SF, Portland or Seattle Living (Astoria: school, earthquake, restaurants)

[MLarma]

SF, Portland OR Seattle Living?
Hi all,

My husband and I will be deciding on our next relocation and need advice. We went to school in NOLA (loved it) and have since lived in Balitmore, MD, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH. He's a midwesterner (Omaha) and I am a Jersey native.

We'd like to try to West Coast given access to nature, better weather and slower pace of living. I am a Peace Corps type who is into social work, yoga, theology and he is a doc. He likes more fast paced urban settings and I am more laid back and thinking more future oriented (no children yet).

I like diversity but have gotten used to the midwest.... thoughts?? We recently visited SF and loved it also. Very much dig the European roots, ability to walk places and sunshine in Feb! But, is it safe...earthquakes I mean and are people as flighty as everyone makes them out to be?

thanks.

[Yankeemama]

I am a Native San Franciscan and at last check, I am not so flighty but let me check again. Hmm...I live in Portland now and I have done well given that I should be flighty and all. I have lived in NYC and spent some time in N.J. I don't think you will like it here on the West coast. We usually don't like to be insulted straight away. Good luck to you.

[MLarma]

Sorry to offend you, not my impressions at all, just warnings from others. Just like I hear N.easters are pushy and aggressive...which can be true!

Be well!

[rammi231]

Originally Posted by Yankeemama

I am a Native San Franciscan and at last check, I am not so flighty but let me check again. Hmm...I live in Portland now and I have done well given that I should be flighty and all. I have lived in NYC and spent some time in N.J. I don't think you will like it here on the West coast. We usually don't like to be insulted straight away. Good luck to you.

that was the new yorker in you!

[Nell Plotts]

Earthquakes happen all up and down the west coast. If they can afford San Francisco they should move there.

[philwithbeard]

Originally Posted by MLarma

SF, Portland OR Seattle Living?
.....
We'd like to try to West Coast given access to nature, better weather and slower pace of living. I am a Peace Corps type who is into social work, yoga, theology and he is a doc. He likes more fast paced urban settings and I am more laid back and thinking more future oriented (no children yet).

I like diversity but have gotten used to the midwest.... thoughts?? We recently visited SF and loved it also. Very much dig the European roots, ability to walk places and sunshine in Feb! But, is it safe...earthquakes....

City of SF is expensive to live in; but gosh the suburban area of SF Bay is HUGE....

Seattle has the reputation of being more Type-A business type friendly...

Portland is laid-back, bicycle friendly, very micro-brew beer drinking haven, three dollar signed restaurants (with three or four forks) going, and due to the long overcast gray rainy 8 to 9 months each year--very casual hair styles since hair will get wet and damp a lot.

Just understand about the Weather in the Pacific Nortwest: Portland and Seattle are much closer to the Arctic Circle than most cities in the Lower 48 states, but due to the influence of the Ocean, winter temps are mild. The cost of the mild winter is of course gray overcast sky from Late October until about the 4th of July. Lots of drizzle type rain, misty rain, and such. That's why the PNW is so green and lush and the rivers are so swift.

Also, Earthquakes ain't that big of a deal in Seattle or Portland. You see Mt. Rainer up in Washington, and Mt Hood just outside of Portland are active volcanoes; Mt. St. Helen is sister mountain to Rainer and Hood. Mt. Hood due in something like 70 years or so. Google: Boring Lava Field (Boring is the name of the ancient lava flows that is Portland, not an editorial comment on reading the long reports.) Portland is only city in North America with ancient (10 million years ago?) volcano caldera(s) within City Limits. Mt. Tabor is one, just to the West of I-205 in Portland.

And, as far as earthquakes, on something like 300 or 400 years there is a Teutonic plate subduction zone a ways off the Oregon / Washington coast that will cause a major disruption in life. Google: cascadia subduction zone. Huge Tsunami that will wipe out a lot of the Oregon coast; but long-long after I cease to care.

Phil

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by rammi231

that was the new yorker in you!

Yup! Got a little NYC throw-down in me!

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by philwithbeard

And, as far as earthquakes, on something like 300 or 400 years there is a Teutonic plate subduction zone a ways off the Oregon / Washington coast that will cause a major disruption in life. Google: cascadia subduction zone. Huge Tsunami that will wipe out a lot of the Oregon coast; but long-long after I cease to care.

Phil

I think you mean "tectonic" there, unless there is a large dinner plate brought in by the Vikings somewhere. Or maybe all the early Finn settlers in Astoria.

I also don't recommend being quite so casual about big earthquakes here (ie: San Francisco to British Columbia). While it's not LIKELY in the next couple years or so, it's certainly POSSIBLE, meaning that you should still do a bit of planning ahead for disaster. And there are quakes possible without being the big subduction zone quake, which if you happen to be in the right (ie: wrong) place in a more localized earthquake, that same planning will do you quite a bit of good.

ETA: of course, the current hot spot for earthquake swarms at this moment is in Arkansas, near Hot Springs, which just goes to sow that there is a pretty large swathe of the US that could stand to do disaster planning.

[EnricoV]

Originally Posted by philwithbeard

Portland is laid-back, bicycle friendly, very micro-brew beer drinking haven, three dollar signed restaurants (with three or four forks) going, and due to the long overcast gray rainy 8 to 9 months each year--very casual hair styles since hair will get wet and damp a lot.

What??? I've lived here all my life, am female (not to mention old), and have never once changed or decided on a hairstyle because of the weather! Including the bubble-dos of the 1960s and 70s. The only time anything other than just personal choice affected it was when I started driving a convertible. That affected it. Because I drove it a lot. With the top down. A lot.

[Ryant]

I'm not so sure on the hairstyle thing either..