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Tell me about Portland

newinhoustonnewinhouston member
in Oregon Babies

I'm currently living in Houston with my husband and daughter, but I have an interview for a job in Portland in a month and if I get the job, we'll move there next summer. 

Tell me about living in or around Portland with a toddler.  What are some of your favorite things to do? How are the schools? is there a particular school district that you'd recommend? How much should I expect to pay for daycare?

Any input can help us to make a better decision. Thanks! 

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Re: Tell me about Portland

  • Annierose1Annierose1

    I've lived in Portland my entire life so I can tell you a lot about this great city. However, I don't have any children, yet (one on the way expected in Feb!). But I can share my opinions regarding several school districts from personal experience and from knowing people who graduated from other school districts in the area.

    First of all, start appreciating the rain. Make sure you find a house you ABSOLUTELY love and can spend a great amount of time in during the winter. I happen to love the rain but people who move here from out of town take a while to get used to it. Some great things about Portland are how close we are to different climates. The coast is 1-2 hours away, the mountain is 1-2 hours away, and a high-desert type environment is within 4-5 hours away. Southern Oregon is beautiful with it's various types of agriculture, and of course there is Eugene. You'll have to experience that on your own if and when you move here.

    Portland is well known for it's great cuisine. We have an abundance of fabulous restaurants both fancy and casual, depending on how you're feeling. We are the beer capitol of America and are stepping it up in our wine industry. Oregon is very well known for it's Pino Noir (my personal favorite). You can spend many weekends in the spring and summer visiting all the different wineries and breweries spread throughout Oregon.

    As far as where to live, I would suggest surrounding areas like Lake Oswego, Beaverton, Tigard, and even West Linn. If you would like to stay closer to the city, you can find amazing historical homes in the hills surrounding downtown as well as some parts of North and North East Portland (inner-city).

    I went to a small private school outside my school district (Riverdale) but I went to grammar and middle school in the West Linn school district. I don't have any complaints. I currently live in Oregon City and have heard great things about the Clackamas school district, which is where my husband and I plan to send our boy. The Portland Public School district is climbing to improve but they have a ways to go. My husband grew up in North Portland and went to PPS (Portland Public School) and has a lot of good and bad things to say about it. Because of the locations (inner city) you have a mixture of students which can make the environment a bit difficult for some kids. But like I said, they are pushing to make drastic improvements. Benson and Lincoln HS are in PPS and I have heard good things about those schools.

    Overall, I would say that there is no where else I would ever want to live. I have traveled a lot and can't say that I've found a city as diverse as Portland. There is something for every type of person here and you never run out of things to do. We have amazing resources to ensure a vast variety of local and organic meats, dairy, and produce (if you're in to that sort of thing, which if you live here long enough you will be). I have absolutely no complaints! Hope this helps and GL with your job interview =)

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  • l_elizabethl_elizabeth member

    Portland is awesome. I don't very often hear of anyone moving because they don't like it here, most everyone I know was born and raised here (for a reason!). It's a great place to raise children as well. PP had some great input. Beaverton, Hillsboro, West Linn, Sherwood, are all excellent school disctricts-- honestly, I think the only district I'd personally steer clear of is Portland (although the teachers will be excellent wherever you end up). I wouldn't worry so much about the weather. Yes it rains, but I don't spend much time thinking about it-- we have pretty good weather otherwise. It's nice in the summer, not overly humid or too hot, and we don't have overly harsh winters. My LO is not in daycare so I'd wait for others to comment there, but when I did explore options, most monthly rates were between $850 and $1,100 a month. Not sure if that's the norm or not.

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  • Portland FirstPortland First member

    I personally would never live in a suburb, but to each his own.  Portland Public Schools have their share of problems, but they tend to be with the overall administration of the schools rather than the schools themselves. There are excellent schools and teachers within Portland, it just depends on where you live, which is highly dependent on what you can afford.  It also depends on the lifestyle that you want.  

    Probably the best thing that you could do would be to pick an area that you like and rent for a year.  Give yourself time to explore and find what suits you before you buy anything.  We initially moved into NW Portland, but found that NE Portland was better for having a baby.  There is a lot of diversity in neighborhoods, so give yourself time to search.   

    As for daycare, there is a huge range depending on what you are looking for.  I pay $8 an hour for in-home with a very low ratio (typically 2:1) of kids to caretaker.   

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  • Portland FirstPortland First member
    I forgot to mention, it's usually a good idea here to base where you live on where you work.  Traffic here is generally not too bad, but I think that a  commute in either direction on 26 would be a nightmare.  If we know the area that your job is in, we might be able to give you better recommendations based on that.    
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  • kattyleighkattyleigh member
    I moved to Portland in January for my DH's job and we LOVE it.  We are from the NW originally though, so the weather was not an adjustment.  But the weather in Portland is not too terrible, just the winter gets cold and wet.  I lived in Texas for a few years out of college and while I did enjoy it there (people are friendly, cost of living is cheap!), Portland is a much better place to be.  People here are friendly, environmentally-conscious, and smart. The scenery is gorgeous (like pp mentioned) and there is tons to do within driving distance.  I live in LO, which is a quick 10 minute commute on I5 to downtown PDX (where I work) and the school system here is fantastic.  If you go on one of the real estate websites like zillow or estately, they will give you the school ratings for a particular neighborhood.  Good luck!
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  • brownmousebrownmouse member

    imagePortland First:
    I forgot to mention, it's usually a good idea here to base where you live on where you work.  Traffic here is generally not too bad, but I think that a  commute in either direction on 26 would be a nightmare.  If we know the area that your job is in, we might be able to give you better recommendations based on that.    

    I am going to agree with this. As someone who lives currently in Beaverton, and works in SE Portland(and my DH works in East Portland/Gresham), I can tell you that having to commute on the 26 twice a day is just awful. My work is only about 20 minutes from my house, but when I work at 8am, I have to leave almost an hour before I have to be there to account for traffic. Every day. If yuou are going to be working in N, NE, SE, or S Portland, find a place to live on that side of the river. We just moved here in July, and I already am going to be moving again due to the crappy commute. I start school in January downtown at Portland State University, and it will still be a pretty long commute into school for me, and Beaverton is't that far away. The 26 is just awful for traffic. I hate that highway.

    I absolutely love Portland though. The NE is very nice from what I have seen, and that is where we are planning on moving. Lots of diversity in the neighborhoods, as PP mentioned.

    Daycare is a bit more expensive here than I'd like(I used to like in Olympia, WA before I moved here and it was about $500-600 per month full time there.) It averages about $850-1100 here for full time care not in an in-home place. There are tons of different options for daycare/preschool here though, which I like.

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  • newinhoustonnewinhouston member

    The interview is with the University of Portland. Any thoughts about places to live and the commute to/from this area?

    You all have written so many good things about Portland that now I really really want this job!  

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  • Annierose1Annierose1
    imagenewinhouston:

    The interview is with the University of Portland. Any thoughts about places to live and the commute to/from this area?

    You all have written so many good things about Portland that now I really really want this job!  

    Well, UofP is located in the heart of North Portland. I would suggest North Portland, specifically the Willamette Drive area. There are some beautiful historic homes in that area that have been re-modeled but still hold that historic charm. My in-laws live in North Portland and I love driving along Willamette Drive and dreaming of one day owning a home like that. If you want to stay out of that area, you can look in the Germantown Road area. It's right across the St. John's bridge (in N. Portland). The neighborhood is spread out across a "mountain" which is more like a really big hill with a lot of nice homes. N. Portland offers both pricey homes and reasonable homes, just depends on what you're looking for.

    Again, the PPS is not the best, but you can look in to various private schools. My husband grew up in N. Portland, and as far as I know, he was not able to attend Lincoln HS, which is probably the best choice for a PPS school. However, as I said before, Benson is moving on making improvements and I haven't heard a lot of complaints. I don't know very much about the grammar and middle schools in that area.

    So, good luck! And if you move to Portland I promise you're going to love it!!! You'll learn to appreciate the rain and all FOUR seasons we have here. We are one of the few cities that actually get to experience all four seasons. It's wonderful =)

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