Moving from Southern California to Oregon (Portland, Eugene: high crime, unemployment, wages)

[mossgeek]

Thanx dan! Also want to point out that all the "bad californians" love so cali and would prefer to stay there. The ones moving up to Oregon are the ones that dont belong in So cali!!!!!!.

[mossgeek]

BTW, "IH8CALI" Oregonians are the most friendly and kind people from any state I have met, and you just proved that there are hateful people there! You are exactly what you complained about! You should think about it! People are people no matter what state they are from. there are good and bad and just so happens that there are more good in oregon (my opinion) and the ones going there are the same! There are population increases and problems in every state, Oregon is no exception!

And the whole "speak for the majority of Southern Oregon when I say "GO HOME CALIFORNIANS AND DON'T COME BACK, WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE!!!"

well if that is the case, then why have I been offered several jobs there and all my friends keep calling me to see when I am coming back? you can just change "we" in your sentances to "I" because you are the one that is showing no unity in this world

[Pippa]

Hands down, I would go to Bend or Medford. Now while Medford is growing, it's still a hick-ish town BUT Ashland, which is liberal utopia with unsurpassing beauty, is RIGHT next door-ten minute drive. PLUS, in Medford, you're on the I-5 and can go other places more easily.
Bend has as much recreation as southern oregon and is gorgeous, but you have to cross the mountains to get to any big city. A tiny bit stuck in the winter.
Medford definitely. By the way, the crappy dark weather does not really change going south from Portland until Roseburg. You don't want to live there though...super hick.

[Carol, Oregon coast]

Hey, that's the same way I felt about SoCal when I lived down there for a few years. I couldn't wait to get back to God's country. Sorry you feel Oregonians are all uneducated cowboys. Uneducated is sad in any state, but there's nothing wrong with a good cowboy, especially an Oregon cowboy!

[earthtorachel]

We're relocating to Portland right after the new year. Spent a week there over Thanksgiving and fell in love with the city. Rented a house in the heart of Sellwood and cannot wait to start our new lives. We have been living in LA for the last 15 years and have enjoyed the city and what LA had to offer. Now, as parents, our priorities have shifted, we tried to make it work here for the last several years but we want a better quality of life for our kids.

We got a 3 bdrm free standing house with a huge yard just a block from a charming main street with coffe shops, cafes, antique shops and art galleries for $1500 a month and are just 5 minutes from downtown Portland if we want the big city experience. Here in LA, for the same, we would be spending at least $2800 a month. What kind of life is it when you are spending all of your time working just to provide a roof over your head and missing your kids growing up because you always have to work? We want to design our lives better than that.

Everyone was friendly to us and people were helpful and took the time to give directions and answer questions that we had, even after we told them we were from LA. I am really looking forward to raising my kids there and building a business in this beautiful and eclectic city.

The most negative things I could say about Portland is that it is gloomy there and that it is pretty far away from anything else as opposed to LA where you are a few hours from other large cities. There are many positives about Portland. It is beautiful, cultural, artistic, affordable and offers a more conducive quality of life for families. It's true that the interest in the city has driven up property values and caused a growth spurt in the city but isn't that a good thing? It creates jobs, improves the city's economy and puts Portland on the map. There are many areas of Oregon to live in which a rural open aspect can easily be attained. I think it would be a sad thing if a city as beautiful as Portland was not open to everyone.

Other than that, I have nothing bad to say about it. It is all in how you choose to perceive it, as with anything in life. If you are looking for negatives, you will find them, no matter if it is with the place, the people or the state in general. I find that people who resist change are people who fear it in themselves and it is a good thing they are moving out to more rural areas where they can preserve their bitter lifestyles. The world is changing. Period. And it affects us everywhere. Resist it and be a miserable human being always pointing your finger out at others and ignoring the three pointing back at yourself. Bend with it and enjoy the countless positives and all the joy that brings along with doing so and protect yourself from the negatives as best you can.

Really, what else can you do in life?

[IH8CALI]

Dan, You call yourself a "Native?" How is this even possible? Do you own a home up here? Do you pay our taxes? Do you vote in Oregon? I am here living, voting, paying taxes and own acreage. I was here before it got bad. By "bad" I mean before it was busy, before it was ugly. How did it become this way? Look in the mirror - Californians came up here with their money and started buying up usefull farm land, nice quiet areas were maybe 4 or 5 neighbors lived on a 300 or 400 acre parcel. It was the Californians that came up here and bulldozed our farms for sub-divisions. Where we used to see nature, we now see over populated sub-divisions. Houses that used to cost $150,000 - $200,000. are now more than double that. We used to putt a long at the speed limit and were friendly and courteous to one another. Now every morning as I drive into work I am tail gated and flipped the bird, and wouldn't you know it if it wasn't a California plate on the vehicles that drive crazy and have road rage attitudes. I understand that Cali is a rat race and traffic is bad and everything is worse in Cali than Oregon. However, why do the Californians want to move up here? I'll tell you, it's because they want what we used to have. You can't move to paradise and still act like you came from HELL. Just as your people have proved our paradise is now becoming HELL. Thanks for ruining our town and in time our State. My advise to all Californians that wish to move here, forget your past as a Californian and start driving, acting and behaving like someone that wants to live in Oregon because it is far SUPERIOR to living in a wasteland like California. If you don't like the truth don't respond with stupidity!!!!

[SandyCo]

I have a friend in Salem who is another ex-Californian.

I don't know if I'd want to live there, and I didn't spend enough time to get to know Oregonions very well.

All of the points made are good ones. I can't imagine moving to a new place and then complaining about it left and right! I get annoyed by people who drive around L.A. with the "I (heart) New York" bumper stickers on their vehicles. If they love New York so much, why did they move to L.A.?!

The same is true for transplanted Californians now in Oregon. If California is so much better, what are you doing in another state? People need to remind themselves why they decided to leave in the first place. And if the pace of life is slower, then slow down to meet it.

On the flip side, though, I can imagine that if you've spent all of your life fighting the freeways in L.A., it would be very difficult to get used to a different mindset! I think I would have trouble adjusting for at least a month or two.

[Clear2land]

Hi I hate Cali:

You can choose to keep your mouth shut and have people wonder whether you have your act together or you can open your mouth and remove all doubt. A Native Oregonian by definition is “the place of one’s birth an original inhabitant or one who is born in a certain place or country. Original inhabitants.” I was born at Multnomah Hospital in Portland, raised in Roseburg where I still own land today, and just happened to live in Salem. Oregon is the state of my birth, which makes me a native. I am currently a resident alien of California. Now that we have that settled.

It is obvious to many posters who state that Californians are driving up the cost of Oregon real estate no nothing about economics. The plain facts are 309,000 people migrate to Oregon each year and 300,000 migrate to other states. If you want to be prosperous you have to live in a prosperous area. Labor is a function of supply and demand.

Californians are not to blame for perceived problems of Oregonians. When an illegal Mexican takes your job, Californians will be the least of your worries.

Dan

[Clear2land]

I can understand those 9,000 new Oregon residents making your cities bigger increasing traffic flow and all the building that goes with it. The very same thing you complain about has been going on in California and every other state. Having said that, you can’t keep people from wanting to live there. There are only 500,000 more people living in Oregon than live in San Diego County. Imagine all the people in Oregon living in the Portland area and you have San Diego, which was once a small fishing village. Oregon is still largely undiscovered and will remain so as long as state laws that regulate business remain in place. Without attracting new industries, Oregon will remain a service economy, which keeps wages low because of the skill sets required of labor. You don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist to chop down a tree and haul it off. Oregon is attractive to retirees based on its low cost of living. I do agree that real estate is way to high. If they had to purchase the house they live in at current market prices, only 20% of Californians could qualify for a loan. The high cost of real estate is nationwide and not unique to California or Oregon. Lastly, there are more illegal aliens living in California than the entire population of Oregon.

You don’t have to worry; Oregon’s population will remain low unless or until illegal aliens discover job opportunities in the agriculture industry. The construction industry is using illegal labor as well, which takes higher paying jobs from its resident citizens.

Dan

[snb3]

A good barometer for judging near-future illegal issues would be any Home Depot parking lots. I started noticing it a fews yrs back here in Metro LA. As you know, LA is a safe haven, mecca and home for all things illegal (or undocumented). Until recently you had groups (up to maybe a hundred) just standing around, waiting for prospective employers. Today (and many other recent days), Illegals are approaching anyone & everyone (who wonders what they're actually saying, speaking in Spanish only). Their numbers are ever increasing & many were wandering about in the parking lot looking very intently into cars. This in the Hollywood Home Depot, where Steve Stifler from American Pie worked before being "discovered". I count the days until someone is assaulted, killed, raped,etc here. I see a flashpoint living on borrowed time.
So if you this in front of your local HD, its only a matter of time. And you thought the Salvation Army was bad.