Hillsboro, Oregon

I currently live in Hillsboro, Oregon; moving here not for some particular love of the town but because my work brought me here. But it has grown on me and I want to tell you about it.

Intel Corporation is Oregon's 3rd largest employer and the high-technology industry is in the driver's seat of Oregon's economy.  So much so that, recently, when high-tech fell on hard-times, Oregon suffered major tax income losses and cut back on basic services such as support for the elderly and disabled and childhood education.  Hillsboro is home to Intel Corporation in Oregon, with several office locations spread throughout the Tualatin Valley. As a result, many of Intel's major suppliers, customers, and even competitors have a presence here.  It is one of the reasons that this area is known among locals as the Silicon Forest.

To understand this area is to turn the clock back about a century.  Hillsboro was the hub of a wide farming and timber community that supplied the growing city of Portland with food, materials, and -- even 100 years ago -- commuter employees.  Before cars, heavy rail and steamboats provided transportation. Then came electric rail, and then the automobile.  In the 1930s, the Oregon Electric rail died with the paving of roads into Portland, only to return in the 1990s at Tri-Met to relieve traffic congestion and prevent pollution. Our two major highways, OR-8 (Tualatin Valley Highway) and US-26 (Sunset Highway), arrived on the scene in the 1940s. 

Roadway improvements since then have been piecemeal, as environmentalists battle against the popular automobile in favor of more environmentally-friendly modes of transportation.  As a result, traffic congestion is one the area's major problems and is one of the negative things I have to tell people about this area.  Freeway traffic jams during even non-peak hours are frequent and frustrating.  The lack of long-term forward planning and execution means that there are too many uncoordinated traffic control devices stopping traffic too frequently.  Mass-transit often interferes with traffic flow as much as it helps it, and is heavily subsidized by gasoline tax which many drivers think should go to roadway improvements.

You can hardly talk about this part of Oregon without mentioning the weather.  Hillsboro receives just over a yard of precipitation a year (about 1 meter), almost all of it falling in the form of light rain.  While it is not uncommon for a little snow to fall once or twice in the winter, it is also not uncommon for an entire winter to pass without any snowfall at all.  In a usual winter, the rain is mostly steady and light and the skies are cloudy all day.  Hillsboro's northern latitude means that in the depth of winter, there is less than 8 hours of sunlight each day. 

The combination of grey skies and lack of daylight can be depressing, however Oregonians are very warm and welcoming people -- the many friends and indoor activities help make up for it.  Arriving in Oregon in the fall of 1995, I quickly became involved in the local community college and a men's barbershop chorus.  It helped me avoid the seasonal depression that some people feel.

The temperature is the good news.  The winters are cool but are usually not harsh and the summers are warm but rarely overwhelming.  With a prevailing west wind and our proximity to the Pacific Ocean, our temperatures usually remain seasonally mild and the air comfortably moist and clean. 

As a boy, I grew up in the oppressive heat of the southern deserts of Arizona.  I find the winter temperatures here quite nice (despite the rain).  Between mid-June through September, you can almost count on great weather and plan to be outside.  In fact, planning indoor activities during these months is risky as people tend to find something outside to do when the weather is nice.

And when you can get out, it is a beautiful area.  The city itself offers a wide array of attractions and events, such as the Farmer's Market, the county fair, and a July 4th parade and fireworks.  Just outside the city are scenic drives past family farms and wineries,  wonderful forests, and all that the nearby city of Portland and its summer-long Rose Festival has to offer.  But we are also just an hour away from either a snowy permanent glacier on Mount Hood, waterfalls along the Columbia, or the Pacific Ocean at Seaside. 

All this makes me wonder what I'm doing here typing this page!

One hundred years later, Hillsboro is still a hub for farmers, timber, and Portland-bound employees.  But wineries are now a major part of the agriculture business -- our climate means that Oregon wines rank among the finest of the world.  The timber business has changed radically due to (misguided, in my opinion) environmentalism.  And, perhaps most of all, the high-tech industry is now in the driver's seat of the local and state economy.  But none of that changes the beauty of this area!