Moving to Portland and this board makes me *skeered*... (Grants Pass: fair, surrounding)

[DreamWeavin]

everything is a risk. Going out to get in one's car to drive anywhere is a risk. One should not let fear be their guide. Life is too short.
Be cautious but not paralyzed with fear.
If the OP moves and finds they dislike the area, all they have to do is move. That's the beauty of life in the U.S.
I hated where I grew up in the deep south. Lots of people live there so they must like or love it. It wasn't for me and I'll never move back.
Thought I would love Alaska. Did my homework on everything I could find. Moved there.............hated it!!!!! So---I left.
Moved to the Portland area and felt like it was my destiny. Gosh, the people I've encountered are awesome. The state, or parts I've seen are so clean. The scenery is gorgeous. The weather is fabulous!!!
Ahhhh..............I love this area.

[ceeglass]

Moving is not that easy, especially if you have children. You can't just take them in and out of school moving until you find Nirvanah. You have to find a job and have the expense of going to the possible new city to go on interviews and look for housing. In 1997 when we moved from SoCal to Portland, it cost about $4000 in moving expenses alone. If you sell a house you have to pay around 6% to a realtor, closing costs and then closing costs on your new place. It's a pricy proposition to move and I don't blame RTGirl for not wanting to make an expensive mistake.

[kittypawz11]

[
I've looked at all the plausible alternatives:

Austin, TX is too hot
Burlington, VT is too cold
There's no money to be made in Ithaca, NY unless you work for Cornell.
Seattle has terrible traffic.
San Fran/No California is mostly a disaster in every way.


You will love Portland, although I must disagree that Austin is too hot. :-)
It's perfect. Warmer than San Diego but cooler than Arizona. The lakes and airconditioning help a lot too.
San Diego,Austin,Phoenix(Scottsdale) and Porland are my 3 favorite cities in the US. Good luck with your move!

[Rainbow08]

Originally Posted by ceeglass

Moving is not that easy, especially if you have children. You can't just take them in and out of school moving until you find Nirvanah. You have to find a job and have the expense of going to the possible new city to go on interviews and look for housing. In 1997 when we moved from SoCal to Portland, it cost about $4000 in moving expenses alone. If you sell a house you have to pay around 6% to a realtor, closing costs and then closing costs on your new place. It's a pricy proposition to move and I don't blame RTGirl for not wanting to make an expensive mistake.

I will be paying 2 months worth of rent (over $3,000) on my apartment if and when I break the lease. The moving company will charge me over $1,500 to move my belongings from LA to Pdx, and I'd need to find a rental apartment in Pdx which would cost about >$800 plus the security deposit... Yes, I totally agree that moving is very costly and also rated as one of the highest stress causing factors.

[wholoveskitty]

"Hey...I'm miserable living here in xxx. I visited Portland last weekend and had SOOOOO much fun that I've decided I want to move there. I just quit my job, we're loading up the u-haul and will be there on Tuesday. I'll look for a job once we find an apartment. Cool, huh?".........
In general, people on this board are sick of seeing people come in to their town with no real plans and wind up being a burden on their already bloated social system.

There is nothing wrong with people liking a town and then deciding to just move there and figure it out. Me and my husband are planning to do exactly what you call burdening an already bloated social system. For being such a libral state, your views sound like the republican crap that Im moving away from. I expected Portlanders to be more easy going and excepting of free spirits who want to be happy in their surroundings.

[LeftCoastee]

Originally Posted by wholoveskitty

"Hey...I'm miserable living here in xxx. I visited Portland last weekend and had SOOOOO much fun that I've decided I want to move there. I just quit my job, we're loading up the u-haul and will be there on Tuesday. I'll look for a job once we find an apartment. Cool, huh?".........
In general, people on this board are sick of seeing people come in to their town with no real plans and wind up being a burden on their already bloated social system.

There is nothing wrong with people liking a town and then deciding to just move there and figure it out. Me and my husband are planning to do exactly what you call burdening an already bloated social system. For being such a libral state, your views sound like the republican crap that Im moving away from. I expected Portlanders to be more easy going and excepting of free spirits who want to be happy in their surroundings.

Don't blame me. I'm just the messenger. Read the posts here and see the majority opinion for yourself. Even though some of the responses come off as harsh, they are well meaning.

Do you understand that I mean welfare / public assistance / unemployment benefits when I refer to being a burden on the social system? If you have a job or money to live off of, there is no real burden.

Look, I understand how you feel and why you seem defensive. You've found a place that you love and are excited to move there. You then come to this forum and get your dreams dashed by harsh reality. No one wants to see you fail. I'm not saying failure is inevitable, but moving without a job or plan in this economy does not play in your favor.

Being a free spirit is great, but you need to be realistic in this day and age.

FYI - Not everyone living in or moving to Portland is a Liberal. Also not sure why people saying don't move without a job or money to last you until you get a job is "republican crap". Sounds like good advice to me.

[subsound]

I generally consider myself a moderate republican in view points, never had a problem in "Ultra Liberal" Portland...I don't really have many disagreements with many people in Portland that involve balanced view points, and I usually vote on what I think of the candidate/issue more then party lines. The devil is in the details, and there's always a good discussion, but I never had the impression anyone walked away frustrated.

No place is perfect, even though it may be filled with the buzzwords that you agree with...moderate, liberal, conservative...bleh to infinity. Even then, a certain degree of situational awareness is good. The general economy is in the toilet and Oregon is one of the ones suffering in the top 10% right now...it doesn't mean it will be in a year or two. If you want to be impatient and do what you want without regarding the situation around you, if it works then good...but if it doesn't and you're not prepared you'll be in a world of pain and it will be all your own fault. All the people here want to be sure that doesn't happen to even more people, I know I see people rattling down the street in their shopping cart full of cans that threw caution to the wind in some fashion...I've seen a good number of new faces around here lately.

[swannee]

Great comments and deeper insights on this topic. but that is neither here nor there. It is like Minervah stated "Everything is relative to everything else" E=MC. something is only good or bad if it is labeled that way. There is also a thing called polarity that says everything has it's opposite i.e. inside, outside way up there, way down there. So if your constantly looking for the bad it will be there and on the other side of things if you are always looking for the good you will find that is there also. Some cultures call this the yin and the yang affect. So call it what you may, just understand that it is there.

[RTgirl]

If anyone was wondering what happened in the end... here's the update.

We didn't go!

I know! I was gutted. It was a total bummer.

But I ran the numbers over and over and it was just *a little too tight* for my liking on my salary alone. And I couldn't assume my husband was going to get a job right away, if not for 6 months. And it was just a bit too far for everything not to be completely within acceptable parameters. And there's nothing that will sour you faster on a new place than not being able to enjoy it because you're scratching to pay the rent. So I balked. And it turned out fine in the end.

We rocked steady for the summer, I made lots of overtime and paid off some stuff. Now that the job market is picking back up, it turns out we're most likely heading to either Burlington, VT, or Lebanon/Dartmouth, NH in the next few weeks.
Both of us having secured full time employment before the move.
With a relocation package.
And temporary housing.
Which takes a lot of the stress out of a big move.

We're looking forward to coming out to Portland for glass workshops and to hang out and drink beer. But a permanent move is out of the picture for now.

What *is* in the picture?

Lots of knitting and skis that's for sure!

Thanks everyone for their comments on this thread.
They were very honest, insightful, interesting and sometimes highly amusing to read.

[DreamWeavin]

Originally Posted by RTgirl

If anyone was wondering what happened in the end... here's the update.

We didn't go!

I know! I was gutted. It was a total bummer.

But I ran the numbers over and over and it was just *a little too tight* for my liking on my salary alone. And I couldn't assume my husband was going to get a job right away, if not for 6 months. And it was just a bit too far for everything not to be completely within acceptable parameters. And there's nothing that will sour you faster on a new place than not being able to enjoy it because you're scratching to pay the rent. So I balked. And it turned out fine in the end.

We rocked steady for the summer, I made lots of overtime and paid off some stuff. Now that the job market is picking back up, it turns out we're most likely heading to either Burlington, VT, or Lebanon/Dartmouth, NH in the next few weeks.
Both of us having secured full time employment before the move.
With a relocation package.
And temporary housing.
Which takes a lot of the stress out of a big move.

We're looking forward to coming out to Portland for glass workshops and to hang out and drink beer. But a permanent move is out of the picture for now.

What *is* in the picture?

Lots of knitting and skis that's for sure!

Thanks everyone for their comments on this thread.
They were very honest, insightful, interesting and sometimes highly amusing to read.

hope things work out for you,wherever you move! Life is such an awesome adventure!!!