Portland, OR vs. Fayetteville, AR

[eddie gein]

NW Arkansas from just a size perspective feels a lot more like Eugene than Portland. But you'd have to imagine Eugene being about three of four miles wide and strung all the way up to Albany, OR via four or five other towns along I-5.

The campus and downtown areas of Eugene and Fayetteville aren't all that dissimilar. Both have beautiful campuses and I'd give Fayetteville the nod on their downtown over Eugene.

[Columbus1984]

Fayetteville. Would never step foot in Portland. Too dangerous.

[Thealpinist]

Originally Posted by AnthonyJ34

Anyone ever live in both places and care to share your subjective pluses and minuses for both locations? Also, which area do you find more scenic and which area offers more for the outdoor enthusiast/nature lover?
Thank you.

Based on scenery alone and outdoor activities. PDX is by far the better choice. Better access to outdoors, big mountains, the ocean, and year around skiing on Mount Hood.

[AnthonyJ34]

Originally Posted by sub

Yeah they’re just not on each other’s radar.
I’m from Arkansas and Oregon might as well be on Mars to a lot of people there. Oregon people probably feel the same about Arkansas.

Based on weather alone and wanting to have access to outdoor activities, I’d recommend finding someplace else out west.
Arkansas weather is kind of terrible for way too many months out of the year. It’s not the worst, but it’s not inviting at all either.

Portland is in a scenic area. It’s surrounded by trees and hills and has the two big rivers (along with several bridges connecting downtown with the east sides of town). But unfortunately there is a lot of riff-raff and undesirables throughout large parts of the city. You pretty much have crazies and people strung out on drugs pretty much all over. It’s common to see random people walking down the streets yelling and screaming at nobody in particular — just folks who are whacked out of their minds and carrying on! And now that Oregon has decriminalized heroin possession and other hard drugs (at least in smaller quantities), the nuts are likely to become nuttier and more widespread.
I imagine NWA would be a cleaner and tamer environment.

[sub]

Originally Posted by AnthonyJ34

Portland is in a scenic area. It’s surrounded by trees and hills and has the two big rivers (along with several bridges connecting downtown with the east sides of town). But unfortunately there is a lot of riff-raff and undesirables throughout large parts of the city. You pretty much have crazies and people strung out on drugs pretty much all over. It’s common to see random people walking down the streets yelling and screaming at nobody in particular — just folks who are whacked out of their minds and carrying on! And now that Oregon has decriminalized heroin possession and other hard drugs (at least in smaller quantities), the nuts are likely to become nuttier and more widespread.
I imagine NWA would be a cleaner and tamer environment.

Just stay in the nicer developed areas.
Meth is a problem in the region.
Homelessness and vagrants won't be wondering around nearly as much but they're there.
Arkansas is still in the bottom 5 in nearly every category you'd want to be top 5 in.

It's not horrible, just something to be aware of.

I don't blame anyone for wanting to leave Oregon, especially Portland, but I don't know that northwest Arkansas is the answer unless you're just really determined to live there.