Portland Culture /Recreation
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6/5/2011
Portland is a very unique city. There are many pros to the area--lots of activities, great restaurants, microbrews, some decent wine. Also great for outdoor activities--hiking, windsurfing in the gorge, beutiful scenery, an hour and half or so from the mountains, or the coast. People are not overly friendly but also not rude like you might experience in a bigger city. Generally clean, and it's a green enviroment--although good to have environmental concerns it is taken to extreme here with some people overzeolous.
Primary cons to this area are that it rains 8-9 months out of the year, so a small window of opportunity for outdoor activities, unless you don't mind the rain. It has been called anti business, OR has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, so career opportunities are likely limited. Extremely liberal political climate, where the motto seems to be tax and spend, without accountibility. The liberals of the city/Multnomah county tend to pass all tax measures, even narrowly defeating a recent gigantic $540 million dollar bond for the school district who are so used to getting what they want that they thought they could do it again in this economy, just for a few schools capital improvement--because actual capital improvements were not budgeted over many years. As an example we recently built an apt building to provide free housing for drug addicted/mental illness people so they don't have to be on the streets. Our mayor, who is gay, recently proposed our tax dollars should pay for city employees who want to have a sex change because he believes it should be a mandatory medical benefit. Our mayor has also targeted a large proportion of our transportation budget for developing bike lanes and his own pet project, for a small percentage of the population. We are gay friendly, bum friendly, liberal, and supportive of generally all taxes. I moved to Portland from the outlying suburb of Lake Oswego. I downsized from a house to a condo--I pay more property taxes in Portland for a lesser value house and for inferior services. Lake Oswego has a very highly rated school district, and one of the best counties for services, should you need it.
If you're a single woman, 30+, you will probably have a difficult time finding a partner--good luck with that because eligible decent men seem to be at an absoluete minimum here. If you have even reasonable standards you might be alone for a while.
Other than those things Portland is great. Having lived year 25+ years, most of my life it really seems to have gotten worse. More bums than ever, liberal zealots, We're having more shootings in the area, just had three Friday evening/Sat morning. Weather has gotten worse, we've had basically no spring for a few years--but the summers here when it comes, is wonderful and perfect.
Ro | Portland, OR