Neighborhoods/Employment/Commute (Portland, Gresham, Beaverton: city hall, crime rate, find a job)

[Back2thecoast]

My husband is retiring from the military soon and I am ecstatic to be leaving the Midwest and head back to the west coast. I'm originally from Washington state but we thought we'd try Oregon - familiar yet new. I've been doing a lot of reading online and some of the stories have me concerned (not enough to stay in the Midwest, by any means...). Is it truly very difficult to find employment? Although I am college educated, I've only been back in the workforce for four years, having taken a lot of time off to raise my kids.

Assuming I'm able to find a job in the Portland area, which suburb is "best" in terms of schools, crime rate and walkability (I have the webbed feet and am MORE than ready to walk in the rain!).

How is the commute from the outlying cities into Portland? Should I expect to sit in traffic for half an hour? An hour? Longer?

Any suggestions and information you can offer would be appreciated!

[bler144]

If you're wanting advice on the Portland metro in particular you should post in that section (and a mod may well end up moving this post).

But in general, just about any of the suburbs is safe, though there are pockets of Vanc. or Gresham I'd avoid, there's no Cabrini Green here. Schools are generally good in most of the suburbs - arguably strongest in Lake Oswego/West Linn/Happy Valley or Camas. Most of the rest are mixed to good. I'd be a bit leery of schools east of SE/NE 82nd, though there are certainly exceptions (HV).

Walkability depends on what you mean. There are suburbs with walkable downtowns but where a lot of housing is likely to be outside the range you'd walk to get there. Beaverton's downtown is walkable, and with good public transit access, but the road design makes for congestion in terms of driving. Somewhere like Orenco is quite walkable to services with good access to transit, but it's going to be a much longer commute if you're going in to downtown.

Commute from the outlying cities really depends on where (and afternoons usually worse than mornings). 30-45 is a decent guess for things nearer in (Beaverton, Tigard, LO), 45-60 for something more middle distance. Somewhere like Camas could easily run over an hour on a bad day.

[Nell Plotts]

Here is a link to a draft of the urban growth study http://www.oregonmetro.gov/sites/def...al%20PLA_0.pdf

On page 10 there is a map of the areas where job growth is expected.

It is tough to generalize about your employment opportunities specifically but with 4 years of recent experience you should be able to find suitable employment.

Home prices essentially radiate out from Portland's City Hall, but there are pockets of expensive housing throughout. If your children are still in school their academic and social needs should factor into your decision.

Basic advise... live in the general area where you are likely to find employment.

[JXBC]

I commute from Beaverton/Cedar Hills (near the Nike Global Campus) to downtown Portland (10 miles or so) M-F and the commute is usually 20 or so minutes on the 26, which is usually heavily congested. It's still not bad, though.