Cottage Grove (Portland, Eugene, Medford: violent crime, purchases, camp)

[ssumner]

We are planning to move to your area and would like to know more about Cottage Grove.
Thank you.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Here you go:

//www.city-data.com/city/Cottage-Grove-Oregon.html

[ssumner]

Thank you. I am curious about the differences in crime between Eugene and Cottage Grove. Also the quality of life of life overall. I am used to being in a town of 8K, with a small city 17 miles away

[haggardhouseelf]

Cottage Grover is very cute and VERY small. Just like Eugene, there is quite a bit of property crime but not as much in the way of violent crime. Eugene and Cottage Grove struggle with crime due to addiction. The last time I checked, the ratio of public safety officers to population was higher in cottage Grove than it was in Eugene. I'm not sure if that is still the case now or not.

Being from a big metro area in another state, we have always been the type of people to keep doors and windows locked, keep garage doors closed and locked, not leave things out in the open, have good lighting, when we make purchases we break the boxes down into very small unrecognizable recycling so that thieves don't know that we just bought a big something-or-another and might be tempted, etc. In Oregon I still see people leaving their garages open all the time, and not locking doors, or even leaving their front doors open. It amazes me. It seems like a lot of the crime here in the area is related to drug addicted people watching for opportunities where stealing something would be very quick and easy. So we just don't make things easy for them. We've never had a problem. Well - actually, we have one problem and that is that the homeless transients who camp around downtown and along the river has made it so that we don't want to ride our bikes on the bike trails or walk around downtown as much anymore. We do sometimes, but it's not as enjoyable as it was when we first moved here in the early 2000's and there wasn't as much of a problem. We avoid the areas where they camp out and use drugs. But aside from that, we've never had a problem.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by ssumner

We are planning to move to your area and would like to know more about Cottage Grove.
Thank you.

It's a little bitty town on the side of I-5. Not much there, but I guess the location would be a big plus. You easily could jump on the interstate and drive to anyplace between Portland and Medford, in less then two hours.

[McFrostyJ]

Lots of property crime in Cottage Grove, mainly due to the fact that I-5 runs through it and there are lots of homeless and drug addicted people there. If you leave it out, it will eventually walk away. Including Gnomes and other garden decorations.

However, most of the people there are usually nice. From rednecks to hippies and everything in-between.

[pnwguy2]

Cottage Grove is still a rural cousin to Eugene, but I could see it become a nice residential area for those willing to commute. When this will happen, I don't know. I would look at Roseburg, as a somewhat bigger area and actually better weather than Cottage Gove/Eugene as there seems to be a magical line where you get more sun the further south you go.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

Cottage Grove is still a rural cousin to Eugene, but I could see it become a nice residential area for those willing to commute. When this will happen, I don't know. I would look at Roseburg, as a somewhat bigger area and actually better weather than Cottage Gove/Eugene as there seems to be a magical line where you get more sun the further south you go.

We have been exploring that area more lately on our day road trips. Very beautiful down that way and I think you are on to something - more sun!

[Metlakatla]

There was a thing on one of the Eugene channels last night about how Cottage Grove has plans to revitalize its downtown.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

There was a thing on one of the Eugene channels last night about how Cottage Grove has plans to revitalize its downtown.

Every city in the state has plans to revitalize their downtowns. That's what cities do. They make plans to revitalize their downtowns. But if most of the downtown property is in private hands there isn't really a lot that a city can actually do other than tidy up the public spaces, hang flower pots, that sort of thing. And then provide tax incentives such as tax increment financing to spur private investment.

If Cottage Grove continues to gentrify then it will be because the money was there anyway, not because of anthing the city does. And no amount of public efforts are going to revitalize declining cities like Coos Bay if the private money and private landowners aren't on board.

Cities can, of course, establish all kind of design standards for development to make the city look how they want it to look. But none of it will have any real effect if the private dollars aren't already there.