What I Love, Hate, Like, Dislike about Portland Oregon (Hillsboro: unemployment benefits, purchases)
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When i think of portland i think of the tri-county area, multnomah, washington, and clackamas counites. I live in Beaverton (Washington County) but work in Portland.
Love the Trains, i drive less than two miles to free park and ride and my employer provides a free year trimet pass, so very low/no stress getting to work and back.
As someone who knows both cities very well, Miami has A LOT more homeless folks than Portland. In Miami, there are scores of homeless people standing at every intersection begging for change. I hate going downtown because I know I will run into a couple hundred of them while I'm there.
I disagree with the whole hipster thing though. While there is a hipster scene in Miami, it's not as big as Portland.Miami has more of your typical d-bags than hipsters. Also, keep in mind that Miami is only about 10% non-hispanic white, while Portland is mostly white. Completely different demographic..
Dont discount Tampa either. Tampa has built a pretty decent sized hipster scene now. Theres a major d bag part of Tampa with jersey shore types everywhere and clubs in Ybor have several. Its nice, but I wouldn't wanna live there really.
Maybe yes, maybe no. The difference is that people aren't desiring to move to Lowell or Altoona or Dayton as they are Portland. This just adds to the competition for the few jobs available and makes it more difficult for people to find work at a living wage.
Thats a good point as well. Jobswise though, I think there are more positions open and well, the competition, its there but sometimes the stats are just numbers. You can be put ahead of the line if a manager likes you enough.
It looks more and more to me like you are just trying to discourage as many people as you can from moving. I mean even if someone becomes homeless, its a learning experience and they for a fact do get better care there than many places in the USA. Its not a first goal, but just incase it happens, you do what you gotta. I do not think its all doom and gloom like you present it though. There is no way in hell Portland is as hard to land a job as other smaller cities that have been depressed for far longer (Lowell MA, Johnstown PA, Altoona PA, Dayton OH, St Pete FL). Detroit is one of the hugest cities to have the meltdown that its had. Portland I see as a place in much better shape.
Doc, I dont know about those other small cities, but I do know St. Petersburg, FL and it has only been depressed as long as this current economic down turn. While it did get fairly bad there, I don't think its any harder to find work there than it is in Portland. Pinellas co. is huge, and you must remember that St. Pete is also, quite literally right next to Tampa, which has not suffered nearly as much. The Tampa / St. Pete area is considerably larger than Portland, and is, IMHO one of the more cosmopolitan areas in the United States. I also do not think that comparing the likes of Altoona, Johnstown, Dayton, Lowell...etc is any sort of fair comparison. St. Pete is far larger than any of those, and as I pointed out is directly connected to Tampa, which is much larger than St. Pete still. Ive been to every city you list there (granted not since the current economic down turn), except Lowell, and can say with first hand certainty that there is really no comparison between those cities and St. Pete. The closest in comparison would be Dayton, but all of those cities are roughly 1/2 the size at the largest. None of them, again IMHO are nearly as nice as St. Petersburg, nor Tampa, even in St. Pete's somewhat downtrodden state.
As far as your assesment on the "hipsters" and / or "d-bags" as you call them in Tampa, well, I have visted it many many times, been out in Ybor many times as well, even before it was "cool" to go out there, as well as Channelside, Hyde Park, South Tampa, Davis Islands..etc. and really, this element you speak of is very small. If you want D'bags, go to Philadelphia,, anywhere in Jersey, even Baltimore... Theres far more of those types there than in Tampa, and I have spent a ton of time in just about every major east coast city with the exception of Boston.
Btw, why do so many of u here keep trying to convince us that PDX not easy to be homeless in?
Is there any city where it would be? Based on my understanding, it is hard to be homeless in Hawaii too. Where would it not be please? Or are you guys trying to scare people out of ur city?
well for starters, it might be a lot healthier to be homeless in a city that is warm at night and in the winter, not cold and wet like the north, including Portland. Our Oregon statewide homeless count for ONE night in January for 2010, official HUD count, was about 20,000. Several thousand in Portland. So that's just one night, multiply that by several and you get the picture. Most of them just don't hang out downtown, so you don't see them. But you had better believe that ALL of them compete for the totally inadequate housing programs , where thare are anything from 2 year to 10 year wait lists including Section 8.
I'm kinda curious, does anyone know, why the forum link at top of page for this thread, says:" What I Love, Hate, Like, Dislike about Portland Oregon (Detroit: low income, houses)"
I mean, what's with the "detroit" stuff? I certainly never put that into the title of the first post, where did it come from ??? I only put in, the first part that is NOT in parentheses.--OP
well for starters, it might be a lot healthier to be homeless in a city that is warm at night and in the winter, not cold and wet like the north, including Portland. Our Oregon statewide homeless count for ONE night in January for 2010, official HUD count, was about 20,000. Several thousand in Portland. So that's just one night, multiply that by several and you get the picture. Most of them just don't hang out downtown, so you don't see them. But you had better believe that ALL of them compete for the totally inadequate housing programs , where thare are anything from 2 year to 10 year wait lists including Section 8.
Portland, and other west coast cities, need to get a clue, and start trying to eliminate homelessness, or at least bring the large bumbers down. I'm originally from the east, where we have cold winters. And I've never seen as many homeless people out in the streets, as I did when I lived in Portland, the SF Bay area, and LA.
I think that the west coast cities, including Portland, have been very negligent about their homeless problesms. That needs to stop!
It looks more and more to me like you are just trying to discourage as many people as you can from moving. I mean even if someone becomes homeless, its a learning experience and they for a fact do get better care there than many places in the USA. Its not a first goal, but just incase it happens, you do what you gotta. I do not think its all doom and gloom like you present it though. There is no way in hell Portland is as hard to land a job as other smaller cities that have been depressed for far longer (Lowell MA, Johnstown PA, Altoona PA, Dayton OH, St Pete FL). Detroit is one of the hugest cities to have the meltdown that its had. Portland I see as a place in much better shape.
Then go ahead and show up with no job. Some of us are sick and tired of trying to tell the truth and being treated like we are lying. Just be sure that if you decide to go for the "learning experience" of being homeless, you don't ask me for money. I've got no more patience and nothing to give --so have your damned learning experience on someone else's dime. I have family members who can't find work in Portland--who just left, actually, because of it.
But yeah, come on out.
Last edited by Metlakatla; 01-05-2011 at 07:27 AM..
Portland, and other west coast cities, need to get a clue, and start trying to eliminate homelessness, or at least bring the large bumbers down. I'm originally from the east, where we have cold winters. And I've never seen as many homeless people out in the streets, as I did when I lived in Portland, the SF Bay area, and LA.
I think that the west coast cities, including Portland, have been very negligent about their homeless problesms. That needs to stop!
What are we supposed to do about them? They keep showing up. How is that Portland's fault?
Last edited by Metlakatla; 01-05-2011 at 07:15 AM..
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