Yet another where on the coast should I move thread... (Astoria: best, towns)

[NotBrad]

OK, so we spent a week hopscotching up and down the coast and found a great little rental in Gold Beach which we'll most likely stay in for the next 6 to 12 months.

Here's my impressions from our short time there.

Brookings - Nice little town but a little on the rural/redneck side - coming from the south I don't mean that as a bad thing just that I got the vibe that if you're new agegy into crystals, etc... You're probably not going to fit into mainstream Brookings.

Gold Beach - We REALLY liked GB and met a ton of nice people who made us feel really welcome. We'll most likely buy there. Although Brookings is still an option as I'm a country boy from Texas and "redneck" doesn't really bother me (BTW, I DON'T mean that in a racist way - just used to people who do physical work and tend to be pretty plain spoken and intolerant of BS).

Bandon - I've had people tell me that they really like Bandon but we found it really depressing and it was kinda like... a depressed area that was trying too hard to appear "lively" and "happening". Maybe we caught it on a bad day. I'll give it a second chance.

Coos Bay/North Bend - Totally depressing and while nice people definitely the only place we saw tweakers and just had an east coast "mill town gone bad" feel to it. Was nice and thriving at one time but now on the ropes. The should try and court some tech start up companies to move in there...

Florence - very nice and our second choice. People were nice and friendly and yet strangely apologetic about the town in a wierd sort of way. A lot of "it's a great place to live but it's strange not seeing the ocean" which I can only assume is due to the dunes hiding most ocean views. That said, still a nice vibe and good people.

Yachats - everyone we met there seemed genuinely happy to be living there. Third on our list.

Waldport - Not too bad but definitely had a depressed feeling due to the lack of any local economy but that said, the people there seemed contented enough. Weather would be our main issue there.

New Port - didn't impress us at all. Kinda depressing.

We didn't go any further north as the rain and fog levels would be something that put those areas at the end of our list.

Overall - people were EXTREMELY nice and this was after us telling them we were wanting to move there. Everyone kept giving us fresh fruit and vegetables that they'd grown. Very sweet of them and the produce was VERY good.

It reminded me a lot of rural Texas. Decent and nice folks with no pretense or airs. Long as you were polite and down to earth they were genuine. I'd assume that like rural Texas if you come in and talk down to them or put on airs you will probably have a hard time, and justifiably so...

We'll be there in a couple of weeks and I'll continue to post as we become more acclimated to the area.



Ow and BTW - the areas Steve recommended... They cannot be described adequately. If you are ever on the coast there just go! Carve out the time and do it. Totally worth it and we never even hit most of it. Our plan is to burn a ton of time making day trips up and down the coast.

Thanks most everyone for the tips and advice. It was very valuable.

[Steve Pickering]

Originally Posted by NotBrad

... ... Coos Bay/North Bend - Totally depressing and while nice people definitely the only place we saw tweakers and just had an east coast "mill town gone bad" feel to it. ... ...

Could be because it is a West Coast Mill Town gone bad ...

It is a good place to live though. Actually better than the others you mentioned.

[NotBrad]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Could be because it is a West Coast Mill Town gone bad ...

It is a good place to live though. Actually better than the others you mentioned.

Hmmm... That's surprising. It really didn't impress at all. What makes it better in your opinion?

[Steve Pickering]

Services, Infrastructure, Finances. Coos Bay is actually sound financially. Coos County is so-so. Curry county is a certain bankruptcy. Medical in Coos Bay is good. There are jobs in Coos Bay. Not a lot of them open, but there are more jobs in Coos Bay then all the other south Coast cities combined.

Did you take a look at the parks? The Library, Fire Department, City Hall? The schools in Coos Bay have issues, but they are so much better educationally than any other south coast school other than Powers.


None of the coastal cities are a good place to raise and retain kids right now. They may never be again. That is unless you have kids like mine that enjoyed hiking, exploring, fishing, and being outdoors.

[NotBrad]

Originally Posted by Steve Pickering

Services, Infrastructure, Finances. Coos Bay is actually sound financially. Coos County is so-so. Curry county is a certain bankruptcy. Medical in Coos Bay is good. There are jobs in Coos Bay. Not a lot of them open, but there are more jobs in Coos Bay then all the other south Coast cities combined.

Did you take a look at the parks? The Library, Fire Department, City Hall? The schools in Coos Bay have issues, but they are so much better educationally than any other south coast school other than Powers.


None of the coastal cities are a good place to raise and retain kids right now. They may never be again. That is unless you have kids like mine that enjoyed hiking, exploring, fishing, and being outdoors.

Ah, gotcha. Different criteria for us. We both work out of the house and have no kids so most of the above isn't stuff on our radar. Ditto for the infrastructure stuff. Our main criteria is somewhere pretty, friendly and somewhat remote with more affordable housing than where we live right now (Cambria is super expensive - as in about 2-3 times the price for what you get on the Southern Oregon coast).

[Steve Pickering]

Try Coos Bay again. This time drive up Telegraph and take a look at the view and the houses.

[NotBrad]

Will do once we get settled in. Plan is to rent for a year and really get to know all the various towns, etc...

Thanks again.

[Steve Pickering]

Did you get out Rhododendron Drive in Florence?

[NotBrad]

No. We were in a hurry to meet someone in Waldport so weren't able to spend ny time there other than just grabbing lunch there. Met a real nice couple who ran a Sushi truck, pretty good too.

We definitely will be checking Florence out further once we're up there full time, it seemed like a nice little town although on the large size for us. We found a pretty good deal on a month to month vacation rental in Gold Beach so we'll hang there for the winter and then make a move sometime in the spring most likely.

[ctr88]

I just did a huge drive though Oregon and drove the whole coast. I was amazed at how many Oregon towns are really gritty, run down, kind of beat up places. A lot of Oregon almost reminded me of Appalachia type poor white rural poverty that you see in places like Eastern Kentucky & Tennessee. Gorgeous, breathtaking scenery of course, but so many towns are little Appalachia's. I thought pretty much every beach town from Brookings to Florence was fairly creepy and depressing. Some of these towns are like twilight zone, places that time forgot! Gritty is the word. But the nature and the coast of course is spectacular. Coos Bay and North Bend very dumpy I couldn't even find a decent coffee shop I would want to sit in until I hit Florence.

Having said that, it is kind of nice that most of the OR Coast is not gentrified and full of swanky condos and resorts. But I think there is some balance to strike. I think Cape Cod and Maine have many quaint towns that aren't overdeveloped, but aren't eye sore dumps either (like much of the OR Coast).

Starting in Florence the beach towns get better, I thought Florence wasn't bad. Manzanita was very nice and Cannon Beach was the nicest town IMO on the whole coast, felt more like a nice quaint Maine or Cape Cod town. Liked Astoria too.

Southern OR very gritty too. Medford, Klamath Falls, Grants Pass, Gold Hill, Roque River. Much of the towns along 97 starting at La Pine, very gritty. Ashland is the only decent looking town I saw in all of So. OR.

I would say outside of parts of Portland, Bend, Eugene, Ashland (and some places like Canon City, Astoria), Oregon is mostly full of gritty low income blue collar Pac NW type towns. WA State has a lot of these shabby, gritty towns too in spectacular natural settings (Aberdeen, Darrington, Sedro Wooley, Monroe, Gold Bar, Wenatchee, Yakima, Tri Cities, Port Angeles, Morton, etc, etc, etc...). I was surprised by this, I didn't expect to see so many economically depressed looking towns in rural PNW.

I like Bend OR a lot, that is a super nice town.