The worst city in the US
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4/6/2007
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
Tom | Bethany, OR