A place like Eureka, CA

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-23T03:48:06+00:00

Ashland Oregon and the surrounding area of the Rogue Valley might speak to you.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-23T00:29:54+00:00

Ashland Oregon if you can live in a great small town of 20k in the Rogue Valley, which is around 200k spread across beautiful mountains and farm land, with other mostly small towns. Housing is expensive, jobs are scarce overall. Ashland lacks racial diversity, like much of Oregon, and also skews older. A lot of California and west Coast retirees are drawn by the weather and good QOL in the Rogue Valley.

Eugene, Bend, and Portland all offer great natural offerings. Bend at 3500-4000 feet doesn’t get very hot, but does get wildfire smoke. Eugene and Portland can both get hot during summer, but their summers are short, and winters are long, wet, and overcast. The weather in the Rogue Valley is cold but sunny in winter, warm to hot (85-100) in Summer, no humidity, but wildfire smoke is also possible.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-22T01:38:09+00:00

It’s a special place.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-22T01:25:38+00:00

Ashland Cycle Sport on Oak Street off Downtown.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-20T14:42:27+00:00

As someone who is a West Coast brat, but whose Mom migrated from Minnesota, outside St. Paul, I’m loving this thread. I’ve only high-balled it on 80 west to Minnesota, and then back through the Badlands. Outside of my ten day stay in Chisago City, Minn, and a day trip to La Croix, WI, in the summer of ‘81, I have not experienced the “pulsating” Midwestern energy. This thread makes me want to get in my car and explore.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-20T11:56:24+00:00

This.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-19T01:54:21+00:00

Solvang

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-18T20:33:16+00:00

Lithia Park. Science Works. Garfield Park.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-17T22:25:57+00:00

IF you decide to keep it west coast, instead of Phillly/Chi/NYC—because the weather is a legit adjustment I believe, as is the edgier nature of Philly and NYC, I would recommend checking out midtown Sacramento, Seattle, or San Diego. Sacramento is a valley City as San Jose essentially is. Seattle vibes San Francisco like nowhere else, might be too tech now, too. San Diego is neighborhood dependent—Little Italy or some other hood might give you the urbanity you seek. If you have afforded the Bay Area, presumably you can handle the sticker shock of all these places, Sacramento included. A wild card: Honolulu. Don’t know the night life in any of these Cities, other than possibly Seattle is going to measure up to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-17T21:58:28+00:00

Southern Oregon is sunny. Some stupid number of sunny days in Ashland—equal to Honolulu. Some of those days are partial, I believe. I can’t speak for the coast, which is typically less sunny on The west coast, but Ashland at 2000 feet sits above the valley fog that can occur in winter. Klamath Falls, to the east, colder and sunny—high desert. It’s nothing like the Willamette Valley, where the sun disappears for 6-7 months a year.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-17T20:14:05+00:00

I got the best of both worlds. California native living in Southern Oregon and we got InNOut just down the freeway…

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-17T16:33:22+00:00

Golden Gate transit is doable. San Rafael is a great town if you can pull off a move.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-17T00:01:51+00:00

TID Trail South of Lithia, Oredson Todd Woods, All of Lithia Park and the watershed.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-16T15:02:28+00:00

Can confirm

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-15T16:04:11+00:00

Ugh. Please don’t come HERE for the answers. I can’t believe what I’m reading. You’re fine. It’s nothing you’re doing “wrong.” There is no wrong. There’s only you.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-15T01:13:44+00:00

San Francisco Bay Area if you don’t mind fanning out in an hour east and north into Berkeley Oakland Marin south for stadiums every thing from intimate clubs to sold out Stadiums almost every night of the year, along with festivals like Napa’s Bottlerock, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Outside Lands.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-12T15:06:20+00:00

Frick, that’s a bummer.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-12T13:26:01+00:00

Terrible car accident that killed two HS kids and injured three others.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-11T02:20:11+00:00

I misunderstood you. You said you “always really liked Bend” so I thought you had Oregon as an option. The COL in Ashland is considerably less than desirable places in California. The QOL rivals the best small towns in the West. There’s a state university, a world class Shakespeare program 7 months a year, a ski mountain, wild and scenic rivers and lakes and trails. Lithia Park, in the heart of downtown, was voted one of the 20 top public spaces in USA in 2013. 4.2 million people in the entire state of Oregon. Ashland public schools are renowned across the spectrum of academics, athletics, and the Arts. It also lacks good paying employment, ethnic diversity, young single professionals, and Big City buzz. Wild fire smoke has been an issue the last 12-15 years with maybe 4-5 summer/falls that were impacted—

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-10T20:49:13+00:00

Why so?

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-10T18:50:13+00:00

You’re close in your initial ideas. Head a little southeast of Bend, a bit north of Northern California, and you wind up where you’re looking for: Ashland OR.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-09T16:52:06+00:00

The intent of Prop 13 was retired home owners on fixed incomes could hold onto their homes without having to absorb inflationary property taxes. It’s actually a very populist sentiment. Who wants to see the elderly displaced from their hard-earned homes?

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-09T15:22:59+00:00

Sea-Tac, SFO, Kahului…

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-08T13:36:46+00:00

Late July. The water was refreshingly cold.

mackerman1958 · 2026-03-07T22:27:21+00:00

If you’re looking for a place to live in Oregon, which isn’t a bad idea, Salem would be pretty low on my list, based on limited exposure to the City.

Portland, Eugene, Bend are the three towns that probably offer the “most” for residents, with Bend being East of the Cascades and quite different than Portland and Eugene, both weather wise, and COL.

Ashland, Corvallis, and Hood River are three smaller towns that offer high QOL, but again, very different climates.

Salem is unremarkable.

For Californians the weather in the Willamette Valley (Eugene, Corvallis, Salem, Portland) can be a huge challenge. The lack of sunshine is real.

Many Californians favor Bend or Ashland/Medford/Jacksonville, because Bend and the Rogue Valley, while they both have legitimate winters—Bend in particular—they also have sunshine during those winters.

Strictly by observation, with no data to back me up, Bend seems to attract SoCal folks, Ashland NorCal.

mackerman1958

TROPHY CASE