Expensive but amazingly beautiful
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6/12/2020
First off I will say that I just looked up 12 major cities on this site and they all had 2 stars so I think people come here to complain more than to enlighten.
I lived in Portland for 19 years before having to move to Austin TX because of my husband's job. Before Oregon we lived in the Bay Area for 4 years and in Boise ID before that (born in Idaho). I miss Portland a lot. Mostly because of the friends and neighbors and proximity to family but also because of the city and the Pacific Northwest in general. I will admit though that I wanted to move for the first two years we lived there because of the lack of sun. Eventually I found that I could manage my mental health struggles (depression and anxiety) with exercise, clean diet and just making myself go outside for vitamin D exposure every chance I got. With climate change Portland seems to be less cloudy than it used to be but maybe that's just my perception. There is no doubt about it though, it is not sunny San Diego. Because the weather is mild, you can be outdoors almost all year round as long as you have a rain coat. Or, if that's not your thing, you can put on a sweater and snuggle up with a book or good movie from Nov thru Jan. Just be ready to pop outside when the sun comes out because we have surprise 60 degree days in the winter and everyone comes out to enjoy them.
I will admit that we lived in a very nice NE neighborhood that lot's of people would not be able to afford (my husband's in tech). Housing affordability is a real problem in Portland but they are painfully aware of it and like almost every other major city, trying to come up with more affordable housing options.
The livability of the city is amazing though. The walk score in my neighborhood was 77 and that's what we did. We walked for exercise. Walked to restaurants and grocery stores and our kids walked to school. That was a good thing because the traffic is awful. I worked very hard to avoid being a part of it whenever possible.
The food scene is truly unbelievable, especially the food trucks. I'm gluten and dairy intolerant and I doubt there's a better city in the US to live in if you have diet restrictions.
What I miss the most about it now that I live in Texas is proximity and access to nature. Portland has lots of beautiful parks and surrounding the entire metro area there are rivers, mountains, the Columbia River Gorge, the Willamette valley and you're two hours away from one of the most gorgeous coast lines in the world, and it's all public land which I took for granted living there but now realize was such a blessing (Texas has very little public land).
It is crazy white. I think a great deal of that is due to it's embarrassing racial past (Oregon started as a whites only state). I'm white so I can't speak for what it is like for minorities but my kid's high school was pretty diverse and they're better off because of that and Portland would probably benefit from a more diverse community too.
If you're really conservative you probably won't appreciate Portland. It's attitude is "be yourself". I loved that people had hair of every color, dressed however they wanted, loved whomever they wanted and lived whatever their truth was. People who don't appreciate that started moving out towards the burbs. It is a blue city that hold 60% of the population of Oregon which is mostly rural and red. Oregon has passed some stupid laws (they have a ballet initiative process) so Portland and Multnomah county have lots of taxes to try to fill in the gaps in funding. That can be frustrating but until Oregon passes a sales tax it will continue.
If I had the opportunity I would move back to Portland. Austin is a cool city, the Bay Area had amazing weather and Boise is just a fantastic place to live but for me, Portland is home.
Amy | Austin, TX