Nice g*y-friendly, low-crime town near Portland???

Question

I'm a teacher, am g*y and have been burned by the rat race and crime of the big city back east. I've lived in California before and loved it, but it's so expensive and crime-ridden now. I'm thinking about Oregon and I hear only good things about it. I visited Ashland, OR once and loved it, but it's a bit remote for my taste. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Why not Portland itself?  g*y friendly, super liberal, great culture.  I'm a special ed teacher here.  Their are lots of school districts in the Portland area and most have jobs posted on line.  Portland Public Schools, David Douglas School District, Centennial School District, Parkrose School District, and Reynolds School District are all in Portland pretty much.  Others that are in the suburbs...Gresham School District, Beaverton School District, Aloha School District (growing fast I think), Tigard School District and Vancouver on the other side of the Columbia.  

Answer 2

I am so with you! I'm also a teacher who loves the small town feel. There are quite a few "remote" areas near the metro area, which are great as they have that small town feel but yet are close enough to Portland to go catch a concert, lecture, or big event downtown. (By the way, the school districts the other person listed are not generally ones you want to get into...)

I chose to live in Wilsonville, a very small town south of Portland. It's very quaint, pretty, and well kept as we have a large millionaire farming community (weird, I know). But, it's got a cute downtown, is incredibly safe, and it's still out in the "country" enough. Some others to look at: Government Camp (hard time commuting to work, though, and you must like snow), Aurora, Canby, Beavercreek. There's also Forest Grove, Banks, and Sandy but those would also make a big commute.

My suggestion - use Edzapp to find a job and then look at what kind of commute you'd like. If you'd like, let me know what area you're teaching and I can let you know some good school districts and possibly any jobs that I know about.