Oregon, Oregon SperlingViews

I wrote my first post about Portland in October 2006, after living here for 2 months. I thought, "I'll give it some time and maybe things will get better". Well, I couldn't be more wrong and they've only gotten worse. The sooner we can secure jobs somewhere else, we're moving our family back to a more normal part of the country (anywhere OTHER than Portland).

What's so bad about Portland you ask? Well, I say the best way to see that is to go see the real Portland. Get on the Max (Portland's great public transportation system, I might ad in all fairness) and take it through Portland. First, be prepared to deal with some of the weirdest characters you'll ever see. There are bumper stickers in Oregon that say, "Keep Portland Weird". Well, they have succeeded!

If you're the "open minded" "liberal" type, you won't notice anything. If you're a conservative person of any political leaning, you will. Multiple piercings, bodies covered with tattoos, green and purple hair, body odor that will knock you over because the throngs of homeless teens that haven't taken a shower or brushed their nasty teeth in a week, etc. etc.

Now that you've experienced that, get off at Pioneer Square. Enjoy the smells of unbathed losers playing hacky-sack and using the "F" word 8 times in an 11 word sentence. Then be prepared to get asked for "a quarter so I can ride the bus" or see them hold up signs, "being hungry isn't a crime". After you've experienced that for a bit, walk north on 5th or 6th (or south, it doesn't matter) and play "count the teenage homeless beggar". I used my cell phone camera today (4-7-07) so I could send pics to my brother because I wanted him to believe me. I got 9 points in 3 blocks!

And for all this beauty, class and cosmopolitan lifestyle, you only have to pay $500,000 for a decent house (decent in that your neighbors aren't meth dealers). $500k in a decent neighborhood in Portland gets you a 2300 ft2 house, no basement and an 8 foot yard around your house. What a deal! In most places (not California or Seattle, of course, those are other dreadful places), you could buy that house with a full, finished basement on 5 acres!

The sooner we can leave this city and state the better. Add the misery I mentioned above with the dreary weather, it makes you wonder who thought to start a city here in the first place.

Again, I know people will read this and think I'm crazy. But that's because there are 2 kinds of people in Portland

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re: The worst city in the US - 4/6/2007 - 10/29/2008
No matter which city in OR, there is always only one kind of person who has bad things to say about it. The kind of person i speak of is this "gentleman" Everytime people have a gripe it is the same whiny thing. wa wa wa there are too many liberals, wa wa wa tattos wa wa wa piercings wa wa wa the fact that people like you are the only ones that whine about the place is WHY WE LOVE IT.........you kind doesnt stick around and ruin everything. so in sense, the loser above is right. there are tattoos and beggers here. there is also open and educated minds. somehting i'm sure the guy above is very uncomfortable with. Go back to your red-state that still thinks it is 1955 my friend. Who knows, maybe you can move to Crawford with the rest of your buddies and continue the great work your kind did for the last 8 years.

re: The worst city in the US - 4/6/2007 - 11/8/2009
Well Travis, facts are facts. Stinky people just flat out stink. The tattoos and piercings are not the problem. It is the incessant mooching to which these stinky people feel compelled to expose positive working citizens. Want to look weird, at least be able to do it on your own dime. Too bad, because Portland does have it's charm.

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