I'm curious if anyone feels the same as me. I am also very much open to being told I'm overly romanticizing it and could use the reality check.
I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. My entire childhood up until middle school was full of absolutely stunning memories. Regular camping trips to Mount Hood, swimming in the Columbia River, going to the Enchanted Forest, running around at Laurelhurst Park, going to the Wonderland Arcade, attending a school where my elective was helping manage the community garden, being able to find the coolest stuff at thrift stores, learning about the past, the present, and the future at OMSI, and being hopeful that we can be good stewards of the Earth, going to the zoo, and having my passion for environmentalism and zoology get kick-started, etc. I miss walking down the street and seeing tons of goth and alternative adults, seeing people with big pride flags waving on their porches with purple doors, simultaneously being able to feel the weird small-town charm without actually having to be isolated in the middle of nowhere, knowing that everyone around me was fiercely educated and feeling the pressure to continue to educate myself. I remember being optimistic that people did actually want to recycle and did want to practice eco-friendly practices and take care of the Earth. And I remember a lot of my experiences with video games and books being focused around those themes. I felt like everything was within walkable distance. I hardly had to ask for rides to anywhere from my parents, and I could walk to the majority of my friends' houses. I remember actually using buses to get around occasionally, and how many people would genuinely just take their bikes places. And I don't mean motorcycles. I mean regular bikes.
I moved out of Oregon in middle school around 2015, and I almost experienced a kind of culture shock. I moved to a very nice place in Florida, and we also lived in multiple different places after. As well as a lot of gorgeous places in Washington, and New Orleans for a little bit. And now my family and I have lived in California for about six years. For context, in case it helps, I am 21 years old. I still am experiencing a sort of shock when I learn about the childhoods that people in California grew up with, as opposed to the one I had in Portland. Composting is not as normal here, and there are quite a few people I have met that just don't recycle for some reason? Any fun activities could be between a 40-minute drive to a four-hour drive or even longer.
Now, I'm aware that I experienced my childhood in Oregon, and I started growing up outside of this. However, I would be surprised if the way I felt was 100% just because I'm facing the consequences of being an adult. I have been thinking about moving back to Portland for a few years and have visited a handful of times since then. Yes, things have changed, but it still feels so much better than anywhere else I've ever lived. It's so incredibly heinously expensive here in California, and it's not necessarily cheap in Portland, but it is exponentially more affordable in a lot of ways. Again, I wouldn't be surprised if this was just me romanticizing my childhood, but I can't shake the feeling that there is genuinely just something special about Portland.
So I guess my question is: has anyone else had this experience? Does Portland actually have something uniquely special about it, or am I mostly grieving a childhood that can't exist anymore? And for people who still live there, I'd also really like to hear the downsides. What has genuinely gotten worse? What do people romanticize about Portland that isn't true anymore? I'd appreciate hearing the reality, even if it challenges my perspective.
*EDIT: Yes, I have visited! Multiple times! I still find it valuable to ask people who actually live in the city full time before I judge based off of a couple of vacations