ok, well what about Portland, Oregon?

East. "hate" is strong, but--
rents are way out of proportion with actual quality of life
public transit is a joke (knew that going in though tbf)
hipster libertarians
too much whitey
"boomtown" feel there is surprisingly shallow/ boring

I lived there from 2001-2005 and just went back last year for the first time in a while to see some friends and was blown away by how the city has changed in the last (at the time) 8 years. East Nashville was not a place you used to want to get too deep into no matter what color you are. Gentrification has some downsides for sure, but it's good for East Nashville.

I guess your willingness to embrace it depends on how many people you know there, though. Once I moved away, several of my old friends actually moved TO there and in the years since I've made a lot of friends-of-friends online and now I'm kind of sad I left.

where are you now?

Atlanta.

ha the girl i'm dating lives there (as far south in midtwown as you can be without being in downtown), so i visit pretty often. i actually dig it there way more than i ever expected to. the PATH trails, Piedmont Park, all the Midtown/ East ATL neighborhoods. and the trees! everywhere!

biggest beef is that downtown seems to be struggling without a strong residential pop. and moving the Braves to the burbs seems short-sighted, even if it makes total sense now demographically.

"What are the pros and cons of each city?"

Somewhat duplicative, but Seattle is more of a big (real, imo) city than Portland (though still not quite a Boston or San Francisco), and probably has more and better-paying jobs and superior cultural/intellectual life, as well as greater diversity (of various kinds) and large bodies of water. Portland, which at last has a river, has more of a tight-knit community of young people of a hip orientation, as well as a few extra degrees fahrenheit, and is cheaper and slower-paced. I would choose Seattle over Portland, easy, but many prefer the reverse.

portland has two giant rivers *ahem*

I've lived in both cities and I prefer the slower pace of Portland. The waspy hipsters are grating and the nearest strip next to our house (Division) has turned into three-mile Pinterest board, but hey our house has jumped $80K in value over the last year so go Portlandia.

while it is exceedingly obvious in retrospect, one thing i wish people told me before i moved to portland is that it is the whitest major city in america. i came here from sf and that is absolutely what i like least about here, though supposedly the trend is improving (full disclosure: i am white)

best thing about portland is the amenities to affordability ratio for sure. there's a crazy amount of delicious, nationally-recognized, relatively affordable food options here and i haven't seen anything remotely like it elsewhere in the country. beer is similar - not only is there an insane amount of beer and breweries and taprooms etc, but prices are better than nearly anywhere else i've lived or visited.

in terms of bike infrastructure, there is also no comparison to seattle. transit is overrated here but i still think it's prob objectively better than seattle. housing prices are definitely better too, though portland has one of the tightest rental markets in the country.

other things portland is famous for:

urban planning and the growth boundary
high levels of civic engagement (this is not always a good thing)
parks and green infrastructure
ppl do not dress up often, which is usually sort of terrible but hey w/e it's liberating
small neighborhood-feel on a large scale
chickens and goats are legal in your yard
the sports apparel industry
food cart pods
across-the-board great thai food (seattle has good thai too but not like us imo)
friendly people (b/c most are midwestern transplants)
voted "most active city" (or something like that) but people eat and drink so much it sorta balances out

superior cultural/intellectual life

i agree with everything in your post except for this

while it is exceedingly obvious in retrospect, one thing i wish people told me before i moved to portland is that it is the whitest major city in america. i came here from sf and that is absolutely what i like least about here, though supposedly the trend is improving (full disclosure: i am white)

The research I've been doing on Portland has been pretty upfront about this. It's one of the bigger downsides on my list of pros and cons.

ban gabbneb

I have been in Seattle nearly two years now and I like it a lot basically, but I haven't visited Portland yet. Also I've been earning $TECHCO money which helps in the bonkers rental market. Our local government is not exceptionally corrupt-seeming though the PD is fucked up, the state tax regime is garbage but could be fixed, tech bros are obnoxious en masse but individually are fine, Seattle is highly unlikely to become "another San Fancisco" even if Amazon hires another 10,000 developers in the next five years b/c the massive structural obstacles to denser multifamily development that plague SF proper don't really exist here. Portland doesn't fluoridate their water, which is kinda nonsensical.

fluoridation thing here is so so dumb. this ties into my civic engagement comment above

"i agree with everything in your post except for this"

We have different understandings of "culture"

transit is overrated here but i still think it's prob objectively better than seattle.

otm and otm

the massive structural obstacles to denser multifamily development that plague SF proper don't really exist here.

tru. even with all the development there are parking lots everywhere. 2nd and pine until recently ffs. one of the many things i love about seattle is that we don't have these massive overplanned developments (south waterfront in portland, all of vancouver) that age at the same rate. it's a big building here, a big building there, knit into the fabric more than a lot of places. (south lake union could be an argument but there's still 20 years of development space)

every ilxor should move to seattle or portland or anacortes or olympia or bend or astoria. world fap in chehalis.

Chehalis is fun just to mock the Rightwing Uncle Sam sign

every ilxor should move to seattle or portland or anacortes or olympia or bend or astoria.

working on it

<3

ftr I prefer Eugene to Bend but would probably rather be in Astoria or Bandon, all things said & done

Olympia is astonishingly tiny

Is Olympia the Northampton, MA of the Pacific Northwest? If not, what is?

Bellingham is just the greatest, too bad about the no jobs thing.

Seattle: more friends there
Portland: more affordable there

This is one of the biggest dilemmas, aside from the whole "they're both 2500 miles away" thing.

Save $$ by living in Portland and drive your fly ass new ride to Seattle whenever you want.

That fly ass new ride is a complicating factor -- a $360 car payment. But yeah, that idea makes sense.

are there publishing jobs?

not nearly as many as on the east coast

xp - No idea. I've been working for a client in San Jose for years, so I can do it from here or there.

You wanna move west and we can be roomies? They'd find us both dead with our hands wrapped around each other's throats, but it would be comedy gold right up until then.

you think? ive seldom found you aggravating (at a safe distance of course)

but no i dont want to live with anyone

hello portlanders!

several ilxors from seattle and various other places will be meeting up on saturday. won't you consider joining us?

saturday, november 22
7 pm
momo
725 SW 10th Ave.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Momo%27s/@45.5197592,-122.682519,18z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x54950a04b0af7579:0xdd974fb0a3048c58?hl=en

Taking the train down, will see you there!

hmmm

I am already spoken for on Saturday @ 7. Have fun, y'all.

Got my bag packed!

yay!!

I'm driving down, seeing yall, and driving back.

hmmm

― sleeve, Wednesday, November 19, 2014 4:32 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

gonna be fun

way sry i'm missing this, part of a general pdx-missing melancholy i've had as the trees don't change here

OK we're in, will be staying with friends that night out in NE

think I might stop by and meet some of you seattle people i otherwise never seem to interact with on here.

looking forward to this!

leaving Eugene momentarily!

road trip music:

Amy Denio - Prodigal Light
Einsturzende Neubauten - Strategies 4
Camper Van Beethoven - 3rd album
Bevis Frond - Inner Marshland
Attrition - Realm Of The Hungry Ghosts

I am in vest w/ buttons, early??

Hey, I hope y'all are having fun. I'm having a particularly boring worknight in Seattle.

:( from me and Estella and Kate and lexy

I Love Everyone

that was super fun! thanks for coming out, portland and eugene and seattle and tupelo and brisbane!

Very nice to meet all of you! Hello from L and I.