Originally Posted by Heisenberg
yo. I think we've run in the sameish circles (FCC mayhaps).
My human and I are in the same financial situation as you and yours. We left an apartment in SF (Noe/Mission) last spring for a rental house in Oakland (Uptown/Pill Hill). Portland was (is) on the radar when we made the move. I haven't been to Seattle since I was a kid, but have spent a fair bit of time in Portland over the past few years. Hence, I'll offer my thoughts on the city with the roses independent of the one with the fish market.
PDX seems insanely affordable for QoL if you're childless, into nerdy crap (hi), the outdoors (also hi), walkability/bikeability (hi hi hi), good food (hi hi hi hi), and can work remotely. Local jobs seem to pay pretty poorly - just before the pandy, I was offered a higher-level role at a company based there that paid a good 60% what the same job would've in SF. It's still on our shortishlist, but we're sitting in Oakland for the moment.
Portland downsides:
-Significantly worse (winter) weather than the general Bay Area, though I'd argue SF's weather might be on par re: frigid wind and fog, especially in the Outer Richmond, and especially in the summer.
-If the sight of tents/needles/poo on sidewalks offends you, might not be for you. I've never felt unsafe in Portland, but I'm also a tall white man. Parts are pretty grungy - I'd argue bits of downtown/Chinatown PDX are more depressing than the 'loin.
-Pretty monocultural/white. But so's Seattle.
-Airport access isn't great. Gotta connect for most anything that isn't regional.
Upsides:
-Much flatter/easier to get around than SF by bike and foot.
-Cheap. Lots of nice craftsman houses in desirable neighborhoods that would be $1.5m in the SF Bay are half that there. As you know.
-Really tight, welcoming communities around (insert interest here), and a generally warmer vibe than the Bay. Methinks lack of tech helps. Population is a lot less transient. Folks seem a lot more...er, interesting than here, but that's an extremely subjective thing for me to say.
-Do you like beer?
-Way easier to get lost quickly out of town into remote spaces (relative to SF).
-Lots of great local road and MTB riding, and Hood River is an hourish outta town for great MTB. And road. And grav grav. And then there's Bend.
I don't think I could deal with Seattle's weather. The recent wet spell in SF was enough for me. For us and for now, Oakland is a huge improvement. Public safety is definitely a concern, but not enough for us to meaningfully degrade the quality of our everyday lives - it was worse in SF, tbh. Weather's better, people are nicer, there seems to be more opportunity to build community, we're still in a really walkable locale, and not having to deal with the ****show that is the GGB/Marin County schlep for outdoor access (esp during summer weekends) is really nice. Even when I lived in southern Marin, I'd avoid riding anytime past noon on the weekends.
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