Moving - Looking for advise on West Side neighborhoods

[JXBC]

Originally Posted by psichick

Living within 20 miles doesn't mean up to an hour commute on a freeway, it most likely means at least an hour, freeway or streets. And the streets are packed. They bottleneck a lot. I akin it to....imagine trying to get from the 405 and Jamboree to North Tustin. One street, yes it may have 3-4 lanes across (per side), but it's so packed, it's still going to take 30 mins to go 10 miles. Now imagine if that street had a 35-40mph speed limit and was 1-2 lanes (per side), with the same amount of cars. That's Portland.

I don't entirely agree with this. My primary office is in a tower downtown, but I do a lot of field inspections on my employer's various branches around the greater Portland and Vancouver metro area, and I can easily get from my home in the Cedar Hills/Cedar Mill area to branches in Happy Valley and Mall 205 areas (roughly 20-25 miles from my home) within 35-40 minutes, and that's with the traffic that is prone on the 26.

My commute downtown, which is most days, is generally 20-25 minutes or so, depending on the traffic on the 26.

Granted, if there's an accident or major weather issues, it can take longer, but that's not that common.

I would still stick with the suggestion of living close to work, however. I personally do not wish to live downtown, so I'm stuck with the commute, but I love the neighborhoods of the West Hills/West Side, so I have no problem with the commute as a tradeoff.

[Nell Plotts]

Ah, but you are commuting on local streets.. not on freeways, and are often driving at other than commute hours.

[JXBC]

Originally Posted by Nell Plotts

Ah, but you are commuting on local streets.. not on freeways, and are often driving at other than commute hours.

Where did I say I commuting on local streets? Or often driving at other than commute hours?

I left my house in Cedar Hills/Cedar Mill at 8:00am Friday to do an inspection on a branch beyond Mall 205 in the SE. Got there at 8:37am. Route was 26-405-84-205-a few miles of "local streets."

Unless your question was for a different poster...

[psichick]

Originally Posted by JXBC

I don't entirely agree with this. My primary office is in a tower downtown, but I do a lot of field inspections on my employer's various branches around the greater Portland and Vancouver metro area, and I can easily get from my home in the Cedar Hills/Cedar Mill area to branches in Happy Valley and Mall 205 areas (roughly 20-25 miles from my home) within 35-40 minutes, and that's with the traffic that is prone on the 26.

My commute downtown, which is most days, is generally 20-25 minutes or so, depending on the traffic on the 26.

Granted, if there's an accident or major weather issues, it can take longer, but that's not that common.

I would still stick with the suggestion of living close to work, however. I personally do not wish to live downtown, so I'm stuck with the commute, but I love the neighborhoods of the West Hills/West Side, so I have no problem with the commute as a tradeoff.

Honestly, it just depends on where you are at, where you're going, and what time you're leaving. I mean, due to Zoolights tonight, it took me 45 mins to get from Hillsboro to Downtown....at 7pm!

I just don't think the person I had responded to originally should have a 20 mile radius. In OC, 20 miles is nothing, in fact, that's living "close" to work. It's just not the same here in Portland. I learned that the hard way. Although traffic really doesn't bother me, my dog was having too many accidents being left at home for 11 hours because my commute was about an hour each way. And that's on 2 freeways and not even going near downtown.

[Farbod.farbod]

Portland is very nice but only in non rainy and warm days which is only 1 or max 2 months
Have you ever thought about that ? 9 months seeing gray sky and rain and rain and cold. It's not easy for me which I've been living here for 8 years and now I'm packing and getting ready to move out some where else like honolulu or San Diego . Just because of weather otherwise is great place ,low housing compare to California. High state income tax but no sales tax .

[bler144]

Originally Posted by JXBC

I left my house in Cedar Hills/Cedar Mill at 8:00am Friday to do an inspection on a branch beyond Mall 205 in the SE. Got there at 8:37am. Route was 26-405-84-205-a few miles of "local streets."

Imo you actually kind of prove the point, inadvertently.

That route is 17 miles, but took you 40 minutes, even though for a decent chunk of it you were going against primary traffic flow (morning outbound on 84).

Also, my perception was that Friday was just a bit lighter than normal. Not sure if people were taking the day off, but it was the last day of finals at PSU and the number of students and faculty on campus, particularly first thing in the morning, seemed to be pretty significantly diminished.

[patches403]

Originally Posted by bler144

Imo you actually kind of prove the point, inadvertently.

That route is 17 miles, but took you 40 minutes, even though for a decent chunk of it you were going against primary traffic flow (morning outbound on 84).

Also, my perception was that Friday was just a bit lighter than normal. Not sure if people were taking the day off, but it was the last day of finals at PSU and the number of students and faculty on campus, particularly first thing in the morning, seemed to be pretty significantly diminished.

Friday morning traffic year round is almost always lighter than other weekday mornings in PDX metro area. Added to that is we have entered our "because it's the holidays morning commute traffic is lighter than normal" season which always starts around the second week of December so that's why it only took 40 minutes. To offset that, the holidays always seem to add at least 10 - 15 minutes to my evening commute with all the people out for holiday shopping and parties.