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The thread title speaks for itself. I'll start.
I live in Portland, Oregon USA. Right now it’s 10:35 in the morning, sunny and 55F / 12.6C. I have traveled all over our diverse country as well as abroad, and I firmly believe Portland is one of the fairest cities of them all. Not only because of the bronze statues that are everywhere in the city, or because of the thousands of trees peppered everywhere within it's skyscraper boundaries and buildings of antiquity. Not just because of the dozens of elaborate fountains and city parks, or the stadiums, or the mighty Willamette River that splits our city down the middle, or because we have one of the highest rated transit systems in the world with it’s varied uses of trains, trolleys, and hundreds of buses, or the fact that many a city police force are modeled after our own.
The main reason for Portland being such a wonderful place to live is its location. From my doorstep it’s only an hours drive west to the Oregon Coast. If I’d rather go skiing then I can drive an hour to the north to reach Mt. Hood where Timberline Lodge is located. The Shining’s exterior’s were filmed there. I can drive east for about an hour as well to get to some of the most exceptional white water rafting in the Pacific Northwest, located at Hood River. Just two hours drive south is where the Oregon desert is prevalent. A little known fact about Oregon is that a third of its landscape is desert. Most of the remaining part’s of Oregon are some of the most beautiful National Forest’s in the country. I can go camping in a very short drive in just about any direction I head.
The weather here can be wonderful at times, especially during the last decade, which seems to be showing some climate changes around the world. Normally we have been known for being a wet state with a high percentage of rain annually. Actually, our weather is pretty similar to Paris, which is on the same parallel with Portland. Lately, however, we have had milder winters and longer, warmer summer’s. It’s not unheard of to average upper eighties to mid nineties during the latter part of summer, and to go all winter without a flake of snow. We only have mild earthquakes occasionally, floods seldom, and tornadoes are unheard of. Droughts here are so severe that we can’t water our lawns but twice a week (gasp).
Unfortunately, Oregon has some of the worst forest fires anywhere. I believe our state had the largest in the country last summer, Colorado coming in second. Oregon also has the worst unemployment in the country, and if any of you ever read the comic strip Doonesbury then you might be aware that we also have the worst funded public school system as of late. Very sad what the voters here accomplished this year. Because of a measure that recently failed; the budget for our public schools, city police force, public health and housing, and homeless, were all severely cut. Hundreds, if not more, mentally ill and elderly people were tossed out on the street, our public schools had 28 days shaved off their calendars, and hundreds of city police were laid off. And now, the city wants its taxpayers to pay for a new ballpark so we can purchase a professional baseball team and move them here, ugh.
So Portland has it’s blights as well, but at least not with her beauty. Sometimes I get tired of being here, and just want to go away somewhere like I used to. But I’m older now and pretty set in my ways, so I think I’ll stick around.
I live in Portland, Oregon USA. Right now it’s 10:35 in the morning, sunny and 55F / 12.6C. I have traveled all over our diverse country as well as abroad, and I firmly believe Portland is one of the fairest cities of them all. Not only because of the bronze statues that are everywhere in the city, or because of the thousands of trees peppered everywhere within it's skyscraper boundaries and buildings of antiquity. Not just because of the dozens of elaborate fountains and city parks, or the stadiums, or the mighty Willamette River that splits our city down the middle, or because we have one of the highest rated transit systems in the world with it’s varied uses of trains, trolleys, and hundreds of buses, or the fact that many a city police force are modeled after our own.
The main reason for Portland being such a wonderful place to live is its location. From my doorstep it’s only an hours drive west to the Oregon Coast. If I’d rather go skiing then I can drive an hour to the north to reach Mt. Hood where Timberline Lodge is located. The Shining’s exterior’s were filmed there. I can drive east for about an hour as well to get to some of the most exceptional white water rafting in the Pacific Northwest, located at Hood River. Just two hours drive south is where the Oregon desert is prevalent. A little known fact about Oregon is that a third of its landscape is desert. Most of the remaining part’s of Oregon are some of the most beautiful National Forest’s in the country. I can go camping in a very short drive in just about any direction I head.
The weather here can be wonderful at times, especially during the last decade, which seems to be showing some climate changes around the world. Normally we have been known for being a wet state with a high percentage of rain annually. Actually, our weather is pretty similar to Paris, which is on the same parallel with Portland. Lately, however, we have had milder winters and longer, warmer summer’s. It’s not unheard of to average upper eighties to mid nineties during the latter part of summer, and to go all winter without a flake of snow. We only have mild earthquakes occasionally, floods seldom, and tornadoes are unheard of. Droughts here are so severe that we can’t water our lawns but twice a week (gasp).
Unfortunately, Oregon has some of the worst forest fires anywhere. I believe our state had the largest in the country last summer, Colorado coming in second. Oregon also has the worst unemployment in the country, and if any of you ever read the comic strip Doonesbury then you might be aware that we also have the worst funded public school system as of late. Very sad what the voters here accomplished this year. Because of a measure that recently failed; the budget for our public schools, city police force, public health and housing, and homeless, were all severely cut. Hundreds, if not more, mentally ill and elderly people were tossed out on the street, our public schools had 28 days shaved off their calendars, and hundreds of city police were laid off. And now, the city wants its taxpayers to pay for a new ballpark so we can purchase a professional baseball team and move them here, ugh.
So Portland has it’s blights as well, but at least not with her beauty. Sometimes I get tired of being here, and just want to go away somewhere like I used to. But I’m older now and pretty set in my ways, so I think I’ll stick around.
__________________
"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."
"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."
.....(Franklin has a lot of racist skinheads.) There are also NO good record shops or comic stores in Franklin, so you know it's a bust....
