Okay guys, so here’s the deal. I currently live in Oklahoma and am looking to make a change to a better life. We’ve been looking around a lot at different cities, jobs and such and thought I’d ask the smartest group of people I know for the skinny on this. So please, let me know everything the advertising sites won’t tell me. Pros, cons, I need the dirt people!
What part it’s a big state?
We’re lookin around the Salem and Eugene areas.
Yep. Moving to, say Harney County (recently in the news for all the wrong reasons) is a far cry from moving to Portland.
I live in Portland and grew up in southern Oregon, so can probably answer some questions about the west side of the state.
I’ll be transferring with my job, but looking at houses and such is weird. Lots of manufactured house parks, weird no agent requirements, just really different.
I don’t know anything about the origins of the omnipresent mobile home parks, but I do know that there are lot of them. Oregon isn’t particularly wealthy state, and I specifically come from a very poor county. In my experience people live in mobile homes because that’s all they can afford, and especially during the real estate bubble ~10 years ago when house buying was being encouraged, buying a manufactured home was pretty popular for those that couldn’t afford a stick-built home. I know many families who did that.
Salem is the state capitol, and as such a good chunk of the local economy is driven by the state government. Traffic is bad (not as bad as Portland), but the cost of living is lower than Portland. I never lived in Salem so can’t speak to much more than that.
I never liked Eugene, and always felt it was kind of a trashy town. It’s a college town, and the areas near the U of O are nice-ish, but the rest of the city seems to be somewhat… past its prime, if that makes sense. My father grew up in Eugene in the 60’s and has made comments that other than more people, it hasn’t changed much. It certainly feels that way… again, it’s hard to put my finger on but it just feels old. Cost of living is lower than Salem though.
However, both Eugene and Salem offer some decent entertainment (live music, theater, although again nothing compared to Portland). If you’re into outdoor recreation live anywhere west of the Cascades and you’ll be in heaven. The coast is two hours away if you drive slow, skiing and hiking is usually closer than that. There are lots of fishing and hunting opportunities if that’s your thing, as are waterfalls and good ‘ol country drives.
Politically Oregon is quite diverse. Portland is insanely liberal, Eugene slightly less so but still very far left. I have no idea about Salem but I imagine it’s to the left of center. The rest of the state is mostly conservative, some parts rabidly so.
Moved from GQ to IMHO. (Great, I can move threads again!)
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I’ve worked in Oklahoma. I’ve traveled quite a bit in Oregon and live in Idaho fairly near there.
Environmentally, which is important to me, Oregon is much better than OK. Mountains, coast, even plains. Plus no daily earthquakes. WTF is up with that? Oregon does have the rare volcanic eruption.
People are the same everywhere. Except NYC.
Bring rain gear and rubber boots, it doesn’t really actually rain every day all day long … but it can get that way. That’s one of the most common comments I get from the newly arrived here in Western Oregon … “When does the rain finally quit”. Well, it doesn’t, don’t expect to see the sun 300 days per year, 'cause you won’t.
Real estate prices and rents have exploded in Portland (bidding wars on homes is the norm), but I don’t know about Salem/Eugene. We have a small (1300 sqft) bungalow that I’m confident would bring $500K in today’s market. I agree with the above comments on Eugene. We drive through it quite often on the way to the coast, and it’s unattractive. Only been to Salem a couple of times and it seems like a nice city, with nice parks, etc.
For about 8 months out of the year, it’s gonna rain almost every day. But it won’t be a heavy downpour and it won’t last all day. Today is a typical spring day in Eugene. It was a bit cloudy and cool in the morning, with a light rain, which only lasted a couple hours. Total, maybe a half inch of rain. Now it’s partly cloudy and the sun is peeking out here and there. Seriously, the rain isn’t nearly as big a deal as people seem to think. I wouldn’t even bother with an umbrella if you’re only walking from your house to your car. Pretty much anywhere in the Willamette Valley is going to have similar weather. Winter is cold and damp (but rather mild, hardly any snow or sub-freezing temperatures). Spring is cool and damp and lasts a long time (typical of west coast weather). Summer starts late and it’s dry. August is hot. Fall is very short. At the beginning of September it’ll feel like Summer and then bam six weeks later Winter has arrived. But don’t let it get you down because Spring starts early.
I’ve lived in Eugene for nine years and I love it. Yes, it’s a college town (which is hardly unique, there are tons of college towns up and down I-5) but that’s not what defines it. There is always something going on. There’s always some kind of wine festival or outdoor theater or parade or art fair, or something. But the best part is that people don’t feel like they have to wait for a special occasion to be weird. You might see a young woman with hair dyed red, riding a red bicycle, wearing a red dress, and think “oh, is she in a parade?” but no, she’s just on here way to the grocery store. Come visit Eugene on a Saturday and go the the Saturday Market downtown. That will give you an idea of what I mean.
There are lots of bike lanes and bike paths all over Eugene and plenty of opportunities to ride a bicycle, to and from work, or to and from shopping, whatever. There’s specially made bikes just for carrying large loads (Google “extracycle” for an example). Most of Eugene is flat, but there are a few steep hills you’ll want to learn to avoid.
If you’re tempted to work in Eugene and live in Springfield, don’t. Springfield is Eugene’s ugly sibling. It’s a depressing place. Housing is cheap there, and for a reason. You get what you pay for.
I see a few people here have posted that they think Eugene is ugly. I have no idea what they’re talking about. Seriously, I just don’t see it. Eugene has like twenty different neighborhoods, each with their own style and personality but I can only think of one or two of them that might be considered ugly. Most of them range from “cute” to “awesome”. Perhaps those posters had the bad luck to visit just the ugly ones?
I don’t know nearly as much about Salem. The only time I go there is when I have some kind of reason to deal with the state government. My impression is that Salem is bigger than it otherwise needs to be because they need room for all those government buildings and parking lots. I don’t care for it myself. But it’s flat like Eugene, so you can still ride your bicycle there.
I live in Salem. Do you have anything specific you would like to ask?
I’m about halfway between Salem and Eugene, in the little triple community of Corvallis, Albany, and Lebanon. About 130K people between the three of them, large enough to have most services you’d want, small and spread out enough to be mostly rural. I’ve moved here…well, repeatedly, since I like it so much. I came here for graduate school, then left twice and come back both times after a few years.
It’s small town feel, with a nearby university to guarantee that at least some stuff stays open late, and a lopsided cuisine that tends toward pizza and Mexican (some of it quite good – try Woodstocks in Corvallis for pizza, and Riva’s (Corvallis) or Rigobertos (Albany) for Mexican.) Salem and Eugene, both bigger, are about an hour away, and Portland’s about an hour and a half.
Weather’s been pretty well covered. The worst part is a relative lack of government services (Oregonians hate paying taxes more than any state I’ve ever lived in), and the inconvenience of travel; there’s a regional airport in Eugene and an international in Portland, but both are so small that virtually every flight will have an extra stop.
Make sure to avoid dysentery on the trail. It’s a killer. Also start as a banker so you can get all your supplies for the trip.
Also, nothing has air conditioning even though it gets obnoxiously hot for a couple months. I have a fan I put in my window but it’s not enough, I’m frequently sweating in my own apartment.
There’s not any real shopping centers like malls, and a lot of big stores are missing. It’s difficult to find a lot of shops you’d find elsewhere. There’s… technically a mall in Albany, but if you need specific big box store like Best Buy (which, bad as they can be, often stock weird things smaller shops can’t afford to), you’re often looking at a day trip to Salem.
For the university having a good, massively attended computer science and engineering program, there’s also a staggering lack of tech shops or good computer part or repair places if that’s an issue for you.
(I like it here, but there are some warts)