NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Anybody ever been or lived there? Trying to see peoples experiences with the city. I'm trying to make an escape plan for when I'm done with school. Everyone is slowly leaving Birmingham and Alabama in general because of poor economy and politicians that cant handle money. Plus its run down pile of **** of a city.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Portland rocks if you're a tree hugger. It doesn't have a nasty smell of organic shampoos and weed, but we are very green, laid back, and "nice" (no NYish attitude). Oh, and blue. Oregon in general is a great place to live. Not sure about the economy, it sucks here like it sucks everywhere else and I have no idea what you do for a living (or want to do since you're in school). I've lived here for 20 years and don't have many bad things to say, apart from wanting a little less rain, although that's what makes it so beautiful here. Oh, and tons and tons and tons of local breweries.
Breweries in Portland, Oregon - Travel - New York Times
that's a new york times story about how many breweries we have, including my favorite, widmer (for their hef). Search around, not many people have much bad things to say about portland unless you hate rain and hippies.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I have heard about the breweries. Big plus! I am/will be in the computer networking field. Its probably about the same everywhere. Has to be a better market than around here anyway. Not really a tree hugger, but clean is good. All of the cityscapes I have seen the city looks really in tune with nature and kind of fits the landscape. Just looks like a great city.

naarleven

iTrader: (2)

Northwest is nice in general.

I'm planning on doing Seattle when I graduate this summer.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Y'all just wanna be closer to JayL's car for when he breaks 500hp. Forgot to say, Portland isn't terribly expensive. Seattle is however, just FYI naarleven.

naarleven

iTrader: (2)

I'll be there for Law School ideally and it can't be much more expensive than South Florida.

TurboRoach

iTrader: (3)

Unless you tend to get speeding tickets. My last one for 10 over, in the Seattle metro area, was ~$150. My friends last ticket, also 10 over, in Oregen outside of the metro area was ~$280.

cueball1

iTrader: (13)

Seattle + surrounding is double the size and population of the Portland Metro area. Traffic in both cities sucks but Seattle is worse. Doesn't rain constantly like most people say but it is overcast a lot. Summers and fall are nice, winter is moderate, spring is hugely variable. Economy and job market sucks like most do. Lot's of tech and creative jobs in this area. Prices while reasonable compared to Cali and NY are likely outlandish compared to Birmingham. Down quite a bit since the housing collapse but still much higher than in the S, SE & SW USA. Use the USnews CPI comparison tool. If you make 50K in Birmingham you'll need to make 65k to live comparably in Portland. Housing is the big chunk at 80% more.

JayL

iTrader: (12)

Portland is an awesome city from what I have seen and the people I have met down there are also super nice. The only downside is all the tree huggin liberals.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

I'm most concerned with how beautiful the city is or looks on pictures anyway, and how nice the nature looks. Can't beat seeing Mt. Saint Helens and Hood on the skyline, surrounded by beautiful trees and split by a river. If I'm going to have to put up with bullshit in a city, I at least want to wake up and not hate where I live like I do here. Its just not worth hating where you live just because its cheaper or where you were born. Birmingham is in national news because of county bankruptcy and misuse of funds with a crooked *** mayor, Larry Langford. Anywhere would be better than here, but Portland is a city that really stands out and I would prefer the northwest in climate and scenery. Southeast is becoming very boring to me having lived here my entire life for over 23 years.

cueball1

iTrader: (13)

Nice things with Portland from your conserns...

Split by the Willamette river, bordered by the Columbia.
1 hour to the coast, 1 hour to the mountains.
Lots of trees, parks and green spaces.
1/2 hour in any direction gets you into farmland and forest.
World famous area for windsurfing and kite boarding just 1 hour away.
Active waterfront park with many events and festivals.
Micro Breweries and local restaurants abound.
Decent local music scene.
Extremely liberal politics keeps things bike, pedestrian and green-space friendly.
Lot's of hiking, fishing, boating, biking, camping opportunities close by.
PIR is right in town, Pacific raceway and the phenomenal new Oregon Raceway Park are 2 1/2 hours away.

Negatives...

More expensive.
Colder and wetter than you are used to.
Liberal politics keeps things expensive and regulated for the haves.
Liberal politics makes it a great area for the have-nots.
Somewhat moderate size of the area keeps some of the biggest bands and acts from appearing here.
Rush hour traffic sucks ***** and clearing traffic accidents from freeways is not a priority.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

For me, the cold and wet is a good thing. I'm already used to the rush hour traffic and moderate size city thing. Liberal politics I can ignore. So in other words, very few negatives.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Keep in mind Cueball works around Beaverton, the worst worst worst place for sucky traffic, so he'll be a little more bitter about it than most. I've been to some other cities where traffic sucks even more. I myself have a 26 mile commute each day, and have near no traffic, but I leave home at 5am and leave work at 2:30. So it really is just rush hour in the morning and evenings that's bad, not all the time like other major cities. It really is great here though. No offense, I would hate to live in Alabama. Yucky.

cueball1

iTrader: (13)

It's just the major freeways that suck. I-5 from Wilsonville to Battleground WA at rush hours, Hwy 217 where my store is, hwy 26, I-205 and I-84. All of them can and will be at a standstill at any given point at any given time during commuter hours. The slightest thing will bring it all to a stop. Cop pulls someone over, flat tire, fender bender, etc.

Best thing is the complete lack of effort to clear problems. There was a vehicle fire a couple years back, no injuries, well off the road that closed I-5 for 3 hours. Not delayed, not a lane closure but COMPLETELY closed the freeway. The back up was 15 miles long. Fire was put out in 20 minutes. The other 2 1/2 hours was the investigation of a fire which involved a single vehicle, damaged no other property and injured no one. The most recent debaucle was the snow this winter. For 3 days of snow a plow never touched the major freeways. 10" of snow became a frozen rutted mess. When they finally did plow I-5, the back up created delayed rush hour commuter traffic more than four hours. People leaving work at 4-5pm didn't get home until 8-9 pm in what is normally a 15 minute commute.

Practicality is not a liberal govt's strong point.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Neither is a mayor wanting to build a dome stadium complex when the city and county is bankrupt, the infrastructure is absolute **** and big companies are moving out of the area. Birmingham is dying and everyone is jumping ship. I just hope I can be gone before it happens. Though technically it has been dying or dead for 20-30 years already. Used to be a booming and nice town, and now its run down.