Reviews & Comments
Portland, OR
re: Portland: All Hype and No Substance - 10/31/20 -
1/7/2012Reply to Dean: Education is much better funded in Seattle than in Portland, as are the arts. The public schools are far superior, and there are more educational opportunities for children, including the Museum of History and Industry, the Burke Museum, and the Science Center. Quite simply, there is more money in Seattle, and therefore more funding for the arts. Seattle is a cleaner, lovelier city, and theatre and the symphony are world class. The cost of purchasing a house in Seattle can be three times what it is in Portland for a comparable property, but if you can afford it, and your childrens' educational opportunities are important to you, Seattle is the better choice. It is also a stunning city, surrounded on all sides by mountains and water. And I also feel that it is a safer city, and a great one for walking. One of my favorite things to do a weekend there as a kid was to trek through the arboretum and spy on the abundance of wildlife.
Portland, OR
Portland is a Small Town -
1/5/2012I can only think that the people who say it rains too much in Portland must be from the South West. I reluctantly moved to Portland from Seattle seven years ago, only because I could not afford to buy a house in that real, beautiful, and exciting city, where the cost of housing is approaching New York City's. I had heard all of the talk about Portland, but have found much of it to be overplayed and exaggerated. Compared to Seattle, Vancouver BC, and New England, it does not rain a lot here at all. The summers are extremely long and dry (which my water bill will attest to). It rained only a very few days this past December, supposedly the wettest month of the year. And where are all of these well-educated hipsters I had read so much about? Not here in the Belmont District. Most of my neighbors are poorly educated rednecks. Most of the people I have met here over the years are very conservative and do not actually live in Portland, but in Beaverton or Lake Oswego. I wish that this wasn't the case, but that is my experience here. I would dearly love to know where all of these well-educated hip denizens of Portland are. The very few sociable and educated people I have met here are other 'foreigners'. The only actual Portlanders I have met have no class and are neither well-read nor culturally aware. An unbathed tatooed white trash drummer in a bad garage band is not, to my mind, a hipster. Is the definition of this term different in Portland?