I'm feeling a bit stifled in my city and want to move. My priorities are $1500-2000/mo rent and a path to an affordable house (see: picture), a unionised city workforce, good greenspace with an extensive parks system, good biking infrastructure, a good public university, and a good political scene. That leaves Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, and maybe an East Coast city I haven't researched yet. Of those, Portland is at the top of my list because I'm getting an ocean for Great Lakes prices.
What's bad about the city that makes people move away? Is there a better option in Oregon, especially one that would let me commute into Portland without whatever problems it has?
Willamette is safe to swim in except for during very heavy rains when the mixed sewer system gets full and sewage will go into the river (only happens once or twice a year, and only during the winter, when you probably don't want to be swimming anyway) and during algal blooms when it's very warm out (a capitalist created basically an algae breeding ground and has been ordered by the state to fix it, but is slow walking it obviously).
There's a public swimming dock on the river. It gets really popular on the days over 90. This past summer there were organized group bike rides every Wednesday to go swim at the river.