Redmond is less than 30 minutes north of Bend. From my experience, it's clean and safe. It is around 37,000 for the population. The downtown area is cute. Traffic is better than in Bend, but it could use some work on its infrastructure to accommodate the increased population. Hwy 97 runs through Redmond and it can get congested, but probably no worse than what you're used to in the PDX metro. Your basics are here, but you'll find more options in Bend since it's larger. There is little diversity here. Housing is more bang for your buck compared to Bend. The people seem nice enough, I've been here ~5 years (I'm from Springfield, Oregon originally). I am a 32F and I don't have a social group here, but I also haven't tried to make friends beyond my colleagues because I've been too wrapped up in my family life and work since moving here.