[Eric_WVGG]

I’ll second the city bit. Your experience sounds very much like my existence in not-really-a-city Portland, OR. I moved to NYC and everything about my life got better fast. The only quirk is that COVID kneecapped socializing badly, that’s either temporary or civilization is doomed /shrug

[selimthegrim]

I fled to New Orleans from Portland after two and a half years of that shit and never looked back.

[abdabab]

From a visitor’s perspective Portland seems cool and hip. What actually goes wrong when you live there?

[syntheweave]

While I haven't lived in Portland, when I visited in 2019 I was like, this is a larger Santa Cruz. And I have lived in Santa Cruz so I can make some extrapolations:

* Stifling lack of local prospects; in SC, the majority of jobs were "over the hill" (SJ/SV) making it a bedroom community. Portland has a little more going on for itself but it doesn't have the strong jobs pull of a city like Austin, which Portland has often been compared to in the past.

* Isolated city. If you leave Portland you reach rural farmland relatively quickly compared to larger US metros, which have a cluster of coties SC as noted has some distance to the city, but also proximity to farms east around Watsonville. SC being a college town with a major university contributes to the difference, bringing in a wider young demographic. In both cases this contrast and close proximity enables a dynamic of "city vs country", which exploded in Portland in 2020's protests with aggressive displays and a fatal shooting.

* Ethno-nationalist legacy: Portland was designed to be whites-first and only reversed on that relatively recently. California harbors some of these sentiments, but mostly not as strongly. It adds a layer to the culture that, while not always blatancy obvious, makes it feel more insular.

[treis]

IMHO, you missed the biggest point: Lack of sunshine. Outside of summer, it's mostly cloudy, coldish, and generally dreary weather.

[dominotw]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBUxZdWJ_zE

[selimthegrim]

Portland State is an OK, not great university to boot.

[tim333]

I stayed there a bit and there isn't so much of a single people meeting up type thing. A lot of people stay home, go shopping go home. There was much more of an events happening meet people vibe in NYC.

[bufferoverflow]

New Orleans has one of the highest murder rates in the country. It's not a safe place.

[brendoelfrendo]

You misread - they fled to New Orleans from Portland, they weren't trying to get away from the murder rate.

Besides, NOLA is fine. Murders aren't evenly distributed; there are plenty of perfectly safe spots and lots of safe activities to do.

[selimthegrim]

In 2019 they were at at all time low. I’ll still take it over Portland where people treat me like I don’t exist or as a means to an end.

[sshine]

I’ll take “treat me like I don’t exist” over “make me not exist” any day. ;-)

[selimthegrim]

Barring a car accident a few months ago no one has ever laid a finger on me or made me feel unsafe here.

[Zanneth]

I visited Portland in late 2020 and I couldn’t believe how dystopian it became. It used to be such an amazing city.