Oregon

Have you lived in or visited Oregon? Tell us about it!

McMinnville

McMINNVILLE, Yamhill County, Oregon, USA (North America) — May 2019 — I moved to McMinnville, Oregon (zip code 97128) about 18 months ago. I moved because I wanted to be closer to my family, who lives in Newberg. Rental prices and availability are very difficult here, so I ended up here in McMinnville, about 15 miles south of my family. AT first I liked it here. It is in the middle of a vast wine country, with over 50 wineries. It is very beautiful when you drive around the outskirts. The Main Street has coffee shops, antique shops and a lot of wine tasting rooms. There is a huge Air and Space Museum. Linfield College is here, and there are many events. You could probably go to an interesting event every weekend. It could be lectures, plays, live music, book readings, and so many other fun fun things. But I need to circle back to my original problem. Housing is very expensive. I live in a very modest apartment. But it costs me 41% of my income. That is considered housing scarce. And EVERY activity costs money. The going price is $18 and up. I just can’t afford to go to these wonderful things. Even a community BBQ in the park cost $10. So though there are many good things here, I am shut out from enjoying them. There is a second serious problem here, and that is homelessness. The city has interpreted laws controlling homelessness loosely, so McMinnville is known as a place to come and live in your RV’s and tents. There are whole streets lined up with broken down RV’s surrounded by trash. The areas are unsafe to even drive through. There are tent cities that are right on the main drag, in front of city hall. The drug use is rampant. I live two blocks south of the soup kitchen, so I worry about crime. The city has shown great reluctance in doing anything at all about the problem. Week after week citizens pack the city council meetings demanding action, but the council does nothing. This homeless problem ruins any charm that McMinnville has. I will stay here, because I want to stay close to my family. I keep a small circle of things that I do with my life. But economics and the homelessness really make this an undesirable place to live.

Salem

Oregon, USA (North America) – December 2018 — I live in the city of Salem and the state is Oregon. The town is a great time. They have a large selection of businesses. The streets are very busy during the rush hours, mainly because they have only a couple main streets. We have a large amount of very well priced homes and the streets are very quiet. You can rest in your home without noise. We have a large concentration of skilled laborers. People that repair your car or home, do your lawn or can be great employees for your own business. The layout of the town is spread out. With three main sections. We have a good size downtown, not huge. Outside of that we have two main streets, Lancaster and Commercial, filled with a variety of businesses. In-between all that is the robust sections of small streets with plenty of homes. We also have many mobile home parks. The weather is nice to be around. The winters can be very cold and rainy. The trees drop dead leaves before and during winter and makes a beautiful landscape. During the spring and summer the weather warms up a good deal and the landscape is filled with trees and plant life. The night life is not much to write about, mainly just bars no night clubs.

Salem

Marion County, Oregon, USA (North America) — June 2018 — I was born in Salem, Oregon in 1995. I have lived there all my life. For the most part it was a pretty good place to grow up. Like most cities, it had a inner city which had more poverty and an outer layer of more rich people. I grew up in the middle of the city. Not that my family was poor but that’s just where they chose to live. Since it’s Oregon, it pretty much rained almost every day. The summers were really nice and pretty hard to beat honestly. But the rest of the time it was just a town with nothing to do besides go see a movie and go find some sort of food to eat. There weren’t any great activities and nothing super interesting ever happened. The big events that would occur were mostly in the Summer and at the riverfront park. I think most of the time people would live the city and go to nearby cities and towns for a little more fun. The total population is about 300,000 people.

Portland

Multnomah County, Oregon, USA (North America) — June 2018 — Portland, Oregon, USA 1950’s through 2000 I was born in Portland in the late 50’s and lived right in town in a working-class neighborhood. Portland in the 50’s and 60’s was a great place for the working man to live. There was lots of work and wages were climbing. Schools were plentiful and good for children. Stores were everywhere and well stocked. Rent and utilities were cheap. Gas was twenty-seven cents a gallon. People were optimistic and still believed in their government. In the early 70’s everything started to change for the worse — not all at once, but noticeable enough to a person like me paying attention. I blame the changes on many things — not one thing… (1) Escalation of the Vietnam war. (2) Racial tensions across the country. (3) The Peace Movement. (4) The threat of nuclear war — Cuban Missile Crisis and Russia’s rise as a military power. (5) Recession hits the country from 1970 through 1980. The working man and his family living in Portland turned inward to shut-out the noise of all the negative things happening in the world and in Portland. Work was harder to find. Schools and neighborhoods were in turmoil from racial tensions. Neighborhoods were not as safe as they used to be. Crime and negativity were on the rise. My close friends and I believed we would not live past 30 years of age. We all started to drink and smoke to soften the pain. Sex, drugs, rock and roll and anti-government protests were all we thought about. This was a dark period for me and my friends… Of course, for those of us who did not self-implode, the 80’s ushered in a new era of prosperity and optimism for the good people of Portland. Life goes on in Portland and we need to embrace what is good about the future…

Gresham

Multnomah County, Oregon, USA (North America) — April 2018 — Gresham is not a bad area to live. I like the selection of stores and foods available in the area. It is a relatively calm place to live. It’s clean with a nice variety of plants and trees. It is fairly easy to get around Gresham because of Trimet, which is Portland’s public transit system. Trimet’s territory is quite vast, reaching the populated areas of Gresham and extending to the Expo Center, Clackamas Town Center and the airport. I dislike that public transit in this area are frequently late, which makes getting places on time a challenge. Gresham is a suburb in the east section of Portland. It is a nicer part of Portland than other areas with higher quality homes and schools. Crime in Gresham is slightly lower than the rougher sections of Portland. The housing market in Gresham is very limited and highly competitive. Renters have great difficulty securing housing at a reasonable price but also keeping it. If a property owner feels they can get more money from someone else, either they raise the rent prohibitively high or they serve a 30 day no cause notice. Mt. Hood Community College is also located in Gresham which is very well respected. College kids attending are very respectful of the surrounding residents and never cause a problem. The college offers a wide variety of programs such as dental hygienist, mental health, business and environmental sciences. The college also has its own radio and TV broadcasting channels to support students studying those disciplines. There are the common food places to eat in Gresham such as fast food locations, Red Lobster, Olive Garden etc. To enjoy more local and unique cuisine one must go to downtown Gresham. There are plentiful locations offering farm to table meals and shops with handmade gifts.

Gresham is not a bad area to live. I like the selection of stores and foods available in the area. It is a relatively calm place to live. It’s clean with a nice variety of plants and trees. It is fairly easy to get around Gresham because of Trimet, which is Portland’s public transit system. Trimet’s territory is quite vast, reaching the populated areas of Gresham and extending to the Expo Center, Clackamas Town Center and the airport. I dislike that public transit in this area are frequently late, which makes getting places on time a challenge. Gresham is a suburb in the east section of Portland. It is a nicer part of Portland than other areas with higher quality homes and schools. Crime in Gresham is slightly lower than the rougher sections of Portland. The housing market in Gresham is very limited and highly competitive. Renters have great difficulty securing housing at a reasonable price but also keeping it. If a property owner feels they can get more money from someone else, either they raise the rent prohibitively high or they serve a 30 day no cause notice. Mt. Hood Community College is also located in Gresham which is very well respected. College kids attending are very respectful of the surrounding residents and never cause a problem. The college offers a wide variety of programs such as dental hygienist, mental health, business and environmental sciences. The college also has its own radio and TV broadcasting channels to support students studying those disciplines. There are the common food places to eat in Gresham such as fast food locations, Red Lobster, Olive Garden etc. To enjoy more local and unique cuisine one must go to downtown Gresham. There are plentiful locations offering farm to table meals and shops with handmade gifts.