The Portland Perspective: Richmond, Virginia? Another hipster-oriented city? (Salem, Winston: living, low cost)

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

The 20-lower 30s demographic get really upset when they realize that Portland is a normal American city and not some dream world where their problems magically disappear. If you are moving to Portland to "escape" something, chances are that something is going to follow you here.

There are a lot of things about Portland that make is much different than a normal American city. It isn't some Portlandia dream, but it is definitely a much different city than I have found in the rest of the country.

[turquoise1]

I actually don't find Portland much different than a lot of college towns like Ann Arbor, MI, Durham, NC, Brattleboro, VT... I could go on ;-)

It is a youthful-feeling place.

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

I actually don't find Portland much different than a lot of college towns like Ann Arbor, MI, Durham, NC, Brattleboro, VT... I could go on ;-)

It is a youthful-feeling place.

College towns aren't your normal American city, also college towns usually aren't 600K cities in 2.3million metros.

But we can agree that Portland is a very youthful feeling place, which is why it has become so attractive for young people.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

I actually don't find Portland much different than a lot of college towns like Ann Arbor, MI, Durham, NC, Brattleboro, VT... I could go on ;-)

It is a youthful-feeling place.

Specific neighborhoods sort of might feel like those places. Overall though, not really so much. Small college towns tend to be friendlier and more laidback, they don't have the larger issues that cities of 600,000 people have.

I think Portland's peers are really cities with a similar metro population, places like Pittsburgh or Sacramento or or Charlotte or Austin or Cincinnati maybe almost up to a place like Denver but not much higher. The midsized, middle children of American metros. If you compare Portland to those cities or metros it looks fairly good in some respects. Portland might punch above it's weight in some categories and below it's weight in some others. I read an interesting book on the social history of Portland and it was interesting that the author said that for much of it's history Portland was similar to the sort of mid-sized cities of the Midwest.

Though probably because of the hype surrounding the youthful population of Portland and inner neighborhoods it get's much more attention for that alone these days. Overall though the day-to-day reality of the entire city and the entire metro probably isn't that interesting to the rest of the country's attention span though.

[turquoise1]

Winston-Salem, then. Revised population 640K. It is funky and artsy and creative, although it is big in the tobacco biz. I can think of some more examples. But anyway, it is subjective...

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

Winston-Salem, then. Revised population 640K. It is funky and artsy and creative, although it is big in the tobacco biz. I can think of some more examples. But anyway, it is subjective...

I have been to Winston-Salem, it is a nice city but it is no Portland.

[Deezus]

Winston-Salem reminded me more of Salem, Oregon when I visited, maybe Eugene. The downtown seemed pretty quiet.

[kapetrich]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

Winston-Salem, then. Revised population 640K. It is funky and artsy and creative, although it is big in the tobacco biz. I can think of some more examples. But anyway, it is subjective...

It definitely is subjective.

I'm throwing my hat in with Deezus and Urbanlife. None of those places are very much like Portland save for how Deezus described it.

Portland isn't at all a college town.

When I've visited Winston-Salem I didn't get the feel of a Portland in any way which makes sense as wiki says it's city population is just over 200k. Portland's a 600k city making it a mid-major.

[turquoise1]

Winston population has been revised to over 600K. But anyway, let's agree to disagree! :-)

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

Winston population has been revised to over 600K. But anyway, let's agree to disagree! :-)

I believe you're referring to the overall metro population of the Winston-Salem area.