Seattle is far more cosmopolitan. Portland is sort of like the ugly stepchild of Seattle. It wishes it was as happening a place as Seattle, SF, LA, or any major city with a lot of culture. So, they hype what they ve got, all the while denying it is a big city. Quite the identity crisis.You ll be accepted as an outsider much more freely in Seattle. Portlanders claim to be friendly and open, but there is a lot of bitterness toward outsiders there. Case in point, what the previous poster says about drivers. The stereotypical Portland driver is awful, yet hides behind the facade of being friendly and courteous to cover up for it. Portland drivers usually slam on the brakes at a green light to allow someone to cross in front of them, all the while risking the lives of others behind them. It s easy to point the finger at Californians for their own ineptness, and this trickles down to all facets of life. Whatever is wrong in Portland is someone from California s fault.Laid back is sort of a matter of perspective. I see plenty of uptight people in Portland, as my examples illustrate. But then again, you look hard enough, you ll find that anywhere in a city.
to the person who moved here from california, those drivers are too from california. i say move to one and visit the other when you want, they re so close together. Most of the people in Portland aren t from Oregon originally . They re mostly all transplants trying to get away from something. wonder what???
Portland, actually Oregon in general has incredibly horrible drivers.
seattle sucks and portland rocks...that about sums it up....oh and it is never sunny in seattle....and that crappy movie about being sleepless was filmed there....
As a former outsider, people would tell me that Seattle is Portland on steroids. Seattle has more urban sprawl, being on the ocean is nice, but also more traffic problems. Portland is smaller, good walking city, has the river front. I like Portland over Seattle but Seattle I think has a more robust economy, more to do for younger folks, also jobs might be easier to get in Seattle. Laid back really only refers to driving....they don t drive very fast here at all, I noticed it on my first trip to Portland where out of the airport everyone was doing 50 mph on the highway......and they are more courteous, your turn signal is useful (as opposed to signaling the enemy to move up and cut you off). MOST of the time they let you in, those who don t are probably from California....and yes, all the problems here are because of Californians.I d recommend Seattle based on your minimal requirements, but either city, you ll have to figure out how to deal with the weather. There s two seasons in the PNW, rain and no rain, and rain lasts a lot longer.
Just because Microsoft is in a Seattle suburb does not mean it is all high tech.The aviation industries were here long before that. Portland has a little Silicon Valley in Beaverton with Intel. Seattle is quite a bit larger and more expensive. Portland just as politically liberal and is a small town at heart. Both have traffic problems. The Northwest is laid back even compared to San Francisco and Los Angeles. The only rude drivers in Portland are from Los Angeles. Otherwise Oregonians don t honk and dont give you the finger. Laid back in Portland is doing things slowly and very relaxed compared to New York City. They are not as mentally sharp either. But very polite. The colleges and universities in Seattle and Portland are very good on a national scale. It is nothing like the South, and more like the suburbs of the N.E. Oregon is not boring and is progressive. They just don t do things fast. Seattle is more cosmopolitan like San Francisco. Both areas have great physical environments and outdoors living like hiking and skiing. Seattle is 3 hours north of Portland. The winter weather is worse in Seattle. It is often mild in Portland. Both get a lot of rain but climate change is affecting the area.
When I first moved to Seattle I found it very interesting that people there were constantly telling me how wonderful Portland was. It could have been because they felt that Seattle had already grown too large and had become an expensive place to live and difficult to get around in due to higher population and car traffic. Another slightly relevant fact: on average, Portland gets more days of sunshine than does Seattle. There were times in my year living in Seattle when I thought I would go crazy, due to the cloudy weather. I kept track of overcast days and there was actually a stretch of 3 weeks when the sun never poked out from behind the clouds. Some of those days were drizzly as well.I still like Seattle, as it is a great gateway to the Olympic peninsula and it is closer to Canada (Vancouver) than most cities. But I could see choosing Portland for its livability. It would be quite different from Virginia in terms of action simply because it is not anything like the stereotype of Virginia: set in its ways, in love with status and status quo.Just one suggestion for scoping both Seattle and Portland out: you might try tuning into Vimeo, the website for interesting videos (more viewable than You Tube) and search for both cities to get a sense of each urban environment.