Anyone else who has moved to Portland find it vastly overrated? (Clackamas: fit in, apartment complex)

[KJoe11]

Hey OP, you gave it a shot. For that you should feel proud. I hope you think about your Portland experience as more of life's adventures. You never really know what kind of life you want until you actually experience a change.

[FSF]

grayhorse, I understand the OP's complaints except for the weather which EVERYONE should know already if they are thinking about moving to the PNW.

However, I don't get your issues at all as if you can work remotely, why are you complaining about:

1) The lack of jobs
2) The old boys network
3) The economy
4) COL

None of that should be a problem for a SW engineer with skills in today's environment. A LOT of SW engineers work remotely and they get paid a lot. The COL is SUBSTANTIALLY lower than the Silicon Valley as you should know. $200K there is like $70-80K in Portland. If you can even find a Bay Area employer willing to give you half of $200K (and what employer wouldn't be willing to do that today for a quality SW engineer), then you should be happy and living large in Portland.

[Minervah]

1. After friends and loved ones twisted my arm,
   
2. Everyone says the cost of living is fantastic here
   
3. People who say that the occasional rain and gloom doesn’t bother them, really need to understand that this weather is like this nearly 8 months out of the year
   
4. A new bridge was made this year but is off-limits to vehicular traffic.
   
5. The people aren’t as tolerant as the media would lead you to believe.

OP, I am not trying to criticize you, I agree wholeheartedly with many of your findings. I recently moved from Portland because after living there for many years very happily it became an unlivable city for me. So I can understand why newcomers like yourself would find this also to be true.

Now having said that, I listed these things you have said in your post because they are common mistakes made by transplants and they reflect the decisions often made based on hearsay and popular belief rather than research and personal observation.

So, you have discovered the hard truth that when relocating, you have to actually visit, spend time and observe a place for yourself. Check weather patterns on the Internet, look at job situations and salaries, talk to people other than your friends and loved ones who don't have a stake in your moving to a place, check out the traffic during rush hour. Don't rely on anyone or anything but you to determine the best place for you to live.

I've done this and it worked for me. Best of luck in finding your ideal place to live.

[harrishawke]

Now having said that, I listed these things you have said in your post because they are common mistakes made by transplants and they reflect the decisions often made based on hearsay and popular belief rather than research and personal observation.

So, you have discovered the hard truth that when relocating, you have to actually visit, spend time and observe a place for yourself. Check weather patterns on the Internet, look at job situations and salaries, talk to people other than your friends and loved ones who don't have a stake in your moving to a place, check out the traffic during rush hour. Don't rely on anyone or anything but you to determine the best place for you to live.

I've done this and it worked for me. Best of luck in finding your ideal place to live.

Actually I did my due diligence and researched forums like city-data, and visited before the move. The problem was that the consensus stated that Portland had recovered from the recession. What I didn’t find, was that the reality of the labor market is seriously saturated. Usually there are over 100 applicants per open position, and the ones that get preferential treatment are those of University of Oregon/Oregon State Alma matter and non-transplants. Many job positions aren’t even real. They either end up being canceled or are boiler plate ads for recruiting firms. Just look at Portland Craigslist; countless positions that require professional level skills are paying just above minimum wage (usually $10-$20/hour). The county bureau says the unemployment rate is only 4.9%, but that seems deceptionaly low. I wonder what the true rate would be if you counted the underemployed and folks who exhausted their benefits. Before I got temporary work, I saw a lot of people of working age just lounging around at my apartment complex during working hours. Now if the economics of this place were more favorable, I don’t think I would be so alarmed. But this is BIG DEAL. Many people that come here want to buy property, start a business, or be gainfully employed. If the local economics prohibit this, then it really not worth the commitment. I’m just trying to figure out what to do next. Whether I seek a stronger job market such as Seattle (which has dealt and learned to live with transplants since the early 90s) or move to a place with a truly lower cost of living and less competition like Spokane.

[pdxmilw]

There are approximately 100 threads on here telling people they should NEVER NEVER, NO, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES move to Portland without a job.

[harrishawke]

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES move to Portland without a job.

My other half DID move here with a job.

[urbanlife78]

Based on the threads the OP has started, maybe the west coast isn't the right place to be living?

[Yankeemama]

Originally Posted by harrishawke

Actually I did my due diligence and researched forums like city-data, and visited before the move. The problem was that the consensus stated that Portland had recovered from the recession. What I didn’t find, was that the reality of the labor market is seriously saturated. Usually there are over 100 applicants per open position, and the ones that get preferential treatment are those of University of Oregon/Oregon State Alma matter and non-transplants. Many job positions aren’t even real. They either end up being canceled or are boiler plate ads for recruiting firms. Just look at Portland Craigslist; countless positions that require professional level skills are paying just above minimum wage (usually $10-$20/hour). The county bureau says the unemployment rate is only 4.9%, but that seems deceptionaly low. I wonder what the true rate would be if you counted the underemployed and folks who exhausted their benefits. Before I got temporary work, I saw a lot of people of working age just lounging around at my apartment complex during working hours. Now if the economics of this place were more favorable, I don’t think I would be so alarmed. But this is BIG DEAL. Many people that come here want to buy property, start a business, or be gainfully employed. If the local economics prohibit this, then it really not worth the commitment. I’m just trying to figure out what to do next. Whether I seek a stronger job market such as Seattle (which has dealt and learned to live with transplants since the early 90s) or move to a place with a truly lower cost of living and less competition like Spokane.

I see so much truth in your point regarding ala mater from Oregon universities. My kids are growing up here and I know that the communities here are very close knit. Portland is like a big small town but that will change in the next few decades. The SF Bay Area had a similar reputation when I was a kid in the 70's. I remember my neighbor who worked for an insurance company say that if you weren't Italian or Irish you were screwed. Things have changed. Going to change here too!

[smarino]

I thoroughly agree w/ your original posting. There's so many of these posts that sound eerily similar, I think we can all assume it's essentially on the money (I lived in Portland several times, and it mirrors my experience). Very difficult to find friends that are willing to, well, be friends. It's very cliquish, and for sure the weather is depressing. If someone grew up there, then they're acclimated to both the weather and the culture, so none of this probably makes much sense to them. We just sound like biter complainers I suppose.

A little off topic, but this certainly applies to Portland....I don't understand ANY of America's society anymore. Not the economy (what the heck do we actually manufacture here anymore anyway?), nor the politics, nor the obsession w/ media devices, etc. I moved to Portland from San Francisco hoping to find a more down to earth sort of old hippie culture, and it was anything but, even 15 or 20 years ago. Maybe it was there way out on the city limits edges or something, but the city itself is totally urbanized, despite the ersatz green movement, which is a lot of style over substance. Portland never felt particularly progressive, liberal, or friendly. I do miss the bus system, which was pretty darned good. The light rail seemed inordinately slow though, especially compared to San Diego's trolley that really flew down the tracks. They even had signs in the cars when I was there that warned people that they were in a high performance vehicle so be prepared, or words to that effect.

The river front area in Portland worked for me though. I liked that part quite a lot. But it was a city that was never going to feel like home no matter how long I lived there. That seemed obvious.

Why don't you come all the way over to Florida? We did, and it's a mixed bag, but we're still running around in shorts and sandals, and even had to turn the A/C on the last few days. Summers are really, really hot, but the winters are great, and there's the beaches and all. I haven't seen rain in a long time either. The politics are as screwy as anything, and the people are not my cup of tea, but that's everywhere these days. We just moved from the Daytona area to St Pete, and the buses are as good here as they were in Portland, just about. Having a car is not a necessity at all, and of course the cost of living is nothing like Portland or Seattle. It''s an interesting city w/ lots of things going on, but the New Yorkers have really speeded up the pace tremendously, especially downtown.

[sloyd]

Another transplant that doesn't like it here, I don't know how the regulars on city-data are so nice. Portland sucks Blah, blah, lol, GTFO and good luck