I wanted to invite everyone to come join Cheryl and I in Portland, Oregon. We have found it extremely difficult to find suitable housing in San Diego, a city we both love and hate. We grew up here too, we both have family here, we both have jobs and friends here. We can find new jobs, we can make new friends, but honestly the entire thing would suck if we left all of you guys behind.

With the projected future of San Diego, along with most of California, few if any of us will be able to afford a life here. We work to the bone to pay our rent/mortgage, we live next door to homophobic hippy baby-boomers who have children in college and fear going to Hillcrest, we live in a city where police are notorious for killing people, we live in a city where everyone is getting very very old, where young people are moving to Temecula, Hemet, or Arizona to start a family. We live in a place with the highest gasoline prices, electricity costs, water costs, state tax, sales tax, and most importantly cigarette tax. We live in a place where our ocean is constantly polluted from rivers and poor sanitation, our air is filled with smog from LA, Tijuana, and San Diego combined, and these problems made worse by the recent fires that swept through the few areas of town where we would ever afford housing.

Cheryl and I, with our full time jobs and masters in our fields, can afford a $350,000 home. The median house price in SD is $450,000. The market shows no sign of slowing down in the next few years either. We can afford a 2BR condo in a decent area (Penesquitos, Poway), but not a house. After looking in Portland, Cheryl and I could afford a big house in one of the nicest areas of town. So could you.

Portland has a population of 500k in the city and 1.5 million in the outskirts. It's not that much smaller than SD. It rains more. It's colder. The ocean is colder and further away. It's not as nice as San Diego. Few places are. I know we all have an attachment to this city and leaving it won't be easy. All I ask is that you think about joining us and check it out.