apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I recently moved to Portland and after a lifetime in "Who do you wear, what do you drive" Southern California, I have to say it is nearly a perfect place. The city is big enough to feel metropolitan, yet small enough to run into people you know everywhere. The population is very good at supporting local businesses. There is good food in every neighborhood. Locals are friendly and people look you in the eye when walking down the street (also people walk here).

That being said, nothing is perfect. Traffic is getting worse, there is a significant issue with homelessness, and public transportation could use improvement. Also, winter here, while not all that cold can be depressing. I have craved the sun this winter like I never thought I would.

Another thing I love about this place, a friend mentioned that an acquiantance had littered on the freeway and everyone in the room gasped. It was that unimaginable that someone would do something so thoughtless. Generally people here seem connected to their environment in a very real way, recycling, buying quality rather than quantity, enjoying and maintaining the outdoors, and never, ever littering.

Portland is the perfect place to live! I live in Seattle because, well, my job is here, but I do dream of moving back.

I go on (and on and on and on) in a posts on my blog about my hometown, and all the things to love about it (muffin-top strippers and all!).

http://decorno.blogspot.com/2007/08/off-to-ranch.html

http://decorno.blogspot.com/2007/09/ha-double-ha-i-have-been-saying-this.html

http://decorno.blogspot.com/2007/08/ann-sacks-portland-home.html

I lived there in the mid to late 90's. I still have friends and go back occasionally for a visit. While it was fun for the first two years after that point it wasn't a city in which I wanted to continue living.

No matter how many times it has been said, nothing prepares you for the lack of sunlight if you haven't grown up in a similar climate.

As a native Californian it got really old seeing "the only good Californian is one driving south" bumper stickers and hearing the jokes and snide anti-California remarks all the time. Hopefully as more people move here from around the country and from outside the country the persistent xenophobia that has lingered since the timber era will dissipate.

Another welcome influence would be the introduction of manners and polite public conduct. I have to smile when I read "Bond with the neighbors" in the above list. Portland had to be the most difficult place I've ever lived or visited when it came to meeting people. A typical experience would be walking with a friend downtown, they see someone they know and I don't, friend says, "Just a sec..." steps away and greets other person, they chat and say goodbye, friend steps back by my side and carries on with whatever we were doing before. Forget saying hello to neighbors while waiting for the building elevator, anything more than a nod was tantamount to spitting on the floor.

I'm sure this sounds bitter and believe me, by the time I moved away I was very bitter. So it wasn't for me and I have met others who had similar impressions but I did what anyone should in that situation, I left.

All of the beautiful stuff said about Portland is true in my experience. It just isn't everything.

I agree that. Portland is nearly a perfect place. I felt comfortable when I have been there.

I grew up in southeast alaska and the winters in portland seem sunny in comparison. I am now living in sunny georgia with out much of a winter and I still dream of moving back to portland. I always felt so at home there.

I moved to Portland from So Cal in 1996, so I get Slim's comment...

and in response (and in my totally novice opinion), I think the aforementioned Oregon xenophobia has dissipated pretty markedly. I remember when the anti-California sentiment was pretty hardcore-- enough to be a regular joke on the local news-- but that seems to have relaxed a lot. Like everything else in Oregon.

There's not a person who moves here from out of state that doesn't complain about the grey and the rain, but the trade-off is that it's mild all year long.

I'm a native, but have lived in both Michigan and Texas and I wouldn't trade the rain and 40-45 degree winter temps (and 80-85 degree summers) for months of snow and sweltering humidity. Truth be told, with the hot summers and freezing winters in other parts of the country, I can't quite figure out how they got populated in the first place.

Of course, if it weren't for the rain, we wouldn't have the lush, year-round greenery either. There's just about nothing not to love about Portland.

P.S. Here's the infamous quote -- "We want you to visit our State of Excitement often. Come again and again. But for heaven's sake, don't move here to live. Or if you do have to move in to live, don't tell any of your neighbors where you are going." -Former Governor Tom McCall, 1971 interview

My great-grandparents came to Portland in 1887, and our family has been here since--with the exception of a niece in LA (fashion designer), and me for 16 years. But I moved back nearly five years ago, and no other place seems to compare. Comments about friendliness of locals baffle me; Slim, I honestly don't know anyone--locally born or from elsewhere--who would behave as you described, and in fact quite the opposite is true.

The parochialism that characterized some aspects of my parents' generation seems to be mostly gone, but so too are the bargains on real estate, both land and among houses.

Oddly, this year has been quite sunny. The sun has been out almost every single day for the past week and a half.

When did they buy a house for $143,000?
I saw a one story, 2 bedroom, one bath house.. with about 5 feet of front yard and neighbors so close you could pass a cup of sugar through the windows.. for $550,000! In Sellwood! (granted.. it is the greenlake of Portland) but still.
There's also a lot of "gentrification" with all of the working class buying up all the housed in the at-the-time "bad" part of town, thus pushing the lower class out into Gresham (undesirable suburbs). Tearing down Victorians and building condos. Condos Condos Condos.

We are green though. We will yell at you for throwing out anything that could have been recycled.
And we still cant drive in the rain.

As for the weather.. I grew up in the midwest.. and much prefer grey skies and rain to salted road slush and windchills in the winter months. Our summers are amazing.

Personally, I'm finding this to be a great post. I'm planning to move out to Portland for up to six months later this year or early next year. Mainly to take some time off work to snowboard and hopefully to land a fun internship opportunity. I just need a change of scenery, born and raised in the East Coast.

Anyway. Is Portland really 1.5 hours from Mt. Hood? Every time I do some research it seems to get further and further. Don't know if I should live somewhere between Hood and Portland or whether or not to just live in Portland and deal with the commute to the mountain.

DC Domain... you definitely want to live in Portland and deal with the mountain commute. Yes, it's just 90 mins. Most everything between Portland and the mountain is nowhere I would want to live unless you like run down suburbs [Gresham] or McHouses or a more rural life. If you don't mind a kind of rural thing, Sandy and Estacada are good for that. I wouldn't do it...