Portland or Seattle? (Lake Oswego, Lowell, Detroit: transplants, neighborhood, colleges)

[Guineas]

Puget Sound is so much more impressive than the rivers IMO. Took these on my cellphone last week in Seattle city parks.


Seattle Discovery Park, ten minutes from my house


Seattle Lincoln Park

Took these on my cellphone last week (own work), all in the city limits. It's nice having this kind of wildness in the city. When you want to venture further out, Washington state also has a very robust ferry system that is fun and convenient to take for a day trip. You're in day trip distance to Bainbridge, Whidbey Island, Deception Pass, San Juan Islands, Port Townsend, Vancouver Island etc. That said, Oregon does have a great open ocean coastline, but the plethora of alternative choices in Washington makes me not miss it as much as I thought I would.

Mount Rainier and North Cascades National Parks can also be reached in about 2 hours.

[SusVelo]

I agree the Sound is hard to top. I do enjoy having mount hood, mount st Helens, the Oregon coast, the gorge, and forest park nearby, all within 2 hours or within the city.

[cornsnicker3]

Originally Posted by Code Stemi

Can anyone speak to the friendliness comparison of the metros in relation to the "Seattle Freeze"? Is Portland "warmer", people more approachable, more likely to be friendly etc., than Seattle is?

On average, Portlanders are nicer, but not really courteous. I have met nice and mean people here. Native Portlanders are somewhat reserved and on average dislike Californians more than Seattlites. Being from California is sort of whatever in Seattle, where you might get a dismissive eyeroll from Portlanders.

[cornsnicker3]

Originally Posted by Love_Hope

Consider:
- access to nature and grandiose scenery (how far is the drive?)
- modern architecture
- younger professional crowd
- food scene
- city life (for those who have lived in Portland, does it ever give you a small town vibe, a trapped feeling, or a feeling of boredom?)
- people
- walkability
- culture

Why would you choose one over the other?

- access to nature and grandiose scenery (how far is the drive?) - Better in Seattle, but less crowded in Oregon. There are just less people here in the Portland metro. I can still find wilderness that has hardly anyone nearby and it isn't that much of a pain to get to. Ocean coast access is easier if that is important for your (wave jumping, surfing, etc.).
- modern architecture - Seattle
- younger professional crowd - Seattle, but Portland does attract a lot of aspiring young people to live the subsistence coffee shop lifestyle. Seattle is career driven. Portland is experience driven.
- food scene - Seattle for upper end, Portland for street food
- city life (for those who have lived in Portland, does it ever give you a small town vibe, a trapped feeling, or a feeling of boredom?) - No, Portland doesn't even remotedly give me a small town vibe. Then again, I have actually lived in the small city before. Everything is always relative. Coming from Los Angeles, yeah, Portland feels small. Compared to much smaller cities, it is plenty large. It never gets boring for me. Downtown is large enough and busy enough to find something to do. This is coming from someone that is exceptionally bored much of the time. People that get bored in Portland probably need a NYC or Chicago level of urban stimuli. The only think I think it really lacks is a major university (PSU? come on...) and a themepark.
- people - Seattle gives me the impression of all of the worse aspects of Minnesotans without the courtesy or niceness. At least Portlanders are on the outsider a tad nicer and courteous when the courtesy is given. All too often, I think people in the PNW are just really carefree and don't care to hold a door open for you (man or woman). People here are seemingly more interesting.
- walkability - Downtown Portland I think it is more "moveable" in a sense. Walking, biking, MAX, and Streetcars make getting around downtown a total cinch. Transit passes are also cheap at $2.50 for 2.5 hrs and $5 a day. Seattle's transit nickels and dimes you every time you board.
- culture - I think Portland is a tad more interesting because of its DIY image it has built, but I think both sort of suck. If I wanted real culture in a big city, I would go to LA, NYC, Chicago, etc.

[StealthRabbit]

Portland = Craft beer people (and all that entails) Laid back (generally...)

Seattle = Coffee, and related issues. (More high strung)

Career and professional progress....= Seattle

Quick access to a variety of nature = Portland.


Pick your poison.

People in each place a congenial. The urban PNW is known for not overly friendly (as in an outgoing effort to be your friend). Rural areas and small towns may be more friendly (or not if too redneck / insular). Plenty of friendly rural towns in either state.

Oregon is 'Group think' - responses expected to align with the populace. Go against the grain and you will be ostracized.
WA is... express whatever opinion you have, and I will not be offended, nor will I not continue to be your friend. (even if I am of the polar opposite viewpoint)

[leastprime]

65 years in Ore (midValley)
18 months in WA (Redmond)
Not going to get into this.
If you don't like one place, Move.

[harrishawke]

Portland's cost of living has risen so much in the past decade, I think it would determine on what types of jobs you could get. I don't think I would want to live in either city proper now, but suburbs could be an option.

[rhymeswithcovid]

Originally Posted by Love_Hope

Consider:
- access to nature and grandiose scenery (how far is the drive?)
- modern architecture
- younger professional crowd
- food scene
- city life (for those who have lived in Portland, does it ever give you a small town vibe, a trapped feeling, or a feeling of boredom?)
- people
- walkability
- culture

Why would you choose one over the other?

Why do that to yourself?

Portland has a mass protest happening now because a family took out a second mortgage on their home a decade ago, decided to stop paying because they think they're independent from the US. People are protesting their foreclosure as they'd be homeless. Turns out they have a second home and could have sold the house where they owe a mortgage and had a few hundred k in their pocket. That's not to mention months of protests and aggressive homeless everywhere committing crime.

Seattle had protesters take over a big part of the city this summer making life miserable for people there. It's also overrun by drug addicts and crime.

Nice documentary for you.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WijoL3Hy_Bw

I'd pick somewhere better.

[TheManFromGlad]

That documentary is just a bunch of cherry-picked crap narrated by some nostalgic clown who thinks his local environs owe him some semblance of his long-gone memories.

Somebody could have stood back-to-back with those camera-operators while filming constantly and completely in the opposite directions and painted a picture that would make VisitSeattle.org proud.


You can film only the addicted in any town and make that town look like wall to wall urban decay.

[LongLeggedOne]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

I lived in both cities in my 20s and 30s.

Seattle is chillier. It is hard to meet people unless you went to college with them at UW or meet them through work. It is also more touristy and larger so people are just more stand-offish like New Yorkers or San Franciscans.

Portland has no major feeder university in town so people tend to be from elsewhere and not all part of the same Husky club. And it feels like there are more Portlanders just bouncing around rather than in high-end careers so they don't have as tight of a work network. I knew a bunch of people from Microsoft back in the 90s who pretty much only ever hung out with each other and never let anyone else into their circle. That sort of thing doesn't seem to happen as much in Portland.

Portland has its head up its own a55 though considering that u dont have higher learning colleges. Seems the snobs also are not JUST in Lake Oswego as well, its extends to the low/middle as well.


Seattle I wouldnt like much, but I think it does have an improvement over Portland but in the end, I should have chose Austin but I didnt.