I'm planning a move to Portland sometime in the next 12 months.

Here are my demos:

29 year old gay Jewish "married" male. I likes the nightlife, although there is none here in Tulsa. I'm into improv comedy, local music, unusual ethnic food (I'll eat almost anything), disc golf, used books, and drinking heavily. I want a place where I can walk to a bar, walk to get groceries, or walk to an art gallery, to a park, to a bookstore, where I can take public transportation everywhere, etc. In short, I want to break loose the shackles of automobile-dependent suburbia. My partner and I are selling both of our cars before we leave.

So my questions are as follows:

1) What should I see?

2) Where should I live?

3) What should I avoid?

I lived downtown for about 10 years, now moved across the Columbia to Vancouver, WA. Downtown Portland is nice, very walkable, good public transit (streetcar, lightrail east, west to airport, north almost to Vancouver, and bus. Pretty well integrated. Google Trimet for the integrated public transit system. If no car, stick close to light rail IMO or cycling distance. The Northwest district around Burnside and 21st is sort of yuppie/trendy. The Pearl district down toward the river from there is more hip. Across the Willamette around Hawthorne district is eclectic, but more discovered. North Portland is developing (around St Johns). I guess I'd be careful going too far east on the light rail line because there is a bit more crime. You should also investigate downtown Vancouver, just a little bit beyond the north terminal of light rail. There is a park and ride there, and Vancouver is a good bit less expensive than Portland, and also developing but is maybe not quite as progressive as Portland. Oregon has income tax, and Washington has an almost 9% sales tax, so some people work in Vancouver and try to shop in Oregon.

If you like used books a lot, you will have to visit Powell's bookstore, 10th and Burnside, near the Pearl or northwest districts.

Hiya! I'm in Gladstone, a suburb south of Portland next to Oregon City. For what you are looking for it sounds a lot to me like you may want to look into Sellwood, a South Portland community adjoining East Moreland and Milwaukie. Public Transpo will still get you into the city center when you want to, but it sounds like the lifestyle you are after is very Sellwood.

After that I'd say Woodstock might also be a consideration. But be sure to look right on past any Gresham listings unless you like Mexican food and easily available Payday Loan stores that much. Also anything along 82nd Ave. They may say 'close to all the amenities" but that area is so busy it's hard to get around and the values are not looking good. It reminds me of Glendale, CA before they started to gentrify.

How long ago were you in Glendale, CA?

I have nothing useful to offer you re: Portland, but I've been to Tulsa and I've been to Portland, and I am envious of how much you are going to enjoy the change you're about to undergo. Portland is a GORGEOUS city, great people and a great place to live.

'91. Had an aunt that lived there for years but '91 was the last time I saw it when they had already been well into rebuilding Chevy Chase.

Wow, you wouldn't know it. Brand Boulevard is all office towers - downtown actually has a skyline.

City government sucks, but in 1991 it was solid, extreme rightwing Republican. Today it's Democratic territory. The old-timers hang out in their hillside enclaves and hate all the Democrats and Armenians, but they're petering out.

Ugh! And my family wonders why they can't talk me into moving back to CA. Of course most of them are still in Huntington Beach so I can see their bias.

Nope, been in the Northwest for over 4 years and I'm stayin'.

A shout out to Portland Oregon, Rip City USA; or as George Herbert Walker Bush called it, "Little Beirut"



Inserting blatant Portland business plug here: http://www.powells.com/info/briefhistory.html

Oregon is my home state, I was born in Corvallis and lived there for 28 years; Yes I'm an OSU alumni


Avery Park

I am in the SF Bay Area, spoiled by the sunny warm weather


I have often considered making a big move to Portland ( visited 10 times)


Everyone has warned me of the mostly cloudy days and consistent rainy weather

Any thoughts ?

Thanks !

Yes, don't move here if you have any kind of a major objection to lots and lots of rain. Even here in the middle of a long stretch of sunny and very warm days it turned into a tropical rainstorm in the middle of the night last night. So leaving windows open or the top down or off on your vehicle to keep it warm will just attract the attention of Murphy and all his laws.

But if lost of rain isn't a problem for you it's beautiful. I grew up in Southern California, lived in Phoenix for a dozen years, and then fell into the weather hole between Spokane and Coeur d' Alene for about 3. So living somewhere with normal active weather is nice. I like seasons and seeing Mother Nature do her stuff. Without all the rain how else would we be able to live in a major metropolitan area where you can get to the woods in any direction in less than an hour?

I've never been to Portland, but I'm not feeling too much love in this thread.

Cool and wet. It's not for everyone, you gotta follow your muse.



West of the Cascade mountains, you can't think of it as rain; it's liquid sunshine. My family had to travel to the Tri-Cities earlier this week for my mother-in-law's funeral. It was 105 degrees in the afternoon and 90 degrees at midnight. The relief we felt traveling back across the mountains and retuning to our green and pleasant home is difficult for me to express.

I lived in Seattle a long time and that overcast got to me a bit - sits on the edge of Puget Sound. And I lived and worked in LA for 5 years, which was nice and sunny, but commuted 3 hours a day and never saw my kids. Portland was a slice of heaven after LA ... so green. Real seasons, which I liked a lot. Portland city is very well thought out and livable. And I like the politics here.

But it does rain a little. Typically starts as if someone turned on a faucet on Nov 1 or so, and pretty solid until Mar 1 or so. Recent years have been changing as the gulf stream is whipped around more by global warming (?). Summers (May-September) are glorious.

I think I'd prefer a few months of rain as opposed to shoveling snow every other day for six months like I'm doing where I live now.

Thanks for the perspective. I moved from Chicago ( long ago) when I was 22. 1 key reason was the shitty weather, especially winters. I have little interest in the change of seasons. I can drive to the Sierras/Yosemite to see a change of seasons

Portland's liberal/progressive nature and livability are very attractive. The topography is great ( I have friends in Seattle and enjoy the visits there)

Life is a trade-off, isn't it ?

I have lived in Portland off and on for over 30 years, something keeps bringing me back. The traffic is a challenge, but not nearly what Seattle experiences. The weather can be frustrating, but it isn't rain like Florida rain, it is more a constant drizzle. You can still walk the dog, jog, bike and function. You just invest in some good Columbia Sportswear rain gear!

Sellwood is a great place to consider. New Seasons is close, there are great restaurants and pubs, as well as a public library and quaint houses.

Alameda is another place to look. I think Northwest Portland is overrated and the parking is ridiculous. There are pocket communities in Northeast like the Hollywood district that might appeal.

The coolest thing about Portland besides the politics is how many things there are to do. You are close to Mt. Hood (skiing, snowboarding, hiking, biking), you are 90 minutes from the Oregon Coast. There are beerfests, wineries, great restaurants and bars all over the area. We almost always find things to do on the weekends, even in January and February where there are seafood fests in the convention center or a dog show at the expo center, which are all accessible by our mass transit train MAX.

So, yes, we have rain. But we also stay green in the summer, even during the hot spells. And we have plenty of stuff to entertain.

I moved here from Denver 15 years ago. I love it here. It's beautiful. Great music scene. I like Southeast Portland - like the Woodstock area or Hawthorne area. Hawthorne used to be cool. Now it's Yuppie. The Lents district is close to Woodstock and is close to the most affordable area to buy a home in (well before the foreclosure housing crisis).

I agree, Sellwood is cool. Hollywood is really booming. I'd stay away from Gladstone (sorry...too many red-neck republicans in Clackamas County that drive around in Jacked up Trucks with a sticker of the pirated "Calvin [and Hobbes]" pissing on something, no sidewalks and therefore not a good area to walk around in).

http://www.portlandonline.com/ (our local government)
http://portland.craigslist.org/ (duhr)
some good pictures of different areas of PDX:
http://portlanddailyphoto.blogspot.com/200...01_archive.html
http://www.portlandground.com/

local activist websites:
http://portland.indymedia.org/
http://bikeportland.org/

gotta see the Oregon Humane Society's Website:
http://www.oregonhumane.org/index.asp

Oh, yeah, and check out to see if how many sex-preditors are living near a given address:
http://sexoffenders.oregon.gov/SorPublic/W...mp;S=3815163775

Well - thanks to everyone for the good info. It'll all come in handy. I'm getting really excited about this move, though I'm less than excited about the 10 months or so I have to wait before I can do it...

A few more questions, then:

1) I've heard a lot of good things about the Hawthorne district as a funky area with lots of great restaurants and shopping. However, cpvon just mentioned that it's become "yuppie." In what way has this happened, and is it still worth pursuing living there? Also, I can't quite figure out whether the light rail lines go there.

2) What's the job market like right now? I'm probably going to be looking in a couple of areas: paralegal, telecom, tech support, call center, etc. I want to make $40,000 per year so that my partner can go to school full-time. I know I can do that as a paralegal (easily), but what other fields should I look at?

3) Any areas where I should watch my ass because of high crime?

About the rain. I live in Oklahoma, where summer starts in May and goes through mid-September. Summer in Tulsa means 90+ degrees, humid, and blinding sun. The worst month is August, where temps can exceed 100 degrees and the humidity ratchets up so you feel like you're underwater in a hot, fetid bath. It kills me. I would rather be stuck inside during a Minnesota blizzard than spend another August in Oklahoma. To be honest, 9 months of cool drizzle sounds like a refreshing relief.

I don't know about mass transit out here. It is better in the portland metro area so far, but they are working on light rail.
Hawthorne used to be (and parts still are) quite bohemian. Then it became a popular area for everyone to go and development companies came in, bought land, and built steel and glass buildings. So the likes of DOSHA (high-end day spa) moved in and along came the SUVs from the burbs. It is still cool, though.


Here's a crime map of the area around 10th and Hawthorne: http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?act...p;seg_id=117335
crime map of area around 37th and Woodstock: http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?act...p;seg_id=196722
crime map of Hollywood (39th and Sandy): http://www.portlandmaps.com/detail.cfm?act...p;seg_id=135933

also, use http://www.portlandmaps.com/maps/raptor/ and enter a street name or address and you can get crime information for that area.


That's why it's so beautiful here -- rain makes everything GREEN and the spring flowers are stunning.

Oh, and I forgot, the Burlingame/Multnomah Village area is awesome!

The process is gentrification.

Artists and bohemians move into low cost area ... usually poorer, but they find the relatively lower crime areas. They decorate to their tastes and eclectic small businesses spring up. Eventually it becomes known as a bohemian, trendy area. Then people who like that move in, buy run down property and rehabilitate/renovate. Then in becomes real cute and property shoots up in price. Former occupants move away from the city, having sold their property ... usually to the end of the light rail line (cheap, no car needed), so that becomes the new inner city. The gentrified area grows, gets discovered, and becomes unaffordable and yuppie.

So look for the places just beginning that process and stick with it. North Portland along the light rail line is one, maybe on declining side. Sellwood maybe, I don't know that area. My daughter was thinking St Johns area last year and her sense is usually pretty good.

As a resident of Gladstone I can only agree. I live here because this is where Mom was when I got into the state. Now I'm here because my job is here, but I'd go in towards portland more if that changed. And it might before long. I like what I do but I need to make more.

Portland is Starbucks with rain. It's the weekend East Village (with rain). It's people smoking in their Prius's (with rain).

People in Portland are so accustomed to the rain that they don't bother with umbrellas. They've given up.

On the other hand, if you are a manic-depressive, like the majority of Portlanders, you will find that the rain dulls your mania and extends your depression. It blunts the rough edges. It makes depression seem normal.

So, if you are frequently overly happy, move to Portland. It'll get you more grounded in just a few short weeks. Just make sure you stay away from electrical equipment.

Hmmm, well, I've lived in both Seattle and Portland for many years, and to me, you've just described Seattle. Also LA for 5, and I'll take the rain, with seasons.

As for the umbrellas, yes you're right, we don't use them. My wife had a conference in FL and was surprised at all the frenzied people with umbrellas ... it's only RAIN.

IMO It's a bullshit exaggeration that it rains all the time in the Pacific North West! It is overcast & drizzly, more often than it is pouring down rain, 8 or 9 months out of 12 in most of the urban areas of Oregon & Washington!! A lot of people tell ya that crap because they don't want people from elsewhere to move here!

Hey Fellixe, Gladstone residential areas are beautiful. When I first moved here, I lived in Clackamas, then Milwaukie. It was horrible and very hard to meet friendly people. I didn't venture to far out of my area and had no idea where to go in Portland. Since I've moved to Portland, I meet all sorts of friendly people.

Buy Gortex clothing, not an umbrella. People don't carry them in the North West. And buy sun glasses. The sun is on the horizon for a good part of the day, right in your face.

The drizzle and dimness are not that hard to take if you just drink a lot of coffee.

Hope you like Asian foods. Everything from Japanese to Chinese to Korean all up and down the I-5 corridor.

One advantage of living in Portland, if you spend a lot of time listening to the radio, THom Hartmann does a local show out of Portland before his AAR show.

He also does a lot of appearances at Powell's Books.

I love Asian food. Does Thom Hartmann live in Portland? If so, I'd like to talk to him about my ADD....

Seattle is much nicer (and the birthplace of grunge).

Yes. He lives on a houseboat on the river there, so he says.

He lives on a BOAT down by the RIVER?!

If ya visit Seattle any time soon, it would be a good idea not ta tell anyone you're from Oklahoma! They'll be some bad feelings in our fair city towards your state far awhile!!

Lol - I know. I had nothing to do with the Sonics, though. Also, I live in Tulsa, not OKC.