Considering moving to your state

[Ayesha]

Hello Oregonians,

My partner and I (ages 30 and 28 respectively) currently live in LA and are looking to get out of the city and buy some acreage in a more rural area. We are strongly considering far northern CA and the Pacific Northwest, and are about to take a road trip to visit these areas. We'd love to get some suggestions from fellow liberals for what cities/towns to check out. Here's what we're looking for in more detail:

--We are a same sex couple, and we plan to adopt children. Therefore, it is essential that we live in an area that is safe and welcoming. CA has excellent legal protections in place for couples (domestic partnership) and we have heard that Oregon may have civil unions soon. We'd like to learn more about Washington.
--We want to buy several acres of land to start an animal related nonprofit - we plan to have dogs, cats, horses, and assorted other domestic animals. Our budget is ~500-600K. So obviously, we need a place where this is possible.
--Higher education. We both wish to pursue graduate degrees/further our education, and I want to teach, so there should be a university relatively nearby (an hour's drive or less.)
--We wish to live in a liberal community that values connectedness, uniqueness, arts & culture, and has independent businesses rather than all Big Box/suburban sprawl.
--We would like to live within a couple of hours of a major city where we can have access to excellent hospitals, major theatre and cultural events, Pride festivals, shopping etc.
--The types of natural beauty we value most are trees and water. We can live near mountains, but our property needs to be fairly flat as I use a wheelchair and need to be able to get around. Weather-wise, we do not like heavy snowfall, or desert. We would prefer light to moderate rainfall.
--We smoke da reefer for medicinal and recreational purposes and would prefer a tolerant area in this regard. We also value alternative medicine and would like to have acupuncture, herbalists, and similar professionals nearby.

Places we have ruled out:
Sonoma County, CA - too many nonprofits like ours there already :(

Places we are especially intrigued by and would like to know more:
Mendocino County, CA
Humboldt County, CA and Arcata
Ashland, OR
Eugene, OR
Corvallis, OR
Portland, OR and surrounding counties

We are looking for more info on all these places and other ideas for locations to consider - any help would be appreciated. Also, if you live somewhere cool and would like to show a couple of lesbians and their three crazy dogs around town, we'd love to meet you! :)

x-posted to Oregon, Washington, and CA forums

[amber dog democrat]

1. Have you ever considered Texas?

We need folks like you down here in the worst way. By the way, you'd be fine in Austin. The more enlightened folk here, the better.

[roguevalley]

2. Ashland I can speak to. I grew up in Central Point. SOC is my

almamater. Eugene is good. land can be expensive depending on where and how much. Ashland is in the Rogue Valley, a gorgeous place. Everyone from farmers to movie stars live there. Medford is the largest city there and is a shopping and hospital hub for the region. They have a flourishing arts community in the valley, Britt in Jacksonville and the Shakespearrean community in Ashland. I love it and wish I had a place back there.

RV, aka Rogue Valley

[yurbud]

4. Do you know Shannon Hall or Jonnelyn Keener?

I knew them through a cadet program in high school and lost track of them.

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

[insanity]

19. Ashland is great

Ashland is my hometown, and I highly suggest you consider it. If you have any questions, you can PM me.

[yurbud]

3. Portland native, Corvallis resident now in LA

If you are looking for a gay-friendly community, stick to medium to large cities in the Willamette Valley, Eugene, Salem, Corvallis, Portland. You probably won't be hassled elsewhere until you adopt a kid. Even then, it might not be a big deal.

The ganja & alternative medicine angle would place you in Eugene first and Northwest Portland or on out to Sauvie's Island second & St. Helens (the town not mountain) second.

Education also limits you to Portland or Eugene, unless you want to get a master's in chemical engineering, which would put you in Corvallis.

Oregon is a mellow place. There's a lot of things I like about it, but living here is like standing on the edge of a volcano. You know you could get killed any second, but you can't bear to step back.

Hillbilly Hitler art:



Blog:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. I'm in MInnesota now, but I lived in Corvallis for two years

in the 1980s. It's a lovely town of about 35,000, home of Oregon State University, located just over the Coast Range from the ocean and within about an hour of the Cascades. The atmosphere is laid-back and vaguely counter-cultural, with lots of old hippies living in the woods. Very bicycle friendly, perhaps even more so than Eugene, which is 40 miles away and about 3 times as big. There's the Kalapuya River running through town, not a major stream, but it IS water.

[HuckleB]

11. Indeed. I'd recommend checking out the Corvallis area.

[mchill]

6. Personally...

you sound like nice folks, but stay out of southern oregon. There are enough equity migrants here. Locals can no longer afford to live in their own communities. Go to a bigger city. Incomes are higher for those who have to live where they work.

[funflower]

7. You sound like the perfect Eugene residents!

Small, liberal city with a big, liberal university. Lots of (organic)farming going on nearby. Central Eugene is very accessible with great public transportation. The community is very welcoming and inclusive.

For advice on legal issues relating to same-sex couples, Basic Rights Oregon, headquartered in Portland, should be able to give you some names of lawyers who are knowledgeable in this area.

[jsw_81]

8. I second that

Eugene is a wonderful place to live. It's so progressive/liberal that it isn't even funny. And the scenery is stunning no matter where you go. Just yesterday I was driving up in the hills south of town and was just blown away by the views. Move to Eugene...you won't regret it!

[0rganism]

9. Thirded

The OP could just have said, "I want to move to Eugene" and summed everything up in one sentence. $500k should be enough to get something nice on the outskirts of this marvelous university city, where no one will bat an eye at committed same-sex couples.

[murphymom]

10. Fourthed

We moved here almost 5 years ago from the Bay Area, with no regrets. Eugene has both hilly and flat areas of town so you should be able to find something that would work for you, being as you are wheelchair-mobile. We get four true seasons here, but only rarely get snow (a couple of dustings, plus one big snowstorm in the 5 winters we've been here). It does rain a lot, but it more typically is just....rain, not the blustery horizontal icy needles kind of rain that keeps you indoors all winter.

The only thing I miss here is the racial and ethnic mix of the Bay Area. Although we've got a lot of great liberal people who would love to embrace diversity if they could only find any, the population does tend to be almost exclusively white and monocultural.

There are several smaller communities around Eugene where you could probably find acreage for your project. Not quite sure from your description what your non-profit would be doing, but here's a link to the Greenhill Humane Society if that might be of interest:

http://www.green-hill.org/

[Ayesha]

12. Thank you!

We will be checking out all of these places, but Eugene and Portland sound most promising so far.

Does anyone know about Bend?

[LWolf]

13. Sure!

I think Eugene sounds better for what you're looking for, though. I live north of Bend.

On the plus side; central oregon is high desert without the wind, caliche, and extreme heat found in my old home in the Mojave. There are trees, rivers, and a world of outdoor recreation awaits. There is less rain on this side of the mountains (gardening is also more difficult/limited, and winters much colder). There is plenty of flat acreage with trees and views of the cascades. Depending on where you are, there are rivers or irrigation canals nearby.

There are independent businesses and big boxes, both. Bend has cultural attractions, but I think you'd find more in Eugene.

You could get some acreage for your budget, if you do it soon. I did; I spent about a third of your budget (which pushed mine to the ultimate limit), and got 6 acres, a barn, a shop, and a big old mobile home. The whole place is a "fixer," to say the least; can you sing "Green Acres?" If it was in better shape, it would have been at your budget limit.

On the not-so-plus side: central oregon is more conservative than progressive. There is a good Democratic and progressive presence, but the area tends to lean republican. There is an organized effort on the part of some to blast the local republican state senator, Ben Westlund, for backing SB 1000, the proposed legislation allowing civil unions for gay, lesbian, and transgender couples. LTTEs about this issue, and about "intelligent design," seem to appear in the Bend Bulletin every week.

There are a couple of satellite campuses for 4 year universities, but the real universities are on the other side of the cascades.

Reading through your list, I really think Eugene sounds like the best fit!

[Ayesha]

14. Eugene does sound great

however in terms of our educational interests, Portland State and the other universities in Portland seem to be a better match. Doing a real estate search online has found lots of properties matching our needs in Clackamas county. How far is Eugene from Portland? I have been to Portland twice before and liked it, but have not yet visited Eugene.

[LWolf]

15. I've only been to Portland a few times;

all to take family members to OHSU for medical care; I passed through Eugene on the way, but may not remember the time accurately. I'm thinking 90 minutes, or maybe 2 hours; an easy trip up highway 5.

[HuckleB]

16. 90-120 minutes from Portland to Eugene.

[HuckleB]

17. Bend.

Wonderful town, facing some ugly sprawl, but still in the midst of incredible outdoor activity all around. The majority of the population is more conservative, but there are some very strong progressive folk out there, too.

This may be another source of information for you:

http://www.blueoregon.com/

[MinotaurArms]

18. Bingo,

Oregon is very mono cultural. It is fine if you do not mind white people. There is such little racial diversity in Oregon, that even the toll booth workers are white. However, the Hispanics are cutting into the whiteness. When I was in high school, the Hispanics could form two tables during lunch period. As a result the Mexican food in Oregon is very sub par to the states lower in latitude. The only place I ever saw African Americans in high concentration was the northern part of Portland. I almost forgot to mention that Woodburn (about 30-45 minutes south of Portland) has a large Russian population. I'm sure other posters will remind me of any ethnic locales I have forgotten. Other than that, I do not see much ethnic diversity in the state.

Although the state is mono cultural it is very liberal west of the Cascades. The redneck conservatives occupy the 3/4 of the state east of the mountain range (however the vast majority of the state's population live west of the Cascades). You should do very well in Eugene. Gays should have very few problems there. On a side note, Oregon is the LEAST church going state in the nation. Evangelicals do not wield any significant power within the state.

You also might want to give Vancouver, WA a whirl. It is just across the river (Columbia) from Portland, and Washington state is lacking in a state income tax. I imagine the real estate aren't as bad as Portland. The political/cultural climate is nearly identical to Oregon.