Milwaukie or Gresham? (Portland, Clackamas: apartments, rental, neighborhood)

[ChadPettingill]

Ok, so from what I've heard you have conservative Gresham in liberal Multnomah County and liberal Milwaukie in conservative Clackamas County. That kind of stuff aside, what kind of political climate does each individual town have?

I can't decide where I might want to move to in the fall. I like Gresham because it does have a lot to offer and it's close to the Gorge, but it seems too far from PDX. Milwaukie on the other hand is so close to PDX but doesn't seem to offer much around it. It looked like you'd have to go to Clackamas or the Westmoreland neighborhood of Portland for nice things.

If I want a 2 bedroom apartment for a reasonable price, would I have a better chance of finding that in Milwaukie or Gresham?

Also, which is a better commute to Portland State U? Say coming from downtown Milwaukie and downtown Gresham.

Help me out here please!!

[andtm66]

Commute-wise, Milwaukie is definitely going to be closer ... and shorter. I LOVE Gresham, particularly the downtown area ... but the commute to downtown Portland, especially on public transportation is long - about an hour.

I don't know much about Milwaukie, but it is really close to some great areas such as Westmoreland and Sellwood.

Milwaukie and Gresham, I think, both have reasonable prices for apartments. You might just check on craigslist or oregonlive or some rental websites and compare the ammenities and prices, etc. for both areas.

[oldtintype]

Honestly, the commute sucks from either place. There are a lot of closer in places you could find with comparable rents, or maybe a little higher that would make getting to school a lot easier. Parking is really tough at PSU, it's expensive and so on. Commuting by public transportation is do-able from those areas but you'll be spending a few hours getting to and from school and buses to PSU are usually packed in the mornings....Another little known factor to some is that PCC runs shuttles to/from their campuses that stop at PSU so it's always an option to hop on one of those too if you end up living close to a PCC location.

[ChadPettingill]

So you're saying it's actually possible to find an apartment in southeast Portland that's not astronomically expensive?

[oldtintype]

Yes, especially if you live a little further out (i.e. further than SE 39th). Of course that depends on the size and what your version of what astronomical is....

[ChadPettingill]

Thanks for the replies!

[chocobot18]

What about politics compared to the two cities?