My opinion about Eugene (Portland, Springfield: real estate, apartment complex, crime)
Eugene areaEugene - Springfield metro area
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello - I've been living in Eugene for about 6 months now so I'll share my opinion about it.
I've lived in MANY states and parts of the US, including Portland, so I have a good grip on other places in order to compare.
PROS- 1. There is a wonderful abundance of outdoor activity here. The beach is only 1 hour away and the mountains are less. There is a lot of hiking, kayaking, bird watching, foraging, etc. Love it!
2. It's illegal for businesses to give you plastic bags when you buy something. It's sooo sustainable and environmentally aware. I've never lived anywhere that respects and appreciates the environment and tries to repair the damage done as much as Eugene. You can find plastic in Springfield.
3. The landscape is beautiful. I love living in the Willamette Valley with the mountains surrounding me.
4. The Saturday Market is huge and there is so much to choose from. Farmers from everywhere come to sell their food and talented people from as far as Ashland and eastern OR come to sell their crafts. There are very artistic and creative people here.
CONS - 1. I'll be honest, when I first drove into town with the moving truck (we didn't visit before we moved and I suggest you do!) the first thing that went through my mind was "TRASHY". Mostly no one, except for some fine neighborhoods in the Southern and SW parts of the city, maintains their lawn. They are overgrown and there's just trash EVERYWHERE! It doesn't help that most houses are rented by college kids who don't give a darn about the property. So, yes, this is a very trashy city in my opinion.
2. The homeless are EVERYWHERE too! All over the city! They make the city look even more trashy. There is one rescue mission, but I think most of the homeless choose to be on the streets and just take people's money for weed. The mayor hasn't done anything to add more shelters but instead want to give them a new apartment complex so they can trash that too. There are A LOT of tent cities in Eugene and it sucks!
3. The people are dirty and there are drugs all over the place. No one cares what they look like and they don't take care of themselves.
4. Lots of drugs!
5. Lots of crime for a city this size - which most of the hippies will deny because they don't watch the news. They like to live in fairy-tale land where everything is perfect.
6. The library sucks. The main one is all homeless and smelly people and the branches are the size of a closet. The services they offer are pretty weak too.
7. The rain - it pours constantly! So if you like to get out and hike, you won't do it the whole winter unless you don't mind getting soaked.
8. People are rude. They may just be miserable because of the rain, but they are pretty rude and i've lived on the east coast...maybe it's because they haven't washed themselves, IDK.
I would go on, but I just want to get out of this city. I miss the sunshine and clean people!!!!!
Well Geez.....looking at your profile I see you came from Colorado Springs. You moved from one of the most conservative "bible belt" cities in the entire west to one of the most liberal cities in the country sight unseen? That was a leap.
If you want a well-scrubbed city environmentally aware city with lots of crafty artsy stuff like Eugene you are probably better off going back to CO and moving to Boulder where the scruffy types one finds in Eugene can't afford to live.
Generally speaking though I would tend to agree with you to some extent. I grew up in Eugene in the 70s and 80s and still visit family there from time to time. It is a lot scruffier place than it used to be. I think it's kind of like the boiled frog syndrome. People living there don't really notice how the place has changed over time whereas those of us who have come and gone more easily notice the changes.
The downtown library as a facility is quite nice. It's location across from the transit center makes it easy for lots of people to reach, or to hang out by the library while waiting for a bus. That's a pro and con all by itself.
In terms of services, if I recall they took a big staffing/budget hit around 2007/2008 and haven't really recovered from that.
I don't find it trashy, though I'll agree it's not Colorado Springs.
Homelessness is certainly an issue, though I believe there is more than one shelter even if the Mission is the big one. Looking Glass works with and provides housing for homeless youth, e.g. A significant amount of the homelessness does seem to be tied to substance abuse, and that tends to not work well with any type of shelter that might be provided.
Some of the drug problems stem from the I-5 corridor, some from poverty/stagnant economy, etc. and I do think Eugene's climate plays a role as much as the culture. If one had to live outdoors year round, it's a place you could certainly survive much easier than a lot of places in the U.S.
I think you just need to get out more. Also sometimes what you see is limited by what you project.
It sounds like maybe you spend most of your time around the college or downtown areas or south Eugene area. There's more to the area than just that.
People in Oregon are definitely not like people elsewhere in the country. I have lived elsewhere and in other places, especially larger cities, people keep themselves and their home looking nice. They keep up appearances. Where I am from a woman would not walk outdoors without "putting her face on", meaning full makeup and hair, nails and pedicure, etc. In Oregon, you see more women without makeup and who do not color their hair, allowing their gray hair to show. I never saw that until I moved here.
Oregonians generally don't place much value on outward appearances, unless they are churchy people or they are from somewhere else. At least that is what I have noticed.
It's more about being comfortable here than putting on appearances. I think this has something to do with the weather, but also because of the old hippies and farmers and the rural/agricultural history here.
As far as drugs, homeless, violence, crime: other threads discuss it. It's a college town, and it has a history of being a liberal/progressive town, and so yes... those things are here.
If you spend more of your time in the north area of Eugene, you do not see the trash, homeless, drugs, etc. as much. It's still here, but people keep their yards/homes nicer and we are further from the college area, so it's not as noticeable. Parts of the Churchill area are really nice, too, as well as some other areas of the city.
The rain... well... if you've been here 6 months, you haven't even been here a whole year and already you're complaining about the rain. It sounds like perhaps the pacific northwest may not be a happy place for you... for most people it takes a good two years or more before the rain/overcast begins to bother them.
I don't find Eugene trashy. I happily traded the constant droning of suburban leaf blowers for the quiet, natural state of my Eugene neighborhood. I love that people grow food in their front yards and how the houses are all different, and the quirky garden art I see all over.
The homeless don't bother me. I think it's a great place to live, so I'm not surprised that they do too. As for dirty people, with the exception of a guy in my yoga class who actually smelled up the room so bad I had to leave, this doesn't bother me either. I feel ok that I didn't get a chance to shower before I have to pick my kids up at school.
I haven't noticed any more drugs than I've seen in other places. I guess crime is worse than where I left, but it's mostly small stuff. I feel safe here.
Yeah, seriously! Even on the rainiest days, there seems to be some windows where you can get out. And even if YOU don't get that window, Oregonians still get out in rain gear. I hiked or walked every single day I lived in the Willamette Valley, even when it gets down to 10-20 degrees. And I wasn't alone.
Drives me nuts when people say things like "it rains from September to June" as if it was some nonstop storm. YES, the potential for rain is there from September to June, but for me the weather was only a negative Nov-March and even then, there were many clear and blue days. Not enough, but, hey, it keeps real estate affordable!
But, yes, OP, sounds like you picked the wrong town. Highly advise visiting your next town before moving there. And I totally agree about the trashiness and homeless issues. People with serious blinders on if they aren't noticing. Someone else in another Eugene thread described it as "slow-boiling frog" scenario. As someone who lived in Eugene in the late 80s, the decline in the overall town is palpable, and is noticeable every time I've visited since. Pretty sad. If you live there fulltime it's probably easier to ignore the decline.
Hello - I've been living in Eugene for about 6 months now so I'll share my opinion about it.
I've lived in MANY states and parts of the US, including Portland, so I have a good grip on other places in order to compare.
PROS- 1. There is a wonderful abundance of outdoor activity here. The beach is only 1 hour away and the mountains are less. There is a lot of hiking, kayaking, bird watching, foraging, etc. Love it!
2. It's illegal for businesses to give you plastic bags when you buy something. It's sooo sustainable and environmentally aware. I've never lived anywhere that respects and appreciates the environment and tries to repair the damage done as much as Eugene. You can find plastic in Springfield.
3. The landscape is beautiful. I love living in the Willamette Valley with the mountains surrounding me.
4. The Saturday Market is huge and there is so much to choose from. Farmers from everywhere come to sell their food and talented people from as far as Ashland and eastern OR come to sell their crafts. There are very artistic and creative people here.
CONS - 1. I'll be honest, when I first drove into town with the moving truck (we didn't visit before we moved and I suggest you do!) the first thing that went through my mind was "TRASHY". Mostly no one, except for some fine neighborhoods in the Southern and SW parts of the city, maintains their lawn. They are overgrown and there's just trash EVERYWHERE! It doesn't help that most houses are rented by college kids who don't give a darn about the property. So, yes, this is a very trashy city in my opinion.
2. The homeless are EVERYWHERE too! All over the city! They make the city look even more trashy. There is one rescue mission, but I think most of the homeless choose to be on the streets and just take people's money for weed. The mayor hasn't done anything to add more shelters but instead want to give them a new apartment complex so they can trash that too. There are A LOT of tent cities in Eugene and it sucks!
3. The people are dirty and there are drugs all over the place. No one cares what they look like and they don't take care of themselves.
4. Lots of drugs!
5. Lots of crime for a city this size - which most of the hippies will deny because they don't watch the news. They like to live in fairy-tale land where everything is perfect.
6. The library sucks. The main one is all homeless and smelly people and the branches are the size of a closet. The services they offer are pretty weak too.
7. The rain - it pours constantly! So if you like to get out and hike, you won't do it the whole winter unless you don't mind getting soaked.
8. People are rude. They may just be miserable because of the rain, but they are pretty rude and i've lived on the east coast...maybe it's because they haven't washed themselves, IDK.
I would go on, but I just want to get out of this city. I miss the sunshine and clean people!!!!!
In reviewing your posts since 2008 it looks like you've lived in a million places in the US and didn't like any of them. Newsflash: No place is perfect. Maybe it's "you."
I hope one day your financial/relationship circumstances take a downturn and you wind up on the streets so that random tourist *******s can call you trash and spout ignorant myths like that you "choose" an extremely stressful, miserable, dangerous life on the streets. But then I hope that you quickly are provided with permanent housing, because no one deserves, let alone chooses, to be homeless. And it's much cheaper to house everyone then to criminalize, maintain shelters and services while people suffer on the streets.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
