Tell Me about Portland Oregon.....

[futuresoptions]

I am still in the running for a position in the Ft. Collins Colorado area, but I was contacted today by my previous employer in reference to a position in Beaverton Oregon. The position would pay between $60-75k annually. I am most concerned over the quality of fishing on the west coast of Oregon, Would the lower end of this salary be doable in this area as I know Oregon is a little higher in its cost of living...

[scottmandue]

Not sure about the cost of living... I live in Los Angeles and most places are less expensive. My friend moved there and he seems to be doing alright and I doubt he is making more than $30K (lives in an apartment)

If you like micro brew beer you will be in heaven, nice people too.

If you hate rain you will be in he11

Oh yeah lots of hiking and outdoorsy stuff to do, as long as you don't mind it being a little damp.

[911boost]

Good to hear you are still in the running for Fort Collins.

[Racerbvd]

Well, I spent some time in both Portland & the Denver area this year, while Portland has more strip clubs and micro brews, it also has a lot more freaks, and it does cost a pretty good bit to live there. Although I may be making a move to Portland (at least part time) I liked CO better, plus there is a great group of PP brothers out there. with a great Breakfast Club

[Superman]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

....... while Portland has more strip clubs and micro brews, it also has a lot more freaks...........

"Freaks" is a euphemism for people who read.

[911boost]

Reading, huh? That's what they are calling it now-a-days.

Interesting.

[Racerbvd]

Originally Posted by Superman

"Freaks" is a euphemism for people who read.

Maybe they should take time away from reading & bath

One thing that I really liked was how bicycle friendly it is.

[futuresoptions]

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

, it also has a lot more freaks

I know, I have seen pictures...lol,

Hey Bill!!! Yeah, I haven't got the axe quite yet,

I have also put in for a few more positions throughout the country, but so far these are the only two I have been contacted by. I have been contacted locally in reference to an instructor position, but the pay is a little less than the ones I would relocate for... What kind of fish are caught on the west coast? I am used to black drum, speckeled trout and redfish. Once in while red snapper, shark and tuna...

[scottmandue]

Don't know nuthin about fishing but I would presume with the abundance of fresh water streams you could do a lot of trout and salmon fishing.

Also note that even though it is a port on a major river it is more than a few miles from the coast if you want to go ocean fishing, my friend tells me it take a few hours to get there.

The people I met seemed pretty normal to me... but then I'm a native Los Angeleno.

[pwd72s]

If you're far left politically, like Marixst far left, you'll love Portland's government. State income tax will be 9% to you...

(edit) Portland, meaning multnomah county, also imposed a "temporary" schools income tax some years back, I don't know if it's still in effect or not. Lots of people who rent moved to nearby Washington County...you might want to ask about that when searching for living quarters.

[Paul K]

Bill:

I hear the fishing is pretty good. Great PCA crowd. Great microbrews. Too much rain and traffic for my linking though. You might want to get hold of Doug&Julie- they're moving to Portland sometime, and have done quite a bit of research.

Hope it works out whatever happens!

Paul.

[LWJ]

Hello,

I have lived in Portland for 42 years and like to fish so I may be helpful.

1) 75K income is certainly above the mean. However, do you have any equity in a home or plan to purchase? Housing is falling in price but is still very expensive if you do not have some equity to bring with you into the transaction. If you are a single person, 75K will support you fine. If you have a family and want to buy a house with no equity, I think this will be more difficult. It depends on how lavish a lifestyle you live.

2) Beaverton is not Portland. Beaverton is in Washington County. Taxes are about 25-30% less than Portland. However, Beaverton traffic is *****. On the flip side, the schools are pretty good. I personally have zero interest in going to Beaverton. Lots of strip malls. Bad traffic. Nothing I want to see (except the local Porsche dealer). Houses are a little cheaper in Beaverton. It is a suburb of Portland.

3) Fish. You sound like you are a ocean going fisherman. Oregon had a nice Salmon and rock fish fishery for years. I am not optimistic about this. I hear about people going out 30 miles and catching halibut currently. Sounds like a lot of work. I personally am a fly fish sort of guy. There are a number of big name rivers here with some king sized trout that pull FAR harder than similar sized Montana Browns. With that said, I usually stay away from the name brand rivers as the fish are a little smarter and my catch is fewer. I have a contrarian philosophy about trout that I am happy to share outside of this public forum. PM me if you care.

The unsung hero fish is probably the smallmouth bass. Plenty plenty of bass. And very easy to find. You can catch them in the Portland metro area and have 100 fish days. Much better than driving 2.5 hours and getting skunked for a Deschutes river Trout. Personally? I have never fished for them. Probably something I need to do in the future.

Summary is that you probably need to come check it out. It is comfortable for me but I have been here virtually my whole life. It has compared favorably to nearly every place I have been. Winter weather isn't the best but Summer can easily make up for it.

If you want to know more, send me a PM.

Larry

[LakeCleElum]

My parents lived all their lives in NW WA. They moved to the Portland area to be near my sister. 5 yrs, they bailed and moved back. State income tax (none in WA), high property taxes, rain, traffic, etc.......If working in Beaverton, live north or west; much cheaper.......

[pwd72s]

One of the better things about selling my car was to never have to drive in the Portland area again...for parts, skilled labor...

[artplumber]

There is pretty good food. Some fun roads, but my wife and I refer to many of the drivers as PWP (people without purpose). They also can fine you or some such for things like flashing your brights at someone in the fast lane to indicate you'd like to come through (it's considered aggressive driving). Then there is the gray. A lot of gray. Between July 4 and Sept 30, the weather is incredible.

And I didn't like Sunset Porsche Audi much.

[jyl]

Search online for rental and purchase prices in Portland and Beaverton. Whether $60-75K is sufficient depends on your lifestyle, how much house you want, rent or buy, etc. Note that there's no sales tax here.

Ditto on the fishing.

Portland and Western Oregon generally is green, clean, safe, and wet.

Green - lots of forest, mountains, rivers, coastline, etc.

Clean - not many bad neighborhoods here, infrastructure generally good, not much pollution.

Safe - not much crime.

Wet - weather is a big deal. From November to April it rains most of the time. As in, day after day after day, often a cold rain - unless you're >1000 ft or so, then there's sometimes snow. When its not raining, its gray. A nice time to go to the local mountains for skiing, or to warmer climes on holiday. Some people won't get used to this. On the other hand, spring and summer and fall are very, very nice.

Portland is a liberal city. Outside of Portland, much less so.

The Multnomah county income tax is no more. Ended 2005.

[Oregon Cab]

Mild climate and green year round. Rarely below 40 and rarely above 90. storms in and out during 3 season. Tons of AAA golf courses cheap. Good housing 300-500 average. Beaverton is just a suburb with hi tech and shopping malls. Portland is an old town with rivers and tons of bridges and hills. Snow is 1 hr away. Ocean is 1.5 hours away. Fishing, elk, dining, brews, colleges, theatre, hipsters, caribou barbies and farm girls. Great place to buy and not the strongest market to sell. Cost of living is relatively cheap. Milk is 2.50. Steaks are 5 per lb, Get anywhere in 25 minutes, airport, dwntwn, mall, parks. Good public transportation, rafting, biking, racing. Seattle is 3.5 hrs and SF is 11 hrs. Canada is 7 hrs. Great place to raise a family, invest and follow your passions. Job market is stable but not terribly high paying... 42 median income, professional 60-120k. Rent is 800 for a 2br apt and house for 1400. Lots of trees and rivers. Zoo and great blues and jazz scene, Art and crafts. Indian casinos, log cabins, fab waterfront woodsy resorts. Gas is 2.45 for super full serve. State entire population is 3.6 Mil with 2 of it in Portland Metro. Blazer basketball, Beavers and Ducks Pac 10. Best kept secret if you like fleece and sorels, topsiders and Footjoys. Lots of trucks, Prius' and minis. Volvos, beemers and hondas. I am from San Francisco, in Oregon for 17 yrs now. Wouldnt go back for twice salary. Life here is precious. Be yourself. Big air, crackling fires and razor clams.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I lived up there for a little over a year back in my cargo pilot days...

Awesome place overall. When it's nice (i.e. summer months) it's probably the most beautiful U.S. city I've ever been to. Simply an awesome place to be - great energy, culture, etc. Cosmopolitan without any pretentiousness at all. The downside is (as has been said) it's miserable weather-wise for about 9 months out of the year. Interesting in its own way, but it gets really, really old when it's been raining literally every single day for two months straight and you don't see the sun for longer still (my wife and I used to joke about "the yellow thing" in the sky that was supposed to be there and how it must be just legend, 'cause we'd forgotten what it was called and what it looked like).

Here's my biggest caution to you (not the weather). I know first-hand that Portland (and indeed all of the northwest to some extent) is NOT the place to be in a recession. Granted you'd be transferring up there for a job, which is great but that's exactly what happened to us too - I got a move up into a better aircraft and my wife got a simultaneous promotion to a national manager with the parent company of the place she was working at the time. Big deal, things looked very, very good for us. And indeed for several months they were. We did very well financially and were on a good path to getting our lives comfortably on track.

Then the post-9/11 recession hit in earnest in the fall of 2002. Her company started to fail (Christmas sales were looking lousy), etc. She was laid off the week before Christmas in 2002 and literally could NOT find any other work (other than working for $5 an hour as a barista or something) anywhere in that area. Portland's economy had been decimated by the recession (lots of tech jobs, budding internet businesses, etc.) There simply is not much of an economy up there, particularly in the service/hospitality sector. It was a very, very bad place to be in a downturn - and that recession was mild compared to this one. I'd advise extreme caution.

To make a long story short, after literally about 3-4 months of ACTIVELY looking for new work (pounding pavement, making calls, sending resumes, doing interviews), my wife finally did get a job as a store manager - back down here in Southern California. It was a position about two levels below the one she'd been let go from, but it was something decent that paid reasonably. We certainly could not survive on my lousy cargo pilot salary (in fact, those few months wiped out all our savings and damn nearly put us on the street). The lesson I learned is that SoCal (despite its numerous problems) is a very good place to be in an economic downturn. By contrast, Oregon/Portland is a very BAD place to be in an economic downturn, unless you're very certain that your job is secure.

That said, I'd love to get myself a summer place up there someday. It's a beautiful part of the country and I loved my time up there, despite the horrendous weather and S.A.D. that I got (pretty badly too). It has a charm and appeal like nowhere else in the nation, if not the world. But do NOT underestimate how difficult it can be to get work up there if things don't go your way. There really isn't much of an economy there unless you own a microbrewery, coffee shop or bookstore. Some shipping-related industry on the Columbia, but not as much as you might think.

Best of luck whatever you decide; shoot me a PM if you want more details.

[HarryD]

Originally Posted by Oregon Cab

Mild climate and green year round. Rarely below 40 and rarely above 90. storms in and out during 3 season. Tons of AAA golf courses cheap. Good housing 300-500 average. Beaverton is just a suburb with hi tech and shopping malls. Portland is an old town with rivers and tons of bridges and hills. Snow is 1 hr away. Ocean is 1.5 hours away. Fishing, elk, dining, brews, colleges, theatre, hipsters, caribou barbies and farm girls. Great place to buy and not the strongest market to sell. Cost of living is relatively cheap. Milk is 2.50. Steaks are 5 per lb, Get anywhere in 25 minutes, airport, dwntwn, mall, parks. Good public transportation, rafting, biking, racing. Seattle is 3.5 hrs and SF is 11 hrs. Canada is 7 hrs. Great place to raise a family, invest and follow your passions. Job market is stable but not terribly high paying... 42 median income, professional 60-120k. Rent is 800 for a 2br apt and house for 1400. Lots of trees and rivers. Zoo and great blues and jazz scene, Art and crafts. Indian casinos, log cabins, fab waterfront woodsy resorts. Gas is 2.45 for super full serve. State entire population is 3.6 Mil with 2 of it in Portland Metro. Blazer basketball, Beavers and Ducks Pac 10. Best kept secret if you like fleece and sorels, topsiders and Footjoys. Lots of trucks, Prius' and minis. Volvos, beemers and hondas. I am from San Francisco, in Oregon for 17 yrs now. Wouldnt go back for twice salary. Life here is precious. Be yourself. Big air, crackling fires and razor clams.

I moved to Portland in 1990 from Houston Texas (also lived in Wyoming, southern Ohio after growing up in Connecticut). We moved here on purpose and never looked back. I would not live anywhere else at this point.

As noted above, no extreme weather, an interesting city, easy access to coast and mountain areas.

While winters are grey, annual rain fall totals are less than many parts of the country. And you CAN play inthe rain.

[Embraer]

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