I’m giving serious thought to moving from the San Francisco Bay Area to Portland Oregon. Anyone in Straightdopeland ever made this move? Are you satisfied that you made the right choice?
I’m interested in things like housing, traffic, and weather. I know it rains more than the Bay Area but less than in Seattle. How bad is it? I am not concerned about the job situation. I have that covered.
Wow-- we’re growing by leaps and bounds up here aren’t we?
Portlands weather isn’t as rainy as people make it out to be… but it does rain more than say… San Diego. (Throw out the umbrella-- only out-of-towners use them.) Traffic is only bad during Rush Hour… and even then… compared to SF or Seattle or LA is pretty much a breeze. I’m not sure about housing as I currently rent… I am currently gathering up housing info in Vancouver as I"m looking to buy in the next several (4,5,6) years… but that probably won’t help much.
If you are self-employed or something… I woudl highly recommend Vancouver over Portland. Housing is less expensive, a lot less traffic, No income tax (which more than makes up for sales tax) and you’re not any farther from portland than anywhere else. (Tualatin/Beaverton/Gresham…)
I moved from Pittsburgh to Portland, and am sure I made the right choice.
I’m with screeme about the weather - yes, it does rain all winter, but not every day. It’s not horribly cold, rarely if ever snows. It’s grey, but our summers are so freaking nice and beautiful it more than makes up for it. I spend a decent amount of time in the SF area, and they’re very different. Portland is far less urban, less cosmopolitan, and WAY less crowded, busy, whatever. It’s also much more affordable. (Actually, I hear buzzes that it’s the same affordability-wise as the bay area, but our average numbers (wage v. housing cost) are lower, but I have no cite, as I don’t really believe it myself.)
Housing is pretty good - actually it’s extremely easy to find an apartment these days for a good price. House prices vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood, but I’d peg about 150k as the minimum you’d probably spend for something that didn’t need too much work.
The traffic isn’t good, isn’t bad. It’s just traffic. Bridges can be a pain, depending on where you live and where you’re going.
You are very lucky to have the job part covered. Our unemployment rate is (last I checked, two weeks ago) 11%.
It’s really beautiful here. The coast is beautiful. Mt. Hood is beautiful. The columbia gorge is beautiful. Did I mention it’s beautiful?
I’ve lived in a half-dozen neighborhoods here, if there’s any particular place you’d like to know more about, I’d be glad to help.
FWIW, I live very close to downtown in SE (Mt. Tabor). I’ve always lived in the more urban areas here, so I know nothing about the burbs.
Sand Francisco was my first love–the city I dreamed about as a kid, and going to college nearby only proved that I was right, it is a hell of a town, world class all the way. Later, I moved from Monterey to Portland to go to law school, and felt at home in Portland immediately. I found it to be a big enough city to have a good arts/music/theatre/resturant mix, without being overwhelming. I also found it much easier to get around downtown than S.F. I’d say the San Francisco to Portland move would be an easy transition, you leave some things behind, gain some stuff, but I found the trade-offs fair. I now like Portland a bit more than Sam Francisco, but some of that is just plain comfort level. Of course, i’m stuck in Salem, so Portland is Mecca to me–I face it 5 times a day and say “It’s better to sleep in each morning and not commute, you can visit Portland whenever you want.”
Galen,
I moved from the Bay Area to Portland in 1994. I have NEVER ONCE regretted it. I grew up in Newark (East Bay, halfway between San Jose and Oakland, next to Fremont), then lived in San Jose for about two years before moving to Hillsboro, OR, a suburb of Portland about seven to ten miles west of downtown as the crow flies.
While I lived in the Bay Area, I liked it. But that was only because I didn’t know any better!
Yes, it rains in Portland. Some people may find that a deterrant to moving up here. But it really isn’t all that bad. There is a HUGE difference between storms/rain in the Bay Area and drizzle/rain in Portland. In the Bay Area, a storm comes through, dumps several inches of rain in a few hours and moves on. It can be a debilitating rain, dumping so hard that you can’t DO anything. You feel like pulling over to the side of the road, if driving, to wait it out. Bay Area rain can be like taking a shower.
In Portland, the rain is mostly of the, “I’m not sure, is it raining?”-type. Honestly, it mostly sprinkles or drizzles. Locals rarely if ever even bother with an umbrella. You can usually take walks in it, do whatever you need to in it. No big deal. The only downfall to that, of course, is that it can remain cloudy and overcast for days. And there are times, very, very occasionally, in the depths of winter when you haven’t really seen the sun for days… that it can be a little depressing. But I really don’t mind it. “Why?”, I hear you ask.
Because the rain is why everything is so lush and beautiful and green around here. There are areas where it is almost like a Rain Forest up here. There are hiking trails and parks and forests everywhere you go. Everything is so GREEN up here, you almost can’t believe it. When I go back to California to visit (I still have a few friends and my sister down there) I can’t believe how ugly and brown and drab everything is. Especially in the summer, everything dies and turns brown. Yuck. And don’t even get me started on the pollution. If I wanted to breath brown air, I’d smoke cigarettes. The Bay Area is depressing, if you ask me.
Another thing I like about Portland, compared to the Bay Area, is a noticeable change in the seasons. I mean, in CA you get a slightly warmer part of the year and a slightly cooler part of the year. That’s it. Here, the weather actually changes, but not to really nasty extemes. We rarely get snow (but when we do, it is unbelievably beautiful, and melts away before you have any real traffic problems). But it starts getting colder in the winter, you see plants coming back to life and blooming beautiful colors in the spring, it is warm and sunny in the summer, and the leaves actually turn colors in the fall. (Not the dying, drab browns the leaves turn in CA, and not quite as beautiful as the Northeast U.S., but quite pretty.)
Outdoorsy people may not like the winters up here since it can be pretty gloomy at times. That is true. But the summers more than make up for it. The weather is very mild, 70’s and 80’s for months on end. Very sunny, very little rain. I don’t have any facts to back me up, but I think it is a little more humid up here. Either that, or the SLIGHTLY colder winters make the summers feel a little warmer. But I would swear that 75 degrees here feels more like 80 or 85 degrees down there.
And the RECREATION around here. Wow. I don’t even know where to begin. There are little parks EVERYWHERE you go. (It is actually the law that new housing developments have to put aside a certain percentage of land for parks.) Portland is slightly more than an hour from the Pacific Ocean, and barely an hour and a half from skiing. You have hundreds of hiking trails, the high desert is just hours from here, you have Seattle an easy 3 1/2 hour drive away. Portland itself is a great little town, where you can actually feel SAFE walking around at night (in MOST neighborhoods) with a pretty good nightlife, lots of clubs and a pretty good music scene. The Columbia Gorge is one of the world’s most beautiful natural wonders. The waterfalls and hikes around here will keep you busy for a lifetime. Mt. St. Helens, recovering beautifully from its eruption two decades ago, is so breathtakingly beautiful that you won’t be able to stand it, and about 2-3 hours away.
I could go on and on and on (and have). But suffice it to say that I absolutely love it here, and would not even CONSIDER moving back to California. You couldn’t PAY me enough. Only a phone call from George Lucas saying, “You know, I could really use some help on Episode Three” would even TEMPT me to move back to California.
And the cost of housing is AT LEAST half what it is in the Bay Area.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me any questions you want.
Scott Andrews
Hillsboro, OR
I’ll second what Matt Decker said. Portland has definite charm, and the scenery is gorgeous.
Oh, and here is a climate table for Portland so you can get a better idea of the weather.
I spent four of the best years of my life at Reed College in Portland. I miss both Reed and Portland dearly. I also miss Powell’s Books: the best bookstore in the English-speaking world. Oh yeah, and I also miss Macheesmo Mouse. And the roses. And the roundabouts. And the pubs. And Artichoke Music. And…
Fuck it—I’m moving back too…
Ditto what Matt Decker said. I moved here from Santa Cruz. Now S.C. is cool, and perpetual Spring is nice, but it wasn’t until I moved up here that I realized how much I missed Fall (I’m an east coast transplant). Portland still has the benefits of mild west coast weather, but still has a nice Fall display.
And, as Kallessa said, Portland is a big enough city to have a lot to offer in the way of culture, while still retaining something of a small town feeling.
It’s also significantly cheaper to live here than in the Bay Area.
I don’t regret the move. Although I do still like to take periodic trips down to visit S.F. and the Monterey Bay area.