You're viewing a single thread.
My mom who I haven't seen in like six years is coming to stay with me for a little under a week. She hasn't seen me in person since I transitioned but is supportive despite her conservative leanings. She's also visiting me in here in Portland from where she lives in Texas so there's a double layer of "everything is okay, the city is not on fire" plus all the new trans stuff she's going to be asking about. So it'll be a week of doing my best to be an LGBTQ encyclopedia and Portland advocate while catching up with my mom. It should be okay, but it's going to be stressful 🥲
I hope everything goes well during the visit! If she's supportive, that's already a great sign. Constantly explaining things can get exhausting after a while, but it's definitely easier to handle when those questions are asked in good faith.
I hope you don't mind me asking, but as someone who is really considering moving to Portland from the deep south, how is it? It seems like a really fun city, but it's hard to sift through the propaganda with it being such a target for conservative media.
I don't mind! In fact, here's way more info than you asked for!
Portland has it's problems, no doubt. But in comparison to the south? It's not even close, you couldn't pay me to move back (and my job tried lol). The weather is more mild, the people more friendly and the culture more inclusive. The food scene is crazy, so much variety and fusions you've never heard of. Afters years I'm still discovering new eateries to try and pretty much every place has veggie/vegan options if you're into that. Super walkable with awesome public transit (for an American city) that makes it great to get around for real cheap. Hiking trails on hiking trails with lots of bike infrastructure. So many fun shows come to town all the time and the local artists are their own brand of amazing weirdness. Also weird subcultures. I'm going to the Mondo Croquet World Championships this Sunday where you play croquet with bowling balls and sledgehammers. Takes place in Portland every year for 26 years and I just learned about it two days ago lol
Now the bad. There's some sketchiness with some of the houseless encampments around town, but the majority are just people trying to get by. Don't berate or antagonize them and you'll be fine. I was just walking in Old Town the other week with a friend, this is often described as the most dangerous part of the city, and it was fine. A houseless person who was talking to himself saw my Mars Attacks shirt there, smiled real big, and then yelled "ack ack ack ack ack!" So I smiled back and gave him a nod, he was satisfied with the exchange and went on his way. Which is honestly how it goes most of the time. Most houseless people I talk to are just thankful I talk to them at all and don't ignore them. One dude showed me his sweet rock collection on the train, he was stoked to share with someone and they were some pretty sweet rocks tbh. I know anecdotes don't directly translate to data but for what it's worth that's been everybody's experience I've spoken to that I can confirm actually lives here. If you go to the Portland subreddit for instance you'll see a lot of claims being made but then dig into the profiles to find they don't actually live here.
Our police department is the worst. I know everyone says that, but like, Portland Police might actually be the worst. They're on an unofficial soft strike right now and have been since the George Floyd Protests and only respond to the most urgent of urgent calls. Then wonder why everyone hates them and wants to slash their budget. I could go on for a while there but I won't. Portland cops suck, real hard.
Housing and rent sucks, but so does everywhere else. So, meh. Although with Oregon rent control I've been able to renew my lease and have pretty close to what I was paying in rent five years ago because we haven't moved.
I didn't meant to type a wall of text, but that's a very summarized run down of what to expect. I tried to be completely honest because it's not a perfect city, but I couldn't imagine living anywhere else at this point.
with it being such a target for conservative media.
It's kind of a blessing in disguise because it largely keeps conservative people from moving here so it's mostly really cool/chill people that move here instead lol
I am nowhere near the US but reading this kinda makes me want to go to Portland lol!
It's great to visit!