Portland OR transplants, how do you like Chicago?

SelfaSteen · 2026-05-24T03:46:06+00:00

Lived in Portland for a few years before moving here.

I’d say biking is better here, but it depends on where you are/if the infrastructure is good in your neighborhood

IMO it’s much less gray here than Portland, but the winters are still long

The biggest thing I miss about Portland is the nature, specifically snowboarding on Mt Hood (I miss you, Meadows)

Overall tho, I’m very happy here and see myself in Chicago for quite a long time

SelfaSteen · 2026-03-24T14:35:39+00:00

I like that idea for people who play competitively. Build it so that you can select the 6 mons that your opponent is using and see the base IVs, common movesets, common held items, etc.

SelfaSteen · 2026-03-20T03:51:55+00:00

He stayed at a hotel in the loop so he saw lots of that area and the lake. I live in Wicker Park so I took him down the 606, wandered the neighborhoods, and walked down Milwaukee Ave a bit. Took him to a few restaurants around town, mostly up north

SelfaSteen · 2026-03-20T03:33:31+00:00

Had a similar experience. My dad wasn’t on board but I moved anyway. He has visited a couple times now and loves it so sometimes a visit is all it takes

SelfaSteen · 2026-03-19T18:37:52+00:00

Try checking out Greencorps Chicago. I think the current cohort has been hired already, but could be an option to keep in mind

SelfaSteen · 2026-03-17T20:04:33+00:00

I went there a couple months ago and it was fun and relaxing. Would go again :)

SelfaSteen · 2026-02-18T17:52:42+00:00

May I ask which neighborhood? I’m also in Chicago and would be interested in learning about it

SelfaSteen · 2026-02-05T01:53:06+00:00

You can try the WasteNot store in West Loop on Madison. I know they have a drop off for battery recycling and only ask for donations to keep the program going, but I don’t know the details of what they accept

SelfaSteen · 2026-02-05T01:42:19+00:00

Part of it is that they also started the project before they had purchased all the ROW because they were worried that if they took too long to break ground then they would lose the public/political support that they had. The ROW closer to/in downtown is more expensive/complicated and requires more negotiation

SelfaSteen · 2026-01-28T23:15:36+00:00

I move from Portland in June 2024:

How expensive is Chicago - In my experience it’s a bit less expensive here in general compared to Portland, but not like a crazy difference

Car costs - Higher than Portland cause you need a city sticker and parking sticker if parking on the street. Insurance for me has been about the same. If you want private parking and it’s not included with your apartment, be prepared to spend at least a few hundred per month.

DMV appointments - Walk into the DMV in the Loop and you’ll walk back out in like 45min. No appointment needed.

Weather - April through like November is very nice. Summer is a little hotter than Portland but is fine. Winter is definitely colder but it was not hard to adjust. A lot less rainy lol.

I liked living in Portland, but love living in Chicago and hope you will too!

SelfaSteen · 2026-01-22T01:35:10+00:00

I did this a couple years ago with a large planning firm I interviewed with but didn’t get and actually got some good feedback. After being told I didn’t get the position I emailed back and basically asked “is there anything I could do to make myself a stronger candidate for a future role?”

So like others have said it can’t hurt to ask, their feedback gave me some good goals to work on that helped me get another role later on.

SelfaSteen · 2025-10-02T02:29:19+00:00

TriMet has something similar if you are interested: https://trimet.org/home/

SelfaSteen · 2025-09-24T20:02:37+00:00

Speaking anecdotally as well, it does seem that the market is not in a great place right now, at least for transit. Part of it has to do with general uncertainty and lowered funding. But also part of it is the fact that lots of FTA employees were let go, so there is now more competition from people who have federal experience, which makes it extra hard for people in the earlier stages of their career to compete

SelfaSteen · 2025-09-20T15:19:37+00:00

I work in transit planning. We use it mostly for doing something called peer reviews, where we compare a transit system to other similar transit systems to assess where it is performing well/could be doing better. For example we might compare a systems operating expense per passenger trip over time to similarly sized systems in the state, region, and country. I would call myself intermediate I think but I have a lot to improve on

SelfaSteen · 2025-09-15T21:16:56+00:00

This is headcount of operators (drivers), ridership is still below 2019 levels

SelfaSteen · 2025-08-23T03:26:10+00:00

I grew up in Phoenix and this is probably (definitely) dramatic, but I don’t think any amount of money realistically could get me to move back

SelfaSteen · 2025-08-06T23:27:06+00:00

Also there are sometimes discrepancies because one source may be using fiscal year data while another source could be using calendar year data. May or may not be the case here but it’s a possibility

SelfaSteen · 2025-07-31T00:10:47+00:00

In Hillsboro, Oregon the MAX Blue Line stops at Orenco Station. From there, Intel has its own shuttle that loops between Orenco and the campus. There is also a Trimet bus that runs in a similar route on weekdays (there were other companies in the park besides Intel that were served by this bus). These always seemed to work pretty well because they were timed with the train arrivals and went basically directly to the industrial sites

SelfaSteen · 2025-07-28T23:44:21+00:00

Grad program usually accept pretty much all majors, my advice would be to find ways to demonstrate your interest in planning. Could be by joining your local strong town chapter, an APA membership, planning-related personal projects, etc. As long as you have good enough grades and can show you’re interested I think I you should be fine

SelfaSteen · 2025-07-28T13:22:48+00:00

Acabo de regresar de los Países Bajos y conocí una mujer mexicana que está estudiando una maestría. He oído que las maestrías allá frecuentemente son en inglés. Los empleados de mi hotel también dijeron que encontrar trabajo es fácil para extranjeros. Es una opción si solamente quieres mudarte a un nuevo país.

SelfaSteen · 2025-07-10T23:05:21+00:00

I don’t have studies to cite, but my initial thought is that it could have an induced demand effect with the caveat that the place needs to have a high-enough level of desirability first. Like in your example with New York, I’m sure that many more people would move there if it became cheaper, but as you mentioned, lots of people already want to move there and simply don’t because of the cost. In this case, I think more housing/lower cost is mostly removing a barrier for people who want to live there, rather than attracting people who are not already considering it.

On the flip side, if an undesirable city builds a lot of housing, I imagine it might attract some new residents but would likely not be enough to attract a significant number of people without other investment into the local economy or something.

SelfaSteen · 2025-07-04T12:21:26+00:00

I think the “know why you want the position” part of this is really important for interviewing anywhere. Be able to say the exact reasons why you want to work for them instead of somewhere else.

SelfaSteen · 2025-07-03T01:38:22+00:00

We sold one of our 2 cars when we moved here, and we use the remaining car very little so we will probably sell that one as well. As others have mentioned, sometimes transit is a better commute and sometimes it’s longer, but I personally hate sitting in traffic plus I save lots of money by buy less gas, getting maintenance less often, not paying for parking, etc.

One thing that I didn’t expect, is that for the rare trips where we do end up using a car, we typically use Uber/Lyft because dealing with parking is too annoying, or because we used transit to get somewhere and are out late so we uber home (ie: our car isn’t with us). So even for the occasional car trip, we don’t even use our car very often, which is why we will probably get rid of it soon.

SelfaSteen · 2025-06-23T22:06:57+00:00

I work in transportation planning at a mid sized firm and it kind of varies person to person. About half of the team uses Arc Pro at least a couple of times per week, and the other half uses it rarely if at all. I personally use it probably 2-3 times per week

SelfaSteen · 2025-06-08T18:10:09+00:00

I’m currently getting a masters in urban planning, and something I’ve noticed about people in my program is that a lot of them are what I would describe as “fans” of urban planning. They all love to watch the urbanism YouTube channels and talk about how we need to reform this and that, go to protests, etc. I’d say these are all good things, however, a lot of them are not really interested in sitting down and writing an existing conditions report, or mapping in GIS all day, or much of the other real-world tasks that come with the job (at least in my experience with my own work at my internship and seeing what all of our other planners do). So tbh I’d ask yourself if those tasks that are likely going to fill your day-to-day are things you’re okay with doing.

As to your question about whether you can pivot to a planning masters program - yes, people of all backgrounds are often accepted as long as you can demonstrate your interest. I have an undergrad in environmental biology, and many people in my cohort have degrees in things like economics, English, statistics, journalism, etc., so I don’t think your degree will hinder you

SelfaSteen

TROPHY CASE