My Ardred and I are considering moving to Oregon, Corvallis or Salem area, probably. Tell me all about it.
Oregon is a really nice place, but Salem is not the best part of it. Oregon tends to be liberal, progressive (assisted suicide, nation’s first bottle bill), and environmentally oriented. It has the second least percentage of people that go to church (after Washington State), but it also has lots of LDS and other conservative religions.
There is a big difference between places like Portland, Eugene, and Corvallis and the more rural areas east of the Cascades. Those tend to be more conservative. Most of Oregon’s 3 million residents are in the narrow band west of the Cascades, so the rest of the state is very sparesly populated. The environment is also very different. West of the Cascades is very green, the west is a high desert more like northern Nevada; it is also very beautiful.
Corvallis and Eugene are college towns so have lots of bars, inexpensive restaurants, cutltural activities, etc. Salem is the state Capitol and has the state fair. I really like Portland, especially if you can live near downtown. It is also very gay-friendly. Unfortunately, there have been a couple of recent shootings of unarmed black people after DWB stops. This is strange for a liberal city with a black police chief.
Oregon has relative high state income tax, but no sales tax (I like this, but others disagree). Housing prices in Portland are high compared to most of the country, but cheaper than the Bay Area.
One more thing: despite the perception, there are not a lot of people wearing flannel (except for those that listen to the Indigo Girls).
Oops, meant to say the East of the cascades is high desert. I moved here 25 years ago from the east coast and I still think that towards the ocean should be east and away from the ocean should be west.
Huh… how convenient. I’m also thinking of moving to Oregon (and the Salem area) soon and your OP allows me to do my homework as well. Thanks, FilmGeek. 
DanBlather gave you a very good synopsis of the state. I do agree with his thoughts on Salem, it is not my favourite part of the state. I would have to admit that it would not be my first choice of a place to live. It does have some nice areas, but I think the fact that a large percentage of its population is transient hurts. The state legislature meets biannually and the state penitentiary is located there. (Not that I am saying there is a link. For the most part)
I went to school in Corvallis, it’s a wonderful college town with a flourishing arts and crafts community. In July, they celebrate Davinci Days (http://www.davinci-days.org/) and in September they host a Fall Festival (http://www.corvallisfallfestival.com/cff/). It is also quite close to the beaches with the Cascade mountains as close in the opposite direction. Oregon State is traditionally the more conservative of the Universities, but Benton county is generally considered fairly progressive. For example, they followed Multnomah County’s lead in issuing marriage licenses for same sex marriages.
I live in Corvallis.
It is beautiful. Stunning. Lush expanses of trees, plants, and emerald green grass. The air is fresh, the skies are clear, and stars can be seen clearly with the naked eye in the city.
It is the heart of the Willamette Valley, which is 45 minutes away from Newport(and thus, the Ocean), is the home of Oregon State University(fairly mediocre for anything but engineering), and the location of a HUGE Hewlett Packard site(which funds the engineering program at OSU and is the largest single employer in the Valley).
Housing is expensive here, in comparison with the rest of the state, putting it on par with Portland for rent and purchase prices for homes. An effeciency in Corvallis will generally start from $350 with most being $400 or better. Houses are in a minumum of the $90,000(in the lesser parts of town) up through to $350,000 or so.
This is a progressive area of the state, being one of two counties that were opening up marriage to same sex partners until the State Attorney General shut them down with legal threats(the issue is now going to the Oregon Supreme Court).
Corvallis is basically the conjoined twin of Albany, with it only taking 15 minutes on Hwy 20 to access yet another area of shopping and the somewhat Springeresque inhabitants who slink around. Because of the high housing costs and large salaries from HP, many workers who can’t find housing to their taste in Corvallis move to Albany, or further outlying smaller cities like Lebanon, Sweet Home, or Philomath.
45 mintes to the south is Eugene, home of hippies who don’t know that it is the year 2004 it seems(great shopping down there as well as events, like when I saw John Waters speak there in 2001). Portland is 90 minutes to the North.
Salem is 45 minutes to the North and is not a pleasant place to live, shop, or pass through, really. It’s not a hell hole, just a blah hole. Very blah.
How interesting… I too am considering an eventual move to Oregon.
I fell in love with the beauty of the state during a field trip to the Cascades a few years ago, and I can still feel it pulling at me. Maybe it’s silly of me to want to live in Oregon simply because of a field trip, but I just know that I have to try it.
When I do make the great move out West, it will probably be to Portland. Although I must say, you’re making Corvallis sound fantastic. Is Portland a nice place to live, too? I’d only be moving in two years when I finish school, though, and it will depend on my being able to find work there as a lab technologist.
Salem’s out then.
Okay. I read about Corvallis on their website and DaVinci days was enough to make me want to move there. Mockingbird’s post makes me want it even more.
Anyone know anything about Oregon State’s Anthropology department? Ardred’s looking to finish his bachelors and we would like to move somewhere that would be possible in the future.
How about climate? I’m sick of negative temps in winter and 110 in the shade in summer. I’ve read a bit… how’s the weather up there?
Oh, and we’re planning to open a used scifi-fantasy bookstore/roleplaying games store (if the gamer climate seems open to it) and we can get the money together for it.
We’ve got a road trip in the planning stages and Corvallis is our ultimate destination.
I’ve been studying the area online for a day or two and it seems that Oregon’s climate is really mild. 30ish in the winters and 80ish in the summers with lots of rain sprinkled throughout.
It sounds about perfect to me… a lot like my home of Southeast Tennessee but not full of rednecks and bible thumping blowhards.
I’ve seen the same stuff online, Aesiron… I was looking for anecdotal stuff. The average summer temp in Lawrence may be 90, but it sure feels like 190.
So, why are you moving?
The weather has changed over the eight years I’ve lived here.
Summers were once mostly mild with about 3 weeks of heat. Now, for normal people and not the neurologically challenged(I have MS), the heat is at times a PITA but tolerable with the temperature dropping a good 20 degrees at night.
So, on a day where the temperature gets to 90, it will drop to 70 if not 60 before midnight.
We generally have a good breeze through the city.
I do miss thunderstorms, and have only seen four here.
We have one comic book store(which I have worked for and advertise for on my web site). He’s an egocentric bastard with very poor people skills and little wisdom when it comes to business. Customers stay because of his discounts and that while other shops have opened and closed, he’s still here. If a customer departs to another shop and returns to him after it goes tits up, he is a dick and will not let the customer forget their ‘folly’.
He deals in new comic books, back issues, gaming books, supplies(dice, etc), and of course: CCGs.
His business is precariously on the edge of being closed, so you would have a market no matter what and if you chose a good location, you would make a killing.
There is another gaming shop in town, but that is more a vanity store and the owner is generally gaming with his friends. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
OSU is great for sciences(The Linus Pauling Institute is on campus), and if you can navigate the bullshit burocracy, I am sure a good education is available.
Did I leave anything out?
I lived in Corvallis for 9 weeks (a summer research program) and absolutely loved it. I came very very close to going back there for grad school - but the department wasn’t really a good fit for me. But I absolutely loved the town. I went somewhere every weekend that was no more than 2 hours drive away yet put me in some of the most amazing natural settings I’ve ever seen. I never needed a car during the week - and a friend had one that we used on the weekends. There were concerts and festivals, farmers market and fairs - all in all just a great great time.
As for the weather - I was only there in June, July and August … but WOW! It could get warm during the day - but cooled down every evening to about 55. The highest humidity I remember was about 30%.
I’m content with where I decided to go to grad school but still wonder if it would’ve been worth it to go to somewhere I absolutely loved.
I’ve been fascinated with the Pacific Northwest for years and have wanted to move there for a while now because of its climate and progressive politics and I am lucky enough to have a Doper friend that is wanting to hire me as her caretaker so I’ll be able to see if my expectations live up to the reality of it all.
If you wind up moving here and it’s not too far away (I obviously cannot choose to not live in the Salem area like you can ), be sure to post where your eventual business will be located. I’d gladly spend some money on a Doper establishment.
By the way, since I’ve already highjacked this thread a bit anyway, what exactly is so bad about Salem? No one in this thread seems to really care for it… is there any particular reason?
Is it not as pretty there or something? Not as progressive? Corrupt? Polluted? Boring? Just blah? I’m curious.
Oh, BTW… Jon Lewis is a film prof at OSU(I took three of his classes).
He is phenomenal.
His class on Film Censorship was endlessly fascinating.
Here is a link to just one of his books:
I live in Philomath (SW “suburb” of Corvallis, I could throw a rock into the Corvallis City Limits from my back yard.) I went to Graduate School at OSU about a decade ago, then returned to my “home state” of Minnesota. For the next ten years, my wife and I talked constantly about moving back here. Finally, we did.
We love it here. As Mockingbird said, one of the first things you notice is the STARS. I’ve never seen so many in MN. The coast is less than an hour away through some of the most beautiful country in the nation.
There are downsides. If you’re thinking of starting a bookstore, you might want to reconsider, it seems like there’s already one on every corner. Corvallis/Albany/Lebanon/Philomath together make up about 95K people, which is too small to attract many chain businesses. Corvallis is positively hostile to new businesses (except, apparently mexican restaurants: there are 1.3 Mexican Restaurants per capita). There are only three major employers (OSU, HP, and Good Samaritan Health Systems), all of which seem to be cutting back now. Employment is hard to come by because of Corvallis’s relative isolation and the economy.
On the other hand, some would claim that the limited commercialism what makes this area special. It’s a little less than an hour drive to the nearest city of any size: Salem to the North, Eugene to the south. Portland is about two hours if there’s traffic on I5.
Several people have described the politics as progressive or liberal. That’s not a bad characterization, but a better one would be “polarized.” There are a bunch of industries: salmon fishing, mining, farming, and logging, whose employees tend to be quite conservative; the liberalism is mostly the cities, particularly Portland, Corvallis, and Eugene. No matter your political position, you can find a population here to uphold or oppose it as you desire.
Wow.
A fellow poster as close as Philomath. I’ve never seen anyone closer than Salem post on here.
Very cool.
Let’s get all the cool dopers to invade and take over the area so we can get the bigot contingent out that is trying to stage a recall election of two county board members because of the same sex marriage issue.
I love Oregon and would move there in a heartbeat. However, I’ve never been able to talk my wife into it because of the rain and overcast. (We got very spoiled in Colorado.) From what has been written in this thread, though, it doesn’t seem like rain/overcast are that problematic. Is this a phenomon more correctly associated with Seattle? Does it get drier as you head south from Portland?
Also - it’s the only state in the union (AFAIK) in which you can’t pump your own gas.
Not as progressive: Yup.
Corrupt: Hmmmmn… well it is the state capitol… so sorta.
Polluted: Hmmmmn… to a point, but then… so is the Willamette River in Corvallis.
Boring: Hell, YES.
Blah: FUCK YES.
I think it was the inspiration for Pink Floyd when they wrote ‘Another Brick In The Wall’.
I didn’t care for Pendleton, which is in the upper right corner of the state near the border to Idaho(a really scary state as it relates to evil militias and neo nazis). Pendelton was a bit boring and felt a bit like I was in Stepford… I was honestly not thrilled about grocery shopping there because I was worried I’d find robot wives in antebellum dresses, repeating the same sentence over and over again.
Salem isn’t Stepford like… it’s just very blah and devoid of color and vitality, IMHO.
Now where is that barfing smiley when I need it?