Good people, beautiful city, in normal years.
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1/2/2021
I've lived in Eugene for over 20 years, and most years I love it! I've seen bad reviews about hippies, and homelessness, but you can't judge us by this year, or even the past few years. Eugene does have a homeless crisis,, but so do many cities and states, including Texas and! These are the worst states-California (151,278)
New York (92,091)
Florida (28,328)
Texas (25,848)
Washington (21,577)
Massachusetts (18,471)
Oregon (15,876)
Pennsylvania (13,199)
You'll notice, Oregon has less than Texas!
We do have a lot of hippies here, but they congregate to certain areas of town, and can be easily avoided, if you're prejudice against different people. If you're also prejudice against LGBTQ, you won't like Eugene either far! Though there are hateful people here, most people here live,, and let live,, respectfully,, despite differences! I don't see that as the downfall of Eugene at all, maybe some of you ought to try it! As far as the college kids being rowdy here, that's just funny, because I've lived in California, and Montana (Republican y'all), my friends daughter lived in Texas and graduated from college there,, and according to her,, they were worsened! Florida kids are also far rowdier than here! My grandma lived across from the catholic university in Santa Clara, California, and they were easily as bad, or worse, every weekend! So, if you don't like college kids, why would you move to a college town? The cost of living may be a little higher than midland, texas, but I lived in California, and it's outrageously more expensive, everywhere in that state. It is easier to find a job with good HealthCare in Oregon, as compared to Montana where we lived.. Montana had a serious Healthcare issue, because of being a republican state. Few employers offered insurance for less than $400 month, including the state! We couldn't get the surgery my daughter needed do to lack of insurance options there.
As far as looks, Eugene is beautiful! It offers huge rivers, trees as far as you can see, lakes close by, mountains to hike, and climb, awesome fishing, and we are within about an hour away from snow in 2 different directions, and the ocean! If you prefer the big town atmosphere, Eugene is not your place!
FYI-this is one of the worst times in history to be judging a town on certain things! Nowhere in America is unaffected by covid19. Homelessness is up due to businesses closing down, people being laid off, and business owners losing their livelihoods. Add to that the devastation from fires on the entire west coast! Many states are trying to house the fire victims, on top of the regular homeless population, and they had no way to prepare for such a tragedy!
Erika | Eugene, OR