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Old 10-19-2010, 06:50 PM
 
Location: Salem, OR
15,494 posts, read 40,194,371 times
Reputation: 17343

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Quote:
Originally Posted by rainwalking View Post
All those eateries sound great as long as they offer vegetarian options.

Will it be raining in February and March? Or is the rain year-round? I'm not wild about walking/biking in a downpour, but I can handle light rain and drizzle anytime.
The PNW is vegetarian friendly. I can't think of a single restaurant where you can't get vegetarian dishes. Vegan is a bit more challenging, but some of the restaurants offer choices for those folks.

and yes...it will likely be raining during that time.
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Old 10-19-2010, 10:02 PM
 
13 posts, read 40,795 times
Reputation: 12
I just watched some Corvallis and Salem videos on YT. Corvallis reminds of the college town I grew up it. Very nice but not sure it's my thing now.

These made me want to move to Salem:


Union Street bridge


Minto park


Around the Governor's Mansion

This one is not so encouraging:


Park shooting

Next time I'll look for Portland videos.
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Old 10-19-2010, 10:27 PM
 
Location: Portland, OR
1,657 posts, read 4,465,409 times
Reputation: 907
Rain Walking:

I can provide some additional links to NOAA statistical data, but for your question about rain:
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/pqr/pdxclimate/pg93.pdf

Long term averages are somewhere around 50% chance of light rain (over 0.01 inches) for every day of the month of March, with only and average of 3 days of clear to fair sky, 5 days of Partly Cloudy, and 23 days with 80% or more of the sky blanketed with clouds all-day-long. The long term average is 13 days in March for a trace or more of rain, Ave low overnight is 38.6 and ave high is 55.7. The average humidity in March is close to 80% during the daylight hours (mild-bad-hair-day?)

Or as Silver Fall called it: "yes."
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Old 10-19-2010, 11:32 PM
 
Location: Salem, OR
15,494 posts, read 40,194,371 times
Reputation: 17343
The governor's mansion is in Fairmount Hills which is a great neighborhood. I mentioned that one earlier for you. That video shows part of Bush Park on high street and then Fairmount Hills.

All cities have not so great neighborhoods, Portland does too. Northgate is a not so nice area of Salem. It isn't hard to avoid it as it is really industrial. The Kroc Center, which is amazing is located in Northgate but I drive in Northgate and have sold homes and have never felt unsafe there. Our bad areas aren't anything like Chicago's bad areas. Everything is relative.

Obviously the smaller the cities the less of that stuff you tend to have. Since you are a biker/rider, there are plans for a bridge that will connect Riverfront Park to Minto Brown park. They have three bridge designs and are working with Boise Cascade (who still owns that land) on an easement for the bridge. That way the Union Street pedestrian bridge that they showed you will connect Wallace Marine Park, Riverfront Park, and then the new pedestrian bridge to Minto Brown.

When you come to Salem you'll see the big hole in the ground downtown where they have partially demolished the old plant. The bridge will be over there.
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Old 10-21-2010, 05:47 PM
 
12 posts, read 91,356 times
Reputation: 33
Corvallis is going to be considerably more walk-and-bike friendly than most of the other options, but it depends on what sort of needs you have. If you just need to hit some stores and a few cute bars or the library, it's golden if you can get a home in proximity to the big drags like Ninth Street, the Riverfront district, or Circle. As mentioned by others, it is more expensive than Albany; I'm not sure about the COL for outlying areas towards Philomath or Lewisburg.

Albany is cheaper and has plenty of shops and big box retailers, but most of that stuff is centralized. So if you live out by Linn Benton Community College like I do, you have to be prepared for quite a bike ride or walk even to get groceries. I did it all the time as a kid, but it could take a good 45 minutes one-way by bike, if I recall. If you can get a place along Waverly or Queen or some of the less reputable neighborhoods north of Pacific Blvd, then walking and biking is easy enough, though the traffic is relatively heavy for the size of the town. Albany also has a big and semi-famous historical district if you dig that. Sadly, one of the centerpiece churches was burned down by an intoxicated homeless sex offender in 1989, but the new St. Mary's is a pretty impressive building in its own way.

If hanging out with college kids in bars or clubs is your idea of a good time, Albany can't much help with that. We are a Republican bedroom community for I-5 and Hwy 34 communters, so its a town geared towards people who either go to bed by 9 p.m., or who have the means to party in Salem or Eugene. Corvallis has more night life than any other town in the Mid-Valley, but it still is pretty low key. If you have any alternative urban lifestyle needs--swinging, BDSM, Gay-Lesbian/Transgender, biker gang, firearms enthusiasm, martial arts, classic cars, etc.--then Corvallis also does better than Albany in most of these areas. But Salem or Eugene/Springfield are going to be much better pickings for that kind of stuff. On the otherhand, the Mid-Valley has you covered for all of your narcotic needs!

Last edited by woerkilt; 10-21-2010 at 05:59 PM..
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Old 10-22-2010, 11:06 AM
 
13 posts, read 40,795 times
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Woerkilt, thanks for the roundup. Albany sounds like my speed (no bars, in bed by 9), and I have no need for drugs or alternative lifestyle attractions. But I definitely don't want to walk or ride that far for groceries.

To follow up on my last post, I watched some Portland videos. The city seems huge and overwhelming. I will certainly check it out on my trip, but I have a feeling I'll head south pretty quickly. I know places are always different in person, though, so I'll just have to see.
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Old 10-23-2010, 05:31 PM
i7pXFLbhE3gq
 
n/a posts
One of the really nice things about Portland (and Corvallis, though we're much smaller so it's not as important) is that the essentials are distributed pretty well. In Corvallis, for example, there are grocery stores in the northwest, northeast, central, southwest, and southeast portions of the city. It makes it very pedestrian/biker friendly - you don't *have* to trek all the way across town to get what you need.

Another thing to consider is how common biking is in the various towns. Yes, Albany has some bike lanes, but I've quite literally never seen anyone using them and I wouldn't want to ride in them. In Corvallis or Portland, bikes are everywhere and thus the drivers are mostly used to having to check bike lanes before turning or opening car doors (though you still have to be careful - I got doored just this week!).
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Old 11-03-2010, 03:23 AM
 
Location: Salem, OR
33 posts, read 127,601 times
Reputation: 85
Default This person does not know Salem

Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonbirder View Post
Portland or Corvallis, Salem is not pedestrian friendly at all and the bus system is sub-par. Biking might work if you can haul groceries but the drivers are pretty aggresive and have a nifty habit of pretending not to see peds and bikes
I live in Salem and my "commute" to downtown is literally a walk in the park, Bush Pasture Park. Look it up on Google Maps. This part of town is very walkable and bike-able. I would never describe our drivers as aggressive. Quite the opposite in fact. Drivers here will stop to let you cross the road, even when they have the right of way. It's so prevalent that people who walk and bike just assume traffic is going to stop for them, which I think must shock them when they travel to less pedestrian/bike friendly places. Life Source health foods is walkable from the Bush Park area where I live. On Saturdays the Indoor Market is the place for fresh, local, organic everything and it's literally 3 blocks from my front door. Fresh Market Produce is open during the week and is just a couple of blocks further. Also, a new organic/deli/greek market opened downtown, The Downtown Grocery, that's near the coffeshops you will want to check out: Clockwerks, Coffee House Cafe, The Beanery, Govs Cup.

Portland is still the gold standard for bike traffic and public transportation, and Salem has a slower pace than Portland and Corvallis, but my wife and I love the simplicity of life here.
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Old 11-03-2010, 10:30 AM
 
Location: Salem, OR
15,494 posts, read 40,194,371 times
Reputation: 17343
Quote:
Originally Posted by southbysoutheast View Post
I live in Salem and my "commute" to downtown is literally a walk in the park, Bush Pasture Park. Look it up on Google Maps. This part of town is very walkable and bike-able. I would never describe our drivers as aggressive. Quite the opposite in fact. Drivers here will stop to let you cross the road, even when they have the right of way. It's so prevalent that people who walk and bike just assume traffic is going to stop for them, which I think must shock them when they travel to less pedestrian/bike friendly places. Life Source health foods is walkable from the Bush Park area where I live. On Saturdays the Indoor Market is the place for fresh, local, organic everything and it's literally 3 blocks from my front door. Fresh Market Produce is open during the week and is just a couple of blocks further. Also, a new organic/deli/greek market opened downtown, The Downtown Grocery, that's near the coffeshops you will want to check out: Clockwerks, Coffee House Cafe, The Beanery, Govs Cup.

Portland is still the gold standard for bike traffic and public transportation, and Salem has a slower pace than Portland and Corvallis, but my wife and I love the simplicity of life here.
Thanks for backing me on this! It's nice to have someone else besides myself saying that the downtown core is very walkable.
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Old 11-03-2010, 12:54 PM
 
6,066 posts, read 14,991,945 times
Reputation: 7188
Is there a reason you're not considering Eugene? Eugene is very bike friendly and if you need to take the bus somewhere even the buses have bike racks on them. The river cuts through town and there are bike trails all along the river on both sides which make commuting by bike very easy. The southern part of Eugene is quite hilly so most people who commute by bike or do a lot of biking tend to stay away from the south hills area, but the rest of town is mostly flat with really good bike lanes.

Of the three cities you mentioned, though, I'd go with Portland. Corvallis is too small and the bike culture just isn't as strong there as Portland and there's no way I'd rely soley on a bike in Salem. It seems like you'd pretty much have to have a car in Salem.

Here's a bike map for Eugene in case you're interested: http://pages.uoregon.edu/acook1/EugeneMap.pdf (broken link)

And definitely buy some rain gear - waterproof pants, jacket/parka, etc. But the gorgeous summers will more than make up for the long wet season!
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