What is it like to live in Portland, Oregon?
I moved to Portland, OR from Austin, TX and have lived here for 24 years. Portland, OR is a beautiful “air-conditioned” city. Temps are mild all year round. The only negative weather wise are the grey skies - not the rain - but GREY OVERCAST skies for ~ 260 days/year. The city receives 38 ins of rain a year (the right amount for the city not to have water problems with some margin) - the same as Austin, TX, but Austin gets over 300 sunny days/year, we have 120 !! The sunny days start from July and end in October. The overcast conditions can take a toll on you - but if you live here long enough, it is something you can get used to.The suburbs are neat, clean, and tidy, and thanks to the Urban Growth Boundary (designed to prevent urban sprawl), property prices are constantly on the upswing. Rental prices are high and creeping up on an ongoing basis. The people are friendly and neighbors look out for each other. Most importantly, Portland has the best water I have tasted anywhere. The water comes from the Bull Run Reservoir, and is essentially purified/treated melted snow. It doesn’t get any better than that. No calcium buildup in the pipes, and no need for a filter or desalination system for the home.The restaurant scene in Portland is awesome. You can find a plethora of restaurants and cuisines from every corner of the world here. Korean, Thai, Indians, Filipino, Japanese. Ethiopian ….and the list goes on. Best of all, the food in these restaurants are of a very high standard.The traffic can be bad on weekdays. The highways seem to be clogged and backed up most of the time from 7AM-6PM. Weekend traffic is OK. The pop influx is clearly outpacing the ability of the highway infrastructure to absorb the influx.On balance, Portland, OR is a great place to live and a population magnet. Is it any wonder that Portland as a city & OR as a state ranks #1 in terms of population growth ?
Is it worth moving to Portland, OR from the Bay Area to ensure a better cost of living or does the pay difference make it all relative?
So... disclaimer first. I've never actually lived in the Bay Area. I've had jobs where my "office" was there, but I've always lived elsewhere. I have, however, spent the equivalent of about four years there, over time.The big, big, big barrier to making the move to the Bay Area was cost of housing. I couldn't replace my home with a functional equivalent for anywhere near what I was paying elsewhere - to rent, or purchase. I love the Bay Area, and get the mechanics behind why it's so brutally expensive, but sometimes, reality just pops into play and you have to say "Yeah, and that doesn't matter, it's not going to happen."Portland... Yeah, it's an awesome city, but it's not the Bay Area. If you're in tech, and you're not in silicon, there's a big deficit in the quality of opportunity available to you. There are no "Unicorns" here - nor will there be, it's just not part of the culture. There are a vast number of startups, and a huge number of existing tech companies, though. And that's going to continue.Portland proper, particularly close to downtown, is completely built out and has the same supply and demand dynamic as the Bay Area does. Houses are expensive and getting more so every day, as more and more people move here. What's so great about Oregon? Everyone's moving there But compared to Bay Area prices? Chump change.And the culture is amazing. Not in terms of "high culture events" - the museums are so-so, the opera passable - but in terms of what it's like to live here. This is the city that turned a highway into a park, and it still thinks that way. Want to know why highways into downtown are two-lane and there's no parking? "Because if we make it easy to drive, more people will, and we don't want that" - pretty much verbatim from the city planners office.Spend time here before you pick a place to live - the various neighborhoods are all distinctly different, almost like being their own towns. And you may move to "Portland" but wind up in Beaverton or Oregon City or Lake Oswego or Gresham as you seek out the things that matter to you.I'll say this: I've lived and worked all over the US, but I've been here uninterrupted longer than anyplace else.
Michael Jordan the most overrated basketball player......Ever!!????
Let me point this out: Jordan joined a losing team in 1984. His first year, they remained a losing team. The next year, they were a losing team. The third year, they posted their 3rd consecutive losing season. During Jordan's first three years, he was not able to make the Bulls into a contender. He couldn't even get them above .500. This man has a legendary "will to win", but can't win? Then, the Bulls add Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen, the next year, and the Bulls put up a winning record and advance another round of the playoffs. The Bulls keep adding players and they keep winning more and more until they win 3 titles. Jordan retires, and the Bulls only slip 2 games. He comes back the next year, and they do WORSE in the playoffs than they did the year before him. After the Bulls add Rodman and win 3 more titles, they disband the team. Two years later, Jordan joins a losing Wizards team. Under Jordan, they remain a losing team both years and fail to make the playoffs each year. He retires again, and the Wizards continue losing the next year.
If Michael Jordan never played basketball, who do you think would be the greatest of all time?
Same person who is now: Bill Russell.People are so quick to write of Russell because he played in an earlier era that they actually use his most jaw dropping accomplishment against him: 11 titles. People think that that must mean the league was a joke back then, but the reality is we've never seen any kind of dominance like that from anyone else in basketball or historically in the other major team sports.It's always funny though when people talk about "Can Kobe get to 6?", and "Can LeBron get to 7?". If Russell had won 7 titles then people would probably hold that up as the standard, but by lapping the field at 11 it just makes people treat it like he's some fictional figure from the 19th century.To answer some related questions:If not Russell or Jordan, then who? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar pretty easily.What about LeBron? Maybe when he's done, he's still in the middle of his career.What about Magic? If Magic hadn't retired mid-career because of HIV, it's quite likely he'd outrank Jordan as is, but he did retire early so he's out.What about Kobe? Not in the ballpark. He's the #2 scoring guard of all-time behind Jordan, but there are other positions in the NBA, some of them typically more important than scoring guard.
Why is Damian Lillard such a cold blooded killer?
Like, seriously. Why is he such an epically clutch, cold blooded deadly assassin? I mean, shouldn't he be banned from the NBA for being too clutch or something? Literally, all he does is destroy opposing teams and their hopes and dreams, and aspirations at the last second. It really isn't fair.