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moving to Porland, OR. i have ???s


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tell me more about your lovely city. i think if i move i'll be living in vancouver, washington though, but maybe making my way to portland after a few months. who knows. is public transpo good? are there any bad areas not to live in? how's the food? are the women nice or just stuck up? etc etc.

just looking to make a change and while i want ot be around music, not sure if i just want to move to just start fresh, and it's either portland or boise. yes, i said boise.

is there some decent punk rock music scene? i mean crust/pv/stuff.

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Line up a job before you get here. Unemployment is unbelievable. And the competition is fierce. Vancouver (or THE COUV as the local Vancouver residents call it...) is a hole. But probably cheap to live in. My girlfriend's mom lives there. We don't visit it often.

Otherwise:

I moved here just over a year ago and have loved it. The weather is great. Nice and temperate in the summer. It was 60 today. It'll be in the mid 60s-70s this week. There will be like 2 weeks of 90's later in July or August. Otherwise 60's-80's. The winter is very gray. There is serious discussion about Vitamin-D deficiency. Temperatures hover in the 40s, dipping into the 30s (maybe even the 20s) in January or February. The rain isn't that bad. I came from the east coast where thunderstorms are biblical. Here it just kind of sprinkles for awhile. No one uses umbrellas. Just shells or light jackets. If you like the sun, visit in the summer. Otherwise the Fall/Winter is like 7-8 months of gray. Not bad. But not for some people.

The food is endless. Portland is a huge foodie central right now. With a lot of focus of local and organic. The farmers markets (the one on the Park Blocks is my favorite) are plentiful and delicious. As are the food carts. And of course the brick and mortar restaurants.

Here's a Google Maps plot of all the Food Carts

and here's a great collection of "the 38 Essential PDX Restaurants"

Public Transportation is great. The Max (bus) and Tri-Met (train) are always reliable and efficiently run. And of course, PDX is very bike friendly. Tons of bike lanes, some bike specific throughfares and parks.

Music venues are kind of shit. The Crystal Ballroom (1600-seater) has a corner stage and sounds like balls for most rock shows. The Roseland Theatre (1200ish seater) isn't bad, but is kind of a dive and has heightened security. The Hawthorne Theater (600-700ish) sucks all around, but somehow gets great shows (I've seen Red Sparowes/Caspian and Thrice/Kevin Devine there). Doug Fir Lounge (300ish seater) is fun, but has a high stage and a low ceiling, so the sound is really condensed. ISIS was fun to see there, though. I haven't seen a show at the Aladdin yet.

Record stores: Music Millennium is the jam. Awesome stock and they have artist in-stores and signings atleast once or twice a week. Deftones did a signing on RSD. They are super supportive of the community and are great at keeping fans satiated. After that Everyday Music is good, they have a huge used selection. And Jackpot Records is okay, kinda small, high prices, but I've found a few good things there before.

After all of that: the beaches are only an hour and a half drive away. Canon Beach is beautiful, very touristy (because of Haystack Rock, which rules). I'm hopefully hitting up Newport Beach this summer. Mountains/hiking/skiing/waterfalls/trails/etc are 30-60 minutes away. Seattle is 3 hours away. Canada is 6 hours away. Don't visit Eugene or Salem. Those places are holes only filled by colleges and meth.

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Also, from my few times visiting Boise, that's actually a pretty fun town to visit.

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I would love to live there, and am extremely jealous of all my friends that moved out there.

Before i moved i was looking for jobs out there but couldn't even get a lead on anything, however my dream job is there. I would honestly kill to work at wieden+kennedy (and yes they were part of a Portlandia sketch).

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Portland is neat. Pretty city, great public transportation and good to ride bikes in. Lots of good food. I enjoy Seattle a lot more but like anything it's all subjective. I would suggest looking into both cities though.

From what I hear the cost of living in Seattle is much higher than in Portland. Rent is cheap as hell here.

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Good luck with the move, Mike!

it's a possibility, but not sure yet. i am moving. just not sure where. if i could move to toronto i'd move there before anywhere. but that doesn't look promising so portland or seattle has always been my next choice because i've lived on every other corner of the continental us. well except florida.. but c'mon.. FLORIDA?

talking to my friend right now about possible move in sept or right after fest, i'm flying straight from florida to boise, to portland. i just have to figure out shipping my half stack as that's the biggest thing i will have to move.. unless i can find someone to rent a car and drive me from austin to portland in a minivan rental. which might be a whole ton of fun. too bad i don't know bands which are touring that i could tour with and hitch a ride up there if that was on their route. and pay for a trailer. we'll see.

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My friend has been living up there for almost two years now. He's doing the couch surfing hippy thing though. I guess right now he is living in a laundry room and sleeping on a futon pad. He said he is coming back for the winter because it's too depressing out there or something. It seems like a really nice place to live with a really cool culture. I've never been there myself, but have heard great things.

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I have lived in the portland area my whole life. I love it here!!! The public transportation rules up here. I have been riding it a lot lately because my car is getting repainted. For the food scene we have a shit ton of amazing food carts. Although our music scene is dying pretty quick. One of the better small venues in downtown portland closed down recently so that kinda sucks. People here are nice for the most part. I dunno, if you wanna know more I guess just pm me. But everything that Sharkticon said I 100% agree.

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congrats! i actually might be in austin sometime in early september. hopefully we can meet up before you peace out!

yes, that would be awesome. i'll definitely be here for sure. i know you're sober, but you're not vegetarian are you? because then we can eat bbq.

whatcha coming here for anyway? wedding? acl? bdsm conference?

yeah i confirmed it yesterday, told my roomie i'm moving late october, but he might get a roommate earlier and i'll just be in the guestroom till i leave.. which is fine by me. i'm sending my stuff (records) via amtrak so all my shit will be there earlier than i will. whoo hoo!!!

sharkiton/eric: i'll be totally new to the city and my roomie is a recluse so i might want to hang out from time to time. hopefully one of you two can show me around and take me to cool food places. because i love food. i promise i won't grope you. :P

hopefully i can find someone to jam out with as i'll have my guitars on me and my amps..

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sharkiton/eric: i'll be totally new to the city and my roomie is a recluse so i might want to hang out from time to time. hopefully one of you two can show me around and take me to cool food places. because i love food. i promise i won't grope you. :P

Down! Yeah dude I'll show you around the portland/vancouver area when you get here. And I love food as well! Maybe a little too much. haha.

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congrats! i actually might be in austin sometime in early september. hopefully we can meet up before you peace out!

yes, that would be awesome. i'll definitely be here for sure. i know you're sober, but you're not vegetarian are you? because then we can eat bbq.

whatcha coming here for anyway? wedding? acl? bdsm conference?

yeah i confirmed it yesterday, told my roomie i'm moving late october, but he might get a roommate earlier and i'll just be in the guestroom till i leave.. which is fine by me. i'm sending my stuff (records) via amtrak so all my shit will be there earlier than i will. whoo hoo!!!

sharkiton/eric: i'll be totally new to the city and my roomie is a recluse so i might want to hang out from time to time. hopefully one of you two can show me around and take me to cool food places. because i love food. i promise i won't grope you. :P

hopefully i can find someone to jam out with as i'll have my guitars on me and my amps..

one of my best friends lives in dallas/fort worth and promised to take me to austin next time i'm down, which will most likely be early fall. i'm not a vegetarian, but i don't eat red meat. (but i do enjoy me some delicious pork products!)

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sharkiton/eric: i'll be totally new to the city and my roomie is a recluse so i might want to hang out from time to time. hopefully one of you two can show me around and take me to cool food places. because i love food. i promise i won't grope you. :P

hopefully i can find someone to jam out with as i'll have my guitars on me and my amps..

Two words: www.wafflewindow.com

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just watch the Portlandia shows, that's the bizarre reality.

no seriously, I have friends who live there that are unnerved by them because it's so dead on accurate.

i was gonna mention portlandia haha, i've seen a few sketches and they've all been really funny

been DYING to see this show.

seriously.

damn Cable America doesn't provide IFC so i'm stuck until netflix picks it up.

but i'm stoked to see Carrie Brownstein act.

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yes, that would be awesome. i'll definitely be here for sure. i know you're sober, but you're not vegetarian are you? because then we can eat bbq.

whatcha coming here for anyway? wedding? acl? bdsm conference?

yeah i confirmed it yesterday, told my roomie i'm moving late october, but he might get a roommate earlier and i'll just be in the guestroom till i leave.. which is fine by me. i'm sending my stuff (records) via amtrak so all my shit will be there earlier than i will. whoo hoo!!!

sharkiton/eric: i'll be totally new to the city and my roomie is a recluse so i might want to hang out from time to time. hopefully one of you two can show me around and take me to cool food places. because i love food. i promise i won't grope you. :P

hopefully i can find someone to jam out with as i'll have my guitars on me and my amps..

one of my best friends lives in dallas/fort worth and promised to take me to austin next time i'm down, which will most likely be early fall. i'm not a vegetarian, but i don't eat red meat. (but i do enjoy me some delicious pork products!)

well try hard to come in september (except acl weekend (sept 16-18) downtown sucks during that time. the area is infested with douchebaggery for that weekend. any other time in sept would be awesome.

you are no fun allison.. no beer, no cocaine, no meth, jeezzz.

seriously though, austin is fun for shit no matter what you are into.

yeah mike good luck. bummer you are moving. we will need to grab a beer or three next time im in austin.

just let me know so i can plan accordingly.

oh my gawd!!!! i should just move tomorrow. shit's getting me excited.

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