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Vancouver should feel more familiar to you if you're coming from the coastal parts of Southern California because Washington's zoning creates sprawl. It's hard to tell where one town/city ends and the next one begins. Also, the Vancouver area has a lot of people.
In Oregon the zoning laws create distinct communities so the towns have "edges" and outside of those edges there is often farmland. Salem is like that. Salem is quite a bit smaller than Vancouver and a bit rough around the edges, but it has a nice little downtown.
I believe Vancouver overall has more outdoor recreation opportunities - swimming, boating, hiking, skiing, etc. Salem has Silver Falls State Park nearby which people come from all over the world to visit. It's that good. There is also lots of hiking in the nearby areas.
Thank you. Yes I know Silver Falls. I have researched a lot of hiking and waterfall spots as I am very into nature and photography. I don't mind a small town vibe at all, despite being single. I currently live in a suburb not far from the beach. So I am used to the suburbs and like all the shopping and dining that it has to offer. But I would also be totally fine with a little more "farmland" too and a 30 min drive to shopping/dining. The only thing I know I dont want, is a big city vibe. I left Los Angeles many years ago to escape that life (traffic, limited parking, overcrowded everything, higher crime rates, excessive homelessness, more smog / pollution.) Now that my rent here on my small apartment has went above $3K/month I know I am ready for this change that I have already been considering for some time, but I just want to find the right place to settle in.
Hey, come on up and become a "gorge cat!_". This is a great group https://www.gorgecat.org/. Very close to hiking and photography and river adventures. But.... < 20 minutes to everything metro. Close enough, but far enough away from stressors to equal a pretty good shot at quality of life. Wages on the WA side are equivalent, but no state income tax in WA, so your money may go farther living and working in WA. There are a variety of job options, and very easy to hop a flight to sunshine.
Thanks for the cat rescue link! I do want to find a new rescue to volunteer at once I get settled. But this one looks a bit far. It says 1 hour from vancouver or 2 hours from salem.
All along the west coast, there are homeless. I think our previous mayor did a really good job getting it moving in the right direction. Our last point in time count showed an increase in homeless, but we had more sheltered than unsheltered. Salem just opened a navigation center, and another hotel is being converted to transitional housing. Salem inherited all of the wild fire homeless from the Santiam canyon which is about 500 of our homeless people here. There are several affordable housing developments that are going in as well. So it isn't solved here, but it is so much better than 2 years ago.
I like living in Salem. I am 54 and raised my kids here. It is a slower-paced city that still has everything you need. I like that it is a more purple city. It does lean blue, but barely. I think both will have ample access to different church denominations for you.
The city has improved so much in my years here. The Truitt Cannery is currently being redeveloped which is 13 acres of prime land along the river and just north of downtown. They are actually using the Vancouver, WA Columbia River redevelopment for inspiration. Both are improving cities, in my opinion.
I think Salem is more state job-oriented and Vancouver, WA seems to be pulling more businesses/offices over the river from Portland so the job scene is a bit different I think. Both have good access to nature trails and such as well.
I think you just need to visit both and see which one feels more like home to you.
But I would also be totally fine with a little more "farmland" too and a 30 min drive to shopping/dining. The only thing I know I dont want, is a big city vibe.
You may want to consider other towns and cities in Oregon such as Corvallis, Silverton, or possibly Canby. They may be a better fit. I see you started a thread in the Oregon forum and Silverfall posted there. She is a good source of information on the Willamette Valley.
One of the things I like about the Willamette Valley
is that there are cities and towns of all sizes,
from large (Portland) to medium (Salem, Eugene),
to slightly-smaller (Dallas, Monmouth) to tiny (Scio)
[and they don't all blend together, because most of the land
is still in agriculture]. So you can choose what size
community you like best, while staying within the region.
Btw, Scio is also home to a farm animal sanctuary
(www.lighthousefarmsanctuary.org), in case you feel like
expanding your animal-rescue activity.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by calitopnw
Thanks for the cat rescue link! I do want to find a new rescue to volunteer at once I get settled. But this one looks a bit far. It says 1 hour from vancouver or 2 hours from salem.
In Washougal, WA
20 min from Vancouver, WA. (There are rescue places in Vancouver, but this cat group is really nice and personable)
1 hr from Salem (many closer options)
If you live in Camas, WA, you won't have homeless people. (That you notice). They have very strict policing, strong community, plenty of hiking and jobs. And no evil 9% income tax with a very low income threshold.
My parents are retired and live in a retirement community in Canby. It has turned out to be a LOT more red than they were expecting. They are pretty middle of the road and have been a bit taken back by how red it is. Lots of hard-core Trumpers along with all the anti-vax stuff. It it is a nice enough place but not where I would send someone who is single and from out-of-state who just wants to meet normal people. Silverton strikes me as a bit younger and bluer. And of course Corvallis is a big college town.
From your description I suspect you would be a good fit for Vancouver, especially the newer part in east Vancouver where lots of new construction and development is happening. New apartments are going up all over and some of them look pretty nice. It is fairly car-centric but that also means you basically see zero homelessness and street life. You do in central Vancouver but not in East Vancouver except for the area around 205 and Mill Plain which is miles west of where I'm talking about. I bike 13 miles diagonally across east Vancouver every day to work from Camas to the Orchards area and see zero homeless or social dysfunction ever.
It is generic suburbia similar to what you see everywhere in Southern California. Some of it nice and new, some a bit more faded. But strangely without very much in the way of traffic hassle. I think the Columbia River puts a huge traffic barrier that insulates Vancouver from a lot of it. Yes the freeway bridges across the river are very congested during rush hours. As are the freeway approaches on I-5, I-205 and WA-14. But if your commute doesn't take you across the river then you aren't ever really affected by the bridge traffic. I pass dozens of apartment complexes biking to work each day and the one that superficially looks the nicest from the outside is this one: https://goo.gl/maps/n42w3unCZeJBBRNA6 but it might be pricier because it is in Camas School District. But there are tons of new apartments going up. Here is another pretty new on that looks nice and is across the line in the Evergreen School District so might be slightly cheaper. It has a secure central entrance so that might be appealing for a single woman https://goo.gl/maps/kGNcNV5KJHpULdyJ6 You can look these two up and get a sense of what newer apartments in good locations cost around here. I expect there is a lot of older cheaper stuff too.
Thank you! That is actually all very helpful info. If I do go with Vancouver as opposed to Salem however, I would want to find employment in Vancouver. As opposed to commuting to Portland. I just want to make that clear. Although I know Portland is "just across the bridge" as I have visited (and yes I know about the income tax and tax free shopping I have considered that great option as well!) I would like to steer clear of Portland if I can. I was uncomfortable when I visited due to the massive amount of homeless. Maybe that is just the downtown experience of Portland? Maybe there are nice Portland areas I have not seen yet? But from what I did experience when I came to visit, Portland didnt feel very safe. Areas I looked at like Lake Oswego were the opposite - very beautiful, charming, clean BUT had a high rent price tag when compared with some of the other cities.
If that's how you feel about Portland, moving to Vancouver because of the better dating pool Portland opens you up to wouldn't make much sense. You seem like someone who'd be happier in Salem, frankly. There's nothing wrong with the dating pool there, and IMO, smaller cities make it easier to meet people. Think about it: what's the point in moving near a HUGE metro area full of homelessness for the supposed dating bonanza it presents, if you hate the city and have to fight traffic for close to an hour just to get to a date?
Salem is nice. And it's growing. It has 3 colleges and the state capitol that employ women professionals, and plenty of businesses that do the same. Consider giving it a shot. The COL probably won't rise as fast as in the Portland/Vancouver areas, either, so it's not likely to turn into California.
I have an idea to throw into the mix of wonderful information you are receiving. I am retired, living in Ridgefield, and love living on this side of the river. However, as a young single, I don't think Ridgefield meets your expectations. We have three sons that settled in Portland and started families. One skipped out to Boise, one is still in SW Portland, and one moved to Hood River a year ago. They all have good, professional jobs. We find ourselves visiting the kids in Hood River a LOT! So much to do. Still only an hour from PDX. They are very outdoorsy, as are their kids (10 and 8). The son still in Portland has recently purchased a cabin (they call it a cabin, but I could live there full time) and we gather in that area a lot. The son and his family that moved to Boise are another story. They like Boise and the outdoors adventures, but honestly, many of their outdoor trips have taken them to Montana, Wyoming, even skiing in Japan. However, my visits to Boise have revealed a very clean, vibrant community, but very RED. I know Boise is not in your sites, but I feel somewhat uncomfortable there (and I am pretty middle of the road). The kids like Boise, but I don't see them there long term. Both are MDs, but one actually works in Atlanta.....long story). Hood River seems pretty inclusive, however lacks much racial diversity. Hood River is growing, but I don't have any clue to the availability of jobs available. All our kids are in the medical field, except the techie ones still in Portland. What we do see in Hood River are a lot of young people, tons of kids, lots of activities, and your big box stores are not far (but far enough) away in The Dalles. Downtown Hood River is a delightful core. Just another thought. I am born and raised southern CA (5th generation), but could never live back there. Good luck!
Yeah, I wouldn't send single people out to Ridgefield. I used to work out there. Nice enough area but it is all either (1) new fairly upscale subdivisions full of single family homes, or (2) more rural areas with lots of hobby farms, nurseries, and the like. There is some retail going in out there, a new grocery and apparently they will get a new Costco. But for more than groceries or a couple of local restaurants you'll be driving back into Vancouver or Portland.
Bottom line when it comes to these questions about where to live? There is no perfect place that maximizes all your desires no matter who you are. And every desire comes with a corresponding tradeoff. My wife and I spent 5 years exploring the US when we lived in Texas and knew we weren't going to stay there permanently. We looked at maybe a dozen locations in the Pacific Northwest, visiting most of them (Medford, Eugene, Salem, Bend, Portland metro, Bellingham, Spokane, Wenatchee, Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle metro, etc.) And we also explored a lot of other parts of the country including: Boise, Salt Lake, Albuquerque, Boulder, Fort Collins, Denver metro, Minneapolis metro, parts of Upstate New York, parts of North Carolina, etc. For every nice amenity you basically have to pay. And I can promise you there are no perfect "undiscovered" places out there. Many millions of people have gone before and have already found all the great places. So you pay for what you get. If a place is dirt cheap, there will be reasons for that. They may not be reasons that you care about, but there are still reasons.
People also can get out way over their skis and try to pick undiscovered places that will be discovered in the future. But that can be risky because change can happen a whole lot slower than you ever expect. And may never actually happen. If a place is down on its heels, there are probably a lot of complicated reasons for why that is that may not reverse any time soon. For example, every so often we hear about Longview being the next...something. Well, I've been passing through there for decades and it is still the same old Longview no matter how much people want to make it into the next something else. And it may stay that way a whole lot longer than you have time for. So if you want to live in Longview, do it because it is currently the place you want to live, not because you think it will be something different in the future. You may not live long enough to see that.
We ended up picking Camas as the place that maximized all of our wants while minimizing our dislikes. But we had specific wants that others don't have such as top schools and universities, close to family, good employment options for BOTH me and my wife, PNW lifestyle, etc. We haven't once regretted our decision and knowing what we know now, we'd pick Camas again. Although 2023 isn't 2016 and we might not be able to afford our current home given how much prices have gone up in 7 years. But we would still pick Camas again. But if I was still single the calculation would be completely different.
Last edited by texasdiver; 04-20-2023 at 03:50 PM..
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