What Would You Endure for a Rose City Room?

If you want to move to Portland, the question to ask yourself is no longer "how should I do it?" but instead, "what am I willing to go through to do it?"

From soaring rental prices to a strangely xenophobic internet culture which can make social connections difficult, moving to Portland is harder now than it's been since you had to waterproof the old Conestoga and float the Dalles.

One prospective Portlander, 23-year-old Austinite Andrew Krogsund, was faced with this reality when his "Room Wanted" Craigslist post was answered by a magnanimous but misguided Portlander:

Krogsund agreed to send us these screenshots of the conversation, but blurred out the responder's name before doing so. He felt he was probably just dealing with a tech-illiterate Boomer who's trying to keep it real in regards to what someone could expect from the offered housing situation.

The reality, however, is that a person who wants to move to Portland can no longer afford to turn their nose up at sub-optimal rental situations.

Krogsund talked to me via email about his time negotiating Portland's rental environment.

Willamette Week: Where are you from? What brings you to Portland?

Krogsund: Originally from the DC area, but I've been in Austin since I was 13 so I call this city home. I'm a Technician with Mazda, [but I'm] really just looking for a change. Moving to a city full of human beings that I've never met sounds exciting.

The last half of the message features the words "punishment," "discipline," and "behave," which are all common buzzwords in the BDSM community. Is having a Dominant/Top landlord on your list of "must haves" for a rental?

There's a joke in here somewhere about ruling with an iron fist.

When you dreamed of moving to Portland, did you imagine your landlord-mandated chores would be with or without punishment?

When I dreamed of being an adult, I dreamed of never having <insert authority figure here>-mandated chores ever again in my entire life.

Do you think your dog Ovie would "freak out" due to the volume at which Fox News (Fair & Balanced) would likely be blasting in the house 24 hours a day?

I adopted her 3 years ago, that dog has heard and seen things. She's not down with homophobic or racist rhetoric, though.

Do you interpret the final line, the punctuation-less "Up to you," as some sort of ominous challenge to your Millennial cajones or as a sincere warning that this might not be the place for you?

I interpreted that as the guy trying to make it seem like he was throwing the ball in my court. "I see through your games here, bud, and you're not fooling anybody," kind of thing.

What was your response to the ad?

"Lol gotcha." He's probably an alright guy in any normal circumstance. He mentioned that they "have had very bad experiences" with young people before, so maybe he had a heroin addict squatting his place at some point or something.

How has the search for a room been going in general/how does it compare to Austin?

It's been alright, people are flaky, and trying to convince flaky people that I'm a decent guy and that my 75lb pitbull really IS the sweetest pup ever and won't kill your cat or dog or whatever [while being] 2k miles away is pretty tough.

Searching for a place to live in Austin sucks a lot of ass, we have just as many (I think more, actually?) Californians and recent college graduates moving into the city as you guys do. Thankfully, the high majority of them are pretty cool. But showing up to a house to look at the place and talk with the landlord only to find that they've set you up to "interview" with 9 other "prospects" feels like some Battle Royale type shit and it's a little unnerving.

Welcome to Portland! Regardless of what any punks in the comments section might say, we're always glad to have new faces in town.

Willamette Week