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Portland has some problems. The local population (mostly black) was completely displaced during gentrification and now mostly lives pretty for outside of central Portland in the area with not so great transit, the same area that Portland has cut transit to so it can run the toy trains in the gentrified neighborhoods the black population in Portland used to live in. That and Portland's streets are in pretty deplorable condition since it has almost no budget for road maintenance. Again, it's not like there ISN'T any money or even any driver-generated money. Portland collects several times the amount it spends on road maintenance in parking fees/taxes, but all of that is used to subsidize transit.
I actually like a lot of what Portland has done as well as Kotkin. It's one of the better run and planned cities.
I don't see your complaints, my sister lives in Northeast and says the buses are great for here, though weekend service is spotty and not as good, but that is a common complaint in any city in this country. I hated commuting on the weekends in NYC because the service was crappy on Saturday and worse on Sunday.
Road conditions in Portland are actually pretty good compared to other cities, I know everyone wants perfect streets but some in Portland act like the streets are crumbling and impossible to drive on.
And the toy train system is one of the best light rail systems I have seen in this country that keeps getting better and better. The streetcar system will soon have a foundation to work with to go along with its active northwest line and will hopefully be used throughout Portland on their busier routes.
I do agree with you, Portland is one of the better run and better planned cities in this country.
Road conditions in Portland are actually pretty good compared to other cities, I know everyone wants perfect streets but some in Portland act like the streets are crumbling and impossible to drive on.
Before I left Portland this July, I did read an article about how 60-65 miles of road are nothing more than gravel and/or dirt roads. They definitely need to fix those up.
Before I left Portland this July, I did read an article about how 60-65 miles of road are nothing more than gravel and/or dirt roads. They definitely need to fix those up.
There are old outer neighborhood parts of Portland that do have gravel roads, it is a rare find but the city does need to get around to paving all their streets. Though I think it might require the home owners to get their own neighborhood streets paved
The trouble with Kotkin isn't just that he tends to flex facts to fit an agenda, but that he attracts more of the same. This recent retort to one of his WSJ columns, though I was more inclined to be sympathetic to his arguments because of my own feelings on the topics, was also pretty obnoxious in its fact-bending. Joel Kotkin thinks you want to live in Houston. Here’s why you don’t. | Grist
The comment section of that article was shrill on both sides.
Kotkin amazes me. He once ran an article that showed residents of Greater Houston ranked low in residual income from stocks and rents and whatnot. He put a happy spin on it that Houston was a wage-earning town.
The more appropriate response was that nobody's going to rent a room from you if you live in a cul de sac far from where the renter has to go for education, work or nightlife. Not when there's tons of apartments or cheap homes available.
The trouble with Kotkin isn't just that he tends to flex facts to fit an agenda, but that he attracts more of the same. This recent retort to one of his WSJ columns, though I was more inclined to be sympathetic to his arguments because of my own feelings on the topics, was also pretty obnoxious in its fact-bending. Joel Kotkin thinks you want to live in Houston. Here’s why you don’t. | Grist
Air conditioning is pretty cheap compared to heating costs in the north east for those poor suckers using oil (quite a few of them). I mean it's a big reason I wouldn't want to live in Houston, but not because the air conditioning is expensive. Houston has average electric bills of like $160 a month. So what? The average NE resident using heating oil spends more than just on heating oil alone.
Before I left Portland this July, I did read an article about how 60-65 miles of road are nothing more than gravel and/or dirt roads. They definitely need to fix those up.
They're going the opposite direction, actually. They can't afford to pave roads there so they're intentionally letting a lot of roads revert to gravel/dirt.
Toronto is nice but thank goodness I live across the border. No way in hell I'd pay $1,000+ for rent. You are renting. Rent is supposed to be as cheap as humanely possible to bank cash since there is no equity.
If possible, try to keep rent + utilities under 20% of income. For $50,000 / year, that is $800-$850 / month. Get a few roommates and stack money to the ceiling. That is why most millenials are staying home; we have too much in student loans to pay rent that high.
That is a very narrow view of what renting is for. Most people want to buy eventually, but it is not a requirement for a decent life. People who expect to have to move every few years because of their careers, or who simply don't want to be tied down by home equity and the inability to sell in bad markets, are natural long-term renters and should rent an apartment or home that is appropriate to their income and needs, not necessarily the cheapest rental unit they can tolerate. Especially in big cities, there are many luxury rental buildings appealing to middle and upper-middle class people who can well afford to buy but don't want to. I used to live in one.
They're going the opposite direction, actually. They can't afford to pave roads there so they're intentionally letting a lot of roads revert to gravel/dirt.
In a city proper?! Can you give a source / details on that? The state / towns here seem to have a policy of abandoning some roads, but they're in spots where few live.
When I read the article, from a marketing point of view, I took it that the author was saying that our narrative of millenials tends to be only about a sub-segment of millenials. The main point of the article, to me, was that we need to think broader about what millenials are doing and what their lives are like. I thought that was his point and he showed specific examples to back up that hypothesis.
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