My thoughts on the portland area:

[JBird]

This is why young people retire here. I've been to cities in Switzerland, France, Ecuador, and in the US and I'm pretty sure Portland is my all time favorite city in the world.

[djjerme]

Voodoo Doughnuts is overrated.

Thank you!!

They are garbage..

[JBird]

Thank you!!

They are garbage..

Cupcake Jones in the Pearl near Ben & Jerry's sucks ass too. Dry and overrated.

Go to Two Tarts on 23rd for excellent coffee and cookies/tarts.

[butters]

I'm 23 and get to spend a year in Portland for my first job out of school, I'm pretty lucky as I could have easily ended up in Ohio, WV, or any of several "meh" locations (no offense to those places lol). First month has been great, the Oregon BMW cca is very active and welcoming, been on a couple beautiful fun drives already, and loving the weather so far. plus E30 parts are alot more plentiful and generally less costly on the west coast, which is great.

stereoinstaller are you in Portland, not Washington? I'm slowly doing my interior and after that will likely be some audio work which I'd absolutely love if you could do! I have that alpine pop-up nav/sirius/traffic that we discussed months ago, with basic rear speakers and stock fronts and sound quality is pretty bad. I'll probably have what's in there pulled out and opt for a more subtle HU with good speakers, if I can get some cash for the nav.

[StereoInstaller1]

I lived in Vancouver WA for 15 years, basically it is a suburb, right?

I have also lived in PDX, all over the place from Milwaukie to Gresham, Oregon City/Linnville, Tigard, Aloha and even SE PDX...but am in the Seattle area now, which is where I belong, for the most part.

[KenC]

Dude, Devil's Point has "Stripparaoke" on Sunday nights. Yes, it's exactly what you think it is.

They set up a mic and shit on stage and you belt out 80s hair metal ballads while chicks strip on stage with you 8).


FWIW, there are like a dozen other clubs just like Devil's Point.


When are you moving out here?

[KenC]

This is cross posted from reddit.

I was in town from Monday to Saturday - it was my first time to Portland and to the west coast. Here are my observations incase anyone is interested:
1. Devil's Point is by far the best place I have ever been. I went 3 times throughout the course of the week and already miss it. It was the best $600 I've ever spent.

2. The homeless people in portland are different than here. It seems that they are homeless by choice rather that it being the result of mental illness, physical deformity or whatever else. They are also younger than I imagine most homeless people to be. All of that aside, I found them all to be rather up-beat and humorous.

-There are a lot of young transients that move here.



3. The food there is awesome - but strange. Everything has "aioli" - whatever the hell that is. Pub food is more gourmet than what I consider to be pub food (wings, nachos, fried cheese). The mexican food is strange. Otherwise, everything was priced well and delicious.

-Aioli is fancy mayo.
-Which restaurants did you eat at? You stayed at the Ace, so I'm assuming you ate at Clyde Common? Amazing place. Unreal Happy Hour food for the price too.



4. I honestly expected to experience some degree of elitism or pretention - and I was pleasantly surprised. Everyone seemed to be very welcoming and withholding of judgement. I felt very, very comfortable there - more so than I do here in Texas.


5. The population is very obviously more liberal. Tattoos, piercings, clothing....all very different than Texas. Similarly, there seems to be less of an emphasis on status than there in in TX - which I appreciate. All in all people seem to be far more humble and real that what I'm used to. No one seems "manufactured".

6. There are some cool old cars in Portland. I saw 5 BMW 2002s (I have a 76), a BMW e30 baur cabriolet, 3 alfa romeo GTV6s (my first car) , a ton of other alfas, a Citroen 2cv6 and a puegot.

-Without salt to rust away old cars, there are definitely some cool ones on the road here. The owners of local BMW shops definitely have some sweet old Bimmers. I saw a 3.0CS yesterday, actually. A friend of mine even has a Renault R5 Turbo hatch.



7. You guys have some ballin' fixed gears. They were all over downtown.

-LOL, every hipster and their sister rides a "fixie"



8. Voodoo Doughnuts is overrated. It was good but not worth the 30 minute wait. The skateparks are also overrated. The strip clubs are NOT.

-Did you go to the Newberg skate park? It's like 30min south of Portland.
-Voodoo isn't worth a 30min wait... no doughnut is. They're definitely better than average though. Being open 24hours is cool too... there's nothing better at 3am when you're hammered than a doughnut the size of a dinner plate covered in crunch berries haha.


9. I love the hotels downtown. I stayed at Mcmenamins crystal hotel for 2 nights and at ace hotel for the rest. I had cat power and thoreau themed rooms, respectively. I was surprised however to find that not all hotel rooms include a bathroom. That was weird. Also, parking downtown is insanely over priced. I get why people cycle.
-The Crystal Hotel just opened a few months ago. It used to be a hotel around the turn of the 20th century, so bathrooms are definitely not in every room. Was that the case in the Ace too? I know it's an old place that was renovated too.

[Mlarsen]

Seattle is better than Portland.

[KenC]

Seattle is better than Portland.

More people, two shitty sports teams, and more rain.

[george graves]

Have you seen the women in Portland? Ummmm. Yea.

[bmwm42]

Have you seen the women in Portland? Ummmm. Yea.

Care to elaborate im not sure if what your saying is a good thing or not?

[george graves]

[KenC]

LOL, all of those live in NoPo.


It's no LA, but it's definitely not a famine here.

[Mlarsen]

More people, two shitty sports teams, and more rain.

Those all may be true but, it's still better.

Btw.... Sounder>Timbers ;)

[george graves]

If you like chicks that don't shave...move to Portland.