You forget that Vancouver is on the good side of the Columbia River. 
There is considerable intermixing between Portlanders and Vancouverites. However, Vancouver continues to grow as people leave Portland for a variety of reasons. There must be a reason or three why literally tens of thousands commute across the river to work, but live on the good side of the river.
The Portland-Vancouver area is the last metropolitan area on the west coast were housing is affordable, and appreciating in value. Vancouver has a eclectic mixing of housing, too. I’m told this is deliberate as good and “bad” neighborhoods exist side by side, although the city is growing to the east.
There are all kinds of people here so you should fit in quite well - rednecks, racists, weirdos, fundies, yadda, yadda. It’s a definite spillover from Portland. However, Vancouver has the Russian mafia (though no one talks about it), while Portland has its own issues.
One downside I see is Vancouver has no personality of it’s own. It’s a bedroom city to Portland that despite a very rich history, has been unable to figure out what it is. Add to it an inability to regulate it’s own growth and you can find a haphazard approach to planning reflected in street improvements, building construction, etc.
On preview I see you want more.
Crime depends upon where you live. The zip code I live in has a high crime rate (relatively speaking) because at one end of the zip code sits WalMart, in fact, the WalMart with one of the worst crime rates attached to it in the state. Drugs, mostly. Meth. The city enforces its no parking law strictly in that you cannot “camp” overnight in any WalMart parking lot in the city. As for the police enforcing other road rules, forget it. Portland and Vancouver police are adrenalin junkies and seem to only do something if they can draw their guns or stand around and look important. They are also incredibly rude and condescending much of the time.
I remember one time there was a major power blackout (caused by Hitler youth damaging a transformer) that put the busiest intersection in the city (one of the busiest in the state) in the dark. It was already early evening. Traffic was a mess, practically gridlock at that intersection. Of course, there was the proverbial accident 100 feet past the intersection where the SUV driver (driving too fast anyway) slammed on their brakes to avoid a rear-ender, who was subsequently rear-ended by a crotch rocket that nose-dived under the SUV. A mess. Gasoline everywhere. The fire department was there along with an ambulance and five Vancouver police cars (If you wanted to rob something at the time, now was the time cuz the rest of the city was unpatrolled.) You would think with ten police officers all salivating at this one accident (no injuries), in the early evening, in a black out area with no lights one of them would walk 100 feet and begin directing traffic at the busiest intersection in the city. Nope, not a chance. Too beneath them to honestly help people.
The area does have an environmentally friend attitude, but Vancouver is not rabid as Portland. Still, you will find folks cross the street and riding bicycles exercising their rights to the fullest extent. Arrogance kills quite a few every year. It’s unfortunate that not enough of them are young enough to be potential Darwin Award nominees.
Ah, why Mt. Hood? You forget that Mount St. Helens is that a way and Mt. Adams is this a way. Still, Mt Hood is a beautiful site to see from the city.
Swimming? In the Columbia? Not worth it. And Vancouver Lake is not up scratch. Go to a pool if you want to swim.
The economy is taking off. Vancouver is turning into a high tech center. HP is here; Intel across the river. Quite a few no name big players are here, too, especially chip manufacturers. (We’re talking the companies that grow the crystals to make the chips others use.) In the bigger picture, Vancouver still is attached to the Portland economy but doesn’t suffer under the stupidity of Oregon voters who can’t seem to elect decent people to run that state and fix its economy.
And forget watching the local TV stations for news. It’s all Portland-centric, with the weather reports being 99.95 percent south of the river.
