I’d been thinking the same.. A daughter just spend her ‘winter week’ there, attempting to determine if she’d like to make it permanent. Locals made her feel welcome, but then she’d done her homework, and was easy on their eyes..

Is Flagstaff is technically secular in mindset.

Ya beat me to it - my home town! ..no wonder

Though on a very serious note, I’m no longer ‘there’ due to the pending subduction zone quake, so can not advise others to head there, or the entire PNW for that matter..

@Varn I am aware of the possible quake. About a one third chnace it will happen in my lifetime. However, beign as I live inland about 60 miles and here is a mountain range between men and the coast, I am not too concerned about it. I am originally from Los Angeles. Earthquakes are not a big deal to me. In the Northridge quake i was bouncing off my mattress about six inches. The truth is a major quake can happen virtually anywhere.

I was priced out of my apartment in Portland tho8ugh and now live with my sister in Battle Ground, WA, just north of Vancouver. I hope to get back in Portlad again. I miss good public transit.

@snytiger6 I was gonna mention the cost of living, astronomical! Believe me, I researched the subduction zone quake to death ..before moving away because of it. Gettin a bit rusty on ‘the facts,’ but the latest info I found was that it occurs from every 300 to 350 years (not the 500 once thought); we’re now 319 from the last break..

Says it’s going to make the LA & San Fran quakes appear tiny in comparison, ‘slip strike’ as opposed to ‘subduction,’ instantly becoming ‘the most costly disaster in US history.’ The tremendous and extended shaking will cause far more damage than any sunami. In fact, fear of the Portland Metro area flooding from the backed up Columbia River is rarely mentioned, let alone any one of it’s dams failing..

It makes me ill, but I’ll forever have family there. Actually, I’m in Appalachia in large part due to a ‘google search’ of most geologically stable places in continental US. The background paranoia I no longer experience, as when driving over a Willamette River bridge or a road to the coast ..is gone. Here, it’s solid, if fractured & eroded rock!

I get the draw to Portland.. I was born on Mt. Tabor ..and miss it to tears

@Varn I took a class in college about earthquakes and the professor was very adamant about not living in the PNW for that very reason. The potential for an 8-9 scale quake was too real to ignore. That same professor retired and moved to where I live in Alaska. A few years ago he discovered an equally deadly fault zone 20 miles from my home. I could have been drinking way better beer in Seattle and Portland this whole time with the same level of tectonic risk. To the original question, Anchorage is a pretty atheist tolerant city as is most of the state. Some pockets of religious nut jobs in Kenai and Wasilla but other than that we’re fine in a red state.

@Unimatrix907 The plate conversion out west is complex, CA’s got their ‘constantly active’ fault; Alaska’s got a convergence that’s extremely active, but both have far less energy stored than the Juan De Fuca Plate off shore from Mendocino CA to Vancouver BC…

A Portland Native (and Rockhound), I’d learned of this seismic threat along with those following it. Lot’s of new info.. There was a very recent study done offshore using the latest in undersea soundings ..for ‘oil deposit’ mapping. It was found that the highest compression along the entire subduction line was offshore from Portland… Made me ill.. I’ve two daughters between there and the coast

Thanks to The New Yorker Magazine having run a detailed piece on the pending PNW disaster, I’m impressed people ‘over east’ are as aware as they’ve been. One woman bluntly put it, “So,” “It’s not a matter of if - but when.” I agreed, and have suggested family & friends sell now, while prices are inflated, and move away ~

@Unimatrix907 The Southern edge of Alaska is fyll of vault lines and volcanoes. At least the PNW subduction fault only shifts about every 200 years or so. In Alaska earthquakes are actually m,roe common. Still, I cna understand movign there as the pay is generally higher and the cost of lving is generally lower.

Of all the States in teh union I thin kAlaska would have the highest pregmatism in making it a vote by mail state, liek Oregon and Washington (and I think now Colorado as well) That would make for more progressives voting and make the sate a little less red.

@Varn Mt Tabor, has pretty much over the last few years had all it large lots subdivided to buidl jmroe houses. Thee is actually contruction all over Portland to build more housing because peopel are fleeing L.A., the Bay Area and othe rplaces where the cost of living was really high. That, in part helped draw me to the area. However, now the cost of living is like it was in Los Angeles when I left 8 years ago, as the high demand has really raised the costs of housing. At least Portland still has better public transit.

I moved to the areqa because my rent dropped 35%, they had better public transit and it was much closer to the sister i am closest to. After movign to the area, I also was pleasantly surprised about the nude beaches (as I was already nudist before coming to the area), and relatively close nudist clubs/resorts. I've done the Portland World Naked Bike Ride several times. And the wide variety of craft beers is wonderful too. There are lots of local hiking groups on metup.com, and so I am jus tlovign the area. Although I'd liek to move back to Portland itself again.