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Old 02-13-2010, 06:24 PM
 
Location: Fort Worth, TX
9,394 posts, read 15,660,599 times
Reputation: 6262

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Okay, so I've lived in the DC area almost all my life. I'm proud to say I was raised and live there, but I've come to want to find another place to live. Especially after the recent snowstorms, which made me realize how much I hate the freak weather here. I won't be moving for a few years, since I want to get my bachelor's (since sadly you can't seem to get a decent-paying job without one).

But the thing is, I can't figure out if there's any place in the US that fits what I want.

I want to live somewhere that has a lot of qualities...:

-Mild winters and not-too-hot/humid summers (the Pacific NW seems to fit this bill, although I hear that winters are very dreary)
-Safe (at least as safe as the DC area, which admittedly isn't the safest but it's not that bad IMO)
-Lots of job opportunities
-Friendly and outgoing, in other words, "southern hospitality" (I really don't like how most people in DC aren't as openly friendly as people in the south and midwest)
-Either a city the size of DC, San Jose or San Francisco... or at least a place close to a city of that size
-Not too suburban/poorly planned (For all of its problems, the DC Metro is still pretty damn great)
-Acceptable cost of living and real estate (the nice/hip parts of DC are SO overpriced)
-Lots of development (DC has seen a lot of growth, especially in the restaurant scene these past many years)
-Beautiful. DC has a few nice parks and scenery but for the most part isn't very impressive as opposed to the Pacific NW or the West...

I feel like there isn't a place like this. Portland has the climate down, but I hear there aren't many job opportunities. I lived in the San Jose area for a few months and it was waaaaaay too sprawled out. I had to drive everywhere. NYC is expensive as hell. The South has those oppressive summers.

So does this magical utopia exist? Or will I have to make some compromises? Of all those qualities listed, I'd probably be most willing to deal with sprawl.
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Old 02-13-2010, 06:50 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, WA
780 posts, read 1,338,798 times
Reputation: 609
Quote:
Originally Posted by HurricaneDC View Post
Okay, so I've lived in the DC area almost all my life. I'm proud to say I was raised and live there, but I've come to want to find another place to live. Especially after the recent snowstorms, which made me realize how much I hate the freak weather here. I won't be moving for a few years, since I want to get my bachelor's (since sadly you can't seem to get a decent-paying job without one).

But the thing is, I can't figure out if there's any place in the US that fits what I want.

I want to live somewhere that has a lot of qualities...:

-Mild winters and not-too-hot/humid summers (the Pacific NW seems to fit this bill, although I hear that winters are very dreary)
-Safe (at least as safe as the DC area, which admittedly isn't the safest but it's not that bad IMO)
-Lots of job opportunities
-Friendly and outgoing, in other words, "southern hospitality" (I really don't like how most people in DC aren't as openly friendly as people in the south and midwest)
-Either a city the size of DC, San Jose or San Francisco... or at least a place close to a city of that size
-Not too suburban/poorly planned (For all of its problems, the DC Metro is still pretty damn great)
-Acceptable cost of living and real estate (the nice/hip parts of DC are SO overpriced)
-Lots of development (DC has seen a lot of growth, especially in the restaurant scene these past many years)
-Beautiful. DC has a few nice parks and scenery but for the most part isn't very impressive as opposed to the Pacific NW or the West...

I feel like there isn't a place like this. Portland has the climate down, but I hear there aren't many job opportunities. I lived in the San Jose area for a few months and it was waaaaaay too sprawled out. I had to drive everywhere. NYC is expensive as hell. The South has those oppressive summers.

So does this magical utopia exist? Or will I have to make some compromises? Of all those qualities listed, I'd probably be most willing to deal with sprawl.
I agree, you aren't going to find a city that fits this bill, but Portland ( except yes, for its horrendous economy right now ) would fit some of these.

We would rate in one of the top 5 mildest climate cities ( but LOTS of grey skies and drizzle from Oct-June ), not that sprawled out, we do have about 2.3 million metro area ( which includes Vancouver, WA just across the Columbia River ), lot of recreation year-round, very beautiful area, the people for the most part I would say are friendly and laid-back, while it isn't cheap to live here, it is cheaper than Calif or the east coast.

Seattle would probably rate just above us, because the economy is slightly better there, but Seattle is more like a "wet version of Los Angeles", and Seattle has about 3.5 million metro area.
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Old 02-14-2010, 08:25 AM
 
Location: Fort Worth, TX
9,394 posts, read 15,660,599 times
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How are the Oregon and Washington coasts?
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Old 02-14-2010, 04:50 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, WA
780 posts, read 1,338,798 times
Reputation: 609
Quote:
Originally Posted by HurricaneDC View Post
How are the Oregon and Washington coasts?
As far as what you were looking for?

Well, I think most of those would apply ( except if you're buying a house, as a 1500 sq ft property on the coast would cost about $4500 in property taxes ) and it is very difficult to find work, because most living on the coasts work for families they know as most of the businesses are crabbers and such so they are tight-knit communities.

Everything else though is great! Their weather is a bit milder than here in Portland ( 60 miles away ) but in the winter time, they get VERY windy--like 65-70mph gusts, and a lot of folks from Portland will go out there to watch the super-high waves crash against the rocks. There are TONS of recreation--hiking, fishing, off-roading, etc. You could never get bored living out there, and that goes for both the OR and WA coasts.

WA might be a bit cheaper for land, but not much. Also, WA doesn't have state income tax, but their sales tax is around 7 to 8.5% depending on the county; whereas OR there is no sales tax on anything, anywhere.

Any of those towns are very safe. Coos Bay is the largest OR coastal town of about 15k, and Port Angeles of about 9k would be WA largest town I'd say, but they are very friendly. Astoria, OR ( a very popular filming location for several movies ) I don't know if they still have it, but I know that 10 yrs ago, the towns folks get together once a month for a town-picnic, rain or shine, and another thing, on the coast, they don't have ANYWHERE near the humidity that we can get inland. When Portland and the surrounding area hit the upper 90's or higher, it is a traffic jam all 60 miles going out to the coast as people will go to escape the heat.

Newport, OR ( about 120 mi SW of Portland ) is usually the coolest spot in the summer time. Portland can be 95 or 100 degrees, and Newport will be like 60 or 65 degrees

If the job situation was any better here ( the statewide unemployment in OR is at 11%, and WA is at 10%; but Portland's is at 15% and 12% in Seattle ), I'd be sticking around here for life. I love everything about this region except our current economy.

Have you ever been out to the west coast here?
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Old 02-14-2010, 09:37 PM
 
Location: Fort Worth, TX
9,394 posts, read 15,660,599 times
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Furthest west I've been is San Francisco and San Jose. I've wanted to go to the Pacific NW for ages, maybe this summer I will (thinking of going to Cannon Beach)!

Do you think the economies will improve in Seattle and Portland?
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Old 02-15-2010, 01:28 AM
 
Location: Vancouver, WA
780 posts, read 1,338,798 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HurricaneDC View Post
Furthest west I've been is San Francisco and San Jose. I've wanted to go to the Pacific NW for ages, maybe this summer I will (thinking of going to Cannon Beach)!
Do you think the economies will improve in Seattle and Portland?

If you like to hike, you'll have plenty of locations around Cannon Beach and elsewhere on the coast, and all w/o the nasty humidity too!

I certainly hope the economies here and Seattle improve. The problem is we got caught in the whole dot com thing and a lot of hi-tech industries went up from it, hiring thousands and then laying all those people off ( Intel is really our only hi-tech firm in the area--besides Nike ) but we used to have NEC, Fujitsu, LSI Logic, and a few others that employed a good 15k people besides the 7k that the 4 Intel campuses employ. I used to work at Intel when I first moved to Portland over 15 yrs ago. When I moved here in Oct '94, Seattle was the #1 location and Portland was #2 in the country for jobs and job growth. Geez, our Sunday ads back then were like 35 pages--and twice I quit a job, and found another job within 10 hrs that I was paid either the same, or more at. Now, our Sunday ads are more like 2 or 3 pages long, and it is really killing our economy because a lot of employers have outsourced their work, and temp services are REALLY big around here now and probably one of the top 4 employers nowadays ( so you work on a 12 or 18 month long contract, with no benefits, and then you're laid off for at least 90 days before you can return to work for that client at the same pay rate. )

Last I seen, Seattle's job growth was like #16 and Portland was #21
I seen though that Seattle & Portland are going to be approved for the high-speed rail that will come down from Bellingham, WA ( close to the Canadian border ) to Portland, so that should put some people to work for at least a year.

Seattle's job prospects are better because they have a lot more going on, and less of their work force is actually unemployed, but the thing that kept me from going to Seattle ( I transferred here, at my request via my employer ) was the cost of living. Seattle is more expensive for everything, except property taxes, and that is only because Oregon's property taxes are second highest in the nation, behind only Hawaii.

If you do decide to move here, just make sure you have a job nailed down first. If you don't have a degree, it will be 5x harder as 10% of our workforce with Bachelor's or higher is currently unemployed, and I've heard where there are people with Masters degrees competing with secretaries, for jobs....because their unemployment is starting to run out...that's bad.
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Old 03-03-2010, 04:46 PM
 
Location: Fort Worth, TX
9,394 posts, read 15,660,599 times
Reputation: 6262
Any more thoughts?
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Old 03-03-2010, 05:27 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, WA
780 posts, read 1,338,798 times
Reputation: 609
Quote:
Originally Posted by HurricaneDC View Post
Any more thoughts?
What else would you like to know?

I've been all over this region ( did courier work so I travelled extensively around Oregon & Washington ) and I could help answer any questions you might have...
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Old 03-05-2010, 09:40 PM
 
Location: Fort Worth, TX
9,394 posts, read 15,660,599 times
Reputation: 6262
Ah Skylar, I meant other thoughts from other people regarding places that might fit my criterion. If I think of more questions specific to the Pacific NW I'll shoot you a PM.
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Old 03-05-2010, 10:13 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, WA
780 posts, read 1,338,798 times
Reputation: 609
Ahh, ok
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