Japanese Garden - Portland

The Japanese Garden is just one of the many beautiful gardens and parks in Portland, City of Roses. This garden is located in Washington Park, as is the Rose Test Garden. There is a small fee to enter the Japanese Garden, but it is well worth it. It is a work of art, in every detail. This, combined with its setting amid giant fir trees, makes it a welcome oasis close-in to an urban area.

The hardest thing to capture in these pictures is the quality of the light. Since it is filtering through the large trees above, even on a sunny day everything is bathed in a green glow.

There is a path through the garden, and every bend has another pond, a waterfall, a pathway made of carefully laid stone, a bridge. There are also many places to sit and rest, or meditate on the beauty.

There are traditional Japanese gardens, such as this flat garden, or the rock and sand garden. A brochure provided at the entry explains each major section of the garden, or you can take one of several guided tours conducted each day.

If we move to Portland, and there is a house we've found that we are seriously considering, I plan on buying an annual pass to the Japanese Garden. I could see spending many hours here.

Portland: Model Evaluation

It's time to get back to the real reason for this trip, and that is to find a new place to live (and to develop the software that helps people evaluate good places to live). We've seen lots of good scenery, but it's been a long time since we were in a truly viable location for us. Now we have one to consider - Portland.

The model for Portland has some missing data. First let's start with what we know: accessibility is great -- good airport, good hospitals; quality of life is great -- walkable neighborhoods, affordable housing, great views and scenery; climate is good -- mild winters, nice summers, and only 1% less sunshine than Hudson, despite the rumors to the contrary. Work opportunities is a mixed picture: high unemployment and not many fulltime work opportunities, but a great Microsoft network here and good freelance opportunities, so that works for us. The unresolved issue is affordability.

We've looked at housing and we know that now, with the reduction in prices taking place, that we can afford a nice place to live within our budget. The published COL numbers say Portland is 2% higher than Hudson, but that is largely driven by the (old) housing prices. Back those out, and it is no more expensive than Hudson. There is no sales tax here, and property taxes, while high, are not as high as Hudson (which is unfortunately almost in a class by itself - 2% of appraised value). The unknown is availability and cost of health insurance. Oregon is a complicated state on health insurance and you can't get quotes over the internet. I have calls out to people to get some answers, but they've all gone for Memorial Day weekend, I guess.

So, the current model looks like this:

Portland OR (Decision)

• ○This town is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : This town has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town has moderate winters.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : This town has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●True
• ○OR [2 of 2] : This town has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ○AND [2 of 5] : This town has an affordable cost of living.
• ○AND [1 of 4] : This town has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●AND [2 of 4] : This town has lower taxes than my current home town.
• ●True
• ○AND [3 of 4] : This town has a lower cost of living index than my current home town.
• ○Undecided
• ●AND [4 of 4] : This town has good housing for less than my maximum house budget.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 5] : This town has good work opportunities.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : This town has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : This town has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 5] : This town provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : This town has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 2] : This town has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ○OR [1 of 3] : This town has a high quality university.
• ●OR [2 of 3] : This town has cultural diversity.
• ●True
• ●OR [3 of 3] : This town has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●True
• ●AND [5 of 5] : This town has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True

Hopefully, I will learn that health insurance is available and affordable. If so, Portland will be our strongest candidate so far.

Austin Highlights

We really enjoyed our visit to Austin! As capitol of Texas, it has some truly impressive government buildings, the most beautiful being the Capitol Building. Built of pink granite, it is taller than the U.S. Capitol, and overall it is the largest state capitol building in the United States.

I have many nice pictures of the inside and outside of the building, but my favorite is this inside shot of the dome:

Several blocks from the capitol lies the University of Texas. At 48,000 students, it is almost as large as Ohio State, where our son goes to school. Its main building and this statue of George Washington are perfectly aligned with the Capitol Dome:

The grounds of the university are very nice, and include this impressive fountain. I've seen this motif of horses rising out of the water somewhere else - Versailles? Yes! (I just googled it...)

Our accommodations in Austin are really fantastic! We are staying in the heart of downtown at the historic Driskill hotel. Normally we couldn't afford to stay here, but on our way into town I was able to negotiate a really great rate. One of the benefits of traveling right now is that the travel industry is really hurting, and if you deal with independent organizations instead of large chains, you can get some pretty good deals. The Driskill is really a wonderful place, and the people are even more wonderful. Best service we've received on the trip. This is what the lobby looks like:

This is one shot of the lounge; notice the ceiling! The hotel is full of impressive stained glass, leaded glass, marble and real oil paintings. Each floor has bookcases and tables with books and collectibles that are actually NOT glued down (are you listening, Disney?), and every guest room is a work of art and a step back in time.

All and all, we've been impressed with how nice Texans are. Also, our drive into hill country around Austin showed us scenery we never expected in the heart of Texas: rolling hills, lots of greenery and trees, and lakes. Austin is officially on our list of potential new homes.

Austin TX: Model Evaluation

Austin passes our test, and passes it more convincingly than Dallas. Whereas I had to bend the rules a little to pass Dallas on cost of living, Austin is genuinely 4.5% lower than Cleveland OH - 9% lower than Dallas.

Though Austin is smaller than Dallas, it is a better city for technology, and therefore a better city for us. Indeed, Austin was picked as the #1 tech city by insidetech.com; Dallas was #9.

Austin also wins on quality of life: it is the Live Music Capital of the World (or so they claim), and seeing how we are here with our musical instruments, you can guess that this is important to us. It also has beautiful scenery -- the hill country, with its 6 lakes, surpasses any scenery available in Dallas.

The complete Austin model looks like this:

Austin TX (Decision)

• ●Austin TX is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : Austin TX has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX has moderate winters.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Austin TX has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : Austin TX has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Austin TX has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 5] : Austin TX has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : Austin TX has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 4] : Austin TX has lower taxes than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 4] : Austin TX has a lower cost of living index than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 4] : Austin TX has good housing for less than $800,000.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 5] : Austin TX has good work opportunities.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : Austin TX has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Austin TX has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 5] : Austin TX provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Austin TX has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Austin TX has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Austin TX can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 3] : Austin TX has a high quality university.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 3] : Austin TX has cultural diversity.
• ●True
• ●OR [3 of 3] : Austin TX has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●True
• ●AND [5 of 5] : Austin TX has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Austin TX is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Austin TX is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True

Dallas Highlights

Our friends in Dallas took great care of us, putting us up in their wonderful house, feeding us good food, and driving us around to see the many lovely Dallas neighborhoods. In between neighborhood 'shopping', we stopped by South Fork, the ranch where the TV show 'Dallas' took place. This Brahmin cow was standing in a nearby field:


The actual ranch was pretty unimpressive, but it had a nice gate:

The ranch house looked like it did on TV, only smaller. Could JR really have lived in such a modest place?

One of our favorite small towns, which also happens to be in Money Magazine's Top 10 Places to live, is McKinney. It is northeast of Dallas, and has its own quaint downtown square:

We saw many neighborhoods, in McKinney, in Heath/Rockwall where our friends live, and in Dallas proper that were both affordable and very pretty places to live. This, combined with our model evaluation, make Dallas a real possibility as our next home.

Dallas: Model Evaluation

Dallas is the first location to actually pass our model's criteria, though it is a close call on our cost of living requirement. According to the site I've been using for the cost of living numbers (http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/layouthtmls/coll_metrodetail_93.html), Dallas is 4% more expensive than Cleveland. But we live in Hudson, which is more expensive than Cleveland but is not available for the cost of living comparison. I also know from other parts of the model that housing is less expensive, as are taxes. Based on this, I said Dallas passed the requirement, but ultimately I may need to redesign the model. Given Ohio has a relatively low cost of living, it may be unrealistic to expect our new home to be even lower - perhaps being within 5% is good enough.

The whole Dallas model looks like this:

Dallas (Decision)

• ●This town is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : This town has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town has moderate winters.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : This town has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : This town has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 5] : This town has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : This town has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 4] : This town has lower taxes than my current home town.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 4] : This town has a lower cost of living index than my current home town.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 4] : This town has good housing for less than my maximum house budget.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 5] : This town has good work opportunities.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : This town has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : This town has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 5] : This town provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : This town has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ○AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : This town has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 3] : This town has a high quality university.
• ●True
• ○OR [2 of 3] : This town has cultural diversity.
• ●OR [3 of 3] : This town has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●False
• ●AND [5 of 5] : This town has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True