Anybody NOT like where they currently live? (1 Viewer)

[tommyboy]

It's been a while since we caught up but aren't you in east or Westmoreland (sp)?  Assuming that's the case, why can't you hop on the new MAX lines that extend to Milwaukie and can take you to where you work, which I think is Beaverton, by St. V's?  Am I wrong?  

TriMet is a big benefit for our city.  It requires a little more time and egad, you might actually have to walk a little, but I am not buying your line that it benefits only 4% of the city.  

I could if I wanted to get up at 4am. I already get up at 5. 

Look at this point I just want to retire, sell my completely overvalued home and cash out to Central Oregon. If it wasn't for these damn leach kids if have already left. I love Portland but I'm tired of it after 50 years and I don't like the way we aren't dealing with real world problems

 

[General Malaise]

I could if I wanted to get up at 4am. I already get up at 5. 

Look at this point I just want to retire, sell my completely overvalued home and cash out to Central Oregon. If it wasn't for these damn leach kids if have already left. I love Portland but I'm tired of it after 50 years and I don't like the way we aren't dealing with real world problems

Traffic sucks, no doubt. But I feel like you could use TriMet to avoid it if you wanted.  Lower your blood pressure, walk a little more, listen to new music or podcasts....I will take a stress free 45 minute commute with exercise over a 25 minute stressful drive in traffic all day long.  Give it a try!  

I won't retire here either.  I won't retire period, but if I ever did, it won't be here.  Taxes too bad. 

 

[tommyboy]

do you realize it was 17 years ago we met for coffee?   holy cow

 

[Courtjester]

I have lived in Colorado Springs--now Fountain all my life. My wife and I are the rare natives. We love it here, but I have to tell you the last couple years have really tested our patience. 

First of all--traffic. I am a very fast driver, but in the past 3-4 years something has happened where I am now the slow guy on the road. The growth of the city has brought so many new people in from other places and all of them seem to need to go 20-30 over the speed limit at all times. My wife is a careful, slow driver and not a day goes by she isn't getting honked at. Last year was a record year for people being killed on our roads and we are set to match/pass it this year.

Marijuana---yeah, I know everyone is all Wow it is legal--how exciting. The moment it became legal, the number of homeless people in our town exploded 10 fold. You can't go downtown anymore. Every corner has a peddler on it. Crime has gone way up. Illegal grow houses are everywhere.I had one two houses up from me and we are in a nice neighborhood. 

Weather--last summer our house was destroyed by hail. I mean baseball-softball sized monsters. We had to spend 40 days in a hotel while our house was rebuilt. This year we haven't had them that big, but the last storm broke out all the window effects and sunroof on my Tahoe. My wife's car is like someone took a small hammer to every inch of it. We had zero car payments last year. We now have two. We have been told this is a ten year cycle and we are now in year three. We are not going to replace cars every year.

Our house has doubled, almost tripled, in value and we have a nice sum built up in equity. I am turning 50 in two days and plan to retire in 3 years. My wife can retire in seven. We have one daughter in college and one a sophomore in HS.  When we retire we are seriously thinking about selling and moving somewhere quiet like Idaho or even Wyoming.  We live in a world of Amazon where anything can be delivered via a simple keystroke. I won't miss all this nonsense. 

 

[baymen]

Traffic sucks, no doubt. But I feel like you could use TriMet to avoid it if you wanted.  Lower your blood pressure, walk a little more, listen to new music or podcasts....I will take a stress free 45 minute commute with exercise over a 25 minute stressful drive in traffic all day long.  Give it a try!  

I won't retire here either.  I won't retire period, but if I ever did, it won't be here.  Taxes too bad. 

25 minute stressful drive?  Looks like I want to move to Portland.

 

[General Malaise]

25 minute stressful drive?  Looks like I want to move to Portland.

My office is 12 miles away.  No traffic, I can get there in 15-20 minutes.  Bad traffic, it's 25-45 minutes, depending on where the congestion is.  It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but it's aggravating.  The congestion here is caused by drivers who do not know how to merge.  There's rarely wrecks or cops slowing the flow of traffic.  It's moronic drivers and it kills me.  

Commuting via train/walking has been a godsend.

 

[Good Posting Judge]

I have lived in Colorado Springs--now Fountain all my life. My wife and I are the rare natives. We love it here, but I have to tell you the last couple years have really tested our patience. 

First of all--traffic. I am a very fast driver, but in the past 3-4 years something has happened where I am now the slow guy on the road. The growth of the city has brought so many new people in from other places and all of them seem to need to go 20-30 over the speed limit at all times. My wife is a careful, slow driver and not a day goes by she isn't getting honked at. Last year was a record year for people being killed on our roads and we are set to match/pass it this year.

Marijuana---yeah, I know everyone is all Wow it is legal--how exciting. The moment it became legal, the number of homeless people in our town exploded 10 fold. You can't go downtown anymore. Every corner has a peddler on it. Crime has gone way up. Illegal grow houses are everywhere.I had one two houses up from me and we are in a nice neighborhood. 

Weather--last summer our house was destroyed by hail. I mean baseball-softball sized monsters. We had to spend 40 days in a hotel while our house was rebuilt. This year we haven't had them that big, but the last storm broke out all the window effects and sunroof on my Tahoe. My wife's car is like someone took a small hammer to every inch of it. We had zero car payments last year. We now have two. We have been told this is a ten year cycle and we are now in year three. We are not going to replace cars every year.

Our house has doubled, almost tripled, in value and we have a nice sum built up in equity. I am turning 50 in two days and plan to retire in 3 years. My wife can retire in seven. We have one daughter in college and one a sophomore in HS.  When we retire we are seriously thinking about selling and moving somewhere quiet like Idaho or even Wyoming.  We live in a world of Amazon where anything can be delivered via a simple keystroke. I won't miss all this nonsense. 

Legal weed makes people homeless?

 

[General Malaise]

Legal weed makes people homeless?

It's the gatelessway drug, Truck.

 

[Terminalxylem]

I have lived in Colorado Springs--now Fountain all my life. My wife and I are the rare natives. We love it here, but I have to tell you the last couple years have really tested our patience. 

First of all--traffic. I am a very fast driver, but in the past 3-4 years something has happened where I am now the slow guy on the road. The growth of the city has brought so many new people in from other places and all of them seem to need to go 20-30 over the speed limit at all times. My wife is a careful, slow driver and not a day goes by she isn't getting honked at. Last year was a record year for people being killed on our roads and we are set to match/pass it this year.

Marijuana---yeah, I know everyone is all Wow it is legal--how exciting. The moment it became legal, the number of homeless people in our town exploded 10 fold. You can't go downtown anymore. Every corner has a peddler on it. Crime has gone way up. Illegal grow houses are everywhere.I had one two houses up from me and we are in a nice neighborhood. 

Weather--last summer our house was destroyed by hail. I mean baseball-softball sized monsters. We had to spend 40 days in a hotel while our house was rebuilt. This year we haven't had them that big, but the last storm broke out all the window effects and sunroof on my Tahoe. My wife's car is like someone took a small hammer to every inch of it. We had zero car payments last year. We now have two. We have been told this is a ten year cycle and we are now in year three. We are not going to replace cars every year.

Our house has doubled, almost tripled, in value and we have a nice sum built up in equity. I am turning 50 in two days and plan to retire in 3 years. My wife can retire in seven. We have one daughter in college and one a sophomore in HS.  When we retire we are seriously thinking about selling and moving somewhere quiet like Idaho or even Wyoming.  We live in a world of Amazon where anything can be delivered via a simple keystroke. I won't miss all this nonsense. 

I just visited CO Springs for the first time a couple months ago. I thought it was really nice, but the traffic was surprising heavy, and it was nearly impossible to avoid F950 Monster trucks riding your ### going way too fast for conditions.

 

[Godsbrother]

Winter/Summer extremes here are better than Detroit/Toledo.  Thank you, Lake Erie.  Helps minimize the number of sweltering hot days and while we get a lot more snow that's optimal with the right infrastructure to the wind and ice that frequent the other side of the lake.

You can speak better to Buffalo winter's than I, but there's a huge difference between an eastern suburb of Cleveland and...well, anything east of here.  I know you get more snow than us and the highway that connects our two cities shuts down with frequency.  That strikes me as problematic, but I also don't care to find out.

Akron is to Cleveland what Toledo is to Detroit.  They're both arm pits.  What Akron has going for it vs. Toledo is its proximity to Cleveland.  A north Akron suburb is basically a south/east Cleveland suburb.  Same isn't the case for Toledo.  I grew up around there.  I lived in a great community, but we all couldn't get away from there fast enough - for good reason.

Recreational, I have zero perspective on Buffalo and any opinion on Detroit is very dated.  Cleveland now is better than Detroit then and from what I've read Detroit now is better than Detroit then, but compared to Cleveland now?     I just know that I love it here and we can't experience all that we want to experience..and while I have good experiences when i visit elsewhere I never come away thinking I may want to live there instead.  

Went to college in Toledo back in the late 70s and early 80s and my wife has some family still there.   It isn't so bad for a small rust belt city but it also doesn't have a lot going for it either.  I certainly prefer it over Akron.

I have a good friend that lives in Grand Island outside of Buffalo and it is actually a pretty nice area and you are a hop skip away from Canada.  He claims the snowfall in the winter isn't bad but I am not sure I buy that considering the proximity to the lakes.

I've lived in Pittsburgh most of my life and I like it pretty well.  The people are friendly and the economy has recovered nicely from the 70's & 80s.   it has a lot of big city attributes without big city problems and there isn't much risk of natural disasters like hurricanes,  droughts, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc.    

The winters have been mild lately but they are still a month too long.   I just turned 60 and looking to retire in a few years but will likely remain in Pittsburgh due to our kids and grand kids are here but we are thinking we'll pack up every January and come back in March to skip the cold weather.

 

[msommer]

do you realize it was 17 years ago we met for coffee?   holy cow

Time flies when you (actually @General Malaise) keep having kids  

 

[mr. furley]

late to the thread but i don't like where i live

relatively it's OK. i enjoy my house, the neighborhood we live in is fine. schools are good. we have the Packers of course and i love that but outside of those things.. the weather is harsh and unacceptable a minimum of 4-5 months per year. spring is a total crapshoot. could be 70s in May. could be 40s. we had snow in May this year. IN MAY! 

summer doesn't typically get underway until mid-June and ends in September. this year we had a terrible spring. lots of snow & cold. then torrential rain & cold. we barely cracked the low 60s straight through June and on many of those days it rained. a lot. not typical but also not out of the ordinary over the years.

really feels like summer only began about 2 weeks ago. now we're in the middle 90s with humidity. that might break in a week or might last through August. 

if you love the outdoors. to camp, to fish, to hunt. this is a great town in that it's close to all that but not in the woods. but it's also 2 hours away from anything else. 

the town is both on a large bay, and bisected by a river but the city forefathers completely ####### ruined both so that the both are unswimmable. you can fish them but wouldn't dare eat anything from the river. probably have to drive up the shore a bit to eat fish from the bay. we're 45 minutes from Lake Michigan, too but the shore towns are godawful wastes of industrial failure.  

the riverfront has been reserved for coal piles for decades. any riverfront property is 10 miles or more south and then it's just expensive homes with river frontage. the river boardwalk is about 1 city block long and was only built in the last handful of years.

thankfully there are a million lakes north of town but most are either private or near towns that are basically old west outpost towns. there are a couple bars, a ####ty gas station and a bunch of trees. 

the idea of a city having culture or being anything other than purely functional is totally lost here. if the farmers and work-12-hours-a-day-7-days-a-week folks don't understand its use then it doesn't happen here.  in the last, say, 10 years we finally got a paved trail for folks to walk, bike and run on. that's about as artsy and cultured as we're going to get. 

if you're a person who doesn't want to wear Wranglers, a flannel, Wolverine boots and a stormy kromer hat then you're #### out of luck. either you shop online or drive hundreds of miles for anything remotely not workwear related. our biggest clothing retailer here is..... Kohl's? and not a nice Kohl's. we get the end of the line, cheapest versions or whatever Kohl's carries. plenty of St. James (John's?) Bay, Izod and Haggar. but the "economy" line of each.

fine dining is somewhat picking up steam here in the last 10-15 years. easier now to get a good meal than ever before so that's something but this is also a "i don't eat there because it's good, i eat there because it's cheap and i get a lot of food" town. 

i could go on and on (clearly ) 

 

[Good Posting Judge]

i could go on and on (clearly ) 

Nobody gives a ####.

 

[tommyboy]

Time flies when you (actually @General Malaise) keep having kids  

he's got 5, i've got 4.   We have a baseball team ready to go

 

[msommer]

he's got 5, i've got 4.   We have a baseball team ready to go

You should have Mathusian coffee on of these days....

 

[General Malaise]

Time flies when you (actually @General Malaise) keep having kids  

I finally got that fixed...a few years and kids too late.

 

[NutterButter]

I don't like where I live this week b/c its gonna be hot.   We're talking Africa hot.   

 

[Buckna]

I have lived in Colorado Springs--now Fountain all my life. My wife and I are the rare natives. We love it here, but I have to tell you the last couple years have really tested our patience. 

First of all--traffic. I am a very fast driver, but in the past 3-4 years something has happened where I am now the slow guy on the road. The growth of the city has brought so many new people in from other places and all of them seem to need to go 20-30 over the speed limit at all times. My wife is a careful, slow driver and not a day goes by she isn't getting honked at. Last year was a record year for people being killed on our roads and we are set to match/pass it this year.

Marijuana---yeah, I know everyone is all Wow it is legal--how exciting. The moment it became legal, the number of homeless people in our town exploded 10 fold. You can't go downtown anymore. Every corner has a peddler on it. Crime has gone way up. Illegal grow houses are everywhere.I had one two houses up from me and we are in a nice neighborhood. 

Weather--last summer our house was destroyed by hail. I mean baseball-softball sized monsters. We had to spend 40 days in a hotel while our house was rebuilt. This year we haven't had them that big, but the last storm broke out all the window effects and sunroof on my Tahoe. My wife's car is like someone took a small hammer to every inch of it. We had zero car payments last year. We now have two. We have been told this is a ten year cycle and we are now in year three. We are not going to replace cars every year.

Our house has doubled, almost tripled, in value and we have a nice sum built up in equity. I am turning 50 in two days and plan to retire in 3 years. My wife can retire in seven. We have one daughter in college and one a sophomore in HS.  When we retire we are seriously thinking about selling and moving somewhere quiet like Idaho or even Wyoming.  We live in a world of Amazon where anything can be delivered via a simple keystroke. I won't miss all this nonsense. 

I love the Springs but I definitely get it. It's routinely been ranked as a top 5 (sometimes top 2) city for great places to live/move to, etc. the last few years and is booming faster than the local roads or city council can keep up with. A bit of the "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded" type of thing starting to take hold.

 

[AAABatteries]

 in the last, say, 10 years we finally got a paved trail for folks to walk, bike and run on. that's about as artsy and cultured as we're going to get.