Moved from North Dallas to Portland in May. To say the food options are plentiful cannot be understated. Food is everywhere! Fusions are amazing! Gay friendly and open minded. So glad we got out of Texas before the 2024 election!
Keven…your observations were spot on about Portland being badly affected by the Covid 19 shut down…also fentanyl use/ abuse….and measure 110…which Oregon voters approved to lessen the drug problems on our streets, but worsened it, with little $$$ for treatment…and a sense of use whatever drug you want on the street without consequence… Recently, Oregon voters agreed measure 110 was a train wreck, and open drug use has consequences. We have a new district attorney (to start in the new year) who will hold criminals accountable. Finally, we are also looking to a new mayor this November election (Rene Gonzales perhaps) to help us clean up our dirty streets. Portland was a beautiful city 10 years ago….It will regain its shine and luster in the near future. It’s not a burning trash heap that the conservative press suggests, but we have a ways to go before reclaiming our city’s beauty. I live in one of those “feels like a little neighborhood” you discussed, and couldn’t be happier with our neighborhood, parks, mom/pop cafes, etc. But I’m NOT living downtown any longer.
Hummmm, strange take on Portland. I suggest you return, and take some time to really explore. Downtown Portland, is not representative of all the cool neighborhoods. Guess Portland have problems, hell ya. I think you barely scraped the surface, hope you come back and enjoy yourself.
OMG, how could you not like Brooklyn? Just the history of the place always trying to outdo Manhattan is so interesting. Of course, the Brooklyn Museum was only 25% built, but had they finished it, it would have been the largest museum in the world at the time. They outdid themselves building the Brooklyn Bridge, which brought about the end of Brooklyn as a separate city. The irony of it all is so interesting. Even Prospect Park is nicer than Central Park, but few have ever heard of it. And the Honeymooners was all about Brooklyn, and yet the series only has 39 episodes, all filmed in Manhattan. "Wait till next year" as they say in Brooklyn, in the everlasting hope to outdo the other boroughs. Well, today it is the most populated borough in NYC! Go Brooklyn!
I live in portland, it's so much fun in the summer,lots of young fun cycling events,music,.yes we are lucky because I don't want to live in a huge Metropolitan city.but people are moving here by flocks.there have been a lot of bad changes with the cost of living so high,I feel sorry for the young and poor
yes there is men you like in pacific nw. but not in the major city like Portland. you need to go to rural areas. these men live their life. homestead type. Portland has changed over the years.....covid , investments drop of the 2008. etc have changed the city. but the charm is coming back slowly. i grew up in vancouver, WA ,next door to Portland. things change like any city over the years.
Have lived here over 20 years, 5 of those in Portland pre covid. The rest of the time in Vancouver WA. My housemate and I no longer go into Portland unless we have to for medical appointments. We've been accosted during the day and the people begging on every corner is disturbing. It is bleeding over into Vancouver more and more. However, Washington laws prevent some of the issues Portland has. or help us control it. In the time I lived in Portland I was accosted at least once a year on the Max train. I got so I was armed with a knife, mace and a tazer when I went out, I do the same now if I have to go into Portland for an event.
Interesting take on Portland, the surrounding area and guys on apps there. I went on a trip with some friends to Oregon and Washington in the '90s. We mostly went to the nature areas and only had a meal in Portland and in Seattle. I have only a vague recollection of Portland so it wasn't particularly memorable for me, either for good or bad. I like Seattle and I've been back there a few times for business. The nature areas along the coast, in the mountains, and along the rivers were wonderful. I particularly liked the various falls. The coast was great. I fondly remember the hot crab dip made with Dungeness crabs and Tillamook cheeses that we had at a small crab shack near Rockaway beach in Oregon. The boat tour for whale watching was fun, and it was thrilling to see a whale breach, blow out water, and slap its tale on the surface near our boat. I enjoyed the trip up Mount Rainier and a small plane tour over Mount St. Helens. I remember that from the plane, the downed tree trunks left from Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980, looked like burnt out wooden match sticks scattered down the side of the mountain. It was also thrilling to see moose and elk roaming around as we toured these nature areas. Of course, there was also a lot of drizzle, rain, and fog there.
OMG - you are going to freak out when you get to San Francisco. It's completely off the chain! And this is coming from a former resident who moved there from NYC.
Even better than Brokeback Mountain is "My own private Idaho" with the late River Phoenix and Keenu Reeves (1991) but you were not born when it came out. Memories.... you should try and watch this movie
It is an epic name. He was an epic young star who had such potential ahead of him. He was the first creative to pass away that brought me to tears when I was young. I'll never forget that feeling or where I was. It was one of those moments when you "get it", as others have told you how they were hit when certain people pass or something heavy happens.
@@Studycase3000 Feeling the same when he passed away...he was an Angel from California, I was a very young French boy and I can remember it like it was yesterday.
Out of necessity, I had to move to Portland in 2015. I'm a socialist, retired with a background in clinical and research psychology from before when psychology sold out to sociology. I've lived in several larger cities, then in this place. Ick. It's not just about what Covid did to the city. For reasons I don't understand, Portland has never grown up. The most obvious issue: Oregon has no functional public mental health system. Unless persons who are severely mentally ill have private insurance, there is no real help for them. Also, when the state decriminalized drug use, it did not implement the treatment services that were supposed to go with decriminalization. Yes, it worked in Portugal, but Portugal had socialized medicine. We don't. So, now, with lots of addicts and increased crime and violence, the state has re-criminalized drug use, but the jail psych wards were already so full that they had transferred inmates to the state psychiatric hospital at Salem, completely filling it with jail inmates. If you are an addict and haven't become a criminal, yet, there's no help for you. The state has a deeply ingrained culture of substance abuse. And, now, there's fentanyl. But Portland has been Stonerville for years, plus meth is pernicious among gay men, and we have the syphilis rates to prove it. Affordability? Portland is being bought up by corporate interests, destroying affordable housing, driving people into homelessness. Because the city derives funding from the county property tax, the city has a conflict of interest between providing services for homeowners and other residents versus supporting developer demolition of housing to build high-end apartment buildings that will pay more in property tax than a single-family house. So homelessness grows. Sanitation is provided by private corporations, not the city, so there are not city services to provide sanitation for homeless encampments. Rather, the city spent about $22 million this past year doing "clean-sweeps" to drive homeless people from their encampments. The city is overrun with rats. Why we haven't had a typhus outbreak, etc., is a mystery. Plus, Portland State University is a hot-bed for woke-ism, some of which you encountered. Woke has also taken over the schools and government. If you email someone in government, you'll likely get a response with someone informing you of his/her "pronouns." They don't seem to comprehend that their woke belief system is an ideology, basically a religion, and it has no place in government. It's really not safe here, truly not safe, if you don't worship with the woke cult. They're constantly policing, and they get violent; I speak from first-hand experience. As for those lumberjacks you imagined, well, Portland residents actually spend an enormous amount of time indoors in expensive coffee shops and bars - oh, uh, "brew pubs." And, yes, the guys are more likely to be wearing nail polish or jewelry. Being sober and sane in Portland is an exercise in isolation. Yes, the trees are beautiful, and it's safe to be gay, here, so long as you don't say what you really think. There are also some good, sane people, but we are cautious, quiet, few and far between. And, yes, I wear a face mask in enclosed public spaces. It's not post-covid, here. I talked just this past week with three people who've had covid just in the past month, maybe because people spend so much time inside. Portland can't help its long, gloomy winters. Most locals take vitamin D to survive the gloom. Maybe Portland is okay for people with enough money to insulate themselves from the reality of the streets. They also vacate in the winter and go someplace sunny.
Let’s say someone is one of the few, highly social all of his life, but is now still isolated, tired of the pepper spray, meth pipes, flashlights, and mountain bikes, and has done so much shadow work, deconstruction, and personal study they wish to stick their head out like a ground hog, knowing that they are not likely to see their own literal shadow. Where would that person successfully socialize in this apocalyptic Portland? LOL Asking for a lumberjack friend.
When I was your age, I had to move a lot just to survive employment discrimination. I'm deeply tired of uprooting, but, yes, I've researched other options, trust me. I'm a veteran on a fixed income, and Portland is overpriced, but the VA hospital in Portland is excellent, saved my life when another VA was going to let me die. I stay here for the excellent medical care; physical health comes first. It's another puzzle that such a dysfunctional place has such an excellent VA. So I stay. I'm old enough and have done enough inner work that I own and enjoy myself, no matter where I am. I have made a beautiful garden which I get to share. Each of us is a unique trajectory. It's kind of fascinating.
Yes - heard this story on the nature tour and loved it! Also blew my mind to realize "Salem" is the latter part of "Jerusalem." So both Salems are essentially named after Jerusalem. It always goes back to biblical references, doesn't it? 😅
I think a short trip in one area is not a good representation of anywhere. I’ve been in the suburbs since 2018 and west of Salem since 2021. NW OR is great. It’s been a bit since I was downtown Portland. Homeless are obvious there. They are obvious in the suburbs, but not as much to passerbys. They are obvious in Salem and everywhere along I-5 which is San Diego to Seattle.
I live near Portland. I really don't understand why anyone would visit the city. Its dirty and depressing. The men of Portland are very low T. Wasn't always like that.
Wow what a whiny little b***h 😂 “the good old days were so much better. These young whippersnappers still wet behind the ears. They’re ruining our society!” 😂
The kind of guy you describe will avoid the city like the plague. I live that life and my husband is like that, but we live 40 miles south of Seattle and would like to be further away. I lived in Portland and Seattle in the 90's and early 2000's and they always had drug/homeless problems. But, it has just exploded over the last decade due to our cities enabling it and other cities from more conservative areas shipping their homeless population here.
... we (me, myself & i) get off on how u pronounce word, "jawing" (spontaneous verve). humbly, methinx 4u, someday ?, somehow ?, somewhere ? - gay rodeo ....
@@thefrontporch8594 Wow! Unexpected. I went years ago with family and was disappointed. I expected something more sophisticated, I guess? It felt kinda campy to me
@@KevenTalks The coffee had not kicked in yet. I HAVE heard that KW has become so gayeee, so maybe it is not the same. I also think/thought San Antonio is romantic, but may not be the same with all the Illegals. Oahu, tho an island if wonderful!!!! And, Naples Italy in my favorite city in the world, but i hear that it has been over run with Muslims and Africans. I have lived is all these places.
It wasn't Covid, it was progressive policies. I have lived here for 44 years, and it was a charming, clean special place. You are spot on in your impressions. Oregon is a gem, Portland is best avoided.
Moved from North Dallas to Portland in May.
To say the food options are plentiful cannot be understated. Food is everywhere! Fusions are amazing!
Gay friendly and open minded.
So glad we got out of Texas before the 2024 election!
We moved to Portland, Oregon (from San Francisco) 3 years ago. We have been super pleased with the PNW….the food…the people…and nature!
The nature outside Portland is glorious, but what do you think of the city itself?
Keven…your observations were spot on about Portland being badly affected by the Covid 19 shut down…also fentanyl use/
abuse….and measure 110…which Oregon voters approved to lessen the drug problems on our streets, but worsened it, with little $$$ for treatment…and a sense of use whatever drug you want on the street without consequence… Recently, Oregon voters agreed measure 110 was a train wreck, and open drug use has consequences. We have a new district attorney (to start in the new year) who will hold criminals accountable. Finally, we are also looking to a new mayor this November election (Rene Gonzales perhaps) to help us clean up our dirty streets. Portland was a beautiful city 10 years ago….It will regain its shine and luster in the near future. It’s not a burning trash heap that the conservative press suggests, but we have a ways to go before reclaiming our city’s beauty. I live in one of those “feels like a little neighborhood” you discussed, and couldn’t be happier with our neighborhood, parks, mom/pop cafes, etc. But I’m NOT living downtown any longer.
Hi Keven, I appreciate your sincere perspective and invaluable advice. Looking forward to more of your adventures.
Thanks so much for watching Peter!
You've watched Broke back Mountain too many times....
Bahaha I've only seen it once!
Hummmm, strange take on Portland. I suggest you return, and take some time to really explore. Downtown Portland, is not representative of all the cool neighborhoods. Guess Portland have problems, hell ya. I think you barely scraped the surface, hope you come back and enjoy yourself.
OMG, how could you not like Brooklyn? Just the history of the place always trying to outdo Manhattan is so interesting. Of course, the Brooklyn Museum was only 25% built, but had they finished it, it would have been the largest museum in the world at the time. They outdid themselves building the Brooklyn Bridge, which brought about the end of Brooklyn as a separate city. The irony of it all is so interesting. Even Prospect Park is nicer than Central Park, but few have ever heard of it. And the Honeymooners was all about Brooklyn, and yet the series only has 39 episodes, all filmed in Manhattan. "Wait till next year" as they say in Brooklyn, in the everlasting hope to outdo the other boroughs. Well, today it is the most populated borough in NYC! Go Brooklyn!
lol I just don't "get" Brooklyn 🤷🏻♂
@@KevenTalks Wait till next year:)!
I live in portland, it's so much fun in the summer,lots of young fun cycling events,music,.yes we are lucky because I don't want to live in a huge Metropolitan city.but people are moving here by flocks.there have been a lot of bad changes with the cost of living so high,I feel sorry for the young and poor
yes there is men you like in pacific nw. but not in the major city like Portland. you need to go to rural areas. these men live their life. homestead type. Portland has changed over the years.....covid , investments drop of the 2008. etc have changed the city. but the charm is coming back slowly. i grew up in vancouver, WA ,next door to Portland. things change like any city over the years.
That makes sense. I would love to return to Washington to explore nature outside of Seattle!
My friend lives in that city, I can recognise it because I have lots of post cards from there. ✨😘
Have lived here over 20 years, 5 of those in Portland pre covid. The rest of the time in Vancouver WA. My housemate and I no longer go into Portland unless we have to for medical appointments. We've been accosted during the day and the people begging on every corner is disturbing. It is bleeding over into Vancouver more and more. However, Washington laws prevent some of the issues Portland has. or help us control it. In the time I lived in Portland I was accosted at least once a year on the Max train. I got so I was armed with a knife, mace and a tazer when I went out, I do the same now if I have to go into Portland for an event.
Interesting take on Portland, the surrounding area and guys on apps there.
I went on a trip with some friends to Oregon and Washington in the '90s. We mostly went to the nature areas and only had a meal in Portland and in Seattle.
I have only a vague recollection of Portland so it wasn't particularly memorable for me, either for good or bad. I like Seattle and I've been back there a few times for business.
The nature areas along the coast, in the mountains, and along the rivers were wonderful. I particularly liked the various falls.
The coast was great. I fondly remember the hot crab dip made with Dungeness crabs and Tillamook cheeses that we had at a small crab shack near Rockaway beach in Oregon. The boat tour for whale watching was fun, and it was thrilling to see a whale breach, blow out water, and slap its tale on the surface near our boat.
I enjoyed the trip up Mount Rainier and a small plane tour over Mount St. Helens. I remember that from the plane, the downed tree trunks left from Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980, looked like burnt out wooden match sticks scattered down the side of the mountain.
It was also thrilling to see moose and elk roaming around as we toured these nature areas.
Of course, there was also a lot of drizzle, rain, and fog there.
Definitely very nature-bound area! Thanks for watching as always :)
OMG - you are going to freak out when you get to San Francisco. It's completely off the chain! And this is coming from a former resident who moved there from NYC.
In a bad way, I assume?
Even better than Brokeback Mountain is "My own private Idaho" with the late River Phoenix and Keenu Reeves (1991) but you were not born when it came out.
Memories.... you should try and watch this movie
Side note: "River Phoenix" is such an epic name
It is an epic name. He was an epic young star who had such potential ahead of him. He was the first creative to pass away that brought me to tears when I was young. I'll never forget that feeling or where I was. It was one of those moments when you "get it", as others have told you how they were hit when certain people pass or something heavy happens.
@@Studycase3000 Feeling the same when he passed away...he was an Angel from California, I was a very young French boy and I can remember it like it was yesterday.
Out of necessity, I had to move to Portland in 2015. I'm a socialist, retired with a background in clinical and research psychology from before when psychology sold out to sociology. I've lived in several larger cities, then in this place. Ick. It's not just about what Covid did to the city. For reasons I don't understand, Portland has never grown up.
The most obvious issue: Oregon has no functional public mental health system. Unless persons who are severely mentally ill have private insurance, there is no real help for them. Also, when the state decriminalized drug use, it did not implement the treatment services that were supposed to go with decriminalization. Yes, it worked in Portugal, but Portugal had socialized medicine. We don't. So, now, with lots of addicts and increased crime and violence, the state has re-criminalized drug use, but the jail psych wards were already so full that they had transferred inmates to the state psychiatric hospital at Salem, completely filling it with jail inmates. If you are an addict and haven't become a criminal, yet, there's no help for you.
The state has a deeply ingrained culture of substance abuse. And, now, there's fentanyl. But Portland has been Stonerville for years, plus meth is pernicious among gay men, and we have the syphilis rates to prove it.
Affordability? Portland is being bought up by corporate interests, destroying affordable housing, driving people into homelessness. Because the city derives funding from the county property tax, the city has a conflict of interest between providing services for homeowners and other residents versus supporting developer demolition of housing to build high-end apartment buildings that will pay more in property tax than a single-family house. So homelessness grows.
Sanitation is provided by private corporations, not the city, so there are not city services to provide sanitation for homeless encampments. Rather, the city spent about $22 million this past year doing "clean-sweeps" to drive homeless people from their encampments. The city is overrun with rats. Why we haven't had a typhus outbreak, etc., is a mystery.
Plus, Portland State University is a hot-bed for woke-ism, some of which you encountered. Woke has also taken over the schools and government. If you email someone in government, you'll likely get a response with someone informing you of his/her "pronouns." They don't seem to comprehend that their woke belief system is an ideology, basically a religion, and it has no place in government. It's really not safe here, truly not safe, if you don't worship with the woke cult. They're constantly policing, and they get violent; I speak from first-hand experience.
As for those lumberjacks you imagined, well, Portland residents actually spend an enormous amount of time indoors in expensive coffee shops and bars - oh, uh, "brew pubs." And, yes, the guys are more likely to be wearing nail polish or jewelry.
Being sober and sane in Portland is an exercise in isolation. Yes, the trees are beautiful, and it's safe to be gay, here, so long as you don't say what you really think. There are also some good, sane people, but we are cautious, quiet, few and far between. And, yes, I wear a face mask in enclosed public spaces. It's not post-covid, here. I talked just this past week with three people who've had covid just in the past month, maybe because people spend so much time inside.
Portland can't help its long, gloomy winters. Most locals take vitamin D to survive the gloom. Maybe Portland is okay for people with enough money to insulate themselves from the reality of the streets. They also vacate in the winter and go someplace sunny.
Let’s say someone is one of the few, highly social all of his life, but is now still isolated, tired of the pepper spray, meth pipes, flashlights, and mountain bikes, and has done so much shadow work, deconstruction, and personal study they wish to stick their head out like a ground hog, knowing that they are not likely to see their own literal shadow. Where would that person successfully socialize in this apocalyptic Portland?
LOL Asking for a lumberjack friend.
"Being sober and sane in Portland is an exercise in isolation." Damn!
I take it you're still there right now - have you planned an exit strategy?
When I was your age, I had to move a lot just to survive employment discrimination. I'm deeply tired of uprooting, but, yes, I've researched other options, trust me. I'm a veteran on a fixed income, and Portland is overpriced, but the VA hospital in Portland is excellent, saved my life when another VA was going to let me die. I stay here for the excellent medical care; physical health comes first. It's another puzzle that such a dysfunctional place has such an excellent VA. So I stay. I'm old enough and have done enough inner work that I own and enjoy myself, no matter where I am. I have made a beautiful garden which I get to share. Each of us is a unique trajectory. It's kind of fascinating.
@@BigSky000 Thank you for sharing this!
@@KevenTalksKeven, I appreciate your sharing, too. It was a relief just hearing your sane, honest description of your time in Portland. Safe journey!
Pearl district Voodoo donuts . Guy from Portland Maine and Boston Mass established the city . They tossed a coin to name Boston or Portland
Yes - heard this story on the nature tour and loved it!
Also blew my mind to realize "Salem" is the latter part of "Jerusalem."
So both Salems are essentially named after Jerusalem.
It always goes back to biblical references, doesn't it? 😅
As a person from MA thank you. I never heard this story before. I like the histories of the "Naming of Things"
I think a short trip in one area is not a good representation of anywhere. I’ve been in the suburbs since 2018 and west of Salem since 2021. NW OR is great. It’s been a bit since I was downtown Portland. Homeless are obvious there. They are obvious in the suburbs, but not as much to passerbys. They are obvious in Salem and everywhere along I-5 which is San Diego to Seattle.
I live near Portland. I really don't understand why anyone would visit the city. Its dirty and depressing. The men of Portland are very low T. Wasn't always like that.
Yup, that pretty much sums up Portland! 😄 But you missed the male strip clubs! 😍
Haha oh yeah?
I like the old school masculinity exhibited in the 1990s and 2000s in pop culture and whatnot. Gen Z and younger millennials lack that.
Wow what a whiny little b***h 😂 “the good old days were so much better. These young whippersnappers still wet behind the ears. They’re ruining our society!” 😂
The strong, silent type?
100% 🤠
The kind of guy you describe will avoid the city like the plague. I live that life and my husband is like that, but we live 40 miles south of Seattle and would like to be further away. I lived in Portland and Seattle in the 90's and early 2000's and they always had drug/homeless problems. But, it has just exploded over the last decade due to our cities enabling it and other cities from more conservative areas shipping their homeless population here.
What makes you want to be even farther from Seattle?
@ We’d like to live in an area that’s more peaceful and less populated. Even where we live there is a lot of crime.
... we (me, myself & i) get off on how u pronounce word, "jawing" (spontaneous verve). humbly, methinx 4u, someday ?, somehow ?, somewhere ? - gay rodeo ....
I've traveled a LOT and I hate Portland.
Yeah I was pretty disappointed myself 🙈
Do you have a favorite U.S. city?
Key West
@@thefrontporch8594 Wow! Unexpected. I went years ago with family and was disappointed. I expected something more sophisticated, I guess? It felt kinda campy to me
I’ve traveled a lot and I love Portland
@@KevenTalks The coffee had not kicked in yet. I HAVE heard that KW has become so gayeee, so maybe it is not the same. I also think/thought San Antonio is romantic, but may not be the same with all the Illegals. Oahu, tho an island if wonderful!!!! And, Naples Italy in my favorite city in the world, but i hear that it has been over run with Muslims and Africans. I have lived is all these places.
What? No heroine?
It wasn't Covid, it was progressive policies. I have lived here for 44 years, and it was a charming, clean special place. You are spot on in your impressions. Oregon is a gem, Portland is best avoided.
So you’re trashing the city largely based on a fantasy you had about a specific minority (gay men) that live there? Cringe 😬