Welp, NoVa board, it's time for me to bid adieu to Northern Virginia (Cana: apartments, income)

[CAVA1990]

Enjoy the rain and perpetual gray, damp days.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by ICS67

And in a similar vein, remember that the place you go to borrow books is a li-brary, not a li-berry (which I think is another East of the Mississippi-ism).

or another East Coast fave: "aster-ick".

[stpickrell]

I thought I had read somewhere (fivethirtyeight) that Oregon had among the most liberal liberals and most conservative conservatives in the country.

Good luck in Oregon. You will discover its warts eventually but some warts are attractive to certain individuals.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

Enjoy the rain and perpetual gray, damp days.

You are confusing Portland with Seattle. Portland weather is somewhat in-between San Francisco and Seattle weather, which is to say, pretty pleasant -- wet, mild winters and dry, cool summers. And Hawaii is just a hop away.

I really like the weather there, I love the landscape, the food and drinks are great. I just dislike the parochial people and the openly socialist politics, a most unattractive combination (as opposed to our region's cosmopolitan, yet conservative people). It's a bit like Sweden with better weather, but much much more insufferable and unwelcoming (and uglier) populace. Might as well go to Vancouver, BC (yeah, I know it's Canada, but actually it's more like the rich half of Hong Kong in the Pacific Northwest setting).

In general, folks in the Pacific Northwest seem to think that their region is the greatest place on earth, but fail to realize just how insignificant their area is in the overall scheme of things. A lot of them are rather shocked when they visit the East Coast and realize how little we (and rest of the world) think/care about them.

They also seem to be befuddled by these things called "neckties" and "skirts."

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by IndiaLimaDelta

You are confusing Portland with Seattle.

As a multi-generational native Westerner who did business in both cities I would never do that. But don't take my word for it:

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

[VTHokieFan]

Originally Posted by IndiaLimaDelta

You are confusing Portland with Seattle. Portland weather is somewhat in-between San Francisco and Seattle weather, which is to say, pretty pleasant -- wet, mild winters and dry, cool summers. And Hawaii is just a hop away.

I really like the weather there, I love the landscape, the food and drinks are great. I just dislike the parochial people and the openly socialist politics, a most unattractive combination (as opposed to our region's cosmopolitan, yet conservative people). It's a bit like Sweden with better weather, but much much more insufferable and unwelcoming (and uglier) populace. Might as well go to Vancouver, BC (yeah, I know it's Canada, but actually it's more like the rich half of Hong Kong in the Pacific Northwest setting).

In general, folks in the Pacific Northwest seem to think that their region is the greatest place on earth, but fail to realize just how insignificant their area is in the overall scheme of things. A lot of them are rather shocked when they visit the East Coast and realize how little we (and rest of the world) think/care about them.

They also seem to be befuddled by these things called "neckties" and "skirts."

I love the weather. It's really only 4 months of total cloud cover, about 5 months of beautiful dry days and clear skys and the rest is a mix and in-between. I think the overt environmentalism at the municipal level in Portland masks the fact that it's pretty much a live and let live type of place and not very "socialist" at all, JMO though.

[CAVA1990]

At least the beer's better there.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

As a multi-generational native Westerner who did business in both cities I would never do that. But don't take my word for it:

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

Yeah, maybe YOU should read YOUR OWN links. One of the comments from the links:

Note: the information shown here for Seattle is INCORRECT. It does NOT have 152 sunny days per year. It's more like 58. We have about 155 days of RAIN per year.

You say you are a "native Westerner," but I suspect you are a former Californian. Well CA is not Pacific Northwest. I actually lived in Seattle for several years and traveled to and worked in Vancouver, BC and Portland, OR extensively. During the years I lived and worked in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle had the greatest number of cloudy days, the fewest sunny days of the three (still very mild and pleasant weather, in my view).

I prefer Seattle to Oregon, mainly because Seattle tends to be more welcoming to outsiders than Oregon does, but the weather is definitely milder and sunnier in Oregon, not to mention much, much more attractive and accessible beaches (but WA does have some amazing islands).

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

I love the weather. It's really only 4 months of total cloud cover, about 5 months of beautiful dry days and clear skys and the rest is a mix and in-between. I think the overt environmentalism at the municipal level in Portland masks the fact that it's pretty much a live and let live type of place and not very "socialist" at all, JMO though.

Again, I liked the weather there. But my wife was very bothered by not just the cloud cover through the whole winter, but also by the low ceiling of the said cover. Frequently, the cloud cover felt like it was right over our heads.

It's not just environmentalism. It IS pretty socialist, literally. Some local elections do not even feature actual Republican candidates; they have Democrats and Socialists (and occasionally Libertarians). Some say that the area is more libertarian than socialist, but in my view it's more libertine than libertarian. In other words, they're for drugs and pornography, not for low taxes and low government regulation of businesses and homesteads. I agree, though, a lot of it is mindless posturing ("Hang War Criminal Bush" or "Capitalism Is Evil" type signs outside multi-million dollar mansions). Posturing or not, it does get old quickly if you are not the party line-toting type.

Also, people are highly secular (very low church attendance) and somewhat anti-natalist.

One thing you will really enjoy there -- lack of ugly, bothersome insects. Ticks and Lyme disease are not as much of a problem as they are here. There are termites in Portland (but not in Seattle). There aren't really any poisonous snakes or spiders. They have real mountains (great for ski lovers) and pristine estuaries (not the brackish ones we have here).

Watch out for bears in the wild, by the way (there are black bears in OR and both black bears and grizzlies in WA). I used to backpack with a 12-gauge shotgun (loaded with 00 buckshot and slugs) and a .357 mag revolver as a backup. It's not good times to run into bear cubs (which means there is an angry and protective mama bear nearby).

I would move back to PacNW in a heart bit -- if I could just magically make about half of the population move away, so that the politics is more purple, less monopolistically blue.

[michgc]

What's the fascination with pumping your own gas? When I was growing up, the attendants pumped gas for you. It wasn't until the oil embargo that many service stations started the "pump your own gas" thing as a way to cut down on costs. Personally, if I never have to pump gas again, I'd be happy. You get the gasoline smell on your hands that won't leave, you have to breathe in the fumes, stand in the cold, etc. I'd be happy to live in a place where I didn't have to pump gas. I didn't know there was any place like that outside New Jersey.

[IndiaLimaDelta]

Originally Posted by michgc

What's the fascination with pumping your own gas? When I was growing up, the attendants pumped gas for you. It wasn't until the oil embargo that many service stations started the "pump your own gas" thing as a way to cut down on costs. Personally, if I never have to pump gas again, I'd be happy. You get the gasoline smell on your hands that won't leave, you have to breathe in the fumes, stand in the cold, etc. I'd be happy to live in a place where I didn't have to pump gas. I didn't know there was any place like that outside New Jersey.

I thought about writing a long response that includes something about businesses being forced to hire people they don't want and consumers paying higher prices than necessary and consumer choice and all that, but there is one term from your statement that suffices: "New Jersey."