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Location: Winter nightime low 60,summer daytime high 85, sunny 300 days/year, no hablamos ingles aquÃ
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PNWDreaming just posted the "Things to consider before moving to Portland....".
It's an (somewhat) amusing to read collection of trivia (some of it quite untrue or exaggerated), posted by house salesman in order to bring here more people and drum-up his business. In other words, fluff.
It misses completely 2 key points everybody who wants to move here should know and do. It's been repeated ad-nauseam on this forum. However, judged by the questions asked over and over by the newcomers, it's falling on (mostly) deaf ears.
1. Don't come here without a job. Two notable exceptions to this rule: you bring your own job with you, or you are in a high-demand field, such as medicine.
Portland economy is mediocre, unemployment rate currently stands at ~6.2%, in the middle of the pack compared with most US cities.
Starbucks baristas here have university degrees.
If you are hell-bent on moving to Pacific Northwest anyway, consider Seattle instead. Its unemployment rate is 5.7%, and being a much larger area, it presents more opportunities.
If you are absolutely hell-bent on moving to Portland, bring lots of cash with you: 1-year worth of living expenses is just about right.
2. Once you get here, rent an apartment close to work. You can rent anywhere you want. There are almost no bad parts of town where it's dangerous to rent.
Throw a dart at the map of PDX metro area, and it will always be an improvement over the place you are coming from.
We don't care that "my current commute is 3 hours each day, and I'd be in paradise if I cut it to 1.5 hours per day". There is no reason not to rent within 10 to 20 minutes from your job site, no matter where you work in PDX metro. Even in tight rental markets, there are plenty of apartments and houses everywhere.
Traffic here is bad, and getting worse each year. It's approaching a point where we'll become prisoners in our neighborhoods, because all the freeways and arterial highways are jammed most of the day. It may take you 15 minutes to drive 10 miles somewhere in Midwest. Here, due to the density of traffic, it may be 40 or 50 minutes
There is no solution to it, other than limiting the number of miles driven by passenger cars.
The government cannot, and will not build more freeways for your convenience. There is neither geographical space, nor money to build them. Live close, take public transit (pretty good around here), or both.
Do it as a favor to yourself and everybody who already lives here. Especially to people who have no choice but to commute long distances because they are stuck between their (difficult to buy and sell) houses and (difficult to change) jobs.
Last edited by skiffrace; 01-14-2014 at 02:58 PM..
PNWDreaming just posted the "Things to consider before moving to Portland....".
It's an (somewhat) amusing to read collection of trivia (some of it quite untrue or exaggerated), posted by house salesman in order to bring here more people and drum-up his business. In other words, fluff.
It misses completely 2 key points everybody who wants to move here should know and do. It's been repeated ad-nauseam on this forum. However, judged by the questions asked over and over by the newcomers, it's falling on (mostly) deaf ears.
1. Don't come here without a job. Two notable exceptions to this rule: you bring your own job with you, or you are in a high-demand field, such as medicine. Portland economy is mediocre, unemployment rate currently stands at ~6.2%, in the middle of the pack compared with most US cities.
If you are hell-bent on moving to Pacific Northwest anyway, consider moving to Seattle instead. Its unemployment rate is 5.7%, and being a much larger area, it presents more opportunities.
If you are absolutely hell-bent on moving to Portland anyway, bring lots of cash with you: 1-year worth of living expenses is just about right.
2. Once you get here, rent an apartment close to work. You can rent anywhere you want. There are almost no bad parts of town where it's dangerous to rent..
We don't care that "my current commute in California is 3 hours each day, and I'd be in paradise if I cut it to 1.5 hours per day". There is no reason not to rent within 10 to 20 minutes from your job site, no matter where you work in PDX metro. Even in tight rental markets, there are plenty of apartments and houses everywhere.
Traffic here is bad, and getting worse each year. There is no solution to it, other than limiting the number of miles driven by passenger cars.
The government cannot and will not build more freeways for your convenience. There is neither geographical space, nor money to build them. Live close, take public transit (pretty good around here), or both.
Do it as a favor to yourself and everybody who already lives here. Especially to people who have no choice but to commute long distances because they are stuck between their (difficult to buy and sell) houses and (difficult to change) jobs.
3. Temper your expectations. No this isn't some regret story on my part. I'm saying that I, myself, came here with very tempered expectations. I was excited, but not too excited.
3. Temper your expectations. No this isn't some regret story on my part. I'm saying that I, myself, came here with very tempered expectations. I was excited, but not too excited.
4. Bring a lot of cash because you going to need it.
I spent 3 weeks in the summer and decided I had to move to PDX, but then I spent 3 weeks in the winter, and wasn't so sure anymore.
The first point the OP made regarding having a job in hand is problematic in that it seems like in Portland you have to already be there to get a job, even in high demand fields.
In Seattle, Silicon Valley and NYC I had no problem getting a job while living somewhere else. Companies flew me out for interviews and then paid for relocation. In Portland, the companies I've talked with were all "call us when you get here!"
here is neither geographical space, nor money to build them. Live close, take public transit (pretty good around here), or both.
I'd quibble with the first part of that a little bit. In a lot of places the issue isn't a lack of 'space' per se, it's more the constraints the physical geography places on road engineering and cost to build.
Is there space to build a westside bypass? Sure, but working up and over the ridges would be quite expensive to build even aside from buying the ROW. There's a reason 47 and especially 219 have so many arcs and cutbacks. The alternative to cutbacks is generally even more expensive to build and maintain.
Likewise, even my desired goal to see a local bridge over the columbia wouldn't be cheap, because it's, you know, a bridge.
But I'd agree, for lack of funds Portland is largely stuck with the road layout it has, which is sub-optimal in lots of areas and congested as a result. And we would all collectively be better off if people lived close to work, though that gets into the free rider problem and other philosophical conundrums of public policy.
1) keep your social network(s) outside of Portland pretty secure and stable. I have noticed it takes a longer time to create a social network in Portland so it's great to be able to Facebook, Skype, Facetime and talk on the phone with your real friends and family. Thank God for technology these past four years. I have a few friends(also transplants) here that I will probably stay close with for a long time. Everyone else is an acquaintance.
2) be open minded about the neighborhoods here and realize many hoods are just trendy but in reality they are not that much safer or more desirable to live in. Many neighborhoods that looked perfect on line while I lived in NYC are not what I thought they would be like. My list of desirable neighborhoods has increased dramatically after four years of living in Portland. This city gal has even considered Beaverton!
Location: Winter nightime low 60,summer daytime high 85, sunny 300 days/year, no hablamos ingles aquÃ
700 posts, read 1,500,212 times
Reputation: 1132
Quote:
be open minded about the neighborhoods here and realize many hoods are just trendy but in reality they are not that much safer or more desirable to live in. ...My list of desirable neighborhoods has increased dramatically after four years of living in Portland. This city gal has even considered Beaverton!
Absolutely!
Places like Beaverton are little different, and equally good as anywhere within SE or NE Portland. The main reason people get the idea about the alleged "city" vs. "suburbs" split is that a the small group of super-active posters constantly mentions their areas (in Portland, usually the east side) as "the best" places to live. It may be so, but so are dozens of other neighborhoods all over PDX metro, both in the city and the suburbs.
Below is an example of the consequences of such "mis and under-information" (all false)
Quote:
From what I've seen a lot of people are saying that it's better to live in Portland, not the suburbs, if at all possible, and that the South Portland neighborhoods are better/safer than North and North-east Portland neighborhoods .
Absolutely!
Places like Beaverton are little different, and equally good as anywhere within SE or NE Portland. The main reason people get the idea about the alleged "city" vs. "suburbs" split is that a the small group of super-active posters constantly mentions their areas (in Portland, usually the east side) as "the best" places to live. It may be so, but so are dozens of other neighborhoods all over PDX metro, both in the city and the suburbs.
Below is an example of the consequences of such "mis and under-information" (all false)
Another important aspect of Portland metro neighborhoods to consider is the fact that diversity is in the suburbs. Yes, folks, my multi- racial/cultural family loves going to Washington Square Mall in Tigard and Clackamas Mall in Clackamas. All of the trendy inner NE hoods( I live in one) are not very racially, ethnically, socioeconomically diverse. Go to the Whole Foods in Hillsboro and hear several languages spoken.
Another important aspect of Portland metro neighborhoods to consider is the fact that diversity is in the suburbs. Yes, folks, my multi- racial/cultural family loves going to Washington Square Mall in Tigard and Clackamas Mall in Clackamas. All of the trendy inner NE hoods( I live in one) are not very racially, ethnically, socioeconomically diverse. Go to the Whole Foods in Hillsboro and hear several languages spoken.
That's true, Beaverton and parts of Hillsboro probably feels far more diverse than most of Portland west of 82nd. Washington Square feels like a mall in California. Yeah, I saw a movie at the Clackamas Town Center last weekend and it's got a more diverse crowd than inner SE(which is probably among the least diverse parts of the entire Portland metro), also considering how many Hispanics are in many of the suburbs these days. Hell, Happy Valley has the highest percentage of Asians of any place in Oregon these days... But even the Lloyd Center mall has more diversity in customer base than a lot of the nearby neighboring neighborhoods in Southeast. There's just a certain demographic that is attracted to parts of inner Portland.
That's the cliche of Portland, though wealthier white transplants or twenty somethings move to inner SE or N/NE these days and ask where all the black people and minorities are, but the transplants themselves are part of the reason there aren't many minorities in those neighborhoods... I mean, I'm part of the situation myself, not claiming otherwise.
Absolutely!
Places like Beaverton are little different, and equally good as anywhere within SE or NE Portland. The main reason people get the idea about the alleged "city" vs. "suburbs" split is that a the small group of super-active posters constantly mentions their areas (in Portland, usually the east side) as "the best" places to live.
Usually people though just ask about specific neighborhoods they're interested in or ask about what neighborhoods in Portland meet the criteria they're looking for and people answer pretty honestly... If people are looking to live in Washington County they usually mention that off the bat in their post and people simply respond with their suggestions... Everyone though is a little biased to where they live if they like it, including people who live in the suburbs.
Last edited by Deezus; 01-14-2014 at 08:37 PM..
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