Central Oregon

[Irulan]

All the moved from CA and trying to "outdoorsy" ya know. Like the
sparklingly clean Audi I saw the the other day with an equally sparkly Santa
Cruz Blur you just know was a status symbol of sorts.

Smurfalicious, I moved up to the PNW from CA 14 years ago, and keep my $3K
bike (puchased used) relatively clean on either a usually washed 2001(purchased used) or 95 vehicle (purchased used) .

I am fully aware of the
socio-economical situation and boom cycle in Central OR at the moment with
all the social and economic divisions, growth problems, traffic and more.

I got slammed for being from CA back then, and all I can say, is don't lump
everyone into one box. We groveled to my inlaws for help w/ a down payment
on a rundown shack in a bad neighborhood ( think guns and motorcycles) down in CA, and lived paycheck to paycheck. We came up here for
a lot of reasons including quality of life adn outdoors opportunities, and had to take out a mortgage like everyone else, for an average priced home in an average neighborhood. I made a point of
adjusting my attitude to what existed in the community. The
branch office my husband opened for his employer created 10 above minimum wage and professional level jobs in our community.
We are not refugees from the silicon valley, we are not dotcom millionaires,
just a couple of regular folks whose parents happened to choose CA before we were born to raise their families.

Sure, there are "ugly" people everywhere... zooming around in fancy cars, disregard for the community as it exists now, building big ugly fences and
monster homes, and always in a hurry, unable to leave their big city ways
behind, and unwilling to intergrate into the community as it exists.

Us and Them is a tricky place to be; you may have to move someday
and be on the other side.

regards,

Irulan