Greetings from Hate-town (or 'Expect to be underwhelmed')

[Lord Trout]

Shecky, Is Salem a good place to live? Why do you call it hate-town?
I almost moved to oregon once.

Oregon is nice. Salem, OR is not nice. We have more prisons than anywhere else in the state. It is the central seat of the state government, so a huge proportion of the people here are fucking bureaucrats.

Unless you live in South Salem (too expensive) or West Salem (where I thankfully do), this town is a giant parking lot. All asphault and concrete, with very little trees and greenery. It truly sucks in the summer, when this causes it to get remarkably hot, and there is almost no shade anywhere except for the fucking malls.

South and West Salem are the smallest sections of town, by the way.

Then there's the churches. You have one on nearly every block. I didn't realize that a population of 100,000 could support 50,000* Christian churches! Every "Christian" I've met here is rather intolerant, which makes things oh so much more pleasant here.

Back in the weeks prior to last November's election, all I saw around here was bumper stickers supporting either W's "re"-election or Measure 36. Ah, yes, the famous "One Man - One Woman... Yes on 36" stickers were indeed all over town. Everywhere I looked, in fact.

You couldn't swing a dead goat without slamming it into a car wielding one of those fucking stickers!

Sure, the local college (Willamette University) was a respite from this anti-homosexual stupidity, but I rarely get over to that side of town. Anyway, it's pretty much surrounded by government offices and churches, so what's the point?

In closing, I may be overly sensitive to the crap that happens around these parts, but I doubt it. The only reason I bought a house here is that the Portland area is much more expensive to live in, let alone to buy a house at.

[/travelogue]

(*) Okay, so that's an exaggeration... but not by much.

[Lord Trout]

Salem?  Ironic place for a wiccan to live, I'm sure you noticed.

Yeah. Most of the coven lives here (sans our Priestess and Priest + a couple of stragglers), too. In fact, there's a burgeoning neo-pagan community here (or so I've heard), but no one really advertises it much.

See above for why.

[EraPassing]

I was born in Portland.  Pretty place.  Glad I wasn't raised there.

[East Coast Hustle]

Portland's alright...it's like seattle only smaller, dirtier, and with much less culture...for that matter, it's only the second-coolest portland in this country, but it's still alright...

[Lord Trout]

Portland's alright...it's like seattle only smaller, dirtier, and with much less culture...for that matter, it's only the second-coolest portland in this country, but it's still alright...

Don't forget: The cops in Portland, OR are much more likely to shoot you, than they are in Seattle (or anywhere else, except for L.A.).

[East Coast Hustle]

meh..Sea-town cops can be pretty trigger-happy, depending on your external hue...

and let's not forget how they reacted at the WTO protests..believe me, I was there, and none of that shit got out of hand until the cops went nuts and started lobbing tear gas grenades and shooting old ladies with rubber bullets...

but yeah, the Portland cops are pretty damn sucky...I'd be sucky too if I had to patrol northeast portland...

[Cain]

meh..Sea-town cops can be pretty trigger-happy, depending on your external hue...

and let's not forget how they reacted at the WTO protests..believe me, I was there, and none of that shit got out of hand until the cops went nuts and started lobbing tear gas grenades and shooting old ladies with rubber bullets...

but yeah, the Portland cops are pretty damn sucky...I'd be sucky too if I had to patrol northeast portland...

Hah, oddly enough I was studying that in International relations before the holidays (The WTO protests, not Portland cops, although that may make a good thesis to do their effect on IR, just to confuse markers).  They held the next one in some Arab police state after that if I'm not mistaken.  I remember alot of negative media coverage of the protests over here too.