Reviews & Comments
Portland, OR
There is no One way to see any large city -
3/20/2023I lived in Portland for 19 years (I've also lived in Boise, ID, the Bay Area, Austin, TX and now Nampa, ID). It drives me nuts when people try to give a large city a single identity. It's a large city with all sorts of people, neighborhoods, problems and perks. I did not live in Portland through the covid/BLM meltdown and from my friends perspectives, it was scary and sad. That being said, it was a country wide problem/movement that affected every large city and lots of smaller ones. The press coverage of the rioting in a city that I love was sad to watch, and the damage will take years to recover from but it did not define Portland in anyway except to show that lots of people care about social justice and a small percentage of those people think that violence is justified (their belief, not mine) and they got the media's attention. I have faith that Portland will continue to move forward (in the slow way that city governments move) towards addressing its issues in the same way that other large cities are scrambling to find ways to address these very difficult and hard to solve problems (there's not a country in the world that doesn't have homelessness). In the mean time, ragging on the city because it's white and hipster doesn't make sense. Like attracts like and that is what has happened for almost 200 years (it takes a long time to overcome the lack of diversity caused by Oregon's 1844 black exclusion laws). Lack of diversity doesn't make the people of Portland racist, but it does deprive them of things that cultural diversity brings to a city. Hopefully as it eventually becomes more diverse it will become more interesting. I didn't notice the lack of diversity as much because I lived on the East side which is far more diverse then the west (until you get further out in the burbs near the big tech companies). I rarely felt unsafe in Portland unless I had to park in an area known for drug dealing (every cities' problem). The unhoused population (in general) doesn't make you feel unsafe, they make you feel uncomfortable and those are very different feelings, not to be confused with each other. It is uncomfortable to know that you have what you need and these people do not. We should not fear them for in different circumstances, we could be them. Being unhoused does not make you a criminal. Portland is moving far too slowly to implement solutions for this population, that is true but again, this isn't a Portland problem, it's a large city problem and frankly, a national problem with housing costs and poor access to medical and addiction treatment.
Portland is full of interesting people, beautiful landscapes, beautiful views of mountains and rivers, fantastic food and lots of cool small businesses. The weather is mild. The risks are earthquakes (there's a big one coming), flooding in low areas and wildfires (though luckily, not to the level of Northern California, yet). The walking/hiking is great, in town and everywhere around it. There is a lot of rain and it is hard to get used to (really hard if you are susceptible to seasonal affective disorder) but it makes it green and colorful and that's very easy to get used to. I miss it terribly. Aesthetically it has year round beauty which I really miss living in a high desert area now. I miss the food! OMG I miss the food!
If you are conservative politically, and want to be surrounded by people of like mind, you will need to be strategic. It's a liberal city to the point that some taxes that pass, are not well thought through but pass anyway because they sound good to liberal minded people. As a liberal who grew up in a very conservative place, Portland was eye opening for me. But as with everything in the past 7 years, politics tend to teeter towards the extremes and I have to remind my liberal friends in Portland that not everyone sees things the way they do and a friendly conversation with a neighbor should probably not include politics. I now live where I grew up and BOY, is it a different political attitude around here!
Is Portland for everyone? NO. Is Portland unsafe (a question I am asked a lot)? NO. As someone else suggested, look up the violent crime statistics. Will someone steal your bike if you leave it leaning against your garage door? Probably. Petty theft was a frustrating problem in my close-in NE, high cost neighborhood. Would I move back? YEP! (Good airport, 2 hours to the ocean, 1-1 1/2 hours to good skiing, great fishing, water skiing in the Columbia, 3 hours to Seattle, 3 1/2 hours to Bend, Symphony, Ballet, Broadway traveling shows, great concerts, lots of cool small venues and on and on)
Portland, OR
Expensive but amazingly beautiful -
6/12/2020First 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.