Hey Porter is right about the larger, newer apt buildings in POR, they seem like ripoffs. In my neck of the woods (just north of SE Division at about 40th) they keep building all sorts of big apt buildings and seem to vastly overcharge. I hate to give advice again about "getting lucky" in Portland with regards to finding a good place, but unless you are loaded you kind of have to. My landlords are both naturopathic physicians and I basically hung out with them for a couple hours and they were like, "So you want to rent this place? We don't need to do a background check, we trust you." LOL Portland.

Astoria is fairly liberal. The arts scene has always been there afaik. Oregon is the leading beer consuming state in the nation and just about every little town has a brewery in it. Portland itself has several dozen. The bar scene should not be a problem anywhere you go west of the cascdes.

Oregon conservatives don't tend to align with typical red state bible belt conservatives. They are more libertarian than anything.

Ah, ok. Makes sense. I grew up in South Carolina. Would like to avoid (extreme conservatism).

Willamette Valley is quite liberal, I mean it's punctuated by Portland and Eugene for gods sake. You pretty much have to go to Eastern Oregon to run into the true hardcore conservatives. Well maybe not Bend.

I looked at an apartment in Lair Hill that was a crazy good deal. I talked to landlord about why and she said its a second income for her and her husband that they really don't need, and they like that they can get residents from OHSU in there long term. Of course, I was there the afternoon after the morning they posted, and would have been the fourth to fill in an application.

What Crash said re: Astoria politics. I venture Clatsop County as a whole leans pretty conservative, but Astoria certainly doesn't feel like. Clatsop County prosecutor is the craziest, "hang 'em high" prosecutor in the state, though.

Fort George Brewery in Astoria is excellent. I only dabble in the beers, but my beer loving friends consider it one of the best, if not THE best, brewery in the state.

As far as astoria goes I wouldnt discount any oregon coast city right now but ive lived in a lot of small judgemental towns and i need somewhere where if "i wore a tiara, people wouldnt think of me as the guy who wears a tiara" kind of place if that makes sense and i also want a town large enough for me to piss off people in it and not have the town hate me. The place itself is slightly more than adequete for what i would be looking to start ourt in ie pretty good.

That's going to be a tough find. There's lots of places people might not care, but that's still how they will see you.

I don't know, in Portland almost anything goes. I've seen people bicycling around naked when it wasn't even the annual naked bike ride. I pity those seats.

Anything may go, but those people would still be known as "naked biker", wouldn't they?

Bryce,

What Did says. You could go to Badlands in the Castro in SF, which is about as gay a place as it sounds in the middle of the gayest neighborhood around, and you'd still be known as "tiara guy" there. People would be cool with it, though!

I know a guy that always (and I mean always) wears Eagles or Phillies gear. Everyone calls him Philly. He loves it. Same thing here.

Lol. A lot of my friends call me Philly for that exact same reason. Except Flyers gear is thrown in. The 3 bars i frequent the most use "Philly" as my bar tab name.

There's a guy who is such an Oregon Ducks homer and wears so much Oregon gear that everyone calls him Oregon. This is in Portland.

My nickname at Northwestern was "Tennessee" because a Southern accent was such a novelty (less than 2% of student body from the South).

HP,

Hahaha, that's amazing.

even though youre completely going off exactly what i said, i was trying to make a principle and was thinking bout wearing a tiara atm, i didnt mean to imply i woud wear a tiara everyday. i would however wear one for fun a few days or maybe more if i liked it.

I don't think anyone doubted this.

Never change Bryce.

Can someone give me an idea of what this area is like? I'm less interested in the exact unit, but it seems like this stretch could go either way. It's a walkable area with access to hiking it seems, with some nicer units below $1300 nearby.

Heading out there tomorrow. ... Assuming I can find something affordable I do think Portland is probably better. I may not be really utilizing all D.C. has to offer right now, but having a social life is important to me and honestly the difference in the size of the dating pool between urban areas and small towns is big.

I just need to be outside more. I'm not sure I'm ready to live on the side of a mountain or in a small town. I'll probably head to Astoria to look around, a lot of what I've read and heard from you guys has been really positive and it seems affordable (and I was there earlier this year briefly and it was very pretty).

Taking good neighborhood bar suggestions if anyone has them. Might be the easiest way to pick a neighborhood.

Made an appointment to check out this place.

I'll admit at the outset that I'm less enamored with NW 23rd than a lot of people (I find it too crowded and the COMPLETE lack of parking makes me want to tear my hair out). That being said, the first apartment is on the far outskirts, actually outside, the "happening" area of NW. I'm not familiar with that particular spot at all, but I doubt there's much over there. The Pettigrove place is closer and a better location, but based on the website it looks like it's one of the new, quickly and cheaply done jobs that they're going to charge an arm and a leg for for not much space. You are close to Forest Park for hiking, although it's a quick drive from anywhere in Portland.

I know you're not talking specifically about that unit, but since you posted it, I'd stay away. Again, I'm biased to NE/upper SE, but all of these are great locations for what look to be much better apartments for similar price in an area that is EXTREMELY walkable with tons of restaurants and bars:

http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/apa/4788708296.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/apa/4789057264.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/apa/4786916111.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/apa/4786929508.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/apa/4790161017.html
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/apa/4779236020.html

Bump your price range up a little more and you'll get quite a few more options. Again, I'm biased because I live there, but since you mentioned walkable bars, the Kerns/Laurelhurst neighborhoods are hard to beat. 28th Ave around Burnside is pretty much all bars and restaurants, of all types, and Burnside down to 15th or so is the same. Glisan and Sandy are right there with quite a few neighborhood bars as well.

Good thoughts, thanks. ... I need to expand my search. My price range has some flexibility, but I want to do what I can to keep the rent from being too damn high.

My girlfriend lived here a couple years ago, pretty nice building, good location and I never had issues parking near there. You'll be walking from there most of the time anyways.

I think 23rd is great personally, as is 21st, tons of restaurants/bars/shops. You'll just have to see if it's for you.

I lived on 23rd in the Savier flats building and now I'm in NE, both are great you'll just have to visit some of the neighborhoods and see what vibe you prefer.

Keep in mind driving from sw to NE takes like 10 minutes so you're never stuck, we go out to nw/Se with friends every weekend and it's no issue.

Near Sandy, we looked at the beverly building as well which was really nice.

Thanks. Definitely reminding myself that the main purpose of this trip is to look at neighborhoods and not actual apartments, which makes it more manageable.