Tell me about Portland, Oregon.

[D.o.S.]

... so you're writing about both Portlands at once.

Rad.

[behndy]

moop.

[futuresailors]

MAINE ISN'T EVEN A PLACE.

[Blackened Soul]

MAINE ISN'T EVEN A PLACE.

No it is a place it's like southern New Brunswick, I think.

[Blackened Soul]

It's like Seattle, but without class or style!

I really miss Seattle before it had class and style

[spacelordmother]

MAINE: NOT EVEN ONCE

It's like Seattle, but without class or style!

I really miss Seattle before it had class and style

Move to Portland.

[GlitteryChunks]

I'm not getting the comparison to Seattle. Even though I'm a transplant and have only been a few times I don't see how the two are similar. Seattle seems way more yuppie tech trash heap than Portland, or is that the class and style I'm seeing?

Portland just seemed.........sad and dirty.

Like a bunch of hicks built it and then gentrification happened but it didn't get nicer. But it was a pretty crappy day so I'm probably biased.

[Hyphen Nation]

Ok, most of it has been covered, but I'll try and add some detail. Other than I two year hiatus to Detroit area, I have been here since college.
First off, it's rainy as fuck here. It's dark from November until July. So either be ready to be an indoor kid during those months/be able to self entertain or be prepared to lose your shit a bit. Sun lamps and vitamin D drops are not uncommon. I happen to think it helpful for creative types.


JOBS
Portland doesn't really have a diverse economy, but there are a few industries that are blowing up. Design for one. If you are a talented graphic designer it's probably better than Seattle for the kinds of creative that gets done here. Less corporate, more progressive.

There's a range from in-house at the large sports lifestyle places like Nike, Adidas and Columbia, to medium scale boutique design shops, to a few power house shops that are building brand, interactive and motion for national/international scale. A lot of shops also specialize in serving the big athletics shops, but it's definitely a diversifying place.

Other areas of growth: tons of people moving here, so construction is bonkers. Intel is hiring something like 10k people next year or two and a health care place is hiring close to 6k. Wind power is huge here as well. Maybe it's because of lower overhead, but there also seems to be a trend of developers and tech industry setting up shop in the heart of down town.

On the flip side and maybe more important to this forum's members: it's still the cheapest city on the west coast. There is no sales tax, so compared to a place like Cali or NY it's like getting a 10% raise just by moving here. There are a lot of independent business operators, from pedal and amp builders to literally artisan what ever. It's AWESOME for that. It's the kind of place that provides a luxury to be able to do that. Hovercraft, INFANEM, Koll, Giffin Guitars, Catalin Bread, Malekko, etc…all within a few miles of each other. Also important to this board: ProGuitar shops is down town and close in on the East Side is a place called Old Town that carries a lot of the smaller builders who may not deal in the quantities Pro wants. Unreal to be able to cruise to these places on my lunch hour. Synth nerds can hit up Control Voltage and pour out their wallets on modular synths.

Music Scene: I'd say incredibly relatable and supportive scene. There's a few bars that everyone kind of mingles at. Through zero effort, I seem to know a few of the acts in town either directly, or they are involved with friends. Some pretty cool venues, though I still miss a few of the 90's places like La Luna. Also we have Jackpot! studios run by Larry Crane who is beyond accessible and generous with his knowledge via Tape Op.

FOOD AND DRINKS…I am not joking when I say artisanal everything. We have so many good fucking restaurants that I can't keep up with them all. I've spent time in a lot of different Cities, but nothing compares to the selection here. Breakfast joints that have two hour waits on the weekend, high end gourmet, and everything in between. We started the whole cart thing a few years back. Seriously, I cannot describe how many amazing and obscure kinds of food you can find here.

Beer: we've been a beer town for ever, and we just seem to keep adding breweries and tap houses. This is another thing I take for granted until I go visit another city. I have a few friends who live in LA that come up once a year just to spend a 4-5 days walking the city and drinking beer. Craft Spirits are also blowing up. Some awesome Gin, Vodka, Whisky starting to make it's way on the scene and we've had some of the best Pinot Noir wines for decades.

Coffee: almost every neighborhood has their own local roaster as well as the big boys like stump town…Starbucks is only for when you are driving outside of the city and you need something passable as a coffee drink.

Other: hand made incredible pasta, bread, salami, cheese, etc…it's a food paradise.

OUTDOORS: and hour and a half from Desert, the coast, the mountain [snow] and accessible to some of the best hiking, camping, mountain biking outdoorsy stuff around. Once summer is in full gear, we are gone every weekend hiking. We barely ever do the same hike twice. We only do now for shorter ones with my son.

POLITICS: we live in a progressive bubble surrounded by a rural population that is more conservative than any other state in the country. It makes for some weirdness. Overall it's good, but sometimes the taxpayers will vote to voluntarily pay for some taxes for an almost fraudulent ballot measure to "support the arts" because they think, well it says right here it supports the arts, so we should do it. If you have or plan to have kids, we have some pretty weak schools. Nothing like the New England public education I grew up with. It's relatively bike friendly. I went years without a car. If you are close in and on some bike routes it's pretty great. Where I live right now requires some sketchy ass riding next to cars going 60+mph to get to work, so I don't ride any more.

The NY Times seems to have a boner for Portland. There's an article almost every week about something going on here.

HOUSING
Apartments and houses are becoming hard to come by. The market can't hold onto enough inventory. Rents are OK, nothing like SF, LA or Seattle. Housing is a bit high, but while you may have a decent sized mortgage, energy is fairly cheap. My furnace has been going close to non stop and I am paying about $100 a month this winter to heat it. My gas bill will drop down to less than $20 in the next few months. Electricity is super cheap compared to where I grew up. $75 is a high bill for us. Usually more like $50 because of all the hydro power.

OTHER:
each neighborhood has it's own personality and center, like coffee, restaurants, etc…We have some incredible bookstores. Vegetarian menus are extensive. You can find food for any diet on just about any menu. People think they are artists, and there is some really bad art around. Everyone is casual. Again in contrast to where I grew up where everyone is sniffing out socio-economic pecking order [class] almost none of that is on display here. We do tend to give cache to the creative, the authentic, etc, less to what kind of car you drive. It can be a hard city to move to. If you are good at meeting people and networking, you can do well here, but it's a hard place to build up the right connections to support yourself quickly. Lots of people move back to LA or SF for the larger economies.

Let me know if I can answer anything else.

[D.o.S.]

No one's mentioned the Trail Blazers or the proximity to summer shredding at Mt. Hood, which are two other reasons why I'd like to learn more about it.

[Hyphen Nation]

Yeah, not too much to say. The blazers are having a pretty solid year. We also have the Timbers a pro soccer team that are still working on winning, but the games and fans are great.

You can ride up on Hood all summer long. The glacier at Timberline usually closes a little after Labor Day. There's a pretty solid snow park/pipe open, as well as groomers. There is nothing like being able to go riding in August in a t-shirt. During the winter, Mt Hood Meadows has some really nice terrain. Some traditional slopes and access to some pretty nice back country.

Probably should also mention Burnside, one of the better skate parks in the country that sits right in the center of the city.

[louderthangod]

Portland is amazing. My wife and I try to head up there at least once a year. Portland is also full of dogs which makes it a winner in my book. The food is not only great but cheap. Lots of great food in SF, LA and NYC but in Portland you can eat just was well for a few bucks. The high end dining is a bit lacking but not a big deal. I'm a super quiet person but I've people more friendly and positive in general than those in larger cutie but it's been a small sample size. There are only two places I consider leaving the Bay Area for and it's Portland and Venice. Hopefully my band will make our way up there to play a few shows this summer. Oh, they also have a sweet arcade with old school games which is great.

[D.o.S.]

Guh.

I can work from wherever right now (and for the foreseeable future), so I'm eying different places to potentially move to. This place is on my list, for sure.

Is there any surfable coastline near-ish?

[LOCOPELAND]

Guh.

I can work from wherever right now (and for the foreseeable future), so I'm eying different places to potentially move to. This place is on my list, for sure.

Is there any surfable coastline near-ish?

Yep. The coast of WA has some pretty good surf from what I've been told. Westport and there's another place, too, but I can't think of the name.

[louderthangod]

The water has got to be super cold I'd imagine. The water in SF is awfully cold and it's coming from your direction.

[AxAxSxS]

yeah you need a good wetsuit for sure.