thinking about portland (crime, vs, to move)

[endlessdel42]

what i want here is for people to tell me the good things about portland. i want people to explain to me why i would want to move there. i am currently thinking about it. so far it does not appeal to me, but the person i want to move with has his heart set on it even though i do not think he has ever been there. any information will be greatly appreciated. thank you for your time

[Leisesturm]

If you are posting here you already know the 'good' intrinsics of Portland. As well as some of the 'bad' ones. I will not recite them all again here. However, what is 'good' to you? What isn't? What is it about PDX that attracts your partner? You might post those and we can either verify or deny their fact base.

H

[endlessdel42]

so far i haven't found much in the way of good about portland. i've found a lot of talk about bad weather and depression and a lot of people who say it's not soooo bad if you can get past the bad weather and depression or if you like bad weather, which i don't. i can get past it if the place is good enough. although it is hard for me to pinpoint what makes a place good. burlington vt is a city that i love(except for the weather) and boston has a lot to offer, as do a lot of the coastal towns in florida. i love a lot of things and a lot of different places. what ireally want to know about is the atmosphere and the culture and the recreation, and just, i don't know, everything. i want people who love this place to explain to me why they love it. i am sure there are drawbacks to the place. there are everywhere. i want to know what offsets the bad things for them.

[subsound]

Well, what I can say is that if you really like the warm temps of Florida then Portland might be a stretch, it's pretty much the same temp in the spring/summers on average as the winters in Florida.

[Leisesturm]

Endless, does the guy (or gal) who wants to come to PDX have your heart? Is s/he employable here? Are you? Do you have to be in order to survive? IMO a mature adult can survive anywhere there is water, food, shelter and nookie. In that order. I can't convince you that PDX is worth it. The things that make it worth it to me (us) clearly don't matter to you or you would have mentioned them: the MAX vs the subway, busses that take dollar bills vs busses that take coins only, Forest Park vs Prospect Park, B- air quality vs FF rated air quality, West Coast vs East Coast. Those are only a few. In nearly seven months of being here I've seen only one movie (Slumdog Millionaire, nice enough fairy tale but Oscar?) so that tells you where conventional entertainment ranks in my life. Florida is warm and the coastal cities are fine but cyclists are ridiculed and harrassed and blind persons become essentially housebound. Burlington has some of the lowest crime in the country but as you say, the weather... ... not to mention the warm welcome given to people of color. You see, why I and my GF like... love Portland is very individual to our wants and needs. But the bottom line is, if somewhere else would have worked better for my sweetie we would have tried it. There were at least five other cities on our long list, only two on our short list.

H

[Minervah]

i want people to explain to me why i would want to move there. i am currently thinking about it.

Why would anyone want to convince you to move here? Are you going to add to the city by bringing jobs or lots of money to throw into the economy? Are you a doctor we can always need them or a veterinarian; lot's of pets in Portland. Do you intend to set up a philanthropical organization that will help the people in need?

If I don't know what you have to offer, I don't know why I should convince you to move here. Given the problems we are encountering in Portland at present, unless you fall into one of the above catagories I would rather convince you to stay put for your own well being as well as ours.