What I Love, Hate, Like, Dislike about Portland Oregon (St. Paul: buying a house, taxes)

[jasonkramer]

love; nothing. dont think ive used that word for anything.

hate; all the incompetent liberals. bike cyclists who don't seem to understand they should fallow the same road rules as motorized vehicles.

like; while incompetent, most people seem fairly nice. easy for me to get around, people generally leave me alone. great public transport.

dislike; when i leave here i have to go home to all the incompetent conservatives. the whole "keep Portland weird" things gets a bit old and people dont seem to understand why conformity is so important for a society to work. all though if no one conforms to the standards then it could be said they are conforming.

i have gone smilyface happy today.

[jayuso]

As for likes and dislikes I'll just mention those as one, personally the city just bores me. From a young college aged students perspective I was told all these great things about it, and that it had so much. When I visited it didn't seem to bad but living here... is a whole different story. That isn't to say the city is a bad place because for some people it's probably right up their alley, it just isn't for me though. A friend hyped it up and was basically blowing a bunch of smoke about it. So I do think it's quite overrated. I'm counting down the remaining few months on my lease and then I'm high tailing it outta here. Peace out Portland, see ya.


As for what I like about it, the light-rail seems pretty neat and it's a great mode of public transportation. The city is fairly safe for the most part, mellow and etc.

[turquoise1]

Are you bored by the fact that things close on the early side? As a New Yorker, I'm getting used to that, and also the fact that there is no OpenTable (you can't easily order whatever food you want online and have it delivered). Also, downtown is pretty sleepy on the weekends.

But I would think there would be plenty for you to do if you are a college student who likes breweries!

I am really liking Portland so far, but in addition to wanting things to be open later and missing my food delivery, I wish they would fluoridate the water here like the other 99% of cities. I also miss all the great Japanese food and seafood restaurants in New York. Who knows, maybe I will get stir-crazy eventually, but it is a great city for our family so far.

[PNW-type-gal]

Doesn't it seem a tad unrealistic, hoping for the same level of restaurants and services (ie: OpenTable) in a metro area of 2 million as you had in a metro area of 19 million? I believe San Francisco has Open Table or something like.

I knew, when I moved from Portland to a small rural Oregon community, that I would be giving up a lot of amenities in exchange for open spaces and fewer people. While I might wish for at least ONE good restaurant (alas: no), that is what travel is for.

[sayulita]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

Are you bored by the fact that things close on the early side? As a New Yorker, I'm getting used to that, and also the fact that there is no OpenTable (you can't easily order whatever food you want online and have it delivered). Also, downtown is pretty sleepy on the weekends.

But I would think there would be plenty for you to do if you are a college student who likes breweries!

I am really liking Portland so far, but in addition to wanting things to be open later and missing my food delivery, I wish they would fluoridate the water here like the other 99% of cities. I also miss all the great Japanese food and seafood restaurants in New York. Who knows, maybe I will get stir-crazy eventually, but it is a great city for our family so far.

Although it's probably not the same as in New York, we do have a business here called Delivered Dish that delivers food from many different restaurants. Here's the link.
Portland Food Delivery | Portland Restaurant Delivery | Portland Catering | Portland Restaurants | Delivered Dish

[turquoise1]

Whoops, I meant to say SeamlessWeb instead of OpenTable.

Delivered Dish is cool, but it is not quite the same. I appreciate the link, though.

I think Portland could definitely support a SeamlessWeb with all of its fantastic restaurants - really, really wonderful food here, and a highly sophisticated local palate. SeamlessWeb is expanding into many smaller cities - it is not just going to be a New York operation.

(The other thing that is markedly different here is that when you are looking for a place, there aren't really real estate brokers for rentals - instead, you pay an application fee at every apartment building you are looking at. And, of course, the full-service gas stations - that is something I like, actually.)

[sayulita]

Originally Posted by turquoise1

Whoops, I meant to say SeamlessWeb instead of OpenTable.

Delivered Dish is cool, but it is not quite the same. I appreciate the link, though.

I think Portland could definitely support a SeamlessWeb with all of its fantastic restaurants - really, really wonderful food here, and a highly sophisticated local palate. SeamlessWeb is expanding into many smaller cities - it is not just going to be a New York operation.

(The other thing that is markedly different here is that when you are looking for a place, there aren't really real estate brokers for rentals - instead, you pay an application fee at every apartment building you are looking at. And, of course, the full-service gas stations - that is something I like, actually.)

Could you explain SeamlessWeb for us please? How does it differ from Delivered Dish?

[turquoise1]

Check it out, I love this company so much I wanted to work for them.

Food Delivery | Order Food Online Restaurants & Take Out | Seamless

[sayulita]

I had checked it out when you first mentioned it, but I still don't see how it differs from Delivered Dish. It sems that both offer online ordering and delivery from a bunch of different restaurants. So I just wanted to understand the difference.

[turquoise1]

OK, I will give you the difference...

SeamlessWeb has a lot of great features. 1) Delivery is much less expensive than $7 and is available from a ton of places without much notice. 2) SeamlessWeb offers fun things like the "find-a-food" feature where you can search through hundreds of menus in a second for your favorite food and have it delivered. You can also save favorite meals and quickly re-order them, and easily read through a ton of ratings and reviews when looking for a restaurant. Also, it's easy to search by cuisine. 3) The company offers a lot of promotions and specials where you get discounts or free meals.

Customer service is fast and efficient, it's just a great all-in-one service. Other companies, like GrubHub and a couple others, are trying to compete, but SeamlessWeb is much more comprehensive and easy-to-use.