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I would choose Portland over Sacramento... but I like Sacramento's climate more
From the weather nerd, me:
I know weather is subjective, depends on the person. But, here are a few facts:
Sacramento is very sunny place: 269 days of full sunshine. Portland: 144 days
Portland gets 154 days of precipitation; Sacramento gets 57 precip days.
I personally think Sacramento summers our awesome because you can count on bright, dry (no humidity) warm high temps for your pool parties, and by evening you can count on a cool breezy-windy comfortable temps. By morning its very cool, as low a 53-60.
I don't get why anyone would give weather to Portland. I mean yes for a few weeks during the summer Portland has better weather (during the day, there is a delta breeze in Sac that results in wonderfully warm summer evenings). The other 11 months out of the year Sacramento will have better weather.
And outside activities. I know Portland punches above it's weight with outdoorsy stuff and recreation activities but Sacramento has two rivers and a large lake within its metro area. From the eastern suburbs you can be climbing on granite in a half hour drive in the lower Sierra. An hour more and you're in Tahoe with alpine country all around and half a dozen fantastic ski areas. The largest delta west of the Mississippi begins on the southwestern edge of the region. Tons of stuff to do.
Plus Portland seems too Caucasian for my taste. Sacramento's ethnic and racial diversity is among the top in the U.S. I'd give Portland the nod for American and European cuisine but I'd take Sac in ethnic cuisine for Hispanic and Asian foods. Sac weather is great too except for a few summer weeks when the average temps are at 100+.
As far as outdoor activity I'd say that is a push. Sacramento has just as much to see and do within a 2 hour drive just like Portland does. Sacto is closer to their international city - San Francisco - than Portland is to theirs - Seattle.
Sacramento's SPRING is slightly cooler and more sunny than Portland's SUMMER.
I would say Sacramento is more outdoorsy because of our sunnier fair weather across NorCal. World class ski resorts (Tahoe) are more plentiful along with other winter sports. We get tons of snow in our Mountains and lots of FAIR weather to enjoy it.
Sacramento has a fine weather ... if you like it dry and dusty.
I admit I have a bad impression of Sacramento. My first time (as an adult) there was driving through on I-5. We were looking for somewhere to stop and eat, and there was NOTHING that made us tempted to get off the freeway. We ended up stopping somewhere further down the valley, as Sacramento looked so barren and uninteresting.
A few years later, spent a week there. Came away with a slightly more favorable impression. There were some lovely old residential areas. Didn't find much interesting food, except for one Czech place. But still, my impression was that it was a pretty dead place.
Sacramento has a fine weather ... if you like it dry and dusty.
I admit I have a bad impression of Sacramento. My first time (as an adult) there was driving through on I-5. We were looking for somewhere to stop and eat, and there was NOTHING that made us tempted to get off the freeway. We ended up stopping somewhere further down the valley, as Sacramento looked so barren and uninteresting.
A few years later, spent a week there. Came away with a slightly more favorable impression. There were some lovely old residential areas. Didn't find much interesting food, except for one Czech place. But still, my impression was that it was a pretty dead place.
Well, Sacramento is certainly not dry and dusty now, nor has it been for the last 5 months. I have never heard of Sacramento described as "dusty". We have a wet and dry season. I personally like our dry, golden season, and fair weather. It will not rain from May to Oct, rarely will you see a cloud in the sky, but it's not completely bone dry like the southwest. And we can count on pacific wind currents to clean us out because our geography with having a open path to the Pacific. Either Pacific currents, or North Winds.
Portland is more lively than Sacramento, but nothing to write home about as SF is within our sphere of influence (75 miles down the road).
Sacramento definetely needs to up the ante on having a more urban-walkable scene. The corner of 20th and K streets and several blocks adjacent is quite festive, if only the entire grid(downtown-midtown) of Sacramento were like that, would be cool. This area is the original gay district, it's expanded and has a ton of potential. A streetcar is in the works and should help with connecting our riverfront with the grid and our downtown light rail stations.
Portland is more lively than Sacramento, but nothing to write home about as SF is within our sphere of influence (75 miles down the road).
That San Francisco is 75 miles away doesn't have anything to do with what Sacramento is like. If all you can come up with is that it's only 75 miles to a much better city ....
Here's the thing about Sacramento: it's in a state where 6 other major cities, LA, SF, San Jose, Oakland, San Diego, Long Beach take precedence... other than Sacramento being the Capitol of the state.
Portland is the premier city for the whole state, and 2nd for the whole PNW.
Sacramento is not a corporate town by any means so it's not going to have the marketing hype to push it's virtues... that's why it's so unknown as evidenced by the time laspe video. Although I actually liked the Sacramento video alot.
I'll admit, Sacramento lacks some pride and synergism compared to others in it's class: Portland & Austin. Our suburbanites don't really care about our central city and when they need their once a year fix on a strongly urban environment, they have San Francisco, arguably, one of the greatest American urban cities.
The thing is Sacramento is getting tired of being just the quiet step sister to the north, even its suburbanites are changing. There has been progress to date, only time will tell if our URBAN attributes expand.
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