recommendations for other cities like Portland (Oakland, Monroe: houses, neighborhoods, movie theater)

[Maybarry]

Austin sounds nice. Do you know if they have trees and shade as well as sun????

[philwithbeard]

Originally Posted by sharkylittleton

Large pockets on New York (Williamsburg, Lower East Side, Carroll Gardens/Boerum Hill/Cobble Hill, Park Slope, Astoria) and Chicago (Ukrainian Village, Wicker Park, Lakeview, East Village, Bucktown, Andersonville, Logan Square) have a liberal vibe as well.

Well, if you are going to add snow belt cities, then you must add Madison, Wisconsin; hands down the closest to Portland that I know. But trust me, the winters are hard and if you haven't done true Midwest Winter, it will be a shock. Oh, major college town BTW.

Pittsburgh is nothing like Portland. Pittsburgh has racial / social / economic / cultural isolation and stratification that will never be overcome. If you are mildly well off economically, you can live in a few very specific suburban communities, or even in a gated community, completely detached from the rest of the Population of Pittsburgh. But for the most of the population Pittsburgh is not liberal, not educated, not part of the Democratic Party, and not at all thrilled by the Art and performance theater available. I lived there for 8 miserable years.

[jread]

Originally Posted by Maybarry

Austin sounds nice. Do you know if they have trees and shade as well as sun????

Yes, we have many, many trees.... big, twisty oaks. They are nowhere nearly as tall as any of the trees in Oregon, but they are wide and provide plenty of shade.

Also, Austin is not really a college town anymore. The focus and industry of the city has expanded way beyond UT. It is a city of 800,000 people (1,600,000 in the metro) and a major high-tech center, as well as host to many large festivals (SXSW, ACL, etc.). The vibe is very similar to Portland.

[khyron]

Originally Posted by philwithbeard

Well, if you are going to add snow belt cities, then you must add Madison, Wisconsin; hands down the closest to Portland that I know. But trust me, the winters are hard and if you haven't done true Midwest Winter, it will be a shock. Oh, major college town BTW.

Pittsburgh is nothing like Portland. Pittsburgh has racial / social / economic / cultural isolation and stratification that will never be overcome. If you are mildly well off economically, you can live in a few very specific suburban communities, or even in a gated community, completely detached from the rest of the Population of Pittsburgh. But for the most of the population Pittsburgh is not liberal, not educated, not part of the Democratic Party, and not at all thrilled by the Art and performance theater available. I lived there for 8 miserable years.

Phil, I don't know when you lived in Pittsburgh, but I live there now and we only moved in recently (about two years ago). Most of my friends here constantly tell me how much has changed recently so please don't take any of what I'm about to say as argument. I just wanted to provide another perspective.

Before moving here, my wife and I toured more than a dozen cities around the country spending anywhere from three days to a week in each doing considerable exploration and research. No surprise, Portland was our favorite but job situations weren't ideal for my wife at the time (though we still plan to come out there in another year or two).

Amusingly enough, the earlier comment hit the exact quote my wife and I arrived at when we decided to move to Pittsburgh. It was "the most Portland-like city we could find" anywhere near the east coast (and northerly enough for us to be able to survive, we're from Virginia and absolutely cannot stand southern weather). We also loved Madison though (someday we'll go back just to eat at The Old Fashioned again, I swear).

First I'll definitely cede that there is a lamentable, extreme degree of racial and cultural isolation here. However my context is coming from the suburban south, so I sort of laugh at the reactions some of my peers here have...I guess everything is relative. It's unfortunate, sure, but this place is nothing at all like Washington, DC or Chicago, IL where you can draw lines down streets that nobody crosses like it's 1955. Also, much like Richmond, VA where I've also lived, there is a massive youth culture in the middle of everything where several large universities are. If you spend a lot of time in that environment, you don't tend to care about the hillbillies who live (and stay) 30 minutes out.

We don't live in, and never ever travel to, the suburbs of Pittsburgh so I can only speak for the "close in" neighborhoods here. Downtown itself is nothing like Portland, in that it pretty much rolls up the streets at 5:00pm during the week. On weekends though, there are all kinds of massive concerts, festivals, and things going on down there and sometimes the bridges are even closed to traffic just to carry walkers between the Point and the North Side. Also, the "theater district" part of downtown is vibrant and there are all kinds of performances at the four large theaters as well as some smaller ones. Not at all shabby for an American city this size.

Oakland, where we live, is absolutely awesome for a young couple and Shadyside is even better. Squirrel Hill is probably my third favorite area. In all three, you can easily live completely without a car with access to anything you want (including amazing museums and libraries in the case of Oakland). There's tasty food everywhere, and the vast majority of it is nifty local eateries, not chains (they're there, but fewer and father between). Again, all is relative. Compare to an average city of this size where everything local was decimated decades ago for the McMansion and SUV crowd to get their happy meals and Applebees-To-Go.

Transit here is fantastic if you're from someplace other than NYC, the Pacific Northwest, or Europe. That is to say there's plenty of room for improvement, but the buses, inclines, and light rail are extremely useful and "regular people" actually use them in droves (again, perspective, in many southern cities buses are rare, late, broken, and filled with only the poorest and most desperate people). I know it's not the streetcar and all, and we have nothing at all like MAX...but then neither does anywhere else in the U.S. some things about Portland just can't be matched.

In general, it's super cheap to live here, there's an amazing variety of arts, food, and cultural diversity if you're hanging out in the neighborhoods I mentioned, and there are all kinds of interesting places within a day's drive including all kinds of topography (including the Great Lakes, though sorry no ocean).

All in all, at least for us, this was #2 in the country behind Portland for awesome. So hey, everyone has different likes and dislikes, but there's another perspective for folks to take for whatever it's worth (less than $0.02 after taxes to be sure).

[philwithbeard]

Khyon:

I am truly glad you like Pittsburgh.

I presume the Strip (?) district along the eastern shore of the Allegheny river is still a great place for produce and seafood.

My exposure to Pittsburgh was the intense racist and ultra-conservative areas of Dormont, Mt Lebonon, Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair in the South Hills. Plus I got some exposure to the area I knew as the North Allegheny School District (Bradfordwoods, Franklin Park?) in the far North Hills area. I also meet a limited number real elitist snobs from far eastern suburbs beyond Monroeville but they could have been from Fox Chapel on the North East, I don't remember, and I don't want to remember them.

Phil

[Howest2008]

Are you Kidding???? there aren't any cities "totally" like Portland
, but try these cities on for size. Having a Portland like Vibe , but
not quite up to stuff (Austin Texas) and (Madison Wisconsin)....These
cities are superior to Portland....Seattle Washington...San Francisco
we all know which state...Berkeley we all know which state it resides
Vancouver British Columbia Canada.....San Jose California is in no
way like Portland it's a Moderate City.

[Rob Allen]

khyron, thanks for that writeup on Pittsburgh. I was born there, but we moved away when I was an infant, so all I know is what I've heard - and you mentioned some names I've heard!

When I was born my parents lived in a third-floor walkup in Oakland. The streetcar they used most was the 77/54 line, which people called the Flying Fraction. My father grew up in Pittsburgh in the 20s and 30s, and he recalls that Squirrel Hill was the Jewish neighborhood, known unfortunately as "Kikes Peak".

I'm going to email my dad your description of today's Pittsburgh - I think he'll be interested to know how his old home town is doing.

[JakeDog]

Denver. Much more sun despite the colder winters. Lots of funky areas, better outdoors than Portland (which is saying a lot).

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Originally Posted by davefr

Tucson

Really?
That must be a joke.
I've spent a lot of time in Tucson through the years and for all it has going for it, Tucson has never reminded me of Portland, geographically, socially, politically, much less it's climate.

Wait, one thing. Tucson's local government is just as wacky as Portland's, but on different levels. So maybe a little politically. But definetaly not in a "liberal" sense.
Oh yeah, last time I was there (last winter) there were just as many, or more homeless people roaming around as Portland.

[davefr]

Originally Posted by pdxMIKEpdx

Really?
That must be a joke.
I've spent a lot of time in Tucson through the years and for all it has going for it, Tucson has never reminded me of Portland, geographically, socially, politically, much less it's climate.

Wait, one thing. Tucson's local government is just as wacky as Portland's, but on different levels. So maybe a little politically. But definetaly not in a "liberal" sense.
Oh yeah, last time I was there (last winter) there were just as many, or more homeless people roaming around as Portland.

The OP said they wanted Portland like qualities with more sun.

That obviously means the geography will be different!! Tuscon is a fairly laid back city where people choose to live there at the sacrifice of being on the career fast track - sounds similar to Portland.

Tuscon is also very outdoor oriented - sounds like Portland.

Tuscon is somewhat artsy and has lots of unique restaurants, cafes, shops - sounds like Portland.

Both cities have 4-5 months of bad weather and the rest pretty good weather.