Welcome to the Big Ten!

[StevensTechU]

From someone who has lived his entire life in the Portland metropolitan , avoid anything in downtown Portland.

Your current itinerary sounds pretty great.

From someone who lives in Portland, go downtown if you want to. No reason to avoid it, and if you're a foodie, you've got some amazing options in Portland. Portland restaurants won 3 James Beard awards this year (suck it, SF with your zero). If you and your wife are beer people, welcome to the garden of Eden.

[OregonFan4Life]

I’m a conservative and the hate for Portland does seem a little excessive. Yeah there are parts, mainly the east side of downtown if I remember correctly, that are rough. But there’s some fantastic food and cool places to check out, I especially enjoyed the Pearl District back when I briefly lived in Portland. Can someone who lives in Portland tell me if Fresh Roll is still in downtown? I loved that place, awesome Vietnamese food.

[StevensTechU]

I’m a conservative and the hate for Portland does seem a little excessive. Yeah there are parts, mainly the east side of downtown if I remember correctly, that are rough. But there’s some fantastic food and cool places to check out, I especially enjoyed the Pearl District back when I briefly lived in Portland. Can someone who lives in Portland tell me if Fresh Roll is still in downtown? I loved that place, awesome Vietnamese food.

I'm not familiar with Fresh Roll, unless you mean Rollin Fresh, but that's a sushi place. RF is still around and has a few locations, but there're better sushi burritos around. Portland's Asian food (Viet, Thai, Japanese) are very solid. Pizza is consistently ranked as 1st-3rd best in the country. Steak, burgers, and BBQ are both underappreciated (especially if you're willing to try BBQ fusion, like Eem, Podnah's, or Matt's BBQ Tacos) in my opinion. Mexican and South American food has some good selections around, too. Then you've got the experimental stuff, like Salt n' Straw's ice cream, Blue Star Donuts, and a bunch of fusion restaurants (I had Russian-Peruvian a couple months ago at a food cart and gawt-damn).

I appreciate the general humility of quoted post. As someone who lives in the city, it's more than bizarre when people try to educate me on the place I live. As a visitor, there isn't much in the way of attractions, but as I said, the food and beer scenes punch way above their weight class for a city of its size. And no, it's not unsafe, just more graffiti and people living in tents than you'll see in the midwest and east coast cities (but also far fewer crack houses, since I just drove through Detroit last weekend).

[Zyme]

Born in raised in PDX here. Like others have said with the food (top shelf Korean at Koreana and around the pearl/slabtown great foodie options), but if you do one thing in Portland I would recommend the Japanese gardens. Its a top ten in the world Japanese garden. Its right across form the Rose test garden and near the zoo and the Hoyt Arboretum (a great hiking area up in the west hills)

[Phalanx]

Portland: It's better than Detroit.

My son had his car stolen three times in a six month period in Portland. Stores are closing because of rampant thievery. Driving up the main interstate highway on the east side of town is like driving through a homeless camp. Other than that, it's great. By all means, check out the food. Just hopefully have your vehicle within eyesight while you eat.

[UOducksTK1]

Portland: It's better than Detroit.

My son had his car stolen three times in a six month period in Portland. Stores are closing because of rampant thievery. Driving up the main interstate highway on the east side of town is like driving through a homeless camp. Other than that, it's great. By all means, check out the food. Just hopefully have your vehicle within eyesight while you eat.

This^ If I got a dollar from every friend / acquaintance that experienced crime downtown (particularly the last 5 years or so), it would cover all the monthly fees for this website!

There are hundreds of things to do and see in Oregon that are far greater than downtown, and you can do it with a crime-free experience!

[StevensTechU]

Portland: It's better than Detroit.

My son had his car stolen three times in a six month period in Portland. Stores are closing because of rampant thievery. Driving up the main interstate highway on the east side of town is like driving through a homeless camp. Other than that, it's great. By all means, check out the food. Just hopefully have your vehicle within eyesight while you eat.

This^ If I got a dollar from every friend / acquaintance that experienced crime downtown (particularly the last 5 years or so), it would cover all the monthly fees for this website!

There are hundreds of things to do and see in Oregon that are far greater than downtown, and you can do it with a crime-free experience!

Person who lives there or people who have a story about an acquaintance from 5 years ago. Who to trust!

[duck92]

What is the over and under, on how many people stop coming to this site, because of another thread becoming a Fox News debate?

[StevensTechU]

What is the over and under, on how many people stop coming to this site, because of another thread becoming a Fox News debate?

At least 1.

[UOducksTK1]

Yeah good point, I will censor this thread instead of letting people have differing opinions of where to visit.

Best of luck, Sparty! Let us know if you have any more questions (But seriously avoid Portland, you can thank me via PM later ).