What is it about Lebanon?

[jjpop]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Because Corvallis is rather conservative,. It is only "university liberal" and voting with the inexperience of youth. That is an agricultural college and those students are most likely to turn conservative as they grow up. It's just the students and the university professors who are "progressive" (socialist), not the whole town.

Yes, forestry students are very likely to be concerned about the ecology. That doesn't make them liberals. What is this misconception that conservatives can't take care of the planet? Oregon was doing just fine until the liberals took over and set out to destroy the forests with neglect.

Well I lived there for 10 years and couldn't disagree more. Corvallis's permanent population is very liberal.

[Hawk J]

City of Corvallis has free bus rides...

City of Corvallis, OR : Bus Fares / Fareless

[Lynn 123]

Originally Posted by karlsch

I lived in Lebanon in the late 80s to the mid 90s.

Corvallis, no problem, even during the workweek . Eugene might be a little too far.

Thanks Karlsch

[Lynn 123]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

Out-of-area undergrads don't necessarily vote in Corvallis. They can, and often do, remain registered in their home precinct. Those who care enough to vote at their age are usually more emotionally invested in their home towns.

Corvallis seems to have a more mature brand of liberalism than Eugene. Patrons-of-the-arts and intellectual types as opposed to hippy-dippy happy and all up in the tie-dye.

Anyway, there's absolutely nothing wrong with Lebanon AFAIK. It's in a really beautiful area -- drive the back road through Holley to Sweet Home sometime.

Looks like it has public transit of sorts -- Dial-a-Bus -- primarily a senior service but it looks like anyone can use it. You call them 24 hours before you want a ride somewhere.

Transportation | City of Lebanon Oregon

It *is* beautiful out there. The other place that caught my eye is the area between Sweet Home and Brownsville. Sweet Home is pretty but I don't think I'd want to live there. Feels like too much meth. I expected to see a 4x4 with a confederate flag at any moment...

IDK, I may be outpriced at this point anyway, but all this is good to know just in case. I'll have to make another trip up there soon.

[Lynn 123]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

There is nothing wrong with Lebanon except for a shortage of living wage jobs. Like many Oregon towns, Lebanon suffered when the lumber industry was killed off. Lack of high paying jobs keeps real estate prices down.

There is no "commuting for groceries". There are a several nice stores to shop at.

I think that casual passers-through get the wrong impression of Lebanon because the highway doesn't go through the best part of town. The highway east of town is not the only conditions you can find in Lebanon.

Just recently, there has been some new shopping going in and the town is looking a bit more prosperous.

OP, every place in Oregon is conservative except for Portland and Eugene, and possibly Ashland.

You mean the east to west highway right? Not rt 5...

Thanks OWS. I went through Lebanon and tootled around. Checked a couple roads. Checked out a park or 2 on the river. Looked at the outside of a few empty houses. I didn't check any of the roads too far in north or south. Something gave me the creeps and I'm not sure what it was, so I didn't spend as much time as in Corvallis. I remember I got the creeps almost as soon as I came into town. Maybe it was squatters I didn't see in one of the houses AND someone creepy at the park, IDK.

I did find out some of the water table there has arsenic. Doubt if that had anything to do with it though.

I'm pretty outpriced at this point, but I should just go up and check things out again in case a small miracle happens and prices go down.

I'm not sure about everywhere being conservative. And really, the question for me is not if a place is conservative or not, but how conservative. Or how mixed. I tend to have friends on "both" sides, but sometimes there is a limit in either direction, lol. I found Corvallis, Cave Junction and Talent to be fairly liberal, or to at least have a liberal community. And Applegate is said to as well. I don't really like Southern Or as much though.

[Lynn 123]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

Well there are a lot of things and it is a matter of perspective.

It was a timber town and like other timber cities didn't have a diverse economy. So good jobs (other than retail type of jobs) are scarce. I do think it is a city on the upswing though.

Their schools haven't been considered stellar in the past especially the high school. It got really poor marks. It is improving, but slowly.

It is conservative and churchy, but a lot of small town Oregon is. Small towns, generally speaking, are conservative and churchy.

There was a large chemical spill there that impacted water and wells for a while. I want to say it was about 10 years ago. I don't think that impact people not living there.

Distance. People working in Corvallis/Albany often chose to live in Albany which had a similar cost of living a while ago, but now Albany has grown tremendously in the past decade. A 30-minute drive is a long drive by Oregon standards for commuting.

So I think the issues were Lebanon were that schools weren't great and there wasn't a good job market. There are some beautiful parts of Lebanon, but you won't see that on the main strip which is kind of ugly.

Thanks Silverfall. Is it churchy in the "oh, come to church with us" or is it more like hell and damnation to the unbelievers? I'm a sloppy Buddhist, so, I don't care what people's religion is as long as they don't care about mine.

"There was a large chemical spill there that impacted water and wells for a while. I want to say it was about 10 years ago. I don't think that impact people not living there."

Thanks. I'll check that out. I read a report that stated there was arsenic in the water table in the area, don't know if it had to do with that or not. I got the impression it was naturally occuring.

"but you won't see that on the main strip which is kind of ugly."

It was ugly. I'll need to check it again. Prices went up again and I think I'm out priced at this point, but I should go up in case there is a small miracle and they go down.

I don't mind it being 30 minutes from Corvallis, but am thinking it's distance from Eugene is a bit far. There doesn't seem like a whole lot to do in Corvallis compared to Eugene.

[Lynn 123]

Originally Posted by DKM

Compared to its peers, its generally the lowest ranked in liveability categories I can think of. Peers would be McMinneville, Dallas, Stayton, Independence, Woodburn, Mollala, Junction City etc. It may be the most isolated on the list too. There is nothing nearby and its not on the way to anywhere significant.

Thanks. I guess that's the reason. Corvallis is nearby, but there doesn't seem to be much to do in Corvallis if you're not a student. Other than eat bagels and drink wine. You're right though, it would be easier to get to almost anywhere other than Corvallis in the other towns.

I have to say the Veterinary school in Corvallis rocks. I went up there a few years ago because I thought my dog needed an operation. The operation would have been half the price there than in any Veterinary school in N. California. They were thorough. They were also nice enough to tell me that the vet that checked out my dog in Ca never did the exploratory thing she charged me for, AND told me it was a misdiagnosis and he didn't need an operation. Turns out his dog food was contaminated and poisoning him.

[pnwguy2]

I-5 cuts right through this area and again the only city on the freeway is Albany. Drive 10 miles to the east or west to get to Corvallis or Lebanon. I have always felt these cities were disjointed to some extent, but they do offer somewhat of a hub in central northwest Oregon. But Salem to the north is more of a bigger city, and Eugene/Springfield to the south also feels bigger. The highway connections are important in this area, however, to get to the coast and the mountains.

[freidenbach]

Lebanon is a working-class town. Not even a third of people there say they are religious, and I doubt that you'd ever encounter any brimstone. The Willamette Valley has nothing in common with the Bible Belt.

Lebanon has a new-ish medical college (osteopathic), so a certain number of well-paid professionals have moved there. Not sure whether property values will someday reflect that.

As an 11-year resident of Corvallis, I, too, disagree strongly with the poster who said Corvallis is "university liberal."
Corvallis is heavily liberal/progressive. The county commissioners tried to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples years before the state made it legal. It has an active social justice/peace community, including people of color organizing determinedly on their own behalf. It has a Sustainability Coalition made up of more than 50 groups, many of them environmentalist-oriented. It's a Tree City. It has bike lanes on most major streets and mile after mile of bike paths. It has a Science Pub and a Death Cafe. I could go on but I think you get the picture. And OSU is far from an agricultural college; it's a major research university in the sciences.

Corvallis, Albany and Lebanon are "disjointed" because of Oregon land use laws/urban growth boundaries that control sprawl. It takes no more than 30 minutes to drive between any of them. Albany is intermediate to Corvallis and Lebanon in terms of the affluence of the population. It is growing fastest, probably because of proximity to I-5 and lower housing prices than Corvallis.