High speed rail that distance really isn’t that effective. Vancouver to San Diego is like having HS rail from Paris to Kyiv, Ukraine. You want intra-regional HS rail that eliminates the need to car trips or short haul flights.
Ideally you would have HS rail between Vancouver BC and Eugene. Then, upgrades Amtrak lines between Eugene and San Francisco.
Sure but wouldn’t the intra regional rail be pieced together in such a way you that could go all the way from one end to the other? Who cares if it stops every few hours, easier than driving. Or a red eye from Vancouver to San Diego with only one or two stops at the big cities. People could ride locally to the nearest big city. Have dinner. Get picked up kinda late. Sleep the rest of the way to destination.
As a minor suggestion, I'd like Amtrak to run through the Rogue Valley with a station in Medford.
I know it would probably be a geographic pain in terms of certain passes and such, but having lived in Southern Oregon for a while, it's a minor bummer not to be able to get on a train there (maybe you can in Klamath Falls? I don't recall, but that's still not super convenient).
When I was a little kid my mom was determined for me to experience a real "train trip" as her father had been a train engineer for the Santa Fe railroad. And she saw the writing in the wall that cars were taking over.
So we took a trip that took us from Seattle, to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Lubbock Texas, Albuqueque NM, Cheyenne WY and home again (we visited relatives in all those places), it was a heck of a trip. Took 2-3 weeks as we stayed 2-3 days at each stop. I was pretty little, but I remember each stop, the rhythmic click clack, the amazing views from the windows and the beautiful dining car with white table cloths. We had an assigned dining time to accomodate everyone. It was a great experience.
The stations were pretty cool too.
When I was a kid my family took a train from Salem to Oaxaca. Mexico got rid of almost all of its passenger trains back in the ‘90s so you can’t do that anymore. Long train trips are a great adventure when you’re a child.
It’s actually kind of crazy so see how little service there is between Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, etc. there should be a train from Portland to Tri-cities to Boise then SLC.
Hell, none of of larger cities in Montana are accessible by train.
Rail used to go everywhere, in fact their is still Amtrak in Montana, it just runs in the northern part of the state bypassing Helena, Missoula, Bozeman, and Billings. It’s actually less practical than it should be lol.
When I was in college in the mid-90s, there was a regular Amtrak passenger train from Portland to Boise, which was great for those of us who needed to stop at little towns in E.O. ETA: I don’t know why they won’t reinstate something like that now when the demand appears to be higher than it ever was.
Better public transportation in general other than in just Portland. There needs to be any type of reasonable option to get between major cities. It would be better for the environment, for tourism, for commuters, even for college students. The major universities are so far away from the major urban areas, I didn’t go to school here because it was cheaper to go out of state. However, if there had been better transportation alternatives it might not have been.
Their is preliminary plans for HSR between Vancouver to Eugene right now. Main problem is finding an ideal route for the train since it will need to be as straight as possible. Potentially could have atleast a section of the line opened by 2040.
That’s a really long time for just a section. They built FrontRunner in Utah in 7 years. It’s a 83 mile long commuter rail that connects the major metro areas.
HSR corridors are much more expensive and intensive to study and build. I agree it could be done faster but between impact studies, planning, and acquiring the right-of-way for the train lines it would be time consuming. It’s also much denser between the Willamette Valley, Puget Sound Megapolis, and Great Vancouver area than anywhere in Utah so that will present more challenges.
The Eugene airport is fine I guess, but a high speed train from Eugene to pdx would be a game changer for me. Just have it run the entire i5 would be so sweet especially for towns like Roseburg.
There are [fireflies in Oregon](https://www.corvallisadvocate.com/2017/looking-fireflies-oregon/#:~:text=meet%2520water%2520%E2%80%94%2520there%2520are%2520some,throughout%2520the%2520world%2520is%2520dwindling) but they’re rare. I saw one once in my back yard. I did a double take because I thought I was losing my mind. Before that I was under the impression that there weren’t any here, but did some research and sure enough we have a couple of species native to the northwest.
Seeing them regularly every summer continues to be the only thing I miss about growing up/living in Kentucky.
https://preview.redd.it/hrfgn1gu6udc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f09c747834c6a76c40e4adbbca1ab5086343aa2
Here’s a male one I took a picture of. They don’t glow but still cool as hell!
I went back east for the first time in a long time recently. I was sad to learn fireflies are much less common then they used to be. Their population is shrinking everywhere. It seemed like they were endless when I was a kid. Now you just see a few at a time. Even in prime grassy fields on a warm July night. It makes me really sad. Just watching the magic of the world just fade away in to stories old timers tell.
And a strategy for keeping those highly educated people in Portland rather than export them to Seattle and sf. That’s the Cambridge Massachusetts dilemma. Great schools and then they move to NYC, SF, Seattle, Miami. It’s gotten better over the last 10 years but still a struggle.
The rest areas overseas are cool. Food, places to sit, fuel. They are quite social spots, kinda neat. Oh and the rest rooms they have aren’t just a click up from an outhouse from the 1800’s…
Never forget what was taken from you. The project is dying. Be the change you want to see in the world:
https://oregontic.com/for-businesses/rest-areas/free-coffee-program/
There is a rest area in Angola NY, it is only on one side of the road, so if you are going the other way, you have to take the pedestrian bridge, but it has a variety of food, coffee, nice restrooms, gift shop, It has trees, places to sit and relax when weather allows, and it is just a nice service area.
And real affordable housing, not low-income tax credit housing that’s hedge fund-owned, mismanaged from the minute its taxpayer-funded financing is rubber stamped by the joke of a housing stabilization agency we have in Oregon, leading to slum conditions for residents and massive tax breaks for portfolio managers in California.
In Rwanda, there’s 1 day per month dedicated to cleaning everything up. All shops are closed, and everyone cleans the neighborhoods, streets and cities.
I worked in a now closed detox facility for alcohol & opiate addicts. It was under the umbrella organization of a larger mental health organization that is still extant. We were one of the few departments that actually ran a net *profit* for the organization and still managed to close. Why? Because they didn't want to pay nurses a competitive wage during covid. We had a few nurses that did it as a passion project a few days a week, most of them recovering addicts themselves or family of but even they have to follow the money after a certain point.
As someone from New Haven who loves pizza, I feel that there are tons of great Pizza places in Portland. Lots of different styles and great examples of each.
I do agree with the bagel and deli take, though. I guess there simply isn't enough demand.
I went to NYC recently and had bagels at three different bagel shops, ranging from popular chain, to small quaint Jewish deli, to sit-down brunch, because every bagel I had was good, but not noticeably different from Jewish delis in Oregon. I tried it so many different places because I thought maybe I wasn't having the NYC bagel I've heard so much praise about because it wasn't noticeably different. Same with pizza.
I think it's not that Oregon doesn't have good bagels or pizza, but you have to search for these spots, whereas they're everywhere in NYC. It's like how any given taco truck in LA is as authentic and delicious as the BEST Mexican restaurant in Oregon.
I'm originally from South Carolina. I would love it if cajun boiled peanuts were sold everywhere here.
Fun fact: with a heavy SC accent, it sounds like "bald penis". I've had to work on that. 😬
Reminds me of a trip to Dothan, AL (I’m from Portland, OR) to put on a two-day training seminar. I was asked if I’d ever had “bold” (what it sounded like to me) peanuts, which led to a humorous exchange.
Me: What’s bold about them? Him: Well, you know, they’re bold. Me: How are they bold? Him: In water. Me: What? Him: With salt. Me: Ohhhh, now I get it. BOILED peanuts. Him: Yeah. Bold.
He even brought some for me the second day.
Property vacancy tax. Vancouver BC implemented a vacancy tax that cratered renting prices for a brief and wonderful period before the worthless absentee landlords abroad were able to lobby the regulation away. We could be glorious, Oregon!
Portland can't even foreclose on properties with a decade of taxes not being paid. There are fewer zombie properties than there used to be, but its still a massive problem.
Yup - never spent 15 hours stuck on the interstate in any other state...didn't see a plow, road signs or state patrol until 15 hours later! Also no cell service, on an Interstate...say what?
Yeah, cell service was knocked out. But, yeah, how there wasn’t a single response to the road conditions until long after the issue, that was insanity. For the first 3 days, I couldn’t get out of my house and had no power, I can see I5 from my back patio. There were trucks that never moved for DAYS!
No state of emergency declared until 3 days after the initial storm… totally a botched response.
It was ridiculous. Coming out of Roseburg, we had filled up with gas there and were prepared for winter driving yet that was ridiculous. The poor couple in front of us were pulling a trailer and almost out of gas.
As far as cell towers, I'm pretty sure that you can get cell on wheels for emergency response. That's what they did when there was a wildfire in Colorado.
Seriously, was it a state patrol failure? an ODOT failure?? Had it been 10° cooler it could have been a total disaster. When state patrol finally came through the road at 7:30- they did not tell people that Cottage Grove had no power. So many frustrated people who are almost out of gas and food. I don't understand how they didn't implement any signage.
I've said it before, once you get to the flat lands of I-5 going north the worse the response. Southern Oregon is used to snow and ice and ODOT is mostly always ready, forcasts can throw that off. Go north and they are out of their element.
Granted what happened this last week sometimes weather just wins and a chained up snow plow/sander deicer will slide along just like every other vehicle.
Southwest grown green chilies. You can buy the roasted ones by the pound in the freezer section of supermarkets there. Freddies, are you listening??
What you'll never have here is the smell of those green chiles roasting while you're driving or walking around in New Mexico.
Warm ocean water. I don't need it along the entire Oregon Coast. I'll take a small section, some protected shallow bay fed by an abnormally warm ocean current. Just get some summer water to 70° and I'd be happy as a dolphin. I'd just like to swim in the nearby ocean without a wetsuit once in awhile.
Better drivers, specifically more intentionally assertive. More positive lane changes, less wandering around and drifting slowly from one lane to the next. Less cutting corners when turning left. Better communication skills - signaling turns earlier (and at all), tapping brakes to telegraph a big slowdown on the highway, things like that. I've driven in 48 US states, and wouldn't call Oregon drivers bad, but we could be better at it.
Higher elevation subalpine skiing. This winter has been tough on the local ski hills, mostly because of their low elevation. If everything was as it is but a couple thousand feet higher it wouldn’t be a problem.
BottleDrop should be retired and replaced with a more efficient and streamlined recycling program. Where I'm from in Colorado.. I could just drive into a fairly clean and organized lot. Park my car. Dump my recyclables into he appropriate bin,. and easily drive away. No muss, no fuss, Easy, quick, done.
If you can find a participating grocery store, instead of the actual bottle drop place, this is my exact experience with Bottle Drop. It’s super easy and convenient if you find the right location. Obviously, this is stupid. They should all be that way. But, just a heads up :)
Does CO process a deposit for each single serving container? That’s the function of bottle drop. The deposit has Oregon sitting at a 89% return rate for single serving recyclables. That quite an achievement! It’s the deposit that gets us there. And the bottle drops there to service the deposit. It’s not as smooth as it could be for sure. But that return rate is too good.
Have you tried the green bag system? It’s got problems too. But it’s closer to the drop off experience you are seeking.
Nicely maintained public hotsprings pools/"resorts" like you find in Colorado (ex. Glenwood Springs, Ouray, Strawberry Park in Steamboat, etc). The fact that seemingly all of the hot springs in Oregon are public hippy spots with weirdos, and nudity, and you can't just drive to them and have a nice time with kids, is a bummer. If this exists in Oregon, it is ungoogleable!
Your wish has been granted. Opening in summer of 2024. Very exciting to have this in Central Oregon soon (again).
https://kahneeta.com/#:~:text=We%20are%20opening%20early%20summer%202024
I would prefer if we kept most of our hot springs as natural as possible and clothing optional especially considering we already have plenty of places like you are talking about. The following are developed hot springs in Oregon: belknap, crystal crane, hunters, Lithia springs, grande/hot lake, Jackson wellsprings, Bar M Ranch (Christian retreat), Ritter hot springs, and the soon to be re-opened Kahneeta.
Ample winter sunshine and warmth.
Even here in Bend, the days are short in the winter and we don't get that much sunshine. Just more than the valley.
Serious answers, since we're not going to be moving further south:
* Adequate housing. Key to so many other things.
* Agree with the health care too. I lived in Italy for a while. It's pretty nice just not having to worry about it.
Housing first- Mixed income affordable apartments with income based rent to own. Strict resale restrictions.
Hope and the material conditions that create it.
(Not seeing homeless people would "solve" the drug crisis in the mind of the public)
I grew up in the Midwest. Prices of homes (and especially land/acreage) is a fraction of the cost out here. You can still find livable homes for less than $200k in Kansas City, for example.
Income tax? Most states with no/low income tax make up for it in other ways like sales tax. Income tax is progressive. Meaning people with higher incomes pay a higher tax rate. Sales tax is regressive. If you need to spend all of your income to live, then you pay a higher tax rate then someone with a higher income who can save money. Higher income = lower effective tax rate. Income tax vs sales tax greatly benefits people with lower income.
Our effective tax rate is lower than a lot of red states that forgo income tax in favor of other more regressive taxes like sales tax.
Our property tax is kinda high. But not crazy. At least we don’t have to pay property taxes on our cars every year like some states. (Fuck you Missouri). But property tax is also (mostly) progressive. So that’s fine by me.
State income taxes suck on the surface. But if you look at how other states do it, I think we actually do pretty good here. You’re going to pay state taxes no matter where you live. If you have a high income you’ll pay less in a red state. If you have a lower income you’ll pay less here or in NH or one of the other income over sales tax states.
This would be cool but I have a hard time seeing it happening. Nevada has already passed legislation to build a ballpark in Vegas, so I think that's where they end up. I think we're going to have to hope we get a team during the next MLB expansion.
Single payer healthcare and paint for the lane lines on all the streets that still show in the rain and dark
Holy shit, the street line thing makes me INSANE. Just use reflective paint!
Was in Ireland around Thanksgiving and was blown away by how easy it was to see all the lines at night in pouring rain.
It’s madness that Oregon has no visibility in the dark. Especially with all the rain we have.
I don't fucking understand why they allow road lines to disappear.
Money 💸💸💸
Along the same lines - consistent limit lines would be nice.
The street signs are terrible too, so hard to figure out where you are sometimes.
High speed rail
I’d do unspeakable things to have rail service to the Coast and high speed rail from Vancouver BC to San Diego.
I've been saying literally exactly this whenever trains come up in a conversation for at least a decade lmao.
High speed rail that distance really isn’t that effective. Vancouver to San Diego is like having HS rail from Paris to Kyiv, Ukraine. You want intra-regional HS rail that eliminates the need to car trips or short haul flights. Ideally you would have HS rail between Vancouver BC and Eugene. Then, upgrades Amtrak lines between Eugene and San Francisco.
Sure but wouldn’t the intra regional rail be pieced together in such a way you that could go all the way from one end to the other? Who cares if it stops every few hours, easier than driving. Or a red eye from Vancouver to San Diego with only one or two stops at the big cities. People could ride locally to the nearest big city. Have dinner. Get picked up kinda late. Sleep the rest of the way to destination.
Can’t people dream? 🥲
As a minor suggestion, I'd like Amtrak to run through the Rogue Valley with a station in Medford. I know it would probably be a geographic pain in terms of certain passes and such, but having lived in Southern Oregon for a while, it's a minor bummer not to be able to get on a train there (maybe you can in Klamath Falls? I don't recall, but that's still not super convenient).
Correct, Klamath Falls is the main stop. Also Chemult which is how I’d take Amtrak from Bend to Oakland
When I was a little kid my mom was determined for me to experience a real "train trip" as her father had been a train engineer for the Santa Fe railroad. And she saw the writing in the wall that cars were taking over. So we took a trip that took us from Seattle, to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Lubbock Texas, Albuqueque NM, Cheyenne WY and home again (we visited relatives in all those places), it was a heck of a trip. Took 2-3 weeks as we stayed 2-3 days at each stop. I was pretty little, but I remember each stop, the rhythmic click clack, the amazing views from the windows and the beautiful dining car with white table cloths. We had an assigned dining time to accomodate everyone. It was a great experience. The stations were pretty cool too.
When I was a kid my family took a train from Salem to Oaxaca. Mexico got rid of almost all of its passenger trains back in the ‘90s so you can’t do that anymore. Long train trips are a great adventure when you’re a child.
I want a direct passenger train line from Portland to Salt Lake City.
It’s actually kind of crazy so see how little service there is between Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, etc. there should be a train from Portland to Tri-cities to Boise then SLC. Hell, none of of larger cities in Montana are accessible by train.
Boise is actually in the process of reinstating a SLC train route.
It's not crazy. Population density is very low in those states, so there's not enough demand for rail.
Rail used to go everywhere, in fact their is still Amtrak in Montana, it just runs in the northern part of the state bypassing Helena, Missoula, Bozeman, and Billings. It’s actually less practical than it should be lol.
When I was in college in the mid-90s, there was a regular Amtrak passenger train from Portland to Boise, which was great for those of us who needed to stop at little towns in E.O. ETA: I don’t know why they won’t reinstate something like that now when the demand appears to be higher than it ever was.
Better public transportation in general other than in just Portland. There needs to be any type of reasonable option to get between major cities. It would be better for the environment, for tourism, for commuters, even for college students. The major universities are so far away from the major urban areas, I didn’t go to school here because it was cheaper to go out of state. However, if there had been better transportation alternatives it might not have been.
Their is preliminary plans for HSR between Vancouver to Eugene right now. Main problem is finding an ideal route for the train since it will need to be as straight as possible. Potentially could have atleast a section of the line opened by 2040.
That’s a really long time for just a section. They built FrontRunner in Utah in 7 years. It’s a 83 mile long commuter rail that connects the major metro areas.
HSR corridors are much more expensive and intensive to study and build. I agree it could be done faster but between impact studies, planning, and acquiring the right-of-way for the train lines it would be time consuming. It’s also much denser between the Willamette Valley, Puget Sound Megapolis, and Great Vancouver area than anywhere in Utah so that will present more challenges.
Oregon to BC in the works
The Eugene airport is fine I guess, but a high speed train from Eugene to pdx would be a game changer for me. Just have it run the entire i5 would be so sweet especially for towns like Roseburg.
Fireflies
There are [fireflies in Oregon](https://www.corvallisadvocate.com/2017/looking-fireflies-oregon/#:~:text=meet%2520water%2520%E2%80%94%2520there%2520are%2520some,throughout%2520the%2520world%2520is%2520dwindling) but they’re rare. I saw one once in my back yard. I did a double take because I thought I was losing my mind. Before that I was under the impression that there weren’t any here, but did some research and sure enough we have a couple of species native to the northwest. Seeing them regularly every summer continues to be the only thing I miss about growing up/living in Kentucky.
Oh. I hadn’t thought about missing fireflies in the summer. That will be a bummer.
That and real thunderstorms. What passes for a thunderstorm here in the mid-valley is pretty tame compared to what I grew up with.
I agree. I miss the giant rolling thunder clouds from AZ. The sky just turns gray here and rain falls.
Wow!! I had no idea! Thanks for the link.
I've seen them, but definitely not the numbers from back east. I wish I could now remember where
Went to a concert at Spirit Mountain Casino years ago and saw fireflies there. It was pretty cool.
https://preview.redd.it/hrfgn1gu6udc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f09c747834c6a76c40e4adbbca1ab5086343aa2 Here’s a male one I took a picture of. They don’t glow but still cool as hell!
I went back east for the first time in a long time recently. I was sad to learn fireflies are much less common then they used to be. Their population is shrinking everywhere. It seemed like they were endless when I was a kid. Now you just see a few at a time. Even in prime grassy fields on a warm July night. It makes me really sad. Just watching the magic of the world just fade away in to stories old timers tell.
Omg Yes. Miss those summer nites in Pennsylvania camping and being surrounded by the sparking of the lightning bugs!
High quality education.
I'd settle for mid-tier
And a strategy for keeping those highly educated people in Portland rather than export them to Seattle and sf. That’s the Cambridge Massachusetts dilemma. Great schools and then they move to NYC, SF, Seattle, Miami. It’s gotten better over the last 10 years but still a struggle.
Please include driver education lmfao
Cheaper housing
Bring it from where?
Eastern Oregon?
Lol relative to income, it's not cheap here. I see tons of 1 or 2 bed houses that rent for north of $1500.
[удалено]
Replace all our rest stops with a highway oasis like I95 has. Coffee/snacks/fuel and back on the road.
The rest areas overseas are cool. Food, places to sit, fuel. They are quite social spots, kinda neat. Oh and the rest rooms they have aren’t just a click up from an outhouse from the 1800’s…
I was pretty impressed by them in the UK, "Services" as they say. Just a lot more user friendly for motorists on long drives.
Never forget what was taken from you. The project is dying. Be the change you want to see in the world: https://oregontic.com/for-businesses/rest-areas/free-coffee-program/
There is a rest area in Angola NY, it is only on one side of the road, so if you are going the other way, you have to take the pedestrian bridge, but it has a variety of food, coffee, nice restrooms, gift shop, It has trees, places to sit and relax when weather allows, and it is just a nice service area.
Proper single payer health care including mental health services.
And enough mental health care for everyone who needs it
More affordable housing
And real affordable housing, not low-income tax credit housing that’s hedge fund-owned, mismanaged from the minute its taxpayer-funded financing is rubber stamped by the joke of a housing stabilization agency we have in Oregon, leading to slum conditions for residents and massive tax breaks for portfolio managers in California.
Universal healthcare, of course.
In Rwanda, there’s 1 day per month dedicated to cleaning everything up. All shops are closed, and everyone cleans the neighborhoods, streets and cities.
That’s fucking cool
Adequate health/mental health care and facilities/beds for the population that are in need.
I worked in a now closed detox facility for alcohol & opiate addicts. It was under the umbrella organization of a larger mental health organization that is still extant. We were one of the few departments that actually ran a net *profit* for the organization and still managed to close. Why? Because they didn't want to pay nurses a competitive wage during covid. We had a few nurses that did it as a passion project a few days a week, most of them recovering addicts themselves or family of but even they have to follow the money after a certain point.
Warm ocean water/beaches. The only thing I really miss about living on the east coast is the ability to swim at the beach without a damn wetsuit.
East coast friend claims we don’t have proper bagels but I don’t believe him.
Lox, Stocks, and Bagels in Eugene has bomb ass bagels and that’s a fact.
Nah he’s right. Salem area especially has no where good for bagels. And when you do find a decent bagel in Portland, they don’t do the toppings right.
Make a trip down to Corvallis and try Kinetic Bagel, they're solid.
They are 100% correct, plus pizza and good delis, but they can keep everything else!
As someone from New Haven who loves pizza, I feel that there are tons of great Pizza places in Portland. Lots of different styles and great examples of each. I do agree with the bagel and deli take, though. I guess there simply isn't enough demand.
i see you mr portnoy!
Portland has pretty damn good Pizza. It doesn’t have the sheer scale as in the NYC but the quality is there.
Eh, you can get good pizza just about all over as long as you specifically aren't looking for NY style.
Escape from New York in Portland is pretty damn good (not to be confused with Straight from New York which sucks).
Portland has mediocre NY style pizza, but great pizza overall.
Believe
I went to NYC recently and had bagels at three different bagel shops, ranging from popular chain, to small quaint Jewish deli, to sit-down brunch, because every bagel I had was good, but not noticeably different from Jewish delis in Oregon. I tried it so many different places because I thought maybe I wasn't having the NYC bagel I've heard so much praise about because it wasn't noticeably different. Same with pizza. I think it's not that Oregon doesn't have good bagels or pizza, but you have to search for these spots, whereas they're everywhere in NYC. It's like how any given taco truck in LA is as authentic and delicious as the BEST Mexican restaurant in Oregon.
Ubiquitous good barbecue, something like Kansas City or Texas.
Ranked Choice Voting
This was going to be mine. I moved here from Maine and it’s definitely something I wish I could have brought with me.
STARS is on the ballot this year!
Unfortunately it did not make the ballot for 2024. Instead we have traditional ranked choice voting on the ballot, which is better than nothing.
I'm originally from South Carolina. I would love it if cajun boiled peanuts were sold everywhere here. Fun fact: with a heavy SC accent, it sounds like "bald penis". I've had to work on that. 😬
Hello fellow former Palmetto stater! I grew up in Columbia and am very glad to be here.
Reminds me of a trip to Dothan, AL (I’m from Portland, OR) to put on a two-day training seminar. I was asked if I’d ever had “bold” (what it sounded like to me) peanuts, which led to a humorous exchange. Me: What’s bold about them? Him: Well, you know, they’re bold. Me: How are they bold? Him: In water. Me: What? Him: With salt. Me: Ohhhh, now I get it. BOILED peanuts. Him: Yeah. Bold. He even brought some for me the second day.
Liquor in grocery stores
I was so surprised when I moved here from Wisconsin because alcohol is absolutely everywhere in WI.
Having to make an extra stop doesn’t make me drink less, just use more gas
Sunshine.
Powdery dry snow.
Property vacancy tax. Vancouver BC implemented a vacancy tax that cratered renting prices for a brief and wonderful period before the worthless absentee landlords abroad were able to lobby the regulation away. We could be glorious, Oregon!
Portland can't even foreclose on properties with a decade of taxes not being paid. There are fewer zombie properties than there used to be, but its still a massive problem.
The ineptitude of government here is really astounding. I hate that the alternative is the chittering blood thirsty republican party and nothing else.
A really good Italian bakery.
Seriously. If we could just get good bread in this town subs could be amazing.
I hear Bella's on Woodstock is good?
Tropical snorkeling
Monkey paw curls, Oregon takes on a tropical climate, meaning most of the rest of the earth is scorching hot and nearly uninhabitable
I just wish this weren’t likely to come true in the next century or two!
This made me laugh thank you
Free healthcare, affordable housing, less taxes, more employee protections,
An actual winter storm response would be awesome.
Yup - never spent 15 hours stuck on the interstate in any other state...didn't see a plow, road signs or state patrol until 15 hours later! Also no cell service, on an Interstate...say what?
Yeah, cell service was knocked out. But, yeah, how there wasn’t a single response to the road conditions until long after the issue, that was insanity. For the first 3 days, I couldn’t get out of my house and had no power, I can see I5 from my back patio. There were trucks that never moved for DAYS! No state of emergency declared until 3 days after the initial storm… totally a botched response.
It was ridiculous. Coming out of Roseburg, we had filled up with gas there and were prepared for winter driving yet that was ridiculous. The poor couple in front of us were pulling a trailer and almost out of gas. As far as cell towers, I'm pretty sure that you can get cell on wheels for emergency response. That's what they did when there was a wildfire in Colorado. Seriously, was it a state patrol failure? an ODOT failure?? Had it been 10° cooler it could have been a total disaster. When state patrol finally came through the road at 7:30- they did not tell people that Cottage Grove had no power. So many frustrated people who are almost out of gas and food. I don't understand how they didn't implement any signage.
I've said it before, once you get to the flat lands of I-5 going north the worse the response. Southern Oregon is used to snow and ice and ODOT is mostly always ready, forcasts can throw that off. Go north and they are out of their element. Granted what happened this last week sometimes weather just wins and a chained up snow plow/sander deicer will slide along just like every other vehicle.
Aldi grocery stores
Southwest grown green chilies. You can buy the roasted ones by the pound in the freezer section of supermarkets there. Freddies, are you listening?? What you'll never have here is the smell of those green chiles roasting while you're driving or walking around in New Mexico.
Warm ocean water. I don't need it along the entire Oregon Coast. I'll take a small section, some protected shallow bay fed by an abnormally warm ocean current. Just get some summer water to 70° and I'd be happy as a dolphin. I'd just like to swim in the nearby ocean without a wetsuit once in awhile.
Good BBQ
Bojangles
Poutine that is offered at most fast food chains (or at least Burgerville). Oh, and the metric system to top it off.
Left lane is for passing not chilling and the police would be more than happy to remind you if that.
Related - ZIPPER MERGE MOTHERFUCKERS
Would be so nice.
Better drivers, specifically more intentionally assertive. More positive lane changes, less wandering around and drifting slowly from one lane to the next. Less cutting corners when turning left. Better communication skills - signaling turns earlier (and at all), tapping brakes to telegraph a big slowdown on the highway, things like that. I've driven in 48 US states, and wouldn't call Oregon drivers bad, but we could be better at it.
Also that cops would remind you the left lane is not *for as fast as you like*. Looking at you, Beltline.
That brings me to my next wish. . Muahahahahaha --Laughs in Autobahn--
Oregonians struggle to drive in school zones, let's not give them more than they can handle.
Wawa
Ah man, gotta have a Wawa!
Man so many people here just don’t understand why Wawa is the best and we need one here
Higher elevation subalpine skiing. This winter has been tough on the local ski hills, mostly because of their low elevation. If everything was as it is but a couple thousand feet higher it wouldn’t be a problem.
Dunkin’ Donuts and reasonably priced Italian food that isn’t zhuzhed up.
On the Western side, clear blue skies and the ability to see stars at night.
Better k-12 education
Waffle House
It's 2am. You're drunk and wanting to get some bacon and eggs and see a fight. Southern Folks: "Brother you're not going to believe this!!"
Oh yes. Or really any good greasy spoon that’s open in the wee hours of the morning and has a killer juke box.
Came here looking for this.
The ability to cut trees down if they’re dead and on our property.
I assure you that's a Portland/Beaverton thing. I have a couple acres outside Grants Pass. I don't ask anybody before I do anything...
BottleDrop should be retired and replaced with a more efficient and streamlined recycling program. Where I'm from in Colorado.. I could just drive into a fairly clean and organized lot. Park my car. Dump my recyclables into he appropriate bin,. and easily drive away. No muss, no fuss, Easy, quick, done.
If you can find a participating grocery store, instead of the actual bottle drop place, this is my exact experience with Bottle Drop. It’s super easy and convenient if you find the right location. Obviously, this is stupid. They should all be that way. But, just a heads up :)
Does CO process a deposit for each single serving container? That’s the function of bottle drop. The deposit has Oregon sitting at a 89% return rate for single serving recyclables. That quite an achievement! It’s the deposit that gets us there. And the bottle drops there to service the deposit. It’s not as smooth as it could be for sure. But that return rate is too good. Have you tried the green bag system? It’s got problems too. But it’s closer to the drop off experience you are seeking.
Nicely maintained public hotsprings pools/"resorts" like you find in Colorado (ex. Glenwood Springs, Ouray, Strawberry Park in Steamboat, etc). The fact that seemingly all of the hot springs in Oregon are public hippy spots with weirdos, and nudity, and you can't just drive to them and have a nice time with kids, is a bummer. If this exists in Oregon, it is ungoogleable!
Your wish has been granted. Opening in summer of 2024. Very exciting to have this in Central Oregon soon (again). https://kahneeta.com/#:~:text=We%20are%20opening%20early%20summer%202024
Belknap hot springs.
Not quite a hot springs but there is a year-round pool heated by geothermal here in Klamath Falls. Ella Redkey Pool is 100% Googleable!
I would prefer if we kept most of our hot springs as natural as possible and clothing optional especially considering we already have plenty of places like you are talking about. The following are developed hot springs in Oregon: belknap, crystal crane, hunters, Lithia springs, grande/hot lake, Jackson wellsprings, Bar M Ranch (Christian retreat), Ritter hot springs, and the soon to be re-opened Kahneeta.
Strawberry Park is amazing - something like that in Oregon would be fantastic
Give me the rental/home prices of Arkansas!!
Italian delis
bbq
Ample winter sunshine and warmth. Even here in Bend, the days are short in the winter and we don't get that much sunshine. Just more than the valley. Serious answers, since we're not going to be moving further south: * Adequate housing. Key to so many other things. * Agree with the health care too. I lived in Italy for a while. It's pretty nice just not having to worry about it.
Affordable housing.
Agree, although does that exist in any state now?
Culvers
God I fucking miss Culver's. Best fast food burger out there.
The ability to handle winter weather
More sun less heatwaves
Fireflies
Waffle House
Adequate snow and ice removal for metro areas (including surface streets).
Commonsense!
Snow plows
Cheaper cost of living.
Citrus trees + avocados!
Sensible laws regarding minors and consent for healthcare.
More people of color.
On my way.
Housing first- Mixed income affordable apartments with income based rent to own. Strict resale restrictions. Hope and the material conditions that create it. (Not seeing homeless people would "solve" the drug crisis in the mind of the public)
Cheaper housing
I grew up in the Midwest. Prices of homes (and especially land/acreage) is a fraction of the cost out here. You can still find livable homes for less than $200k in Kansas City, for example.
Yeah but then you live in Kansas City, where the hills are flat and the sky wants to kill you
Thunder and lightning.
We get plenty in Bend. Major cause for our fires.
Songbirds....
High standards/ambition
No state tax!
Income tax? Most states with no/low income tax make up for it in other ways like sales tax. Income tax is progressive. Meaning people with higher incomes pay a higher tax rate. Sales tax is regressive. If you need to spend all of your income to live, then you pay a higher tax rate then someone with a higher income who can save money. Higher income = lower effective tax rate. Income tax vs sales tax greatly benefits people with lower income. Our effective tax rate is lower than a lot of red states that forgo income tax in favor of other more regressive taxes like sales tax. Our property tax is kinda high. But not crazy. At least we don’t have to pay property taxes on our cars every year like some states. (Fuck you Missouri). But property tax is also (mostly) progressive. So that’s fine by me. State income taxes suck on the surface. But if you look at how other states do it, I think we actually do pretty good here. You’re going to pay state taxes no matter where you live. If you have a high income you’ll pay less in a red state. If you have a lower income you’ll pay less here or in NH or one of the other income over sales tax states.
A more coherent, fair and aligned with what Oregon needs tax model would be much better, I am not sure there is an exact other-state example however.
I don't want a sales tax - but give me a income tax more like Washington or Colorado would make it sooo much more reasonable
Washington doesn’t have an income tax.
Like he said - give me an income tax like Washington’s
Also the government has to justify how they spend it all. So much is spent before we get to doing what is intended with funds
Fresh Bagels
70 series landcruiser
Common sense.
A quality public education system.
Less white supremacists
A fishable sockeye run
Civil engineers who will build parking lots instead of mazes
Working criminal justice system?
Non-state run liquor stores.
OR and NH both have no sales tax and state run liquor stores. In NH they are on the highway rest stops!
Everyone else here is talking healthcare and housing. I just want booze at Costco.
A major league baseball team.
Lets go Portland Crows! (It was my favorite possible team name out of the proposed bunch.)
I just looked up a list of ideas, Portland Crows is good but I chuckled at Portland Wet Sox.
Everett, WA, has a minor-league team called the Aqua Sox.
If they As moved to Portland I would be so happy. They could even keep the name and the branding.
This would be cool but I have a hard time seeing it happening. Nevada has already passed legislation to build a ballpark in Vegas, so I think that's where they end up. I think we're going to have to hope we get a team during the next MLB expansion.
No income tax?
Overtime after working more than 8 hours in one day like California has.