Lived in Portland for 5 years
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5/25/2007
...and there are certainly people who will find it perfect, but of course nothing is perfect. Unless you are downtown or along a well-traveled route, the public transit system is lacking (ie: one bus that runs every 30 minutes, and stops running at 9pm). I ended up buying a car after not having owned one for 8 years (I relocated from Chicago), because I got tired of standing in the rain waiting for the one bus that went by my workplace. The winters are definitely long, grey, and wet - it literally can rain nearly all the time for weeks or months on end. I wouldn't mind if it only lasted a few months, but after 4 or 5 months you are very ready for summer. And the summers are beautiful! They almost make up for the winters (almost, but not quite). If you are NOT outdoorsey, then scratch a lot of things off the list that many consider to be positive attributes. Still a drug problem (meth) in this town. Caucasians are in the vast majority, with Asians second. It's the whitest mid-size city in America. Cost of living is manageable, much better than anyplace in California etc, but home prices are swiftly on the rise. Rents are still reasonable. For its size, traffic can be much worse than expected at rush times, especially through downtown (mainly due to the large number of road construction/expansion projects going on right now, which will hopefully make it better in the future). Very laid back, ie: people show up to work in shorts and flip-flops in many professional settings. Too laid back sometimes - certain people should not wear flip-flops! I had considered relocating but the cost of living is definitely a factor, and I will wait until the great summer is over to make my escape. I would compare Portland to cities like Austin TX and Madison WI...
DL | Portland, OR