Is Roseburg OR a good place to raise a family, 2020? (Eugene: low crime, employment)

[Joy541]

Hello,

My family is deciding to move from New Mexico to OR.
The crime here in NM is getting out of hand, our homeless / drug problem is getting really bad ( the city is trying hard to fix that though) and our school systems are lacking.

We are excited to move to the PNW to allow a different experience for our kids to grow up in.
Outdoor activities,healthy living, better education, forests to explore.

We love the Southwest, anyone looking to move to NM it is a wonderful place to experience!
Albuquerque is getting hard to live in though, I have a couple of questions in regards to the issues I stated above and a couple more, please be kind.

1) How are the schools in either Roseburg or Eugene?

2) I hear that housing is a bit expensive, so where would a good neighborhood be in regards to, low crime/drug issues and a safe place to play outside.

3) And finally, racism.
Every where I look articles are being written about OR and WA racist "past".
I've always heard that OR was progressive and kind. Now I know racism is every where.
I hope it isn't as rampant as the "news articles" make it.

[Willamette City]

Hi, we live outside of Eugene, but I know somethings about Roseburg.

1. Climate is probably similar to NM. It's typically pretty arid and It gets very warm in summer, temps probably average 85 to 90 degrees, with many days reaching 100 or more.

2. Schools are pretty much shut down due to Covid, But they do provide remote learning.

3. Housing is in the $100,000 to $150,000 for a single family 2 bedroom. Much cheaper then Eugene which averages $250,000 to $300,000.


4. There is some racism as with most places, but Oregonians tend to be very polite, left leaning and politically correct. Roseburg is a bit more conservative then Eugene, but I don't think there is a lot of overt racism. I'm sure there was racism in the past, but not so much in the last 20-30 years.


Hope this helps you a little bit!

[SlideRules99]

Have you done the research on Eugene as it relates to homelessness?

https://nbc16.com/news/local/we-have...a-homelessness

[texasdiver]

I grew up in that part of Oregon.

Honestly I don't think you are going to find rural Oregon to be measurably better than New Mexico on any of the metrics that you are concerned about (homelessness, drugs, school quality, crime, etc.). And yes, there is plenty of racism in rural Oregon.

The scenery and climate are, of course, very different. But you'll find the same social issues in OR as you do in NM.

Honestly, the only way to really escape that sort of thing these days is to buy your way out of it by moving to affluent areas where that sort of thing is regulated away, or seek out remote locations with few people (and few jobs). Or you can move to some affluent suburban sprawl area like say Frisco TX where everything is car-centric and the built environment is just completely unfriendly to the homeless vagrant life because nothing is reachable on foot and most of the open spaces are private.

If schools are an issue I would pick Eugene over Roseburg. And honestly I would pick Corvallis over Eugene which doesn't seem so overrun by vagrants these days. Eugene is a nice place but it is struggling with an epidemic of homelessness and with no apparent end in sight.

[StealthRabbit]

Age and interests of kids?
Jobs?

FIL just spent 10+ yr near Roseburg (Winchester)

It is a pretty decent area and has a Jr College for your kids of that age, or HS age who want to take 'dual enrollment'.

I would prefer Roseburg to Eugene, but Corvallis is even better if you are more interested in University / EDU / better job options. but... it comes at a higher price for housing.

There is a bit of variety of employment in Roseburg, including a VA medical center.

[Silverfall]

Roseburg and Eugene are very different cities, culturally speaking. Eugene is bohemian/granola-ish and Roseburg is a smaller conservative town.

As for racism, they updated the reporting of hate/harassment crimes just last year to get a better grip on harassment based on a protected class. The problem with the old reporting system is that cities that took a strict reporting regiment, like Eugene for example, look like they have a hotbed of hate since they actually tracked incidents. Other cities, especially rural cities, tended not to report them as much. So they changed the requirements.

They are doing a trial run of the new tracking system in Multnomah, Lane and Benton counties but won't have any sort of published report until next year.

It will be helpful to have better data for people concerned about racism to make decisions. Otherwise, you have no idea whether or not someone on the internet is a POC or not, knows POC or not, and what their particular bias is. We have racism deniers in Oregon, despite evidence to the contrary.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by SlideRules99

Have you done the research on Eugene as it relates to homelessness?

https://nbc16.com/news/local/we-have...a-homelessness

What does homelessness in Eugene have to do with Roseburg? They are two different cities 75 miles a part.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

What does homelessness in Eugene have to do with Roseburg? They are two different cities 75 miles a part.

OP mentioned interest in both Roseburg and Eugene in the body of the post.

[SlideRules99]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

OP mentioned interest in both Roseburg and Eugene in the body of the post.

Yes...

Not only that, but OP indicated homeless problem as a reason for wanting to leave NM for OR (Roseburg or Eugene).

[Nell Plotts]

Eugene has an interesting policing program, they have social workers/psychologists respond to psychiatric calls instead of the police. https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.7/publ...ing-the-police