Advice on Portland needed:)

[etrigan420]

Thanks for all the replies. My wife is flying out this Tuesday to check everything out and work out the details if everything is cool we will start the arduous task of relocating. If it falls through we are just going to keep looking we don’t want to move till one of us has secured a stable job first.

As far as traffic goes, is it worse than here in LA? I am use to always working much greater distances and using time instead of miles with commutes. We were using Redfin and it looks nice everywhere but the schools seems to get good ratings around Lake Oswego area, would that be a rough commute to a few miles directly East of downtown?

Also my dad will probably go with us and live with us or assisted living depending if we find a place with guest house. He barely has use of his legs, has spinal damage and relies heavily on the VA, does anybody have experience using the VA system in Portland, I rode a bike through the one near downtown it looks nice from the outside. He has about a 3-4 mile range with his electric chair so I am thinking a small city would be nice for him and it seem s much more accessible than here.

Lake Oswego is a nice area...but it is on the west side of the Willamette River, so getting to and from work on the east side is going to be a PITA. Your most direct option (depending on if you're north-east or south-east) is going to hit 3 of the 4 traffic SNAFU's I listed in my first response.

For comparable neighborhoods on the east side, look at Sunnyside / Happy Valley area.

The only VA hospital I know of is up on the hill (west side)...beside the Children's Hospital and OHSU. My father went up there to be entered into their system, but does not receive care from them, so I can't comment on their quality of care.

 

[rpanic]

etrigan & trident, thanks for that info I have no clue on the traffic patterns so this helps a lot. Where are the biggest bottle necks for traffic and when?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

etrigan & trident, thanks for that info I have no clue on the traffic patterns so this helps a lot. Where are the biggest bottle necks for traffic and when?

You can take a look at Google Maps and turn on traffic data; it will give you a pretty solid representation of what traffic is like at any given point. But basically, any main roads going into the city in the morning (I-5, 405, 26, 84 west and every bridge), and anything leaving the city in the evening (bridges included). Evening traffic seems consistently worse; basically anywhere you go between 4:00 pm and 6:30 or so is going to be bad regardless of what direction you're heading. Without knowing exactly where you will be working / living, it's hard to pinpoint where your biggest traffic hurdles would be, so I really do recommend looking at the Google map data around 8 am and 5 pm and give yourself an idea of where the big bottlenecks seem to be.

 

[etrigan420]

etrigan & trident, thanks for that info I have no clue on the traffic patterns so this helps a lot. Where are the biggest bottle necks for traffic and when?

Atomic nailed it.

In a nut shell, if you live on one side of the Willamette River, and work on the other side...you're going to have a bad time.

I understand your reluctance to do so, but if you could give us a better idea of the prospective employers location it would help.

North or south of I-84?

East or West of I-205?

 

[rpanic]

We thought it would be at a location just east of downtown but she just told me she isn't sure, its one of the things she has to square away when she flies up Tuesday. When I looked up her employer they have a site in all four sections of Portland, guess I will just have to wait and see.

 

[acheron]

North or south of I-84?

I thought "isn't I-84 in Connecticut"? And then I learned there are two separate I-84s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_84

/random

Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE_9CzLCbkY

 

[Malfeas]

I loved living in the PNW, Seattle and Portland. I moved to Sacramento 7 months ago....and I hate it here. I'm already looking to move back to either city. Now I just have to convince the wife. Live as close to work as possible, commutes suck and public transportation is good, better in Portland than in Seattle.

 

[Wingznut]

I don't care where you choose to live... The time spent commuting to/from work every day is a huge waste of your life.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I lived there for about a year. Housing was high but food was cheap. It's a melting pot of crazy rich and crazy poor. Decent people who appreciate hard work. Fairly low density as compared to L.A. so, it's a ways between services. You don't need a watch in the afternoon. When it starts raining, it's 4 o'clock.

 

[etrigan420]

I don't care where you choose to live... The time spent commuting to/from work every day is a huge waste of your life.

True story.