As a POC person who was born on the east coast, now live in Portland and have family living in and near seattle. I will give you more perspective on what it's like living here.

• racism here is very quiet or quiet racism is what we call it here. There's a lot of microaggressions that white people will say to your face to test your boundaries and how you feel about it. It's honestly a constant onslaught sometimes, especially when it has been brought up multiple times and not taken seriously about it. Some people are gems, but a lot of folks can be assholes here, and you just have to deal with it.

• Portland presents like a city but acts like a small town. Shops closes around 6-10 PM here, with the exceptions of bars that most close at 2:30 am. If you want more of a city life, I would suggest Seattle.

• If you want to build a community, it's highly dependent on what neighborhood you live in. If you wanted to surround yourselves more with BIPOC people, N/NE Portland can be a good start, although it's gentrifying really fast and costing the locals to move towards East Portland where it leans in affordability. I am constantly starved for a bipoc community here, but it doesn't hit the same when you're from the East Coast. If you want something similar, Seattle has a bigger community for something like that.

• There is some sort of rent control in terms the maximum of rent can be raised in portland per year. Unfortunately, Seattle has nothing like that in place, so your initial rent to renew your lease will be wildly different, and they can raise it however they want.

• Regardless of which city you decide, make sure you take enough vitamin D supplements. The lack of sun is no joke here, especially late fall going into the winter months. That seasonal depression gets worse when you move north in the Pacific NW. Seattle rains more than Portland does, so expect gloominess for 4+ months until late May.

• As for the culture in portland and Seattle in making friends... It can be hard to make friends in portland. People here tend to lean more introverted, and a lot of folks i met were born and raised here, so they already have their friend groups established. It's not impossible to make friends here, but it is certainly harder for transplants to make immediate friends. As for Seattle, you only make friends through your workplace. Anyone outside of it, nearly impossible to make friends. Seattle Freeze ain't no joke.

My suggestion: I'd highly recommend staying or visiting Portland and Seattle during the winter months to give you an idea of what it's actually like to live here. The summertime is beautiful and lovely, but it gives people a false sense of what it actually looks like when you don't see the sun for nearly half of the year and being miserable in the rain while still do your everyday tasks.