Mixed Race Family in the Portland Burbs?

[John Shaft]

Originally Posted by Rob Allen

Your family's racial makeup will not cause the slightest stir in the Portland area.

Agreed, there will hardly be a batted eye.

Depending on where you're coming from, those West Slope houses can seem really spendy, but since you are from the Bay Area they should seem like a real deal!

[Nell Plotts]

Strange as it may seem, many in Portland do not differentiate Asians from Caucasians socially. It may be because Asians are viewed has having high academic achievement, hard working and successful. If you describe your family as "mixed race" many NW Caucasians will react with a "huh?" because they just don't see Asians as different.

As you probably already know some Asians have their own issues with mixed marriages but their view are more complex. For example, they might have a concern about the marriage of a person of Korean heritage with a person of Japanese heritage. Because most NW Asians lived in the US for two generations or more that is rare.

[tigerlily]

Originally Posted by Hans64

I would look at the far west/southwest side of Portland rather than West Linn, etc. There is a section of unincorporated Washington County around Raleigh Hills, West Slope, Garden Home that has a Portland address (most of Portland is in Multnomah County). The drive to downtown Portland is about 10-15 minutes, the school district is Beaverton which is well regarded, the parks and rec district is excellent with many programs, and the taxes are lower due to the Washington County status. I live in this area and it is quite diverse and progressive--I moved in with my partner (also male) and no one batted an eye. There are many young families moving in as the original residents retire. Housing stock is generally good quality with a lof of solid 50s and 60s ranches (some of them very large and spectacular mid century modern homes) with newer housing filling in. Your kids will find plenty of diversity in Beaverton schools--Nike and the tech businesses in Washington County draw adults from India, Europe, etc. Lake Oswego is more solidly white and has a perhaps undeserved reputation for being very status conscious and insular. West Linn is similar and even more isolated. Neither of these communites are known for having much connection to Portland proper--the residents stay put in the LO/WL area for the most part.

Your description exactly represents my neighborhood. I live in unincorporated WASHCO (Cedar Mill area) and your comments are 100% correct. We have lower taxes and we receive some Portland services that Beaverton does not enjoy. For example, my neighborhood is heavily treed and we enjoy leaf pickup four times in the fall. I understand Beaverton does not have this service. This may seem insignificant to some, but we have lots of trees. LOL

[DSLJohn]

(sorry for the essay folks...)

Well, we do like Portland a lot. This was our second trip to the Portland area as a family. My wife actually came up here a lot as a kid, and has fond memories of spending many hours in Powell's.

We spent a lot of time checking out various neighborhoods and I think your assessments were largely right. It seems most Caucasian people are completely indifferent to us up there. One thing that did happen a few times, which was curious, was that recent Asian immigrants seemed to be very interested in my wife and kids. Like for instance, a cleaning lady at the hotel stopped us to talk to her, and the staff at a Thai restaurant kept peeking out of the back room at her. It wasn't unfriendly. I guess that there are less American born Asians in general in the Portland area than in the Bay Area of California, and she was a curiosity to them?

We did check out West Linn and Lake Oswego, while they are very nice, we could see what you are saying about being isolated. The trek to Portland proper is a bit of work, particularly from WL. Nice neighborhoods though.

Milwaukee had some great old Craftsman homes for very good prices, but it seems that we would have to come into Portland proper to do stuff. Still, the great homes, and the lot sizes for the price were very appealing.

We also took a trip out to Happy Valley. We went there during the day and checked out the very inexpensive (relatively) modern homes up on the hills. They were quite nice, and very large, if not in very charming neighborhoods. Seems its really a bedroom community. The place is very empty during the day, as I guess everybody is in Portland for work.

We DID like the Raleigh Hills area a lot. Nice ranch style home, on nice size lots, lots of trees, friendly looking people, and it is close enough to trek into town for lunch or take the kids to some event. Most of the homes also had attached two car garages, which is something that I think is important because I'm a tinkerer and I like having space for tools and such. The only drawback I could see is that it isn't a walking neighborhood like the Hawthorne area or Sellwood. Still, the place has a lot of appeal.

The Hawthorne and Sellwood areas are also very nice. Seems there are some street people on the main road, but once you go into the neighborhood a few blocks it gets nice. My wife has some family that lives out there and we had dinner over at their house a few blocks away from the Bagdad theater. I was amazed at how quiet it was considering how lively it was on Hawthorne. Sellwood seemed like a tamer Hawthorne, with a little less hippie feel. It seems like it would be a great place to raise a family. We also traveled north of Hawthorne for a few miles, and again there are a lot of nice homes out there. We really like old Craftsman homes, I guess the down side is that most of these homes have little lots and a lot of them don't have garages.

It seems that you do pay for an area with good schools, if you live in Portland proper. But I guess that's true everywhere.

[Nell Plotts]

There are LOTS of American born Asians in Portland but because they live here they don't stay in hotels. It could be that the hotel staff were wondering if your wife came from their native area she and they had something in common. Friendly curiosity.

I wish you the best in finding a home and neighborhood that suits you. As you notice, there are many to choose from.

[jojo4]

Portland is pretty good for Asian people these days, but yes there are always going to be some kind of insensitive comments or another if you look for it.

an article at Blazersedge, a very popular Trailblazers booster site. You can just skip to the bottom of the little write up.
A League of Their*Own - Blazersedge

asian reporter article
The Asian Reporter Columns - asianreporter.com

At the restaurant, they probably just think your kids are cute.

[Todd.LA]

I'd look more to Washington county suburbs than West Linn or Lake Oswego. You're not going to have people being overtly racist anywhere you live, but West Linn and LO are much more overwhelmingly white than Beaverton, Hillsboro, and the other Washington county suburbs. West Linn can be slightly rednecky, and Lake Oswego's (in)famous monicker "Lake No Negro" is still a fairly accurate demographic description. Suburban southwest Portland might also be a good place to look. Good schools, and you're closer to the city amenities.

[Nell Plotts]

Ehh... I worked for a major metro employer and several Black executives lived in West Linn and Lake Oswego, more than one had a spouse of another race. Frankly Todd I don't think you run in the "in" circles. Yes, there may be individuals who have an issue in any community, but frankly, I do not see any upscale Portland suburb as "rednecky".

[hml1976]

Our kids are Asian (we adopted) and we live in Camas, never had any issues, not even a comment. My daughter is in Kindergarten and a good portion of the kids in her class appear to be part Asian.

[ssmith2526]

Originally Posted by Todd.LA

I'd look more to Washington county suburbs than West Linn or Lake Oswego. You're not going to have people being overtly racist anywhere you live, but West Linn and LO are much more overwhelmingly white than Beaverton, Hillsboro, and the other Washington county suburbs. West Linn can be slightly rednecky, and Lake Oswego's (in)famous monicker "Lake No Negro" is still a fairly accurate demographic description. Suburban southwest Portland might also be a good place to look. Good schools, and you're closer to the city amenities.

Honestly, I am so sick of white people quoting "Lake No Negro". I am bi-racial with many white friends, several that live in Lake O and they are very accepting and kind. Please stop perpetuating an outdated stereotype. There is no law or unwritten rule that Lake O residents encourage Blacks not to move into their town, these comments just add unnecessary fuel to the fire. Oregon was anti-black years ago and any Black that entered the state was "encouraged" to move on and I don't hear people calling Oregon "Oregon state no negro". Yes, Lake O is predominantly white but it's not because all the Blacks are stopped on their way into town and forced to turn around and leave. I'm sorry to go off but I have heard that from so many white people and they don't seem to realize that those of us of color don't find it useful or pleasant to hear. I'm not sure what their point is in saying it over and over again when every place in the country was overtly racist at one point in time.

Now, to the OP regarding where you might prefer to live or be more comfortable living...I am also part of a mixed race family (white hubby, bi-racial wife and multiracial kids) and one thing that I LOVE about where we live is the diversity. That is not the case everywhere. If you don't care about exposing your children to diversity then there's really no issue other than what area you like best. But if you want your children to be exposed to diversity (besides just the diversity within your own family and/or if your wife would like to live in a community where there are other people who have a similar ethnic or racial background then I would strongly consider Sw Beaverton/N Tigard. Specifically the Scholls Heights school district. There is a higher than average Asian population at the school and many activities that involve members of different Asian communities, for example, St Anthony Catholic church has a Vietamese mass every week to accommodate the needs of their large Vietamese community. I have been so pleased by the high number of kids from various cultures and races. My son and his friends don't even notice color differences because it's around them all the time. You can't go to the Harman swim center in Beaverton without seeing children of different racial/ethnic backgrounds and that is the greatest thing to me. One thing to note though, depending on your kids ages, you might want to consider whether you want to move to a city that is inside the boundaries for a local park and rec center. We failed to consider that since we didn't have children when we bought our house and unfortunately while we are very close to several community park and rec centers and frequent them often we are not in district and that has a few, small disadvantages.