Portland, Oregon

Life in Portland, Oregon, explained by people who’ve lived in Portland:

*Response format = Answer (Your name, How long you’ve lived in Portland)

Portland Favorites

What’s your favorite thing about living in Portland?

The weather. (Aly, 8 months)
Weird people. (Charlie, 2 years)
Rain, the city is walk-able, lots of local shops everywhere. (Les, 3 years)
The old feel. (Sara, 15 years)
I’m no farther than two hours from anything I might want to do. Visit the beach or camping in the high desert, go river rafting or snow skiing, play in the forest, or an amazing meal, or a Broadway play. We have a great Zoo, Chinese gardens, and Japanese Gardens. In addition, any type of food is available here, most any time of day. (Stacey, 20 years)
Work. (Jeff, 36 years)
Friendliness of the people. Natural greenery and majestic views of Mount Hood and Willamette river. (Carol, 38 years)

What’s your least favorite thing about living in Portland?

The drivers. (Aly, 8 months)
Homeless. (Charlie, 2 years)
Extremely overpriced commodities like rent and tuition. (Les, 3 years)
Unaffordable housing. (Sara, 15 years)
Underhanded political games, lack of diversity (people of color), bicyclists. The NIMBY attitude many have. School district is bad. (Stacey, 20 years)
The government that does nothing to keep the city functioning. (Jeff, 36 years)
Traffic…liberals…the weirdos. (Carol, 38 years)

What are fun things to do in Portland?

Watching the snow fall. (Aly, 8 months)
Hiking, shopping, people watching, libraries. (Charlie, 2 years)
OMSI, the farmers market, food carts, live shows. (Les, 3 years)
Multnomah Falls, rivers, coast. (Sara, 15 years)
Walk the waterfront and downtown. People watch at Saturday market. OMSI and the Oregon Zoo. (Stacey, 20 years)
Get out of it, head to the coast, head to the mountains or to east Oregon. (Jeff, 36 years)
Zoo. Omsi. Biking, kayaking, hiking trails everywhere, indoor shopping malls, small theatre shows. Saturday market, farmers markets…foodie town, theatre. (Carol, 38 years)

What’s Portland known for?

Weed and liberal ideas? (Aly, 8 months)
Homeless, weird. (Charlie, 2 years)
Mom jeans. (Les, 3 years)
Not sure. (Sara, 15 years)
Stupid Voodoo donuts. And the Portland sign. (Stacey, 20 years)
Whiny millennials and bums. (Jeff, 36 years)
City of Roses…our roses bloom for almost 10 months and we have a rose festival every June. Strange weird people living here. Portlandia is not a joke. (Carol, 38 years)

What’s the crime like in Portland? (hot spot areas, etc.)

The crime consists of stupid drivers and drug addict thefts. (Aly, 8 months)
Well we’ve seen people steal bricks of cheese and sell them to the taco trucks, and an angry tweeker [pooped] himself while getting arrested by the cops in downtown Portland. And that was just one block. Ahh the homeless… (Charlie, 2 years)
Burnside and Old Town are dangerous. The police don’t care. (Les, 3 years)
I don’t think it’s that bad but let a native Oregonian tell you and they will say it’s bad. (Sara, 15 years)
Outer SE is pretty bad with lots of crime and illegal dumping. (Stacey, 20 years)
Horrible. (Jeff, 36 years)
High crime East Multnomah county along the light rail E Burnside out to Gresham… up and down next and see 82nd . We call felony flats. Other then that Portland crime is not high. (Carol, 38 years)

Any advice for people moving to Portland?

Expect it to be expensive. (Aly, 8 months)
Don’t move to Portland, live outside of Portland, and learn how to merge. (Charlie, 2 years)
Just don’t. (Les, 3 years)
Get a job that pays a lot because rent is crazy. (Sara, 15 years)
Live just outside of Portland proper; it is much less expensive! (Stacey, 20 years)
Please don’t, go to Seattle or anywhere else unless you want to live here and respect it. (Jeff, 36 years)
Have lots of money or plan to cohabitate to stretch the budget, it is very expensive to live here. (Carol, 38 years)

Share an experience you’ve had in Portland (fun, crazy, dangerous, etc.).

Did we mention that we saw somebody [poop] themselves while getting arrested…rented a six person bicycle, ate voodoo doughnuts. Drive in theater in Newberg. (Charlie, 2 years)
Going to the coast is always fun. (Sara, 15 years)
Getting assaulted by bums wanting money/cigs/drugs. (Jeff, 36 years)
Waterskiing on the Willamette river next to a large coast guard ship in the port of Portland jetty. (Carol, 38 years)

How do you think Portland will change over the next 10 years?

I don’t believe it’ll change much. (Aly, 8 months)
Get more crowded, probably more homeless, rent will double. (Charlie, 2 years)
Stupidly expensive. (Les, 3 years)
More people will become homeless due to not being able to afford housing. (Sara, 15 years)
More division in financial levels….the rich will be more rich, the poor more poor. The middle class is being priced out of Portland. (Stacey, 20 years)
Become the homeless capital of the USA, and have worse traffic than LA. (Jeff, 36 years)
More people, lots of high tech companies. (Carol, 38 years)

Any other interesting facts about Portland?

Culturally rich, people bike naked sometimes you may or may not want to see that… (Charlie, 2 years)
Smells like pee. (Les, 3 years)
Lots of micro brews, very LGBTQ friendly. (Stacey, 20 years)
No need to travel long distances to walk on the beach or downhill ski. We’re an hour from the Pacific ocean, and we are an hour to Mount Hood. (Carol, 38 years)