Portland or Seattle? (oceanfront, home, neighborhoods)

[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?

[Nell Plotts]

Why are you asking?

[texasdiver]

I've lived for years in both cities

Nature: Portland has better beach access with the Oregon coast not far away. Seattle has better mountains and water (Puget Sound) access. The mountains in WA are dramatically larger and more rugged than in OR.

Architecture: I think Portland has better urban design with the Pearl, smaller blocks downtown, and better streetcar neighborhoods. Also better close-in transit. It is just a more walkable city. To me that is more important than the actual buildings. Just a guess on my part, but Portland probably has better preserved old historic buildings, Seattle has more interesting modern architecture.

Seattle has a bigger younger professional crowd by far due to being a MAJOR university town with UW as well as home to far more tech companies than Portland.

Portland has a better food scene for some reason. Especially vegan food and food carts. Seattle has many more high-end destination type restaurants that most can't afford to go to.

City Life: Portland is more parochial/regional in flavor. There is a lot of celebration of local Portland and Oregon stuff. The best Portland brewery, the best Portland cheese, etc. Portlanders obsess about that stuff and celebrate their local companies. Seattle has a more international world-city outlook and people aren't as obsessed with everything local.

Culture? Seattle feels faster paced and more aggressively achievement oriented. People on average are more careerist. In Portland there is a more casual slacker mentality. Spending your life working in coffee shops or breweries or as a clerk and Powell's is more accepted in Portland. Seattle seems to have more people climbing the corporate ladder. Seattle is also a larger center for immigration so tends to be somewhat more diverse. More Asian immigrants and such. Portland is more white and less Asian. Seattle is less white and more Asian, and slightly more Black. The Hispanic populations of each city are about the same. So, for example, the student population at UW is about 25% or more Asian-American. Nothing anywhere in Oregon or Portland comes close to that.

Ambiance? Portland is a river factory town that is historically dominated by blue collar manufacturing, food processing, and regional distribution. It was more of a maritime city in the past but that is fading. Seattle is much more of a maritime city and center for world trade. Without looking it up, I suspect it is the largest port north of Long Beach, certainly if you include Tacoma it is. And it is the headquarters of the Alaskan fishing fleet so it is just dripping in maritime traditions, seafarers, unions, that sort of thing.

Which one to live in? If you are aggressive and want to get ahead professionally in life, Seattle is going to have more economic opportunity across the board. If you want a cheaper place to live a more relaxed lifestyle on lower income than Portland is likely better. Put another way, if you are a software engineer or some sort of corporate manager, Seattle is likely better. If you are a barista or retail clerk, Portland is likely better.

[bergun]

Neither at this point.

[Hemlock140]

If I had to live in one or the other I would take Portland, despite the recent riots. I would just avoid the downtown areas, as I would in Seattle.

- access to nature and grandiose scenery (how far is the drive?) Both good, but Seattle has shorter drives to lakes, rivers, mountains, farms. Portland has shorter drives to more waterfalls and oceanfront.
- modern architecture Seattle
- younger professional crowd Seattle (Thanks to Amazon with 50,000 headquarters employees)
- food scene Very similar until COVID, Seattle has more/better seafood, Portland has more/better food trucks.
- 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?) Haven't lived there but it does seem like a small city compared to Seattle.
- people People in Portland seem friendlier
- walkability Very much the same in downtown areas, farther out Seattle gets the nod
- culture Seattle

[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?

[texasdiver]

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?

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.

[BBMW]

If the OP waits six months to a year, he/she will likely to be able to get something in either a lot cheaper. Then again, there may not be anything in either worth moving their for.

[SusVelo]

Originally Posted by BBMW

If the OP waits six months to a year, he/she will likely to be able to get something in either a lot cheaper. Then again, there may not be anything in either worth moving their for.

Let's check back in a year.

[Guineas]

Seattle for sure. Reading your first post already seems like you have doubts about Portland and its size.


Sunrise. Own work.


Seattle with Cascades in background and Queen Anne neighborhood on the left, own work

You're also closer to Vancouver BC and the national parks in Seattle.