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I'd originally posted this over on what's hot about Portland. It seems a lot of people make the assumption that it is a great place to live, etc. It seems that the answer fits here so I'm re-posting it here.We've lived all over the country (Atlanta, Seattle, San Diego, southwestern Ohio, and now Portland), as well as parts of Europe, and hate living in Portland.Here are the reasons I believe it to be among the worst places in the US to live:Terrible weather: Portland has a special place in movie and TV production. It's the place producers count on to produce grim works, where they can reliably find grey, miserable, overcast, foreboding skies. In fact, it is for that reason that the TV show Grimm (NBC) is filmed here. Unless you love the type of weather that puts people on suicide watch, month after month, from October to July, with winds that top 40 mph shooting down the gorge, Portland might not be your place. In fact, two of the premier companies here in Portland got their start battling the weather: Nike, which made shoes for running in the mud, and Columbia Sporting Goods, which of course is famous for it's storm-battling outwear, especially their full body rain suits. People tend to say it's green here. It's not. Not unless you're comparing it to southern California. The real color here, simply put, is gray.Not family friendly: Kids need good morals and more space to play than is generally available in the area. Those same zoning laws that constrict the city kill lot sizes. Want to find the city with the largest number of strip clubs per capita in the US? That would be none other than Portland. Oh, did I mentioned it rains or is gray and overcast virtually all day every day for months at a time? They also hate Walmart and love unionized grocery stores. Expect everything you buy to cost you an extra 30% to 50% over the cost in cities in the rest of the country, worthwhile cities like Cincinnati or Atlanta. It's also oppressive to dogs, with strict leash laws and exceptionally small lots, in fact lots that are in general too small to allow dogs to freely run and play, unlike the neighborhoods we lived in in the aforementioned cities above.Hills: Ever heard someone tell you they had to hike up hill both ways when going to school? They must have lived in Portland. While there are a few neighborhoods that are flatter than others, virtually the entire area is built on the side or on top of a hill. Given the rains we have here, we also have a problem with frequent land slides, the types of landslides that destroy homes and close roads for days on end.Run down neighborhoods, with unpaved streets: Portland's zoning tries very, very, hard to force development in run down areas by refusing to allow newer development. As a result, there are a fairly large number of newer properties, usually one or two houses, that wind up getting built into dumpy neighborhoods. The net result is that you are reminded just how bad Portland's neighborhoods really are (for the most part they are really pretty dumpy with the exception of areas like Nob Hill, Irvington, and the Hollywood district). In a number of areas there are even unpaved streets, for instance in pretty large areas of east Portland. The presence of unpaved roads is not the only thing that points back to the past. Many people also keep livestock in their backyards, for instance hens.Little to do: Every other city we have ever lived in seemed to have a lot to do. Atlanta had Piedmont Park, Lennox Mall and Phipps Plaza, as well as good universities, universities that offered among their offerings worthwhile weekend and evening courses. Seattle had Pike Place, a really worth while downtown, Elliott Bay and trips both to the San Juan Islands and Vancouver within a short drive. San Diego had the beach, Sea World, Balboa Park, the Zoos, and was a quick trip up to Disney and the rest of LA. Portland has none of that, and is really, really, distant from the rest of the world. And if you have kids and want to support them playing an outdoor sport, for instance soccer, I hope you enjoy sitting in the rain. Outdoor tennis here is virtually impossible, as are days at the park throughout much of the year. Unless you like hiking up wet and soggy hillsides in the rain, drinking micro brews, or visiting strip clubs, there are much better cities in which to waste your time. The coast that everyone tells you is just an hour and a half is also pretty worthless, a rugged and very dangerous place, and not just due to cold weather. There are what they refer to as "sneaker waves" here that will literally reach up onto the beach and snatch people and carry them off. Here's a worthwhile link from just down the coast on the subject of sneaker waves:http://lygsbtd.wordpress.com/tag...One interesting statistic along this line of nothing to do: apparently one in three Portlanders has an interest in getting a permit to grow and smoke their own pot. One in three. Oh, and along that line, and did I mention, there are very few jobs here? The unemployment rate in Portland has a history of remaining consistently above the national average, so don't count on finding a job, especially a worthwhile job, here. If there ever was such a thing as economic productivity here, it left with the mass protection of the spotted owl, which is now going extinct on it's own, even with protection, and the shuttering of the logging and resource industry that once drove what little economic productivity there was in this region is gone along with the federal subsidies that kept the outlying counties going after their ability to log was removed by the federal government nearly two decades ago.Much higher than usual state income tax rates: The state of Oregon has a state tax rate of more than 11%. Virtually everyone pays 9%. While they claim that this is because they don't have a sales tax, which would you rater pay: 9% on virtually all your income, including money you would use for rent or save, or 8% on just the things you buy? The city of Portland and Multnomah county also tend to impose additional surtaxes over and above those imposed by the state.Large, centrally located, and highly coddled homeless population: There is a large, and centrally located, homeless population in Portland, and it is really coddled, for instance given prime property and the run of whole areas of town that frankly would have been pretty nice, without open drug dealing, skank prostitutes, and nasty, dirty, people lying on the streets and along the waterfront all day long. Good example: easily one of the nicest parts of town architecturally is the park block where Powell's technical bookstore used to sit, right across from "Central City Concern," which is just one of many organizations to which the homeless congregate.Lack of opportunity: If you're on the east coast or in southern California it is generally fair to say that you are surrounded by opportunities. That is absolutely not the case here in Portland. This is a mid-sized city (just slightly smaller than Milwaukee or Louisville) with mid-sized opportunities. Moreover, unlike those cities, there is just one other city of any size within a 10 hour drive, and that is Seattle. To put this into perspective, the next major city to the east is Salt Lake City (15 hours) and beyond that is Denver (22 hours). Driving 8 hours a day, that means it would take nearly two full days to hit Salt Lake and three to hit Denver. Compare that to, for instance Philadelphia or Baltimore, both of which, along with every other city on the east coast, are less than a days drive to every other on the east coast from Boston to Charlotte, or even cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Columbus, including virtually all of the nations economic and political centers. By the way, this is the reason Boeing left Portland's neighbor, Seattle, for Chicago. Getting anywhere of interest takes a day, even when traveling by air. The fact that we're three hours behind the east coast also does not help.Trigger-happy police: Cops here define the term trigger happy. In fact, when they're not shooting people on duty, they seem to be murdering people while off duty. I believe the count last year was 11 people shot by cops, not counting what I believe were somewhere in the neighborhood of six additional off duty murders. In some of the counties making up Portland I know for certain they not only import attack dogs from the former Soviet Union, but have in their squad room a poster portraying themselves as a highly militarized police force. By the way, I believe two of their cops were responsible for at least three of the off-duty murders. Do you really want to live in that type of police state?In any case, as a result of all of the above, we've witnessed what I believe to be fairly elevated cases of murder suicides, including mothers dropping their children off bridges into the frigid waters a hundred or more feet below.So, given all this, how does Portland get a good rep? I think there are three answers to this.First, there are a ton of "hipsters" here. Not sure why, but if you're looking for your degenerate 20 something hipster, the one that ran away from home at the age of 18, they're probably here. By the way, see the TV show Portlandia for more. You might even just google the theme song on youtube to get the idea. If you like hipsters, bad weather, and grunge this might be your type of city.Second, a ton of tax money, taken by force from the people that live here, has gone into keeping one part of downtown looking it's best, which includes both funding work in that part of the city, as well as two separate in town train systems. By the way, they keep the trains in the center section of downtown free as a publicity stunt, while charging rates to real riders that seem to go up by the month. By the way, make sure not to get in their way (or in the way of a bus). They're likely not only to run over you, but to actually park on top of you. For what it's worth, buses and trains even sometimes run into each other.Finally, the city is rumored to have a quid pro quo with various travel writers to place the city in a favorable light. I believe I've seen an article on this in the local press (Portland Magazine I think, so you might be able to google that too). Moreover, I believe the city only invites them to visit during the months with the most favorable weather. The net effect is that visitors that arrive without families, that don't have to live here, and visit the one part of town worth visiting when the weather is best, and then they go home and write about it.Economically, it's a backwater to the bay area that became attractive during stronger economic times, as costs rose down in California, but one that is largely without a leg to stand on when as the economy collapses and costs in California return to more normal levels.As you might tell from the above, I have never disliked living a city in which I have been living as much as I dislike living here in Portland. Having been pulled in nearly five years ago, and having a house here and a family that has friends here, simply put, I'm stuck and really hating every minute of it.

We've lived all over the country (Atlanta, Seattle, San Diego, southwestern Ohio, and now Portland), as well as parts of Europe, and hate living in Portland.Here are the reasons I believe it to be among the worst places in the US to live:Terrible weather: Portland has a special place in movie and TV production. It's the place producers count on to product grim works, where they can reliably find grey, miserable, overcast, foreboding skies. In fact, it is for that reason that the TV show Grimm (NBC) is filmed here. Unless you love the type of weather that puts people on suicide watch, month after month, from October to July, with winds that top 40 mph shooting down the gorge, Portland might not be your place. In fact, two of the premier companies here in Portland got their start battling the weather: Nike, which made shoes for running in the mud, and Columbia Sporting Goods, which of course is famous for it's storm-battling outwear, especially their full body rain suits. People tend to say it's green here. It's not. Not unless you're comparing it to southern California. The real color here, simply put, is gray.Not family friendly: Kids need good morals and more space to play than is generally available in the area. Those same zoning laws that constrict the city kill lot sizes. Want to find the city with the largest number of strip clubs per capita in the US? That would be none other than Portland. Oh, did I mentioned it rains or is gray and overcast virtually all day every day for months at a time? They also hate Walmart and love unionized grocery stores. Expect everything you buy to cost you an extra 30% to 50% over the cost in cities in the rest of the country, worthwhile cities like Cincinnati or Atlanta.Hills: Ever heard someone tell you they had to hike up hill both ways when going to school? They must have lived in Portland. While there are a few neighborhoods that are flatter than others, virtually the entire area is built on the side or on top of a hill. Given the rains we have here, we also have a problem with frequent land slides, the types of landslides that destroy homes and close roads for days on end.Run down neighborhoods, with unpaved streets: Portland's zoning tries very, very, hard to force development in run down areas by refusing to allow newer development. As a result, there are a fairly large number of newer properties, usually one or two houses, that wind up getting built into dumpy neighborhoods. The net result is that you are reminded just how bad Portland's neighborhoods really are (for the most part they are really pretty dumpy with the exception of areas like Nob Hill, Irvington, and the Hollywood district). In a number of areas there are even unpaved streets, for instance in pretty large areas of east Portland. The presence of unpaved roads is not the only thing that points back to the past. Many people also keep livestock in their backyards, for instance hens.Little to do: Every other city we have ever lived in seemed to have a lot to do. Atlanta had Piedmont Park, Lennox Mall and Phipps Plaza, as well as good universities, universities that offered among their offerings worthwhile weekend and evening courses. Seattle had Pike Place, a really worth while downtown, Elliott Bay and trips both to the San Juan Islands and Vancouver within a short drive. San Diego had the beach, Sea World, Balboa Park, the Zoos, and was a quick trip up to Disney and the rest of LA. Portland has none of that, and is really, really, distant from the rest of the world. And if you have kids and want to support them playing an outdoor sport, for instance soccer, I hope you enjoy sitting in the rain. Outdoor tennis here is virtually impossible, as are days at the park throughout much of the year. Unless you like hiking up wet and soggy hillsides in the rain, drinking micro brews, or visiting strip clubs, there are much better cities in which to waste your time. The coast that everyone tells you is just an hour and a half is also pretty worthless, a rugged and very dangerous place, and not just due to cold weather. There are what they refer to as "sneaker waves" here that will literally reach up onto the beach and snatch people and carry them off. Here's a worthwhile link from just down the coast on the subject of sneaker waves:http://lygsbtd.wordpress.com/tag/sneaker-wave/One interesting statistic along this line of nothing to do: apparently one in three Portlanders has a medical marijuana card. One in three. Oh, and along that line, and did I mention, there are very few jobs here? The unemployment rate in Portland has a history of remaining consistently above the national average, so don't count on finding a job, especially a worthwhile job, here. If there ever was such a thing as economic productivity here, it left with the mass protection of the spotted owl, which is now going extinct on it's own, even with protection, and the shuttering of the logging and resource industry that once drove what little economic productivity there was in this region is gone along with the federal subsidies that kept the outlying counties going after their ability to log was removed by the federal government nearly two decades ago.Much higher than usual state income tax rates: The state of Oregon has a state tax rate of more than 11%. Virtually everyone pays 9%. While they claim that this is because they don't have a sales tax, which would you rater pay: 9% on virtually all your income, including money you would use for rent or save, or 8% on just the things you buy? The city of Portland and Multnomah county also tend to impose additional surtaxes over and above those imposed by the state.Large, centrally located, and highly coddled homeless population: There is a large, and centrally located, homeless population in Portland, and it is really coddled, for instance given prime property and the run of whole areas of town that frankly would have been pretty nice, without open drug dealing, skank prostitutes, and nasty, dirty, people lying on the streets and along the waterfront all day long. Good example: easily one of the nicest parts of town architecturally is the park block where Powell's technical bookstore used to sit, right across from "Central City Concern," which is just one of many organizations to which the homeless congregate.Lack of opportunity: If you're on the east coast or in southern California it is generally fair to say that you are surrounded by opportunities. That is absolutely not the case here in Portland. This is a mid-sized city (just slightly smaller than Milwaukee or Louisville) with mid-sized opportunities. Moreover, unlike those cities, there is just one other city of any size within a 10 hour drive, and that is Seattle. To put this into perspective, the next major city to the east is Salt Lake City (15 hours) and beyond that is Denver (22 hours). Driving 8 hours a day, that means it would take nearly two full days to hit Salt Lake and three to hit Denver. Compare that to, for instance Philadelphia or Baltimore, both of which, along with every other city on the east coast, are less than a days drive to every other on the east coast from Boston to Charlotte, or even cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Columbus, including virtually all of the nations economic and political centers. By the way, this is the reason Boeing left Portland's neighbor, Seattle, for Chicago. Getting anywhere of interest takes a day, even when traveling by air. The fact that we're three hours behind the east coast also does not help.Trigger-happy police: Cops here define the term trigger happy. In fact, when they're not shooting people on duty, they seem to be murdering people while off duty. I believe the count last year was 11 people shot by cops, not counting what I believe were somewhere in the neighborhood of six additional off duty murders. In some of the counties making up Portland I know for certain they not only import attack dogs from the former Soviet Union, but have in their squad room a poster portraying themselves as a highly militarized police force. By the way, I believe two of their cops were responsible for at least three of the off-duty murders. Do you really want to live in that type of police state?In any case, as a result of all of the above, we've witnessed what I believe to be fairly elevated cases of murder suicides, including mothers dropping their children off bridges into the frigid waters a hundred or more feet below.So, given all this, how does Portland get a good rep? I think there are three answers to this.First, there are a ton of "hipsters" here. Not sure why, but if you're looking for your degenerate 20 something hipster, the one that ran away from home at the age of 18, they're probably here. By the way, see the TV show Portlandia for more. You might even just google the theme song on youtube to get the idea. If you like hipsters, bad weather, and grunge this might be your type of city.Second, a ton of tax money, taken by force from the people that live here, has gone into keeping one part of downtown looking it's best, which includes both funding work in that part of the city, as well as two separate in town train systems. By the way, they keep the trains in the center section of downtown free as a publicity stunt, while charging rates to real riders that seem to go up by the month. By the way, make sure not to get in their way (or in the way of a bus). They're likely not only to run over you, but to actually park on top of you. For what it's worth, buses and trains even sometimes run into each other.Finally, the city is rumored to have a quid pro quo with various travel writers to place the city in a favorable light. I believe I've seen an article on this in the local press (Portland Magazine I think, so you might be able to google that too). Moreover, I believe the city only invites them to visit during the months with the most favorable weather. The net effect is that visitors that arrive without families, that don't have to live here, and visit the one part of town worth visiting when the weather is best, and then they go home and write about it.Economically, it's a backwater to the bay area that became attractive during stronger economic times, as costs rose down in California, but one that is largely without a leg to stand on when as the economy collapses and costs in California return to more normal levels.As you might tell from the above, I have never disliked living a city in which I have been living as much as I dislike living here in Portland. Having been pulled in nearly five years ago, and having a house here and a family that has friends here, simply put, I'm stuck and really hating every minute of it.

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