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Comment by Pakourama | Hacker News Reader

Probably the rampant unemployment, underemployment, low paying jobs if you can actually get one, and the huge homeless population which is more a reflection on how abysmal the city and local economy is than those unfortunate enough to be homeless themselves. Don't forget the nonstop rain and suicide hotline numbers posted on every bridge or parking garage higher than 20 feet, since nearly everyone is cranked out on antidepressants or else they'd be leaping into the Willamette river with cement shoes on too.

When I lived there and had visitors from out of the area, everyone commented on how depressing the place was. Not a good place to live or raise a family. If you like the Pacific Northwest, go with Seattle, yes the weather is still crap but the city is vibrant, has real jobs with real wages, and you can actually build a career there.

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Wow, can't believe all of the negative comments on here towards Portland. My wife and I moved here a couple months ago and can't stop thinking about how much we love the place. We were just joking last night about how if we listened to people on the internet, we would have never made such a great move out of fear we would be depressed and living in the streets. We've had a completely opposite experience from the points listed here:

1) Impossible to find a job? My wife just applied to 3 companies and got offers from all 3 within one month of us getting here, all paying equal or higher to her previous jobs -- and we knew literally zero people when we arrived.

2) Filthy and disgusting? Sorry, I've seen some disgusting shit (literally) on the streets in some of the other cities mentioned in this thread. People have tattoos and piercings? I'm surprised that bothers anyone. Who cares.

3) Rain? Sure, it rains. Not many cities have perfect weather. Where I just moved from (Austin), it has been 105 degrees for 70 days straight. That can be pretty depressing.

Since we've been here, we've gone to O'Reilly's OSCon, went to multiple beer festivals, went to multiple block parties, went to the coast, visited Cannon Beach, Rockaway Beach, Cape Meares, went to the Columbia River Gorge, saw many waterfalls, saw the Shins perform live in a small bar, also Phife from A Tribe Called Quest. Frequently visit amazing coffee houses and breweries, went to a neighborhood picnic, ate at a jillion food carts for less than $5, worked at a free coworking space downtown, walked/jogged/hiked in many beautiful parks, and browsed badass bookstores.

I like the food better, the public transportation is better, the rent is affordable, it is bike friendly, there are beautiful flowers in the neighborhood, the people are chill.

Depressing? Not at all.

I moved to Portland from California in 2001. I love it here, and can't imagine ever moving back. That being said, the big adjustment for me (and for many folks moving from further south) isn't the rain. It's that the days are so much shorter in the wintertime, and even when the sun is technically up, you can't see it through the cloud cover.

It's easy to love Portland in the summer (and, having grown up in Sacramento with weeks of temperatures over 110 degrees, I was very surprised to discover that I actually like summer now). The real test is whether you still love it in the middle of your second or third winter. ;>

Another Sactown => PDX refugee here. Pretty much love the weather year round. But I loved Sacramento's rainy winters, so I'm likely wired that way. It's taken a while to adjust to the idea that summer is a season where you actually go outside instead of hiding indoors with a/c.

I resonate with the "filthy and dilapidated" comment though. I blew off Portland as a dirty industrial town for a lot of years before moving here. It still has a lot of that heritage, and if you're from a place that constantly tears things down and rebuilds, you likely won't understand it here.

I'm a life-long Portlander, and absolutely love the place. I'm glad that you and your wife have been having a good time thus far- it can indeed be a great place to live and work. It sounds like you guys have been getting to experience a lot of my favorite things about the region, which is great to hear- many newcomers don't get out as much as you guys are. That said, however, Pakourama raises some valid points, and I think it's incorrect to dismiss them out of hand.

Portland does indeed have an extremely high homeless population, and there are real structural issue with how the city deals with that problem. Depending on where and how you live, it's possible to ignore that problem, or to not fully appreciate how bad it is, but believe me: it's real. It's also gotten a lot worse in recent years due to the economy as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our local VAs have brought on extra social workers to try and deal specifically with homeless vets, and the various homeless services agencies have been expanding, as well.

We also have inflated unemployment, mostly because the city's such a nice place to live that lots of people move here without a job, or, when they lose their job, don't leave. If you've got technical skills, it's a great time and place to find a job- but if you don't, there are way fewer options than it might seem, and it is can be an extremely competitive job scene. It's like that everywhere, I know, but for whatever reason it's especially bad in Portland. I am (honestly, no sarcasm) thrilled for your wife that she had such an easy time finding a job; not knowing anything about her, I can say that if she's not a techie than hers is the first such story I've heard from a new arrival in Portland over the last few years. Far, far, far more common is the "well, I picked up a few hours here, and a few hours there, but I can't find anything full-time, and I've been looking for six months, etc. etc."

Regarding the weather- winters in Portland affect everybody differently. SAD is indeed endemic; my GP blames it on wide-spread vitamin D deficiency, but who knows. At least in the 1990s, Portland did have an above-normal level of teen suicide. I don't think the rain here is any worse than Seattle, and from what I've heard the SAD issue is about the same up there as it is down here. But it's a real thing... you'll know what I'm talking about when we get a freak-occurrence sunny day in Feburary (typically, it will have been raining or at least completely overcast for three or four months by that point) and suddenly everybody around you seems ten times happier.

Anyway, welcome to Portland, and like I said, I'm glad you're enjoying it. I love it, myself, and feel like the positives vastly outweigh the negatives. But it's important to have a complete and balanced view of one's city, and Portland definitely has room for improvement.

Thanks, appreciate the thoughtful reply. Didn't mean to paint it as perfect or dismiss the city's problems, just trying to balance out the very negative posts that started in this thread with a positive perspective. My wife works in health care and brought with her good experience, so things have worked out well. Before we made the move, we read many negative posts on city-data.com forums about the downsides, so I am aware that there are many issues -- it's just that those posts almost scared us out of a move that has turned out to be a great decision, so I feel the need to throw some positive job stories into the mix.

Ah, yes, health care- the "other white meat" of stable job fields. :-)

And I'm glad you decided to check the place out in spite of negative posts!

I lived in Portland for four years and loved it there. The city is wonderful for so many reasons, especially if you like good food and great beer.

However, I hate to let you down, but if you've only been there a couple months, you have not yet lived through a Portland winter. It's certainly not unbearable, but the weather does take a drastic turn for the depressing.

In any case, I'd like to move back there eventually. From the cities I've been in, Minneapolis and Portland are about tied for the nicest.

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