Warning to the mongol hordes

Portland is growing way too fast and the unbridled growth is causing many problems including making it difficult (and expensive) to find housing.  I blame the growth on Portlandia and the New York Times for presenting  a false view of life in Portland. 

It took a young couple six months to find a house to rent.  They are just the kind of people anyone would want to rent to.... responsible trustworthy people with excellent jobs making good money.   Furthermore the young man is very rooted in this community.  By that I mean he grew up here in a well liked, trustworthy and social family making him is well-connected in the community... he had that HUGE advantage going for him.  Still it took six months to find a house to rent.

The house they found was infested with rats.   Rats are pretty common in Portland and with all the sewer work they have been more problematic in recent years.  But this house had them in the basement, which is not all that common.   Even a rat infested house was so hard to come by that they stayed in the house for a year, trying to eradicate the rats.   They never beat the rat problem.

Still want to move to Portland?