Salem, Albany, Corvallis, Eugene, Grants Pass, Central Point - PLEASE HELP.. (Medford: loan, buy)

[malachai23]

ExoticFish - if you are in the Salem area for breakfast, make sure you go to this place: Breakfast Menu

It is my favorite breakfast place in the area! It may seem like it's kind of "remote" (it's a few miles out of town) but it's always crowded and for good reason too!

[Fiddlehead]

With progressive as a criterion, you have Corvallis, Eugene, and Ashland.

Ashland is the most expensive, and small, but very nice.

Corvallis is next, also a nice college town.

Eugene is probably the most affordable. University of Oregon and it is something of a hippy mecca.

All three have pretty moderate climates. Ashland is the coldest in winter, with the most snow (but not much) but has less rain, so less winter gloom. It is the most overpriced town in Oregon, owing to the real estate bubble, and wealthy retirees. But nice nonetheless.

[ExoticFish]

Hey Everyone,

Thanks for the info. about the restaurants in Salem. I love some good crepes and coffee. I don't even know what Lao food is - but I know I will like it.

Malachi - I've staying in Ashland on my last visit to Oregon and liked it but the housing prices were very high & there were a lot of tourists which I don't like.

One question for everyone - why do so many people say that Salem sucks? Is it because it's the capital? Any info. would be appreciated.

Thanks so much for the information.

[ExoticFish]

I checked out the website Malachai - the waffles look spectacular. I have never visited - but Salem looks pretty cool from just an internet research standpoint. What are the negatives?

[Silverfall]

Salem was the ugly stepchild to Eugene and Portland. Portland is a large city so it has good nightlife and Eugene has a large university so it has good nightlife. Salem has a couple of smaller private universities here so it lacks that university driven vibe. It is also the state capital so we have a lot of state jobs here, which are good family wage jobs. So...what you have is a lot of families and no university to "spice things up" per se. Salem is just not hip. That in combination with a lack of revitalization and a higher crime rate than Portland and Eugene gave it a poor reputation which was somewhat deserved.

If you fast forward to now...Salem has several revitalization districts which house the Kroc center as well as 18 other renovation projects. The crime rate has dropped, overall, but 6-7% (each year) for the last 3 years in a row. So the police are doing a good job. In 2001, part of the downtown was placed on the National Historic Register which opened up Federal Grant Dollars for restoration. Things have been spiffed up a bit downtown since then.

You know I lived in Portland when the Pearl district was a dump. It was warehouses with broken windows and now is a thriving section of the city. Salem is just like the starting phases of the Pearl in Portland, IMO. The new projects that are going in have all been really nice and it is making residents feel better about the city, I think. The Cherry City Derby Girls (a roller derby) just started and 3,000 people turned out for their opening event. I think there is this undercurrent of energy in Salem which is really nice to see. When I first moved here the "things to do" section of the weekend newspaper was like 2 pages long. It was 8 last weekend. A lot more live music, etc.

We still have a ways to go, but having some good restaurants in town and some different things to attend like First Wednesdays downtown, Wine and Food Festival (which is just two years old), the roller derby are all steps in the right direction.

[malachai23]

I think Silverfall acurately described the "issues" with Salem. I think the #1 biggest issue is definitely that it is "not hip". There is simply not much to do at night. Many Salemites go to Portland for evening entertainment.

Downtown Salem has SOOOOO much potential in my opinion. It has a lot of gorgeous historic buildings. Storefronts are not empty. The downtown area is a decent size. It is not crime-ridden. Over the years there has always been many independent shops and restaurants downtown to choose from. There is even a prestigious university adjacent to downtown (Willamette University). There is a revitalized riverfront area and some neat brand new loft condo type buildings built down there. But all that being said, it is still a **YAWN** town. Maybe someday it will see its own transformation but I'm kind of losing hope. I've seen vast improvements over the past few years, but I grew up there as a kid and I can tell you it's not really much different now than it was then. And that was a few decades ago. LOL

Now Salem as a whole is extremely sprawled out. And there are some not-so-great areas too... definitely some iffy areas. Traffic is a BEAR in some areas, especially for a town that small. In addition to Salem's "unhipness", I think the iffy areas and traffic also give it a bit of a bad rap.

It's really not a horrible place. I just don't get them impression it's the type of place you are looking for. Yes, you are correct - Ashland is expensive and does have a lot of tourists. You don't have to worry about that in Salem! hehe Hey - have you considered Silverton? I'm not sure if there is any nightlife there whatsoever - LOL - but it's a very picturesque little town and not as expensive as Ashland. It sways toward the liberal/progressive side too. Just a thought!

[malachai23]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

You know I lived in Portland when the Pearl district was a dump. It was warehouses with broken windows and now is a thriving section of the city.

I used to work in the Pearl, before it was the Pearl! I remember sitting out on the loading dock one day eating my lunch and watching a rat run right down the middle of 13th! It was so quiet you could hear him scampering. No people, no cars, no nothing. Ghost town. Like you said - a bunch of old warehouses with broken windows. And NOTHING else. It is so amazing to see it today. SO amazing.

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by malachai23

I used to work in the Pearl, before it was the Pearl! I remember sitting out on the loading dock one day eating my lunch and watching a rat run right down the middle of 13th! It was so quiet you could hear him scampering. No people, no cars, no nothing. Ghost town. Like you said - a bunch of old warehouses with broken windows. And NOTHING else. It is so amazing to see it today. SO amazing.

I LOVE the Pearl district. Salem will never have that kind of energy because we are too small, but we do have a TON of potential in this city. It just needs 10-15 years or so to "grow up."

[ORECoast]

I went to school at Western Oregon University which is about 15-20 minutes from Salem. It's a great small town with a four year university. I also went to Chemeketa Community College for 3 years and have friends who attended Willamette University so I am pretty familiar with Salem. Ten years ago, I would have agreed with the "Salem haters" but in the past 6 or 7 years the town has improved a great deal. It has one of the more stable economies in the state. Weather is moderate year round with cool, wet but not REALLY wet winters, and warm, sunny, but not oppressively hot summers. The coast is about one hour to the west. Silver Falls state park which could be a national park in its own right is about a half hour or less to the east. Downtown Portland, depending on traffic, is about one hour to the north. Eugene is an 1.5 hours to the south. Bend is 2.5 hours to the east. It is very close to the wine country, and there is a wine making program at Chemeketa. So out of your choices, I would recommend either Salem or Corvallis. There really is no "wrong" choice between the two since they are only 40 minutes apart via very scenic backroads. I know this because I lived in Corvallis while attending school at Chemeketa and for several jobs that I held. I would avoid Grants Pass/Central Point/Ashland unless you like hot summers (over 100 degrees). I lived in Ashland briefly to get away from the rain in Eugene and found that while it may not rain quite as much it is still cloudy about the same amount of time in the winter. Just my .02

[GeorgiaTransplant]

"Salem, Albany, Corvallis, Eugene, Grants Pass & Central Point."

For what it's worth, I've personally lived in Albany and Corvallis and have relatives in every single one of those except for Eugene (one in the Junction City/Veneta area, which is not the same-but pretty close and they use Eugene for major services/shopping). I see literally every one of those cities every year as I visit from wherever I am currently living for work, and watch their progress.

"I would love a progressive city with a moderate climate."

Progressive out of that list: Corvallis, Eugene, with Eugene being *far* more "progressive". Corvallis has a strong minority of environmental types but it's the university influence that makes it progressive and open minded. Of the two, it's the far more conservative city in general.

But really any of them are okay, you just get more working class and conservative attitudes in Salem, Albany, Grants Pass, Central Point.

Moderate Climate: All of them, except I'd be cautious of the south. It's still pretty moderate but has the occasional brutal summer or harder winter (note brutal and hard here is in an Oregon context-somebody from the midwest would laugh at a hard Oregon winter, and the deep humid South would laugh at a brutal Oregon summer).

In terms of being what I consider a really, really cool city? Corvallis, Eugene, and Salem is coming up FAST-every time I visit it seems a little better. Albany has a lot of potential but wasn't quite there last time I visited. That downtown area could and probably is going places, though.

So given your two criteria (progressive and mild climate) and the "coolness" factor I think we all really want where we live, I'd really investigate these three, in this order: Eugene, Corvallis, Salem.