Outer Southeast (Clackamas you mentioned) and Vancouver, WA are bad ideas for someone who works downtown. The commute is just too long.
I live in Tualatin ... took me only 20 minutes to get downtown from my door to SW 2nd this morning leaving at 7:45. I'll add the Bethany area as a great place, too. Take Barnes Rd to downtown and it's an easy commute.
Jesuit has an excellent reputation. And if you send your kids there, you have more options for housing that is closer to downtown: Hillsdale, Multnomah Village, Southwest, Raliegh Hills, and more. With all these posts, I think we just confused the crap out of this guy with a whole bunch of conflicting advice. "Portland public schools are fine" "Portland public schools should be avoided" "Look at X" 45+ minute rush hour commute to downtown.
One thing about Lake O is that while the schools are good, they're also closing at least one elementary school for next year, which means the potential for overcrowding at the other schools. They haven't cut funding for stuff like TAG, though, so they keep their excellent rating. They're advertising/mailing TAG parents in our school district to send our kids to Lake O for only $5500/year. While that may sound like a lot, for the actual TAG education your kids get, it's a pretty good deal, and my wife and I are considering it for our oldest once she hits 6th grade.
Lakeridge = ghetto azz ghetto. all i remember about lake oswego is that's where all the hot rich white chicks were at in high school. :MARIS61:
If you don't like the idea of cookie cutter kind of houses, SW portland has cool 70s houses with nice gardens and shit like that. but then again, its not the best place to walk around at night (mainly due to the way the roads are, not the neighborhoods themselves). old school!
yeah, but then you can't get a lapdance at those 24 hour strip clubs on canyon. :MARIS61: actually that's the way i usually take. well, usually Scholls ferry to 217.
here, its right between murray hill and bull mountain area. New Seasons is a kickass grocery state of the art movie theatre Big Al's for gigantic big screen to watch games.... safe neighborhoods http://www.gramor.com/locations/progress_ridge_townsquare/features other good area in Tualatin is near Bridgeport Village.
Progress Ridge wins for Big Al's and Cinetopia, but loses because it takes 20 minutes just to get to 217 if you're going downtown. We're hitting Cinetopia on Friday night for That's My Dad. Love that theater.
West Linn, Clackamas, Tualatin and Sherwood are too far? A lot of people who live there work in downtown Portland. This isn't LA where it takes forever to get around.
15 with heavy traffic. 5 min without any traffic. 20 minutes to get to 26 taking Murray road all the way down.
26 inbound sucks, though. Our first house after college was off of 149th and Murray. My wife worked downtown then and just took the Max from one of the Park and Rides just north of Canyon.
Tualatin is the best suburb of Portland! Very well rounded, not too big, lots of parks, stores and restaurants. Easy interstate access, only 20 minutes to downtown. Lots of houses for sale right now between 200k and 300k. Very nice schools.
Both wrong: When I lived in Murray Hill, Murray Blvd was under construction for part of the time and was a disaster. And even still, it takes you somewhat in the wrong direction and then dumps you on Highway 26 into very heavy traffic. As I said before, the highways (217 & 26) were worthless during morning peak rush hour. And Allen is slow with school zones, low speed limit and red light cameras everwhere. The route was: Get to Brockman/Greenway to Hall Blvd, cut through a neighborhood street to Denny Rd. Get on 217. and exit at Canyon Road. If 217 stopped, stay on Denny to Scholls Ferry.
I do take that way too. Usually take Sorrento Road instead of Greenway, hate that left turn by the albertsons. I actually sometimes exit 217 at walker road then turn right and get dumped out by the plaid pantry on canyon.
E.Vancouver/Camas. Great schools without the severe $$ issues that face most of the Portland area schools. Lots of new business developement in the E.Vancouver area that fills up fast. Resteraunts, grocery, retail, etc. etc.
