR are not special. The states border each other so there is going to be issues. Got to keep growing and moving forward. This thread has just gotten childish.

Stop being so pretentious!

Just kidding, I like your posts...

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by CanuckInPortland

Stop being so pretentious!

Just kidding, I like your posts...

Thanks! How Canadian of you!. I know let's all share a stereotype of the place where we transplanted from. Maybe by laughing at ourselves and sharing similarities... we will stop bickering. This forum is actually a re- location forum by nature. This is not a, don't move here because I was here first, forum. Try going to some of the other notoriously racist bigoted sites for that kind of advice. That wasn't directed at you, Canuck!

[CanuckInPortland]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

Thanks! How Canadian of you!. I know let's all share a stereotype of the place where we transplanted from. Maybe by laughing at ourselves and sharing similarities... we will stop bickering. This forum is actually a re- location forum by nature. This is not a, don't move here because I was here first, forum. Try going to some of the other notoriously racist bigoted sites for that kind of advice. That wasn't directed at you, Canuck!

I think Canadians are just sort of stereotyped as overly polite, maybe occasionally as drunken hockey fans also(which both can be true sometimes). Though I've spent about a 1/3rd of my life in the States now, and it's interesting that few times does revealing my birthplace really provide much more of a reaction than being sort of a novelty. People are more focused on regional and inter-state biases in much of the US than caring about Canadians moving anywhere. Except for maybe Blaine, Washington and Bellingham near the border--people up there complain about pushy Canadian trans-border shoppers.

When I lived in Boston and would drive into the rest of northern New England it was the fact that my car had Massachusetts plates that made people look at me as a potential "Mass-hole" with scorn. On the other hand being half-Chinese in Vancouver BC, I've had conversations with older people who complained about all the Chinese people moving there, before they remembered I was half-Chinese(born in Vancouver though). "Oh but you're okay," they'd then say with a smile, and just generalizing about everyone gets to be tedious.

Every place has got some group that get's disliked for supposedly being the source of all changes, I can see why people are frustrated with increased rents and costs when transplants arrive in higher numbers, though it's hard to go home again once things start going that way.