Move to Portland, not Canada!

Kari Chisholm FacebookTwitterWebsite

This just in... from Applegate, Oregon. From SouthernOregonNews.com, Disaffected Progressives Should Move To Portland, Oregon, Not Canada

Portland, Oregon, has virtually all of the liberal political values and benefits that can be found in Canada...but none of the emigration barriers to overcome. ... Given a progressive's dream destination right here in beautiful Oregon, why would any disaffected person of progressive attitude opt for leaving the United States and living in Canada? ... Portland is the heart and soul of politically blue Oregon. It should be seriously considered as a relocation destination for anyone who has an aversion to politically red America and who is looking for a change.

Read the rest.

  • Fenton (unverified)
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    Traffic is getting exponentially worse in Portland despite Trimets valiant efforts to thwart it. Perhaps they should stay in Southern Oregon and try and affect change?

    Though it would be nice to have even more progressives around. The more solidly progressive the newcomers are the more likely they would be to bike around i guess. So in that spirit, yes...please come up!

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    There's another problem with Portland besides traffic - housing costs. I love that city with all my heart, but unless I'm working a full-time job with benefits at my current wage, we can't afford to live there.

    I don't know what the 'problem' is with property values and rents, or who even sees it as a problem, but it's time to expand the island of progressive community that is the city of Portland, starting with Multnomah County.

    But I'd also like to see the progressives in communities all over Oregon stand up and be counted, speak up and be heard. Then maybe, every city in Oregon could be liveable, and if not predominantly progressive, then at least balanced enough that progressives would not have to be bullied around by conservatives.

  • Ashley (unverified)
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    For what it's worth, the writer of that piece wasn't too progressive when I lived in southern Oregon. He led the charge against Waterwatch and others who wanted to remove the fish-killing Savage Rapids Dam from the mighty Rogue. Maybe he just wants progressives to leave southern Oregon?

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    I don't think traffic in PDX is ANYTHING compared to other metro areas. Don't get me wrong, I hate traffic but anyone who has ever driven in another metro area during rush hour (or, "rush morning" and "rush afternoon") like L.A., Sacramento, San Francisco, Dallas (which is backed up even with an HOV lane and seven or eight lanes each direction), Seattle, Boston, or Detroit (to name just a few) is thrilled to come back to Portland and sit for 20 minutes on The Banfield, The Sunset or, the bane of my driving existance, I-205 (people, people - brake lights mean something!).

    Anyone who has tried to drive through Boston (where they use the emergency lane as a regular lane, btw, and where people stand in traffic selling bottled water because traffic doesn't actually move) - especially since they started The Big Dig - knows Portland is not so bad to drive in, through, or around. In fact it's probably the most livable, beautiful, friendliest, awesome, and of course progressive, biggest little city I've ever had the pleasure of driving in. I-205 and all.

  • kamajii (unverified)
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    Can't think of a better way to ruin a beautiful and economically balanced city than having an immigration onslaught. I would guess the only people to encourage it would be those who don't live there and business interests.

  • Lawbot (unverified)
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    Um, sure it's a progressive town, but the job market is shockingly bad. But I'll tell you what: you guys find me a job and I'll move back in a heartbeat.

  • Jarrett (unverified)
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    I'm with lawbot, having unwillingly relocated to California.

    Bulletin to Fenton: Tri-Met can't "solve" traffic, though they could certainly do more with more money. As long as you're building transit-proof suburbia, you'll keep having more traffic. That's why the UGB-busting ballot measure that just passed there does not give me hope.

  • Jon (unverified)
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    We preemptively took Blue Oregon's advice and relocated here in September. From Massachusetts, no less. (After all, it helps to be Blue where it matters.)

    For what it's worth, I brought my web site of progressive political analysis, commentary, resources and satire along for the ride:

    Perrspectives

  • Justin (unverified)
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    If Democrats really want to change this country, they should move to Ohio or Florida.

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    Hear, hear, Justin!!

    Florida's particularly sunny this time o' year, there's still lots of cleanup work to do, and housing costs what it should in most places.

    Now, if you can handle massive voter disenfranchisement, a world shortage of cement, traffic problems that would make the Banfield pale in comparison, and the gratuitous dropping of N-bombs by native white men and women in polite conversation, Florida might just be the place for you.

    Just stay the hell out of JAX. That city's about to implode from racial tension and urban liveability problems. We're probably looking at the next Atlanta there.

  • Mitchell Santine Gould (unverified)
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    "Portland, Oregon, has virtually all of the liberal political values and benefits that can be found in Canada..."

    True. But now let's dissect the "virtually" part. Canada treats gays and lesbians as the equals of straits, while Oregon is busily enshrining discrimination in its constitution.

    So those Portlanders face the same high unemployment and high cost of living. But they also have the pocketbook damage from the denial of hundreds of benefits that strait couples receive automatically (just for being the fine, fine folks they all are, I guess).

    Oh, now I get it: we're "virtually" human!

  • Kristina (unverified)
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    I've been wanting to move to Portland for years...from San Diego. Is Californian-bashing a thing of the past? Portland seems to macth my ideals more than superconsumer SoCal ever has.

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