Best places to live in the Pacific Northwest?

Non Wacist wrote:

Posts bashing on areas like Boulder and Bend as "too white" are fascinating to me.

Is there an inherent problem with a mostly white area or society? Are cities in Japan bad because they are "too asian"? Are cities in Africa "too black"? I've only noticed this trend of calling places "too white" in the past 5 years.

Are the posters calling these places "too white" white themselves?

What, specifically, would make the OPs life worse by moving to a mostly white area?

FYI I am half-white. My children are 25% white.

'too white' is usually code for gentrified and boring. Think yuppies and Bed Bath and Beyond. Cookie cutter suburbs with beige vinyl siding, perfectly round cul-de-sacs and 'McMansions' in the more affluent areas.

Of course, sometimes they just mean too many white people. Usually, you have to read for context.

If the poster was merely referring to too many white people I don't think they would have given Bellingham a pass.

I'm not offended by either usage , but I could imagine some of the other 150 million or so white people in the country might be. I also imagine that for every person who is offended, 10 more people will pretend to be offended to try to make some sort of point.

Denver is not in the PNW, but I'll throw my 2 cents in on the city. I moved here a year and a half ago. Prior to here, I had never lived anywhere with extremem winters (Bay Area, England, Phoenix). With that said, I disagree that Denver has harsh winters. There are some days that are bitter (today got down to like 9 degrees and felt awful) but the majority of the winter days are more than bearable. The sun shines so often and it really helps. There have been many days this winter where it's been in the low 30s, sun shining, and I could run in a long sleeve and shorts. There have been plenty of days where I wore a t-shirt and pants outside, and even a few days wearing shorts.

Denver is a good place to live compared to many places in the coutnry, but as several others have said it is not the best, in my opinion. Unless you live on the far west side, it's a long drive to the mountains and any real trails. I work in Colorado Springs quite a bit and like it down there much better. It's not as nice as the Denver metro for the most part, but it's closer to the mountains, similar weather (a little colder), and the entire western part of the city is stacked with open spaces, parks, and trails. Plus, it's affordable and big enough to find jobs.

As far as PNW goes, Portland is the only place I've been but I loved it. That mild, wet weather is my favorite. It keeps the temps comfortable and the rain is never enough to keep you from getting outside. Plus it's so green and beautiful and there are lots of running options.

You don't get it wrote:

You did this wrote:

Growing up in Hood River we had to drive 20 damn minutes for a McDonalds. Californians moves in, jacked home prices to astronomical prices to the point locals can afford them, developed the farms so now homes are 10 feet apart. You ruined a good town. Stay away and go to Bend.

Nice story about driving for a Big Mac - you shouldn't be eating that stuff anyways, especially with all the farming you claim to have, or used to have. And it's not the Californians - that's down the road in Portland. It's the combination of the kiteboarding/windsurfing boom and the explosion of the aerospace industry in the gorge; see Insitu (Boeing), Cloud Cap, Hood Tech, etc. Good jobs are now aplenty in Hood River = rapid rise in housing costs as there is very limited housing.

Cheers.

You live here? It’s the Californians my man. They buy these houses and rent them out in the summer. They do nothing got the economy. And the jobs are the same but prices has increased.

we moved to pnw 1.5 years ago from new hampshire. looked around the seattle, bremerton, portland area. finally settled in blaine wa. on a golf course by the water (don't golf but view is amazing) . we love it but did not spend enough time checking out bellingham as we were sick of looking by then . it is a very nice town with great running trails, services, restaurants and shopping, good hospital and college, don't seem to get any of the hardcore trump supporters that i think you would find going to more rural areas (especially west of portland as i ran hood to coast 5 times), 30 miles from mt. baker (10800') in the cascades and adjacent to great hiking trails in chuckanut. weather is moderate compared to north east and midwest. summer averages high 70s with no rain. we went 3 months both summers we lived here with hardly a drop. turns out that is normal. houses do not have air conditioning. winter is rainy but not the kind of rain we were used to. it is a mist, sometimes heavy but normally very light. never missed a day running due to rain. coldest winter days start out in low-mid 30s and end up in high 40s but most lows are near 40. housing is fairly expensive as the area is booming. seattle is 80 miles away on almost barren interstate until you hit north seattle. then it is terrible. bellingham is about 40 miles from vancouver. area on west side of puget sound is beautiful but very very rural. bremerton is only large town. area on south side of sound is a traffic nightmare (tacoma,, olympia) and more like a modern crappy suburb with cramped sprawling housing.

good luck. if i had to pick a large city it would be portland but being retired taxes are really bad in oregon.

Still curious why only one person has mentioned Corvallis and no one has mentioned Salem. Much more affordable than Seattle or Portland and several other places mentioned, nice locations, and the advantages of a state capital (Salem) and college town (Corvallis). What am I missing?

Denver. wrote:

Denver.

+1000000. Denver is the crown jewel of the PNW.

Gainesville/Miami guy wrote:

Still curious why only one person has mentioned Corvallis and no one has mentioned Salem. Much more affordable than Seattle or Portland and several other places mentioned, nice locations, and the advantages of a state capital (Salem) and college town (Corvallis). What am I missing?

I'm a bit curious about Corvallis as well (I'm one person who mentioned it). I haven't spent a ton of time there, but I really enjoyed what little time I did spend. Seems like a really nice little community, and its location is great. Probably a better mix of political outlook than places like Eugene and Portland (I'm not a Republican, but I don't like living anywhere too politically homogenous).

As for Salem, I just drove through and stopped to get gas and food once, but the little bit I saw didn't look very nice at all. I've also never heard anyone speak highly of it, though that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad; just never heard anyone talk about it much at all, and it never seems to come up in discussions about good places to live in this area.

Someone said Walla Walla... Maybe if you're retired and into wine, otherwise I would give a hard NO to that town. Apparently a lot of people from the west side do retire in Walla Walla though, even Dayton, WA.

I always liked Hood River, but it definitely has that yuppie/hippie mountain town feel to it, at least in the downtown area.

Just for fun I'll throw out somewhere kind of off the radar with La Grande, OR. It's small, but if someone likes the lifestyle of living away from the people and loves outdoor recreation, it could be a good place. I still think somewhere like Portland, Bham, Corvallis, Eugene, etc would be my first choices though.

Also, Spokane isn't terrible. It's not great, but it's not terrible. Winters aren't that bad, it's cheap, and it's not too far from a lot of different things. The thing people aren't mentioning about these different places though is that everything on the west side of the Cascades is completely different from everything on the east side of them. That's common knowledge to anyone out here, but it might not be to everyone. Personally, I LOVE the temperate rainforest type climate and geography. Northern Idaho, western Montana, Colorado, etc, are all nice places, but they're totally different from what you experience on the west side of the Cascades. There's some absolutely breathtaking country up in British Columbia you'll find nowhere else in the world.

Scappoose, OR is a nice little town just outside of Portland. I live in Portland but wish I found a place there when I first moved out here. It's quiet, good running trails, easy access to the river, nude beach nearby and a quick drive into Portland for restaurants,events and whatever.

Corvallis is a nice college town but, is pretty small. There are some good trails and parks for running. It is very rural, conservative, and backwards just outside of town (Lots of Trump loving farmers and a general loathing of liberal Portland). Real estate is getting more expensive as it becomes a destination for Portland retirees. It is getting better restaurants and pubs but the entertainment options are still lacking.

Salem. Lots of potential but, it currently has a half empty downtown core and the rest of the town is a sea of strip malls, state office buildings, and industrial sites. Throw in homeless camps plus a lot of meth use and the town is ugly. People have fled to nearby Keizer for better housing, shopping, etc. Running options are limited but Bush's Pasture Park is a great training venue with the Willamette Stadium track and the soap box derby hill. Like Corvallis, it gets very rural and "down home" just outside of the city.

Isolated and being taken over by conservative money. The mountain town feel is gone and a house costs you half a mil. No culture and the 2.5 hours to Portland or Hayward are a long 2.5 hours. The new normal of forest fires to the north and south in the summer affect air quality for weeks. Bend sucks

Missoula, Montana

Gainesville/Miami guy wrote:

Still curious why only one person has mentioned Corvallis and no one has mentioned Salem. Much more affordable than Seattle or Portland and several other places mentioned, nice locations, and the advantages of a state capital (Salem) and college town (Corvallis). What am I missing?

I have not been to Corvallis but to Salem a couple of times. It is boring small town America. It's a lot cheaper than Portland for a reason: Nobody wants to live there.

Things to do in Denver when your dead wrote:

Denver. wrote:

Denver.

+1000000. Denver is the crown jewel of the PNW.

I think I use the wrong maps. Denver might be considered being in the West. But Pacific North West? Probably not. The Pacific is 1200 miles away.

I grew up in the Bremerton/Poulsbo area, went to UW and lived in Seattle, went to WSU and lived in Pullman, visited Bend often when I was a runner in the early 90s, spent some time in Spokane, had relatives in Sandpoint, ID, and have family now in Gig Harbor and Black Diamond, WA

Bremerton itself and East Bremerton are mildly ghetto. I'm wondering when the tech companies are going to discover it, move some HQ buildings there, and software engineers snap up the cheap housing to make it a trendy and expensive place. East Bremerton was new when I grew up there and it was a wonderful place to live. I think it's a bit more run down and old, but I guess that's a natural observation having known what it looked like when all the buildings were new. I did a lot of running there and frankly the running was terrible, but we didn't have google maps or anything so there were probably some great trail systems that I was simply unaware were there. Did most of my running on the side of the road, with very narrow shoulders. In retrospect I'm surprised nobody was ever hit by a car.

Silverdale/Poulsbo are a step up from East Bremerton. Silverdale used to be much more beautiful but it got somewhat overbuilt with strip malls and California style housing. If you stay away from Ridgetop, most houses have decent sized yards. You can still find property with acreage at a decent price. My parents had the perfect life: inexpensive housing, recession proof 40 hour a week jobs, 10 minute commute, and super safe place to raise kids. I don't see Silverdale as viable for the commute to Seattle but if you work at Bangor or the shipyard, or are a doctor or other high paying profession, it may be a perfect place.

Pullman is beautiful but boring. It's a great place to train. If it had altitude it would be a hidden gem for running. The weather is tough, especially for running, but I think that made me a much better runner. I used to be so bored there I would just get in a car and drive the farm roads. That's really when I noticed the hidden beauty. I was bored but happy there.

Bend was just about perfect in the early 90s. I haven't been there in a long time but my understanding was that it got overrun by California, prices got ridiculous, and I'm sure it is loaded with fake hipsters and yuppie snobs now. If you can ignore them and afford it, Bend is a tremendous place for running.

Sandpoint is stunningly beautiful, but there aren't many jobs there. We visit every few years or so. North Idaho also had a reputation in the 90s as being a neo-nazi stronghold, not sure if that is true now or if it ever was. It's definitely not a place for "city folk", lots of redneck types there. Winters can be very harsh.

Gig Harbor is where I am currently planning to move to. My parents live there now but they are moving to Black Diamond. GH is almost getting too crowded now but there is still a lot of acreage around the area. It's a lot like Silverdale was when I grew up. I need a nice place to settle my kids so GH-type place is what I'm looking for.

Black Diamond is starting to develop; my sister has lived there for about 15 years but she and her husband have good jobs that don't require commuting out of the area. BD would be a bit of a haul to get to Seattle or Redmond for work. I find it a bit too far into the sticks, my sister has come across a herd of elk blocking the road home and been attacked on multiple days by an owl while running. Not sure I'd want to live somewhere where I'd come across a bear or cougar while running.

If you don't need to be near a population center for work and want a smaller town, you might want to check out Port Angeles or, even better, Sequim. Sequim is in a rain shadow and gets significantly less rain than Seattle. Pretty little town.

There are lots of nice places up in the NW. I can think of dozens that I would move to in a heartbeat if I didn't need a city for the type of work I do.

Pullman Pro wrote:

Gainesville/Miami guy wrote:

Still curious why only one person has mentioned Corvallis and no one has mentioned Salem. Much more affordable than Seattle or Portland and several other places mentioned, nice locations, and the advantages of a state capital (Salem) and college town (Corvallis). What am I missing?

I'm a bit curious about Corvallis as well (I'm one person who mentioned it). I haven't spent a ton of time there, but I really enjoyed what little time I did spend. Seems like a really nice little community, and its location is great. Probably a better mix of political outlook than places like Eugene and Portland (I'm not a Republican, but I don't like living anywhere too politically homogenous).

I'd just finished at Oregon State and really enjoyed living in Corvallis. Lots of great running locations, close-ish to Portland and Eugene and beaches, friendly people and overall good feel to the town. That being said it probably is a great place to go to school but living there may be a different story (although the professors seemed to enjoy living there) . Also unless you'd work for the university or HP the jobs are pretty limited. Overall an "underrated" town compared to many others in Oregon and a great place to be for a few years.

I do live in HR. Second homeowners are definitely a problem; unfortunately living in an area with this kind of natural beauty it’s always going to be a problem. Also, I’ve met a handful of second homeowners- three were from Seattle, one from Portland, and one from Texas.

As for jobs, not long ago Insitu (Boeing) was a company of less than 150 employees; the company is now 1,500 employees and growing. This is not even mentioning Hood Tech, Cloud Cap, Custom Interface, etc. There’s your answer to housing prices.

You don’t get it wrote:

I do live in HR. Second homeowners are definitely a problem; unfortunately living in an area with this kind of natural beauty it’s always going to be a problem. Also, I’ve met a handful of second homeowners- three were from Seattle, one from Portland, and one from Texas.

As for jobs, not long ago Insitu (Boeing) was a company of less than 150 employees; the company is now 1,500 employees and growing. This is not even mentioning Hood Tech, Cloud Cap, Custom Interface, etc. There’s your answer to housing prices.

What’s your best place in the 4th of July race. Love that damn thing but haven’t run in awhile. Never thought HR would have another letsrunner. Up for a run?

/mu/tant runner wrote:

I'd just finished at Oregon State and really enjoyed living in Corvallis. Lots of great running locations, close-ish to Portland and Eugene and beaches,

That argument is given tons for Portland too. "So close to the ocean and the mountains."

You know what's better? Actually living at the ocean if you like it. Or living at the mountain if you like skiing. A 2 hour drive each way gets tiresomes. 2 hours if you're lucky:

Hello!!

I think the best place to live if we consider the location of the North Pacific then I think it is Canada, Vancouver or another smaller city. I like that it is a highly developed and very ecological country. But of course, there are minuses. It's always cold. Noodle if you like this but I do not really agree that the whole year to be cold, rainy and foggy. I was in your place I would choose a warmer country, for example, Maldives. It's always warm, the beach and the whole ocean. What more do you need for an ideal life? Plus and cost of living in the Maldives is low, I read an article on costoflivingreports.com. I would have thought well of that. The choice, of course, stays with you.