Thinking of moving to Portland

[MarkDaMan]

From the Rose Fest in June to the end of summer, there is a festival almost every week. Brewers Fest, Bite of Portland, the most incredible Blues Fest you've ever been too (5 days over the fourth of July)...etc...etc...

[downtownpdx]

^^^ Your family is pessimistic about "the city" meaning Portland, or just cities in general? The Brewers Fest, as ForAteOh reminded me, is late July. I personally like hanging out around Jamison Square if it's hot summer weather, or take 'em on a stroll by the Salmon Springs Fountain along the waterfront. I think their pessimism will melt away pretty fast

[Okstate]

^^^ pessimistic about "the city" however, ANYTHING bad about Portland is brought to my attention immediately.

[MarkDaMan]

there's bad press about Portland in Oklahoma? I didn't even think people there would know we exist.

[zilfondel]

August is great weather. Pretty hot, gets up to the 90s sometimes. Ok, for several days. Sometimes hits a bit over 100.

If they're here in August, drag them to the coast and Hood River (hour each way) for some cooling-off fun.

But there are tons of things to do all throughout summer. Someone else should post them... theres like a festival every weekend.

[EastPDX]

... or other types of music festivals there are many to choose from. One of the older ones that fell on hard times and is now permanently located in downtown Gresham is the Mt Hood Festival of Jazz. Years ago 30,000 would go to the local community college to see great jazz and jazz fusion bands over three days. Now the festival is in downtown next to Old Town with many restaurants and maybe 5,000 for the two days. This year will be the first year the land currently used (grass) is being developed into the Center For The Arts. All the condo owners moved to downtown with this Center being a big draw. The plaza is suppose to be ready in late July. The public notice for input ends on 01-31-08. I will post on this somewhere else.

If you like beer, check http://www.mcmenamins.com/ and see what calendar events are scheduled. Always good music out at Edgefield.

For out of town festivals and great entertainment: Southern Oregon (5 hour drive, minimum three day weekend trip) is the ticket: with Shakespeare in Ashland and the Britt Festival in Jacksonville (great history in Jacksonville too, stagecoach, native american, and gold rush stuff). And you have Redwoods, Southern Oregon beaches, best golf courses/links in North America, and Crater Lake.

Cheers and Enjoy,
Ep

PS - If you family doesn't have an open mind please ask them to come but then to leave quickly. We are very tolerant here but some of us are very protective of our native land.

[Okstate]

^^^ Mark- no bad press from the Okies. Just a perception of deviant hippies with a misguided political atheist leaning. Bottom line, noone in my family/friends has seen a city worth bragging about. They may have been to one but that doesn't mean they've seen it for all the glory that it is. Take a look at Stillwater Oklahomas' nearest cities & you'll get the idea... & no KC/Dallas do not cut it in my opinion. My mom is the biggest critic & she lives in KC. Having said all this i'm going to make them experience Portland how it should be experienced. I feel like a religious wacko trying to convert someone.

[zilfondel]

^ You are. And we are.

Welcome to the club! Maybe its best not to take them to any hippy drum circles. Hawthorne's yuppified enough that it shouldn't be a problem, though.

[Okstate]

^ With my luck they'll show up on the "don't wear you PANTS on the train day" Then we'll walk past the vegan cheerleaders protesting animal rights at a restaurant then at night the naked bike ride will zip right past us! Oh & we'll get panhandled 10 times in a 10 minute walk. If we're lucky maybe a hippy mommy will be breastfeeding across from us at breakfast

[MarkDaMan]

^sounds like a pretty typical day to me

[FrijolMalo]

I'm planning to move up to Portland from Nashville when I graduate this spring. Yay!

[Okstate]

^ You'll probably beat me to it lucky

[Bellinghamster]

Hi All! My girlfriend and I are looking into moving to Portland. We are from Bellingham and love it, but there isn't much in the way of decent paying jobs up here. We were thinking Portland has the same vibe as B'ham but would offer us both better career opportunities.

I was wondering if any of you all had suggestions about the best areas to live and about finding a decent job. I am going to be a teacher and she is currently in business but looking at getting into gov't/non-profit positions.

From looking at the posts I see the Pearl and SoWa are sweet but very trendy/expensive. Mainly, where should we be looking if we would like to be close to MAX, in bike friendly areas, and not in suburbia.

[PacificNW]

Northwest Portland (west of 405), Goosehollow, North Portland, Buckman, Hawthorne are a few you should look into.

[Okstate]

No one hardly ever mentions this... but Portland IS considered the most livable (manageable) downtown in its mid-sized city class. Why not take a close look at properties within the downtown core. Trust me, if you look hard enough you'll find something to fit your price. PM me if you are having trouble... i've done enough research to write a paper. Also, if you live outside the fareless zone you'll be paying an annual fee for Max (only of course if you plan on venturing downtown very frequently.. which appears to be desirable for you) Now having said all this, if you're anxious to buy then forget all i just said!

[MarkDaMan]

I'd suggest off Barbur Blvd in Portland. CLOSE-IN SE Portland. DT Milwaukee (huge potential for property value to increase after the MAX goes in). North Portland. Maybe NW Portland if you can find a deal...to name a few.

However, with the tanked market, you should be able to find a steal REALLY close in (Pearl, SoWa).

More realistically, Peterkort(?) and Orenco will have better deals.

BTW: Welcome to PDX

[Bellinghamster]

Thanks for the advice! I am looking forward to the move down south.

[rsbear]

I just have to say you have about the best user name ever. I laugh (in the good way) every time I see it!

Bellinghamster

[®uger]

When I was an adventurest lad I visited Portland for the first time from Idaho Falls and fell in love with a city Not only is Portland ideally located and it's people progressively minded it happens to lie in the state with the most beautiful beaches on the West coast, Manzanita, Cannon, Seaside, Newport and the list goes on. Right now you could go to one of these places and rent for a week some snowbirds house for cheap and get a feel of Oregon. The only problem with Oregon in my HO is the property taxes

[Bellinghamster]

rsbear, you know living in Bellingham is much like life on a hamster wheel - you move but you don't go anywhere.