City in USA to chill-out/trade from

[Piffle]

Quote from retaildaytrader:

The area that you are describing PERFECTLY is Portland, Oregon.

-Transportation- Portland has a light rail system which will take you right from the airport to most anyplace in Portland. In some areas of Portland, you can ride the light rail for free. If you have a bike, you can take that on the light rail train.

- Safety- Right now, every place in America has its share of homeless, bums and street walkers and Portland is no exception. However, Portland is a reasonably safe place and I would say safer then most other cities.

- Getting laid factor- Portland is a very liberal city with sex clubs, strip clubs, etc. Sex is a very liberal open thing in Portland and hooking up should be easier then in other cities. Guys actually drive from Seattle to go to Portland's clubs and bars.

- Relaxation factor- Very relaxed atmosphere. Everyone is fairly nice and accomadating.

- Hiking, etc.- Portland is very connected to nature. I have been to many cities in America and by far this is the easiest one to breath in. They have very strict environmental laws and you see a lot of hybrid cars around. Everyone does their part in keeping it clean. Everyone loves to drive around 4 cylinder cars or hybrids.

- Clean - Portland is so very very clean. It looks like everything is new, but the truth is that everything is kept up very well.


If you want to truly relax then Portland is it...

I lived in Portland for almost 10 years, and loved it there, but you are exaggerating some of these points. Hiking/biking I agree are both awesome there, and the weather in the spring/summer/fall is great usually.

The light rail is not that wonderful and isn't nearly as comprehensive as you are making it sound. It is nice if it happens to line up with where you want to go.

Downtown Portland is overrun with homeless 16-25 year olds these days, but is still reasonably safe. I don't find it particularly clean, but it isn't dirty either really. Average.

I still highly recommend a visit though. If you go make sure you see the Japanese Gardens (if you are at all in to that kind of thing) and Powell's books (the best bookstore I have ever been to, and was at one time the biggest book store in the world I think). Saturday Market downtown is also cool.

Damn, now I miss my bookstore.

 

[retaildaytrader]

Well, all places in the United States now have their encampments of homeless and impoverished. 40 million on food stamps...so thats 1 in 6-8 people who need food stamps to live. So there is no way to avoid it and if you are from out of the country then I suggest you watch yourself carefully as crime is on the way up in most every city.

Another good place is San Francisco right by the Marina area. It is very touristy and not so relaxed though. I would say its more relaxed then any city on the east coast though. It has bus/light rail system that is also very good. You can take the light rail right from the airport and then use the bus system to get anywhere you need to go.

I would say its an all-around cool place to be with lots of culture, nightlife and things to do. If there is only one city I could visit in America and was from out of the country then it would be San Francisco.