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People who enjoyed reading this: Roshi, mulletballet, lowlifi, mlbot, SenorFrio, ignatius, Jim, quicks, mixedtape, opticecho, Otterfan, mapmap, Artsigreg
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HAY GUYS.
I think I have finally talked my wife into moving to Portland, OR this coming summer. We'll be visiting probably in late may and hopefully moving not long after.
So I need some help from ALLL the PDX people here:
whats the best part of town to live in?
I don't need any huge frills, just safe, cheap, and good access to the mass transit system.
We need a 2BR house or townhome, preferrably $1100/mo or under.
Mostly, I just value your advice one what neighborhoods to avoid, etc.
Also, anybody got any good advice on moving cross country without going insane and broke? That'd be nice. This will be a 2400mi. journey. | |
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09/07/07
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mulletballet
If you want to be close to mass transit -- try NE or SE Portland, along the 205 corridor, like the Parkrose area, or Hollywood district, or even Lents once the new Max line is finished (2008-2009) - If you don't mind going west of Portland along the max line, you're looking at Beaverton, but... my personal preference would be 'no' on that.
How much stuff will you be moving? Ryder/Uhauls can be about $500-$600 without the gas for the distance you'd be going, and gas... well... those things drink it like water.
09/07/07
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Roshi
wha? deltasleep in pdx?
We love living in NE Portland...north portland also is still affordable. If you're lucky, you can find good places in SE, too (I'm not too much into the west side, it's too expensive). In fact, there is a lil house next to us with a mother in law apt (basement unit) included for about $1200. Alberta, Mississippi, etc are nice.
Depending on how far out you want to go, it gets cheaper.
Check portland's craigslist for prices.
09/07/07
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mulletballet
Are you looking to buy a house, or rent one?
09/07/07
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lowlifi
Congrats on the decision (hopefully) Dave!!
We will be seeing you up there shortly as well...SF is for the rich..
When we moved across the country we did it with a little less than $500 which included gas for two cars, food and lodging, so you should be able to do less than that..Otherwise have a fundraiser and sell some CD's to help cover it...Depending on how much you want to see on the road, it only took us from Saturday afternoon to reach Portland by 11AM on a Monday..
09/07/07
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mlbot
North portland will get you what little diversity PDX has to offer. An odd mix of boutique and a little hood.
Also, its where all the people who kill their families by hooking the exhaust pipe from their Hearse to their apartment window live, apparently (which makes their "keep portland normal" bumper sticker a bit... literal and ironic link
I live in SE, where $1100 a month can get you a 2bed house no problem. As long as you don't mind sharing the streets with tons of hippies who ride their one speed bikes at night with no helmets and no lights, its great.
Advice for looking at rentals: try to stay below 85th ave and you should be fine. When you start hitting streets in the hundreds, it could be a great location, or it could be "felony flats".
And, yeah, portland craigslist. Also link
09/07/07
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SenorFrio
An up and coming are is North Portland, around Rosa Parks Ave. The Max train runs through this neighborhood now and alot of cool shops and restaurants are opening up there. I'm sure you can rent a house there within that price range. Now, when are the rest of the em411ers moving here???
09/07/07
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tantan
Oh man! Rad! Totally excited to have you moving here!
I'll add to the advice shortly when I have a few minutes to think about it. But, just wanted to say SWEET!
09/07/07
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Psyingo
i should be moving ther in about a month...
no joking. portland though, would like to visit it one day.
09/07/07
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Jim
In my opinion, the great thing about Portland is that it has neighborhoods, each with its own style, groceries, bars, etc. Most neighborhoods are around a major street like Hawthorne, Belmont, Clinton, Division, NW 23rd, Alberta, Mississippi, E. Burnside (around 28th). There's St. John's too, where I live, which is a neighborhood as well.
The basic breakdown is this: Portland is roughly divided into quarters, SE, NE, SW, NW, although people make a distinction between the NW downtown area and the residential area more west and north from there which they call North Portland (where St. John's is located).
Downtown, the west side (SW and NW), is expensive and generally not very neighborhood-like. You might be able to find a 2br apartment for 1100, but probably not a house. There are some ok places in SW, but generally it's depressing apartment complexes and the further west you get, the closer you get to the suburbs like Beaverton, which are dreadful in my mind and not what Portland is about (cool, independent businesses, community-minded).
The east side is more residential, and where most of the streets I told you were neighborhoods are located. Hawthorne, Belmont, Clinton, Division are all located there. As others have said, I would avoid "felony flats" and stay away from living close to Powell or Foster in SE. I would say, try not to live further south than Powell, and not further east than 52nd. The south side, as others have said is mostly white people, but there is a large asian population there too, and so there's lots of great thai and vietnamese restaurants and groceries.
NE I know less about, but Alberta and Mississippi are great neighborhoods.
I live in North Portland, in St. John's. It's an older part of town and it's great, I really like it. The downside is that in some areas of North Portland there is some bit of crime and sketchiness, but in areas like St. John's and Kenton it's not really a concern at all.
Are you going to get a place sight-unseen?
09/07/07
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tantan
I live in the Montavilla / Mt. Tabor neighborhood, far out on the East Side off of 82nd Ave. I mostly agree with Jim's suggestions, however I have to say that this area is pretty prime for decent rentals and has a pretty interesting, diverse population. It's decidedly untrendy, mostly small (2-3 people) families, many youngish. It's one of the few parts of the city where you can still buy a house for under$200k, and find well priced rentals. Jim mentioned the Asian population--very true, also a large Russian immigrant population, and otherwise an even mix of white and black people. I like it a lot.
09/07/07
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deltasleep
We're looking to rent a decent place after looking at as many as we can - we're planning on a week-ish trip in late may 08.
As for moving, I'm thinking about using a service like Door to Door where they drop off a storage container at your doorstep, you load it, and THEY drive it across the country. The prices I have been quoted for moving service range from about $1300-2200 for truck rental- door to door is about 1200-1500.
I am hoping to sell my truck and be able to split a car between my wife and I- if I teach at a public school, I can only imagine its on the transit routes.
Sales of the truck would pay off the moving expenses.
I hope we can buy and settle down, but first we want to rent for a year so we can check out the city and the jobs we get- my wife is a speech therapist and i'm a teacher, so all of our work is contracted. That also means that there will be all sorts of licensing issues to sort out before we move.
But we're really stoked, we love coffee and beer and wild mushrooms, and hippies that we can boss around are a lot better than my neighbors, trust me. We like the well planned, social city and the nice climate.
And I just don't know if I could convince my wife to move anywhere called "Mississippi" 
Oh and also there is more electronic music in PDX in one weekend that there has been in the 17 years I've been in Nashville.
Plus, I told my wife I was famous in portland, so you guys gotta help me out.
09/07/07
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deltasleep
I would love to live in a diverse neighborhood- I've lived among a large SE asian community for the last few years, and they have been(i know, its stereotyping) uniformly good neighbors and nice people.
I've always been told that race relations west of the rockies are pretty tense.
09/07/07
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jdg
lol? tense??!?! maybe only in utah.
maybe the only reason its tense cuz there are 5 black ppl that live in portland, seattle, and vancouver.. they just constantly drive between them... that must be a pain.. that'd make me tense.
09/07/07
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tantan
j we're down to four now after a guy was killed in a traffic accident on I5 yesterday
No but ds isn't wrong, exactly--not so much tense, really, as... how do I put it... immature? We're generally less mixed up (ha) than much of the South and East and therefore you get a bit of the "hey wow, a black person!" reaction in some neighborhood. Again, this is why I like my part of town so much, its diverse enough that folks are sort of over that culture shock. N and some of NE Portland are like that as well.
09/07/07
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jdg
sorry to hear about carl 
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