Oregon Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
So far I love the West Side
And it loves me back. WHY we didn't move out here sooner is BEYOND me.
Re: So far I love the West Side
I don't get you west siders. East side is where it's at! (And isn't it funny how all Portlanders are very much one or the other? I've never met anyone who was ambivalent).
I am glad you found a place you love though!
haha glad you're enjoying it..but i'm so the opposite!...to me it is just complete suburbia and i absolutely can't STAND that...i actually just moved to the east side and am LOVING it...seriously...we feel like our lives in portland finally started now that we're east siders
just out of curiosity...what is it about the west side you love so much? i guess i just don't get it hahah and i'm honestly curious when i ask that! hope i'm not offending anyone by saying that.. i agree that it's crazy how people are one or the other!
Visit my blog about my family's experiments in eco-living
I don't want to offend anybody either! But I lived on the West Side until I was 23, and have lived on the East Side for over 5 years now.
For me...
It's so much cleaner over there.
Customer service is SO much better on the West Side. When you walk into a restaurant or store, you will actually get greeted by an employee! Gasp! And if you are looking for something specific, they will help you! Double Gasp!
The stores on the West Side are so much more put together, organized, and clean. Compare the Nordstrom Rack in Clackamas, to the one in Tanasbourne. Nuff said.
Far less "tweakers" on the West Side. Also, I never saw any hookers until I moved to the East Side.
I literally NEVER see (or ever saw) any kind of gang activity, or a guy getting arrested at a gas station at gun point with 12 cops pointing guns at him. I see this ALL THE TIME working in North Portland.
There's parking lots on the West Side!
The Happy Valley area reminds me a lot of the West Side, and I feel just as comfortable there...
Of course there are pockets of "good" and "bad" neighborhoods on both sides of town, but overall, I really prefer the West Side.
I consider what you describe though Jen as suburbia. To me, Clackamas and Tanasbourne do not equal Portland in the realm of east/west. Close-in SE/NE and close-in NW/SW are the areas I compare as east and west.
But I hate surburbs so that's just me. I'd rather live close in (in really any of those areas) than anywhere else.
Jen, what part of N Portland do you work in??
Ah, I see the "East Side vs West Side" as all encompassing, including Beaverton, Tigard, Hillsboro, and Gresham, Troutdale, Oregon City, etc. Including the urban areas and the suburbs.
So, if we're talking close-in... how close? Like, up til 39th on the East Side, and just the downtown/Pearl District on the West Side?
I don't want to say what area of town I work in, too many stalkers on here! But let's just say, it's super ghetto, there's homeless people sleeping in doorways, and I don't feel comfortable walking into Subway by myself. I see people getting arrested ALL the time. It's almost like being in Mexico, when you see a cop just walking around with his gun drawn, it's just shocking to see that in the open daylight. Scary stuff for this Beaverton girl, lol.
I tend to define the west side up to just past PGE park area where is heads up the hill and east side probably up to 60th ave.
We live in NoPo...it wasn't our first choice of where to buy, but it's where we could afford and we LOVE our house. We wanted close to downtown and easy transit access. There are pockets or not so great areas, but I feel like that is all of Portland....areas of really nice then a few blocks of not so great.
DH and I have pretty much always ever lived in as far east in East Multnomah County that you can possibly get. In fact when I would go on my 4.5 mile running loop, it literally took me through the outskirts of Troutdate, Boring, and Gresham. That being said it gives you an idea just how far out we were.
DH works in NW Industrial and I work Downtown PDX. I am a Trimet commuter so just think about those commutes on a daily basis. A large percentage of our lives were spent commuting daily, and I started to resent my job because of the commute. Not to mention the FREAKS and the TWEAKERS and the neighborhoods in which they reside (or terrorize) happened to be along the way for me to get to work.I have experienced some pretty scary things riding the train over the past ten years to downtown. I began to lose hope that it was ever possible to get to work and back in under an hour without driving and spending a small fortune to park downtown. I just couldn't do it another day. I know it sounds stupid to some, but it's the truth.
So DH and I relocated to the West Side, and we're near Murray/Cornell/Barnes. My commute with bus and train only has drastically changed from 1-1.5hrs/each way to 30-40 minutes each way. DH's commute went from 45 -1.5hrs to no more than 20 minutes each way. We've noticed that the people are 'different' here and we cannot figure it out. Customer service is certainly better too.
We do agree that there are more fun places to eat on the East Side, but we're only 10-15 minutes from downtown or Inner SE, which even then is much closer than we were before we moved.
When people ask us why we moved we tell them a few things; (1) The commute alone has been a life saver, (2) Our rent & living expenses has dropped several hundred dollars a month by relocating to our current residence, (3) We wanted to live some place that neither one of us have lived before so it was like an adventure. Ultimately we've gained more time in our lives, more money in our pocket, and a new experience for the two of us. Perhaps my perspective will change upon the end of our 13 month lease, but I guess that's part of living and learning- right?
I hear ya! I've lived all over SE and have lived in outer SE for the past three years. We just bought a house in SW and I can't wait to move. I'm so tired of the tweakers and not feeling safe around my neighborhood. I also lived in Hawthorne for years and I was over people digging thru my trash and having peeping Tom's at my house.
SW Portland here I come!
Fewer black people makes it better? Um, ok.
What DG said.
And I'm not happier living closer to the beach. I'd prefer to live closer to the mountains, seeing as how Oregon doesn't have the kind of beaches that I generally prefer.
My hubby and I just moved here from SoCal and it has been an interesting change. We thought we wanted to live in the Pearl so we could be in the city, but realized that what we really wanted in our lives was a garage, great bathtub, etc. We wouldnt have found that in the city for less than $2500, and the parking is awesome over here. Here we have no beach....but we do have a beautiful single family, two story house for the price of our old apt!
A different way to look at the demographics: we live in an ethnic neighborhood that I now realize is a little less affluent than others-but that means I have already found great vietnamese and mexican food stores to buy supplies!