Wanting to move to the PNW, looking for advice/recommendations

[Keith M]

No weather extremes but it is damp. I live about a half an hour from Portland in a small town. Close enough to everything but far enough away from the hipsters/occupy freaks/general weirdos of the downtown area. Hope your move is successful.

[JBird]

Look at Hillsboro in Oregon. Cost of living isn't terrible, and you are close to Portland but far enough away that it will feel somewhat "small" which is what you are looking for it seems. Growing industry in tech there but not sure how your liberal arts degree would help. I lived in Hillsboro for 16 years. Population around 90k and I believe it to be growing steadily.

Yep, I have lived in Hillsboro for about 14 years now after moving up here with my parents from San Jose, CA. I think Hillsboro is great. Of course, I also work at Intel and walk across the street to work. I am currently finishing up my degree at Portland State University, so I go into Portland a lot. I would rather live in Portland because that is where all the young people are. But Hillsboro is only about 20 - 30 minutes outside of Portland, and about 40 minutes if you take the MAX train.

I would HIGHLY recommend Portland area over the Seattle area just because of the public transportation. Seattle's public transportation is no where near as great and accessible as the Portland area. Also, Portland is a walking city, especially downtown. Seattle is not. Seattle streets are much bigger and wider and it would take forever to walk most places. But in Portland, the streets are smaller and you can get to a lot of places quickly and easily via walking + the MAX.

I have also heard many times that it rains just little bit more in Seattle than in Portland. Oh, Hillsboro is also great because you are so close to the beautiful countryside. Beaverton is another good area which is in between Portland and Hillsboro. Hillsboro has wonderful Mexican food!

You should come out and visit both cities. Overall though, I would have to say that the West Coast is pretty much the best place to live in the entire US. And, after travelling to cities in Europe (Paris, South France, Swiss Alps, Munich, Ulm Germany), I have to say that Portland is my general overall favorite city out of all the cities that I've been to. It just has everything.

Source: Lived in Hillsboro for 14 years, go to school in downtown Portland, and often go up to Seattle area to visit friends. Oh, and I have also visited Eau Claire, Wisconsin, NYC, and Atlanta, Georgia. The West Coast has the best, most educated, cool mentality and you can see it from the way that people on the West Coast vote. OP, what is your overall mentality compared to the South, Midwest, East Coast, and West Coast?

By the way OP, you should watch "Portlandia" on Netflix. It's a little comedy show all about Portland and what people do in Portland. It's funny but also gives a pretty good idea about what the culture is like here.

[JBird]

Great things about Portland:
Public transportation (MAX)
Extremely walkable
Food Carts
Excellent food and variety
Bridges of Portland
Walking and Biking trails
More trees and greenery within the city
Smaller
Naked Bike Ride
Zoo-Bomb every Sunday night
Forest Park
Oregon Coast
Mt. Hood
The Gorge

Great things about Seattle:
Puget Sound
More tech companies?
Good Food
Legalized weed
Legalized gay marriage
Olympic National Forest
Crystal Mountain
Boating

Bad Things about Portland:


Bad Things about Seattle:
Traffic is horrible
Not as walkable
No MAX

What else to add?

[noE30]

Thanks for the detailed reply jbird. I definitely like getting first hand info from you guys.
Like I said, I really want to make a trip to the e30 picnic this coming year, maybe take a week off work and spend a few days in Washington/Oregon either before the picnic or after to check things out.

[AustinK425]

Competitively Portland wins as far as mass transit goes but whatever were working on it haha A lot of high tech start ups do begin here though.

On the plus side we do have a football team and a baseball team, no basket ball but read some headlines a while back about bringing a team back. E30 picnic is in Tacoma, WA. :D
Snowboarding/skiing is good up here, running up to Canada for the weekend is easy as well.

I mean honestly I think WA is pettier and interesting than OR just IMO plus Seattle has way nicer skyline.



Seriously this park is like 15 mins from kid325e house haha

[AustinK425]

Real talk though haha

[noE30]

Seriously this park is like 15 mins from kid325e house haha

See thats what im talking about. I like the fact that there are so many different "environments" , there's cities, there's mountains, forests, and even a coast line. Im tired of being in the middle of nowhere. Id love to go shoot photos out there.

[Grand525]

If you haven't, you should visit both cities during normal weekdays and weeknights, so you know what you will get yourself in to, before you make your move.

Make a list of things you do want and don't want to have / deal with.

Get into details of how much you will make and how much you want to spend for those things you want to get.

So you will not have too many "i wish i knew".

[djjerme]

Portland:

-Columbia River Gorge.
-Less than an hour from beaches or mountain.
-Extremely dog friendly public spaces.

Seattle:

-Space Needle (and in the words of Anthony Bourdain, "Have you ever seen a spinning restaurant that doesn't suck.")

..just sayin'

Seattle and Portland are like good friends; we talk sh*t, but will always support one another. It just emphasize the isolationist attitude we have, ok for Seattle people to say Portland has always wanted to try to be Seattle, and Portlander's saying we are better because a smaller, friendlier town; but if some outsider talks down to one, the other has their back! It's why we wear the PNW badge with pride in either state!

(and I am Fourth Generation PNW..)

[EN318isPDX]

If you can stand all the rain, terrible drivers and incredibly smug people cough cough its not a bad place to live. Not a ton of bible thumpers either

[Dpiddy]

Midwest SUCKS i grew up in illinois moved out here to seattle back in highschool and love it 10 months of rain is the only thing i have to complain about

[10Toes]

North Tacoma is better than Portland and Seattle.

[iansane]

you should visit both cities during normal weekdays and weeknights, so you know what you will get yourself in to, before you make your move.

:stupid:

Everyone values things differently but the opinions of pros and cons are nice to hear. Bottom line, you need to visit both and hang out in both to make a good decision. Not just the tourist sites but just hangout with the people that live in each place to get familiar with what you'll deal with on a day to day basis. I moved to Bothell, a bit north of Seattle, 2 years ago and while it's an amazingly nice place to live (great streets, close to some fun backroads, hardly any crime around here, and a ton of random little things to do) I am drawn to Gig Harbor/Tacoma area because the expansive shorelines and Puget Sound skylines are what 'feel' like home to me.

I tried living in Portland for a bit and it's just not me. I have a bunch of friends down there and enjoy visiting, but I like to come home. The rain in either place do not bother me in the slightest. I can wakeboard in the rain, I can ride my bike in the rain, I can take my dogs to parks in the rain and I can drive in the rain. Yes, I'm that retard that drives his 'vert with the top down 24/7.

[Mlarsen]

North Tacoma is better than Portland and Seattle

Tacoma is horrible don't move here.

[EN318isPDX]

North Tacoma is better than Portland and Seattle.

Are those R888s? I had a set of Proxes T1R that only lasted a few months, assuming the R888s are the same?

Tacoma is horrible don't move here.

Seattle has NW Pinball/Arcade Expo, I got to meet Walter Day and Steve Wiebe at the 2011 show