Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Oregon
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Closed Thread Start New Thread
 
Old 12-26-2009, 01:25 AM
 
1,591 posts, read 3,426,068 times
Reputation: 2157

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by plainbrowntabby View Post
Liberal college-educated vegetarian white people with bicycles live in Eugene... They're uncomfortable with us rednecks.

When was the last time you were in Eugene? It sounds to me like you haven't spent much time there. It is mostly a working class city. There is a small amount of the population that would fit your description but there are plenty of rednecks and hillbillies there, especially when you include Springfield. In Portland tho there are some real vegan PC types but again are a smaller percentage of the whole.

 
Old 12-26-2009, 07:10 AM
 
Location: Everywhere
234 posts, read 718,553 times
Reputation: 108
I'm a fourth generation Oregonian, and I have lived all over the state. I am what you might call a "hippie-redneck hybrid." I guess that's what happens to some people who are born in the valley and wander off east into cowboy country...

ANYWAY!

As far as snooty and stuck up I suppose the worst places in Oregon would be Lake Oswego area (wealthier suburbs of Oregon - but the people are still VERY nice), and maybe even the Sisters area. After exploring and living in Central Oregon, Sisters is very safe and BEAUTIFUL but also kind of labeled the annoying, wealthy tourist town! If you aren't dressed nice in certain areas of Portland, Lake Oswego or West Linn...you might get some odd looks (kind of like in Cali).

I love Prineville, never met more friendly people in my life!

Most of Oregon is laid back and friendly. Plenty of great people everywhere.


Compared to California, one thing that is very different up here are the drivers. Some of the nicest drivers live in Oregon! Typically people are courteous and not all roided up with road rage. Also, in Oregon you can't pump your own gas - prepare to get served!
 
Old 12-26-2009, 11:53 AM
 
Location: Pluto's Home Town
9,982 posts, read 13,756,994 times
Reputation: 5691
Quote:
Originally Posted by ak.nessa View Post
I'm a fourth generation Oregonian, and I have lived all over the state. I am what you might call a "hippie-redneck hybrid." I guess that's what happens to some people who are born in the valley and wander off east into cowboy country...

ANYWAY!

As far as snooty and stuck up I suppose the worst places in Oregon would be Lake Oswego area (wealthier suburbs of Oregon - but the people are still VERY nice), and maybe even the Sisters area. After exploring and living in Central Oregon, Sisters is very safe and BEAUTIFUL but also kind of labeled the annoying, wealthy tourist town! If you aren't dressed nice in certain areas of Portland, Lake Oswego or West Linn...you might get some odd looks (kind of like in Cali).

I love Prineville, never met more friendly people in my life!

Most of Oregon is laid back and friendly. Plenty of great people everywhere.


Compared to California, one thing that is very different up here are the drivers. Some of the nicest drivers live in Oregon! Typically people are courteous and not all roided up with road rage. Also, in Oregon you can't pump your own gas - prepare to get served!

Hey wait! You left out Ashland...We can outsnob any of you guys!

No, seriously, Ashland has been inundated with ex-Bay Area types and they can be trying. They don't seem very interested in Oregon culture, and often convey an annoying sense of their superiority. Also, seems like everyone has traded in their Subarus for Beemers this year, even my boys kindergarten teacher! But even these folks have their good sides. They are not cheap retirees, they support the schools and the arts, though prices are now so high that Oregonian families cannot move to town. And the young, rich immigrants that move to town are putting their kids in private school or home schooling...sigh...

PRINEVILLE, tell me more. I love living in a small town in Oregon with cohesiveness, natural beauty, and good schools. As you probably know, Ashland is very liberal and RICH. I am afraid we will never own a decent home without bankrupting ourselves. It seems just about EVERYONE in Ashland made money in the housing bubble and moved in. Very few Oregonians live here. How would a working stiff deal with Prineville? Wife and I are about one notch left of center (concerned with social justice, environment, health care for all, not very religious) but generally moderate outdoor types, but pretty traditional in our behavior. Just looking for a nice, AFFORDABLE place to live and raise our son. We don't pontificate, nor want to boss people around,but we don't want to be ostracized for being liberal either.

[EDIT: I DECIDED TO START A NEW PRINEVILLE THREAD. WE CAN TAKE UP THAT DISCUSSION THERE]

Last edited by Fiddlehead; 12-26-2009 at 12:03 PM..
 
Old 12-26-2009, 12:01 PM
 
Location: DENVER
1,437 posts, read 4,605,495 times
Reputation: 990
when i visited eugene a few years back i noticed alot of hippies they were cool i have nothing bad to say about them
 
Old 12-26-2009, 12:05 PM
 
Location: Pluto's Home Town
9,982 posts, read 13,756,994 times
Reputation: 5691
Quote:
Originally Posted by el borracho View Post
when i visited eugene a few years back i noticed alot of hippies they were cool i have nothing bad to say about them
Hippies can be very fun, and some are very industrious too. Farmer's Markets, festivals, and the like owe them a lot.

However, Eugene has also become a magnet for the trustafarian crowd to hang around, panhandle, do and sell drugs, and are generally a pain in the @55!
 
Old 12-28-2009, 09:46 PM
 
Location: Everywhere
234 posts, read 718,553 times
Reputation: 108
I have only stopped by Ashland a few times and never spent much time there. I do remember a lot of hippies and honestly I do recall a bit of a stuck up vibe - not cool!

But it is beautiful down there!

Prineville is breathtakingly beautiful (in my opinion) - not downtown obviously (ew) but just that area of Oregon is wonderful. You have access to lakes, rivers, mountains, and you are in the high desert so you get nice dry weather (not so much rain as the valley - yay!).

You can be liberal in Prineville, not a problem. Just don't wear a t-shirt that says "I HATE CHRISTIANS"...haha. Lots of nice people out there, not stuck up AT ALL...very laid back, kind of redneck but I adored it and I am from Portland/Lake Oswego!
 
Old 12-28-2009, 09:47 PM
 
Location: Everywhere
234 posts, read 718,553 times
Reputation: 108
One thing I love about central and eastern Oregon is the "big sky" effect that you don't get to see in the valley. You will know what I mean if you spend a few days out there ...it is AWESOME!
 
Old 12-29-2009, 11:57 PM
 
Location: Oregon woods
114 posts, read 268,191 times
Reputation: 267
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead View Post
Just loved that post! It's easy to talk trash about rural folks, a bit harder to understand their view. This matches my view. If you meet rural folks halfway, especially the Scots-Irish folk who have homesteaded from Elkins to Amarillo to Bakersfield to Sweet Home, they are very warm-hearted and will look out for you. I have wondered about the hippies in Oregon. Some have been the typical panhandling, drug-dealing. self-righteous, trust fund creeps, but some have dug in, worked hard, and turned into darn good folk. I suspect the latter blend in and become hipbillies too. True?
Welllllllll...... Hippies is a pretty broad term. The ORIGINAL hippies who made a go of it out here in the conservative wild head-bashing pony-tail-cutting mid 60's are darn tough good folk. They now own land and businesses, have farms, pay taxes, the usual stuff people in their late middle age do. They just do it by consensus, with long gray hair and beards and handmade clothes and they have a group hug and a vegetarian potluck.
Many hillbilly locals have blended and bred and formed jam bands with the the hippies and their kids. These people are often jokingly called green-necks. They're longhairs who can operate chainsaws, organic gardens, 4x4 Ford trucks, dairy goats and guns with equal ease. Laid-back libertarians, not lefty liberals.
The "panhandling, drug-dealing, self-righteous, trust fund creeps" are not real hippies, but just another variety of costumes consumerist poser. Real hippies call these kids "Drainbows", a play on the actual hippie Rainbow Family Gathering of Tribes that happens every year. Drainbows dress up, buy a VW, get some Jerry stickers and Dead tapes and read Castenada from the free box and smoke everyone else's weed, contribute and produce nothing and seek only to get by for free on someone else's money and work (donations, grants, student loans, trusts) while lecturing you on white guilt and privilege. No wait, those are anarchists......
But we all know these kind of irresponsible people are everywhere in all races and groups. Real rural good ol' hippies make and fix things, live and let live, share what they have with others and have a very low-cost lifestyle out of the mainstream. Like real hillbillies.

.
 
Old 12-30-2009, 12:19 AM
 
Location: Oregon woods
114 posts, read 268,191 times
Reputation: 267
Default Which part of the elephant are you describing?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 1208 View Post
When was the last time you were in Eugene? It sounds to me like you haven't spent much time there. It is mostly a working class city. There is a small amount of the population that would fit your description but there are plenty of rednecks and hillbillies there, especially when you include Springfield. In Portland tho there are some real vegan PC types but again are a smaller percentage of the whole.
LMAO! Actually, I was in Eugene last week. I go there about three times a month. I've lived in Lane county since 1966. When I am in "town", I'm in downtown, East and South Eugene. granted Eugene is a big place, ten small towns stuck together really, If you're in Bethel- Danebo, Four Corners or Santa Clara your cultural mileage may definitely vary. STEREOTYPE Generalization MAP ALERT: Northeast Eugene is Promise Keepers in McMansions with Malls. Northwest Eugene is Latinos and white working class with Winco and Big Lots.
Southwest Eugene is rich white conservative, churches everywhere. Hilly streets. Southeast is rich white liberal. Coffee and microwbrews and old houses. Hilly streets
Downtown is students, artists, homeless, hippies, Hispanics, progressive recycling non-drivers drinking organic shade-grown lattes. Downtown went bust in 1968 and hasn't made it back. It's therefore, quite interesting and ripe for gentrification in another decade.

And yes, Springfield is certainly a lumber and mill town gone bust with the demographic that entails. Except for Thurston, which is the same people with more money and bigger churches.
Eugene has a major University, a community college, private schools and many layers of Government. That spells liberals on bikes eating health food and shopping at REI. How can you miss them? And their dogs? When was the last time you went downtown or read either of the newspapers? Not sure what part of You-Jeen you're stuck in, but sounds like you need a trip down to Sam Bond's Garage in Whiteaker for some organic beer and pizza.
 
Old 12-30-2009, 01:04 AM
 
Location: Pluto's Home Town
9,982 posts, read 13,756,994 times
Reputation: 5691
Default !

Quote:
Originally Posted by plainbrowntabby View Post
LMAO! Actually, I was in Eugene last week. I go there about three times a month. I've lived in Lane county since 1966. When I am in "town", I'm in downtown, East and South Eugene. granted Eugene is a big place, ten small towns stuck together really, If you're in Bethel- Danebo, Four Corners or Santa Clara your cultural mileage may definitely vary. STEREOTYPE Generalization MAP ALERT: Northeast Eugene is Promise Keepers in McMansions with Malls. Northwest Eugene is Latinos and white working class with Winco and Big Lots.
Southwest Eugene is rich white conservative, churches everywhere. Hilly streets. Southeast is rich white liberal. Coffee and microwbrews and old houses. Hilly streets
Downtown is students, artists, homeless, hippies, Hispanics, progressive recycling non-drivers drinking organic shade-grown lattes. Downtown went bust in 1968 and hasn't made it back. It's therefore, quite interesting and ripe for gentrification in another decade.

And yes, Springfield is certainly a lumber and mill town gone bust with the demographic that entails. Except for Thurston, which is the same people with more money and bigger churches.
Eugene has a major University, a community college, private schools and many layers of Government. That spells liberals on bikes eating health food and shopping at REI. How can you miss them? And their dogs? When was the last time you went downtown or read either of the newspapers? Not sure what part of You-Jeen you're stuck in, but sounds like you need a trip down to Sam Bond's Garage in Whiteaker for some organic beer and pizza.
Wow! All this talk about all the characters in Eugene makes me want come up for a visit. I'll have to mosy over to Springfield for a wicked milkshake and burger, cruise back over to Eugene for a wheatgrass shot to neutralize it before it hits the arteries. Check out those wetland on the west side of town for a nature hike in the rain. Then grab a growler of the local microbrew and head down to the riverbank to hassle the trustafarians ( or share if they're nice). Oh, and go borrow a bike and try to ride around town with a latte in one hand and a belly full of IPA. Seems like my kind of place...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Closed Thread


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Oregon

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top