Living in PORTLAND?

[raygunner]

I'm thinking about flying into Portland for about 6 days for a job interview in early March and I'm pondering if I should bring the bike out.

I have three days of interviews spread out over the 6 days so I figured I could get some decent rides in.

I'm from Chicago and I've never been to Portland

I'm fretting if I could make the transition from the high stress/murder capital of the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest...so gimme the lowdown on weather/riding/living/ect.

Thanks!

[jblande]

Having lived in Chicago and visited my parents numerous times in Portland, there is no doubt in my mind that I love Portland. Enough urban culture and street life that you won't be bored, but without the feeling that the city might just fall apart at an moment (I often had this feeling in Chicago). Cycling is huge there (obviously), but there is also quite a bit else to do. Oregon also has a fantastic wine and beer culture. Only downside to my mind is that it rains quite a bit. I'll take that over -20 degrees anyday.

[raygunner]

Well I work in law enforcement so I have that feeling that the city might fall apart all the time! :rolleyes:

The deplorable schools, the high taxes, crappy public transit, shootings, waste, corruption...ect!

I've heard a million great things about Portland so I guess I need to suck it up & buy that plane ticket!

[jblande]

yes, buy the ticket.

midway to portland--southwest super cheap.

[William]

It can rain a bit between November and May but it’s usually quite nice between June & October. Great riding culture and racing scene if you’re into that. I’ve lived in the NW section Just over the top of Burnside near Skyline blvd (which is one of the gateway roads out of the city for cyclists). You can head out toward Rainier & St Helens or do the Sauvie Island loop. I also lived in West Lynn just SW of PDX. A quick ride through Oregon City and out along the Clackamas river will get you out into the countryside for more great riding. Definitely try hooking up with a forumite who lives in the area. You could also check one of the Bike Gallery Stores, River City, or Sellwood cycles for local rides. Citybikes is worth a look as well. The only place I like riding better is the Corvallis area around OSU in the Willamette Valley.

PS: You have to like hills. I hope you do. ;)

Have fun,
William

[raygunner]

Ticket purchased!

Well I have to stop bugging my friends (and this forum) what Portland is like, time to find out for myself!

What's that line from Shawshank Redemption?

"Get busy living..."

[dave thompson]

The whole Pacific Northwest (Oregon/Washington/Idaho) has a great vibe. Everything from hipster culture to very rural farmers and all else in between. It's very easy to tailor your life here as there is so much to see/do/be and the recreational possibilities are without peer year round. You'll like it.

[William]

The whole Pacific Northwest (Oregon/Washington/Idaho) has a great vibe. Everything from hipster culture to very rural farmers and all else in between. It's very easy to tailor your life here as there is so much to see/do/be and the recreational possibilities are without peer year round. You'll like it.


Very well said! I wholeheartedly agree, and I will toast you tonight! ;) :D





William

[pjmsj21]

I was born and raised in Chicago and moved to the Northwest back in 1983, while I have left on a few occassions for job transfers, I always regretted leaving and became obsessed with coming back, which I did in 1989.

While I have lived in Seattle and currently live in Eugene, I spend a lot of time in Portland and it is a great city with a great quality of life. Knowing what I know now, I would have moved sooner to the Northwest than I did. I doubt you would not like Portland unless you have so many family/personal ties to Chicago that would make it difficult to leave.

Pat Mc


PS: Year round riding (most of the time)

[raygunner]

I was born and raised in Chicago and moved to the Northwest back in 1983, while I have left on a few occassions for job transfers, I always regretted leaving and became obsessed with coming back, which I did in 1989.

While I have lived in Seattle and currently live in Eugene, I spend a lot of time in Portland and it is a great city with a great quality of life. Knowing what I know now, I would have moved sooner to the Northwest than I did. I doubt you would not like Portland unless you have so many family/personal ties to Chicago that would make it difficult to leave.

Pat Mc


PS: Year round riding (most of the time)

Good point about the personal/family ties. I also have the work tie, and I really do like my job.

But I'm trying to look forward ahead 10-20 years and I see Chicago becoming a less viable place to live/raise a family/ect.

I see it becoming more & more like "Detroit South"

[Ken Robb]

I spent my first 22 years in the Chicago area and I thought public transportation was darn good. That was long ago but I have been back several times in the past few years and I still thought PTransportation was good.
I took the EL from Midway to the Loop, buses around the city, train to Lombard, and it was all easy.

Maybe 41 years in SoCal where public transportation is spotty at best has skewed my outlook. :rolleyes:

[ThasFACE]

I spent a summer during college in Portland and, for reasons that have already been stated, liked it a lot. Only thing that struck me about the town (negatively? I'm not sure) is that it is very culturally homogeneous for a city of its size.

[mjb266]

Google the 2030 Portland Bicycle Plan and you'll find out what a city should look like from a cyclists perspective. $600-750 million on cycling infrastructure. That's a lot of cycling friendly amenities. They think something like 25% of all trips in the city will be made on bikes in the future.

[duke]

I would count on it raining in March. You might get good weather but bring your rain gear and fender bike. I would rate the steellhead fishing better in March than the cycling. That being said it's a great city and area. Easy to enjoy yourself.
duke

[pjmsj21]

You might just want to consider renting a bike and not having to deal with the hassles of flying with it.

THis is a good option:

http://www.velocebicycles.com/pages/rentals.html

Pat Mc

[Joellogicman]

The deplorable schools, the high taxes, crappy public transit, shootings, waste, corruption...ect!

Chicago/Cook County residents fairly high sales taxes, but lower income and real property taxes than the Portland residents.

If you hope to earn a decent salary and own property, Portland will cost you more in taxes, not less than Chicago. On the other hand, low income renter would prefer Portland over Chicago, as sales taxes are more regressive than a graduated income tax or property tax based on value of real estate.

This holds true for most large cities in comparison with Chicago. One reason I have never left. (and have managed to live the past six years without a carry, crappy public transit notwithstanding).

I'll give Portland the weather, but the far greater hipster to ordinary citizen ratio evens that out.

[Joellogicman]

Good point about the personal/family ties. I also have the work tie, and I really do like my job.

But I'm trying to look forward ahead 10-20 years and I see Chicago becoming a less viable place to live/raise a family/ect.

I see it becoming more & more like "Detroit South"

Chicago has a far more diverse industrial base, it has far more convenient national and international transportation, it has two of the top rated research universities in the nation and 8 other decent universities and colleges.

Its good transit unfortunately also means it gets a lot more international drug traffic and thus comparatively high - but also highly localized - murder rates. Overall crime rates in Chicago are trending down.

My neighborhood has had almost no violent crime for the 6 years I have been living here.

Portland is a fine place to live, I am sure. But there is no reason to trash another fine place just because you are thinking of moving. Especially when the trashing does not stand to measure.

[djg]

Well I work in law enforcement so I have that feeling that the city might fall apart all the time! :rolleyes:

The deplorable schools, the high taxes, crappy public transit, shootings, waste, corruption...ect!

I've heard a million great things about Portland so I guess I need to suck it up & buy that plane ticket!

Yep. Portland is lovely in many, many ways, and if you want easy access to mountains there's really no comparison between Portland and Chicago.

If you like the CSO . . . maybe in a few hundred years Portland will have something like that. Museums? Commercial and non-commercial galleries? Music? Theater? Great universities? The friendly confines? Chicago has a few things to offer.

[Joellogicman]

Mountains, ocean, high desert. All within spitting distance of Portland. The architecture for the most part is unremarkable, and the interstates did their share of damage to the town (same in most U.S. cities), but the flora sure is lovely.

On the other hand, there is a reason Portland has so many good brew pubs. There just is not a whole lot of other things to do after work and when it is too dark to play.

[raygunner]

Chicago has a far more diverse industrial base, it has far more convenient national and international transportation, it has two of the top rated research universities in the nation and 8 other decent universities and colleges.

Its good transit unfortunately also means it gets a lot more international drug traffic and thus comparatively high - but also highly localized - murder rates. Overall crime rates in Chicago are trending down.

My neighborhood has had almost no violent crime for the 6 years I have been living here.

Portland is a fine place to live, I am sure. But there is no reason to trash another fine place just because you are thinking of moving. Especially when the trashing does not stand to measure.

We can't derail this w/ the mention of hipsters, that I am certain!

I'm sure we can split hairs about all the contested topics on hand but maybe I'm just ready for a change.

[Joellogicman]

I'm sure we can split hairs about all the contested topics on hand but maybe I'm just ready for a change.

I am quite sure there are many happy people living in and around Portland. Many of whom, as you may, came from Chicago. But there are those who have stayed (so far anyway - I must admit the last few Septembers at my sister's place in Nantucket have been amazing) and are glad we have.

[williammmm]

I spent a summer during college in Portland and, for reasons that have already been stated, liked it a lot. Only thing that struck me about the town (negatively? I'm not sure) is that it is very culturally homogeneous for a city of its size.


I spent two weeks in Portland last year just for visiting and riding my bike. It also struck me as a very Caucasian city. I have never been to such a large metropolitan area that was so homogeneous. I think people were not closed to the idea of integrating with other cultures/ethnicities, but there just weren't many ethnic groups to interact with. Having come from Oakland (where is so assimilated with all cultures), it was a big change.

I really loved the overall feel of the city. The downtown area was lovely and I was there during a week when it snowed, but it had a very classic feel to it. Each storefront (particularly all the Stumptown locations) were so classy looking. The bicycle system and transit was fantastic. Green boxes at several intersections, the bridges all had their own integrated bike/ped paths and biking along the Willamette river was beautiful too.

You'll love it!

[raygunner]

Awesome!

I'm pretty sure I'm going to fly out the bike. I picked up one of those TriAll3 hard cases on Craigslist awhile back so it'd be the perfect reason to actually use the thing!

[bking]

Apizza Scholls on east Hawthorne for pizza. One of the finest in the country.

Another good shop to visit while in town is Lakeside in Lake Oswego (just south of town). Lot's of Italian art there, Colnagos and Pegoretti's.

[William]

I spent two weeks in Portland last year just for visiting and riding my bike. It also struck me as a very Caucasian city. I have never been to such a large metropolitan area that was so homogeneous. I think people were not closed to the idea of integrating with other cultures/ethnicities, but there just weren't many ethnic groups to interact with. Having come from Oakland (where is so assimilated with all cultures), it was a big change.

I really loved the overall feel of the city. The downtown area was lovely and I was there during a week when it snowed, but it had a very classic feel to it. Each storefront (particularly all the Stumptown locations) were so classy looking. The bicycle system and transit was fantastic. Green boxes at several intersections, the bridges all had their own integrated bike/ped paths and biking along the Willamette river was beautiful too.

You'll love it!


You are correct to a point. The thing is, most people who visit the city don't usually make it much into the NE part of Portland. There you will find a more diverse cross section of the populace. And to a lesser extent the SE portion of the city.

I was always amazed at what a large homeless population Portland had as well. If you hang down around the Missions near the Burnside bridge and Willamette and you'll see what I mean.

It's still a great city and we miss living there very much.


William


PS: If you're into books, visit Powells and you'll be in Book heaven.

[ThomasRZ]

Call up Molly Cameron at the VeloShop and see about renting a little something to get some rides in.

And say goodbye to ChiFG.

I'm hoping to make the move from Chicago to the NW sometime in the near future. I've had it with Chicago. ;)

[raygunner]

Call up Molly Cameron at the VeloShop and see about renting a little something to get some rides in.

And say goodbye to ChiFG.

I'm hoping to make the move from Chicago to the NW sometime in the near future. I've had it with Chicago. ;)

I would actually just trade in ChiFG for The Portland fixie site!

Speaking of sites, have you even seen the site, "the chainlink"?

[Velosmith]

It's too bad you aren't going a little later. You could join this little ride. We did it last year. We looked around at each other at the pub a couple of weeks ago and ask the question.... " should we do it again?" A resounding "HE%$ NO!!!"

It was memorable though :)

Incredibly Steep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbvQqssD_jI

Have fun in Portland ... You will love it!

[Velosmith]

I found couple more link on this ride.

http://www.dmroth.com/ronde_09/ronde09.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm9CWevGlCc

The weather was much nicer in 2009 :beer:

[wasfast]

One additional reply on the "weather". People say it rains all the time and that's really not true. I've lived here my entire 51 years. It is very overcast, gray and the roads are usually wet. The rain is more of drizzles, a short shower, wet for a while, then perhaps a light rain. A 1/4" accumulation or less in a day is pretty typical. Yes, there are days where we get more rain but they are not EVERY day.

Further, if you can move your ride time around in the day, you're likely to find a time where there's no or very little rain. It's extremely variable.

Temperatures are generally in the low to mid 40's in the winter which is very mild by comparison to the midwest and east coast.

Weather here is also getting dryer, especially in the last 10 years. We had a very good snow in December 2008 but that's the first snowfall of any real note in many years.

The type of rain you see in Chicago, like the summer thunderstorms, rarely happens here. There, you get this incredible downpour of large accumulation but then it clears off.

The official statement is that it rains greatly, and everyday. This helps scare away too many people from moving here:-)

[Kirk007]

O
The official statement is that it rains greatly, and everyday. This helps scare away too many people from moving here:-)


SCHHHH! You'll increase road density and the line at Stumptown with statements like this : )