Hyped, White and Classist
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5/12/2013
I've lived in several cities in the U.S. large and small; Philadelphia, Denver, L.A., Pittsburgh, Chicago and now Portland. I am a nearly middle-aged caucasian male with a doctoral degree. I am employed and make a reasonable wage for a single person. While these comments are inherently unfair because of they are opinions and full of blanket statements, I hope that people would think twice about moving to Portland after reading mine.
Portland is easily one of the most frustrating places I have ever lived. The lack of diversity here is appauling. The northwest in general is extremely "white". Institutional racism and classist socioeconomic policies have continued the 20th century trends into the 21st. The few "black" areas of Portland have become increasingly white sociall and culturally over the past decade. While this has been positive economically for the ruling real-estate owning class, and a few others, it has made Portland even more unaffordable for middle and low income people and has helped to promote Portland's singular cultural agenda of priveledged, self-aggrandizing, "white" 20-40 somethings.
Property taxes are high and the real-estate market is very tight at the moment. This makes it ripe for people who already have money being able to control land ownership. Renting here is therefore a nightmare. There are few rules protecting renters i.e. no fair, plain-language lease agreement, no rules about security deposits or cleaning fees, and no rules about property upkeep and maintenance. Be prepared to pay way too much for way too little if you are a renter. Also, be prepared to deal with landlords that have no motivation to work with tennants. Most landlords raise your rent here on a yearly if 1/2 yearly basis. Many younger people here rent homes with a large group of friends to make renting more affordable, which is OK if you want to continue to live in a college-type dorm situation well into your 20's and 30's. 1BRs on the edge of the nicer areas of town are at least $700/mo. If you want to be in the middle of town expect to nearly double that. imo there is a tradition here of treating renters as an underclass. i.e. renters are poor people or criminals and there must be something wrong with them if they can not afford a home.
There is an anti-business and development stance here. Portland wants to promote small businesses and there is a small businees mind set amongst the populous because the people are, in-general, anti-corporate. People like to be "crafty" and start businesses or etsy accounts selling handmade soaps and candles that they sell at 500% mark-up. The people here seem to believe that just because something is local it is better (food or otherwise).
The infrastructure here is crumbling. The interstates and highways are rutted. Literally, troughs on major freeways which drain water poorly in a place with a significant number of rain days during the winter months. The state / city spends its money on bike lanes and allows drivers to have chains and studded tires on their vehicles and time of year regardless of the weather. It almost never snows in the valley where Portland sits but people in outlying areas legitimately need chains or studs because the roads are not salted. That being said, many many people in the city use these anti-slip tools on their cars and have no need for them. Further, the roads are almost all made of basalt which is a highy weatherable porous rock, ergo the roads stink. The driving also is dangerous because the drivers ride in the left lane without passing and are indecisive and tentative in their decision making. I've also never seen so many people using their cell phones. The rude jerks in Philadelphia weren't even this bad with their phones. Also, student driving is not taught in Oregon high-schools.
Public transportation is pretty good in the city. The train lines move very slowly on the east side of town and in the downtown area; like some European cities. Busses go most everywhere and stop too often, imo. People don't seem to think they should have to walk at all if they are taking public trans. Only about 1/2 of the busses are air-conditioned but this is rarely an issue. Although, it might help with the overwhelming smell of marijuana and hobo that permeates many a buss ride here.
People here have a limited work ethic. They seem to not take their work seriously. Customer service is very poor, particularly in restaurants. The people are generally friendly, compared to the east coast cities, but they are also incredibly passive aggresive. They are afraid to be direct and honest. Many people here work part-time. I believe this accounts for the positive recent employment numbers here. Without full-time work or the desire to obtain full time work the average person here remains relatively poor and the city and state continue to collect less and less taxes despite high indiviual income tax rates.
I saw another comment about the spending on schools here. I can only say that regardless of the dollars spent only certain schools are taken care-of. Not surprisingly the schools in the affluent neighborhoods look very differnt on the outside and have very different achievement records on the inside, than schools in poorer formerly black neighborhoods. If Portland spent equally on all of its schools and if it cared about improving the situation of its lower-income students Jefferson high school would not resemble an urban county jail.
This gets at the crux of the situation in Portland. The people here care about their community, the environment and the world at large only as long as it fits into their white, privledged, elitist narrative. You are expected to eat organic, work as little as possible, be anti-government and/or a conspiracy theorist, who ride a bike to work and uses marijuana, as a Portland resident. As someone who grew up in the midwest many of these ideals are offensive and just plain stupid to me.
The weather here isn't very hard to deal with. It rarely gets below freezing in the winter and the summers are dry and warm, although they are a bit short. There are many cloudy days in the winter and many days with rain, but the rain is very inconsistent and the rain amounts are rarely significant. Downpours and thinderstorms are rare. Overall it is very comfortable. Which is good for Portlanders because they are very concerned about personal comfort.
If you are a white 20 something, whose parents pay their rent, who wants to be in an average band or make craft products then you might like it here otherwise you'll want to move to a place with a much higher average I.Q. with more employment opportunities.
j | Portland, OR