Anyone know anything about Eugene, OR?

[JackAltman]

This probably belongs in "LTS," but I'm looking for priority and I'll delete the thread if nothing comes up.

So, I'm going to be moving to Eugene, OR, in July, and I was wondering if anyone here either...

a.) ...lives there now. (Let's be friends!)
b.) ...knows someone who is living there. (Tell them to be my friend, and then come and visit!)
c.) ...or has had some good information about fun neighborhoods, quality establishments, and jobs that would love me that you have somehow divined through another means.

I'm really going in blind, here, and on a whim formed while drinking heavily at that. It's kind of spooky; I've never really moved anywhere before (college doesn't count...) and it's a 1,500 mile drive, so I can't just pop over and check out a rental property for sketchiness. Hell, even just some advice about how to do this shit through Craigslist would be appreciated.

Fingers crossed!

[Scarychips]

That's all I know about Eugene, Oregon.

[emyli]

Eugene's about a two hour drive away from Portland, where I live. Honestly, if you're moving 1500 miles out to the west coast I'd move to portland, because it seems like everybody does eventually.

But Eugene's great. It's relaxing, and tiny, everyone's vegan and nobody owns a car. EVERYBODY smokes weed. It's definitely a college town, but there's kind of a duality about it: There's this crazy academic college town energy, but everywhere outside of that direct radius is insanely relaxed.

I don't know where you're coming from exactly, but just a friendly warning: It rains daily for 9 months out of the year. That might not seem like a huge deal but about 2-3 years in a lot of new transplants get serious seasonal depression/sleep issues/all sorts of other stuff because they don't know to start exercising and taking st. johns wort in November.

Still, the weather in the summer is so impossibly gorgeous that it more than makes up for everything.

You'll end up coming to Portland a lot for shows. Every touring band comes through portland if they come through this area, Owen usually plays here when he's on the west coast, and Portland's got one of the best local music scenes in the country, and it's only about 2 hours away, so that's good.

Anyway I don't really have that many close friends in Eugene anymore (they all moved to Portland...) but I will totally find an excuse to come visit and be your friend!

[JackAltman]

Hey, guys! Thanks! (Though, admittedly Anthony, that was the first place I looked, too...)

Like I said, Eugene came out of nowhere, really. A friend of mine was going to move with her BF to New Mexico, but they broke up and she chose Eugene (partly...) on the basis of the Ken Kesey statue in the city center. I figured, "Hell! I loved 'Sometimes a Great Notion,' too!" and decided that I'd come along. I'm completely taken with that part of the west coast, and coming from a landlocked land, ready access to the ocean and trees was a big sell. The rain? *Meh.* I can deal. It snows for nine months out of the year, here, and the other three are oppressively hot and humid. And buggy. If I can finally experience a few months of a temperate climate, I think I'll be content.

I've done some research on Portland, too, Emyli, and it's definitely a place I'm happy to be living two hours away from. (We will be friends! I will come and visit! No joke!) The last time I went to a show (Owen, actually...), it was a five hour drive, and that's something I had just come to accept as one of the trials of South Dakota. That five hour drive to good shows, compelling coffee, ethnic cuisine, and basically anything that I'd actually want to buy was just part of life. I fear that I'll burst when all of that is within biking distance.

You're probably right that Eugene is just a stopping off point to bigger things, less hippie-centric cities (Man, if the Eugene aesthetic is all Pink Floyd posters and "glassware," I'll be pissed...), but I'm only going to be staying for six months at first (I've a few artist residencies back in South Dakota in the spring...) and figure that a good start to finding out what's what.

Thanks again, Emyli for the info. I knew I remembered someone with an OR profile. (Are you on Facebook? Feel free to add me (Altman Studeny) and we can begin our friending process!)

[emyli]

Sent! And don't worry. Eugene is pretty hippie, but in a very Oregonian way. It's intensely charming. It's its own world and it sucks you in. Yeah, there's plenty of pink floyd and glassware, but there's also urban bees and front yard farming and people who make a living selling magic wands at festivals. And when it's sunny, Oregon is the most beautiful place in the world.