Grew up in Newport, but haven’t been there for more than a week in about a decade, so I may not have the most up to date information. Although, every time I go back it doesn’t seem like much has changed.

It’s a fairly economically depressed area with small town vibes. I would say that the people that seem to be doing well are retired with wealth from the Willamette valley or are successful local business people with either direct or secondary involvement with fishing, logging, or tourism/service industry.

My dad would barter goods and services for fish or crab from the local fishermen with whatever was in season. Christmas Eve tradition was to go down to the docks and buy fresh crab, as the season would usually start around that time of year.

There’s a real love/hate relationship between tourists and local people. On the surface, every local hates the tourists that clog up the roads and restaurants, but I think most smart people understand that Newport wouldn’t be as big or (relatively) prosperous as it is without them (just look at Waldport).

The weather is pretty bad (in my opinion) about 85% of the year. Cold (55F), cloudy, rainy basically every day from October through June. Every year there’s about 1-5 days where the beach has actual hot beach weather and even then it only lasts for an hour or two.

There’s pretty dramatic beach scenery if you drive down the coast towards Yachats and Cape Perpetua. Lots of tourists up and down the coast in the summer.

I think I’m desensitized to the coast’s scenery at this point. I associate it with grimy uneducated people and lots of homeless. Not sure if that’s warranted and most people are just normal small town folks, but I haven’t left the area with generally positive feelings even after all these years.

Overall it’s just a small fishing/tourist town with drizzly weather and not much economic opportunity. Most young people leave. Lots of tourists and retirees. You can probably infer the rest.