John and I are scouting around for a place to spend an extended period of time.
So, tell me about where you live! Do you like your town? Do you dislike it?
What does it have going for it?
What’s the job outlook in high tech and/or higher education? Are there colleges nearby? Is there a big tech employer?
What’s the weather/climate like?
How’s the traffic?
What misconceptions do people have about where you live?
What’s the biggest downside to living where you do?
I live in Salem, OR. And I love it. Before I moved here, I lived in a small town of 40,000 my entire life, so moving here was a huge shock because there is 150,000 people here. Salem is smaller than Portland and Eugene, but I think that is what makes it so awesome. Yes, Salem lacks a lot of the things that makes those cities awesome, like good yarn stores, awesome night life, and endless amounts of organic grocery stores, but with those cities only an hours drive away, you can still access those things, but come home to a quiet peaceful Salem. 🙂 There is a medium amount of traffic, especially if you have to cross the bridge over the (polluted) Willamette river to commute, but the city recently got grants to fix our roadways, so there is a great deal of construction going on to fix those problems. Weather is what you would expect in Oregon. Rainy and cloudy in the cooler months, hot and sunny in the summer months. Very typical.
I am unaware of any tech employers, but we do have some local collages, including Willamette University, Western Oregon University, Corban College (Christian) and a fairly large community college. Oregon State is only 40 miles from Salem.
The biggest downside of living here is that everyone makes fun of you for living here and that you cannot have chickens in your backyard. Everything thinks Salem is boring, full of gangs, and with nothing to offer, but it isn’t true! We have no more crime than any other big city, and the people who are bored are just not imaginative enough! We have tons of great parks, our library is awesome, and the local knitting group is fab. There is a growing movement to build the community up, and it is taking off like a rocket. There is a lot to get involved with here.
😀