Lewis & Clark 2010 Forum

[totebags]

So who was everybody? Was anyone in the Pink group?

lol. I was in the pink group. Now I am curious too.

Lavender group, represent!

The Thursday night thingy did not sell me on L&C, but I had a great time on Friday (some bits of the tour were questionable...).

Oooh, I did meet VeganSista--we geeked out about TLS!

[vegansistah]

So who was everybody? Was anyone in the Pink group?

lol. I was in the pink group. Now I am curious too.

Lavender group, represent!

The Thursday night thingy did not sell me on L&C, but I had a great time on Friday (some bits of the tour were questionable...).

Oooh, I did meet VeganSista--we geeked out about TLS!

LOL! We, along with some admitted TLS-lurkers, definitely geeked out about TLS!
Anyways, shouldn't be too hard to figure out who I was... Think of my username on this site... you got a 50/50 chance of getting it right, if you know what I mean.


Totebags: what did you find questionable about the tour? I loved everything about the school, but was surprised at how small the campus really was. Some of the staff have some REALLY small workspaces!

[ccs224]

So who was everybody? Was anyone in the Pink group?

lol. I was in the pink group. Now I am curious too.

I saw you then!

[pootie]

TLS lurker here. I was in lavender group B. No one I asked about TLS admitted to being a frequent poster, but I really only asked people about that on Thursday. Friday was information overload! I liked the campus and Portland. Only have a few weeks left to make up my mind/make a commitment...gulp.

[nonsequitur]

Definitely liked the law school. Totally sold on Portland. Just wondering why the law school has to be outside of Portland. Most of the current students I talked to do not live downtown. Some do, but they deal with the commute.

Lewis & Clark does have a shuttle that picks up at Pioneer Square downtown, but do I want to have to make that commute 5 days a week? If L&C law were downtown, I'd have already sent in my deposit. It's Portland that's keeping the school in the mix. Does the awesomeness of Portland make up for the remote/suburban location of the school?

How long does the commute take by car? Does anyone know?

Technically the law school is in Portland. If the law school was downtown it would still be a commuter school. PSU is downtown and is definitely considered a commuter school. Most people don't want to live downtown, they want to live in SE or elsewhere. Also, it would be an ugly school if it were downtown (in fact that's where it used to be). Once again, look at PSU.

Without traffic it takes about 10-15 minutes by car from downtown (that's if you are actually in downtown when you start).

I'll give you that the campus is beautiful in a secluded, foresty sort of way. I thought downtown Portland was extremely nice. It's about the cleanest big city I've ever seen. The Pearl district is really nice too, although probably prohibitively expensive. I think there's a reason the law school directed everyone to stay downtown rather than in the SE. I wish the law school would have done a better job a showing the SE, even just having the bus drive through areas where students live in the SE would have been great.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the SE is suburban rather than urban. Meaning you likely need a car to get around and you can't walk to bars and restaurants quite as easily as you can if you're downtown.

And I walked near PSU in the South Park Blocks along SW Park Ave. I though it looked like a great place to live near, but maybe that's just me. I wouldn't want to commute to there, though.

Just to clear up the geography, the law school is in SW. SE is the area across the river and a little north from the school. SW is completely suburban. You can find some of the cheapest places in SW. There aren't too many bars and restaurants until you get closer to South Waterfront and John's Landing.

SE is a really nice trendy area, but there's no direct way to get from there to the law school on public transit without going through downtown. That turns it into a really long commute.

The Pearl district is pretty expensive, most studio/1BR apartments run $700-1000/month. It's possible to find something cheaper, but not easy. For people who love to be close to downtown the NW district (Nob Hill, 23rd, Goose Hollow) has a few trendy old houses and apartments with reasonable rent. The MAX and trolley lines service all of those neighborhoods and can get you downtown in about 5 minutes. Walking takes maybe 10-15 minutes depending on the exact location. There's some affordable housing near PSU too, which works out to about the same commute to downtown and the school as near-in NW.

There is a shuttle that goes from Pioneer Square near Nordstroms to the law school and undergrad campus. You can find the schedule for that on the undergrad website.

[arundodonax]

How about downtown Lake Oswego? It seemed to have a nice small downtown feel and you could bike through Tryon (albeit uphill) to the law school.

Maybe Sellwood?

[KraftEZ]

tls lavender group b

[totebags]

tls lavender group b

That makes three of us in Lavender Group B. I was the sleepy chick with the permanent scowl on her face.


And VeganSistah, I'm not quite sure if I can articulate the questionable aspects of the tour, but when our guide mentioned "pod-cest," it elicited a major eyeroll for me. This is a law school, right?

[ccs224]

tls lavender group b

That makes three of us in Lavender Group B. I was the sleepy chick with the permanent scowl on her face.


And VeganSistah, I'm not quite sure if I can articulate the questionable aspects of the tour, but when our guide mentioned "pod-cest," it elicited a major eyeroll for me. This is a law school, right?

I got the same podcest comment in the pink group. I have to say, two of our four tour guides seemed pretty immature (and they were the loudest), but I was glad I stayed around to speak to the student organizations afterwards, some of which had very smart, with-it members.

[yellowfin]

Just to clear up the geography, the law school is in SW. SE is the area across the river and a little north from the school. SW is completely suburban. You can find some of the cheapest places in SW. There aren't too many bars and restaurants until you get closer to South Waterfront and John's Landing.

SE is a really nice trendy area, but there's no direct way to get from there to the law school on public transit without going through downtown. That turns it into a really long commute.

The Pearl district is pretty expensive, most studio/1BR apartments run $700-1000/month. It's possible to find something cheaper, but not easy. For people who love to be close to downtown the NW district (Nob Hill, 23rd, Goose Hollow) has a few trendy old houses and apartments with reasonable rent. The MAX and trolley lines service all of those neighborhoods and can get you downtown in about 5 minutes. Walking takes maybe 10-15 minutes depending on the exact location. There's some affordable housing near PSU too, which works out to about the same commute to downtown and the school as near-in NW.

There is a shuttle that goes from Pioneer Square near Nordstroms to the law school and undergrad campus. You can find the schedule for that on the undergrad website.

Thanks for the information! Very helpful. Now I have to make decisions about schools.... choices choices.

[pootie]

tls lavender group b

That makes three of us in Lavender Group B. I was the sleepy chick with the permanent scowl on her face.


And VeganSistah, I'm not quite sure if I can articulate the questionable aspects of the tour, but when our guide mentioned "pod-cest," it elicited a major eyeroll for me. This is a law school, right?

I think I know who you were! I was the girl with the green and white stripped sweater who didn't bring a jacket and was therefore very cold.

[bluetomato]

tls lavender group b

That makes three of us in Lavender Group B. I was the sleepy chick with the permanent scowl on her face.


And VeganSistah, I'm not quite sure if I can articulate the questionable aspects of the tour, but when our guide mentioned "pod-cest," it elicited a major eyeroll for me. This is a law school, right?

+1 I was in the same group and thought the "law school is like high school" comment was eye-roll worthy, but, in general I found our guides to be very nice and they seemed to give honest answers to any questions we had.

[jazzluvr]

I just found out that the Willamette River, formerly one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the country, now ranks among the top 30 most polluted waterways. Apparently Portland frequently has pollution alerts and people are warned to stay inside, because it rises into the air. People are also swimming in this, apparently. This is all secondhand and to be taken with three grains of salt. I haven't read enough about it yet to know details. The only good news is that the school is always suing polluters and often winning. Here's just one link among many I found:

--LinkRemoved--

[ccs224]

I just found out that the Willamette River, formerly one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the country, now ranks among the top 30 most polluted waterways. Apparently Portland frequently has pollution alerts and people are warned to stay inside, because it rises into the air. People are also swimming in this, apparently. This is all secondhand and to be taken with three grains of salt. I haven't read enough about it yet to know details. The only good news is that the school is always suing polluters and often winning. Here's just one link among many I found:

--LinkRemoved--

I didn't really believe this, but I just wiki'd the river and yes, it's a superfund site in Portland and filled with PCBs, pesticides and other junk. Walking around on Sunday, there were plenty of people out fishing on that river, which is kind of shocking now. However, that the river is highly polluted isn't too shocking, given Portland's history as an industrial city. It certainly can't be worse than the beautiful Newtown Creek, which winds through my neighborhood in Brooklyn. They once worried that not only was the waterway flammable, but the soil surrounding it was as well.

[KraftEZ]

I was the indian dude

[SamSeaborn2016]

I just found out that the Willamette River, formerly one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the country, now ranks among the top 30 most polluted waterways. Apparently Portland frequently has pollution alerts and people are warned to stay inside, because it rises into the air. People are also swimming in this, apparently. This is all secondhand and to be taken with three grains of salt. I haven't read enough about it yet to know details. The only good news is that the school is always suing polluters and often winning. Here's just one link among many I found:

--LinkRemoved--

I didn't really believe this, but I just wiki'd the river and yes, it's a superfund site in Portland and filled with PCBs, pesticides and other junk. Walking around on Sunday, there were plenty of people out fishing on that river, which is kind of shocking now. However, that the river is highly polluted isn't too shocking, given Portland's history as an industrial city. It certainly can't be worse than the beautiful Newtown Creek, which winds through my neighborhood in Brooklyn. They once worried that not only was the waterway flammable, but the soil surrounding it was as well.

Being a local, I'm not particularly surprised. North Portland (the area between Swan Island and Sauvie Island) is the basically Portland's dock region and has had lots of industry to effect the river. The upside is that there has been a lot done to clean it up and that most of Portland is upstream from the mess. Still, I'm hoping the people you saw fishing in the river were in the Southern part of town and not planning to eat the fish.

[S de Garmeaux]

I just found out that the Willamette River, formerly one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the country, now ranks among the top 30 most polluted waterways. Apparently Portland frequently has pollution alerts and people are warned to stay inside, because it rises into the air. People are also swimming in this, apparently. This is all secondhand and to be taken with three grains of salt. I haven't read enough about it yet to know details. The only good news is that the school is always suing polluters and often winning. Here's just one link among many I found:

I was told that this is usually only tourists that don't know any better

[eldizknee]

.

[SamSeaborn2016]

I don't know where the "pollution advisory" thing comes from but I can tell you I've lived in Oregon all my life and have lived in PDX for the past two years and I've never heard of this. Yes, the Willamette is polluted in PDX, and just as you wouldn't swim in the Hudson in NY, you wouldn't swim in the Willamette in PDX due to the cargo ships that come up the Columbia and the industrial area in North Portland. FWIW when I lived in Eugene we thought nothing of grabbing a six-pack and an inner-tube and spending a couple hours floating down the Willamette (it flows North to the Columbia which is the border of Oregon-Washington). If you want rivers to swim in there are about a million within a half hour drive of anywhere in the Portland Metro area and the Willamette is nothing to be concerned about. I've never had to "stay indoors" due to pollution in Portland and I'm betting you never will.

I've lived in the Portland area for 12 years and I have never seen a smog or pollution advisory. We get the allergy index/warnings just like everone else, though.

[hunkydory]

I called the admissions office recently about my app (went complete early Feb), and the very nice man said it would take 3 to 4 weeks for me to get a decision! I have seat deposits due April 1st, but admittance to Lewis and Clark would change everything. sigh. I guess I'll just suck it up, and send in a seat deposit just to be safe.

[jazzluvr]

I don't know where the "pollution advisory" thing comes from but I can tell you I've lived in Oregon all my life and have lived in PDX for the past two years and I've never heard of this. Yes, the Willamette is polluted in PDX, and just as you wouldn't swim in the Hudson in NY, you wouldn't swim in the Willamette in PDX due to the cargo ships that come up the Columbia and the industrial area in North Portland. FWIW when I lived in Eugene we thought nothing of grabbing a six-pack and an inner-tube and spending a couple hours floating down the Willamette (it flows North to the Columbia which is the border of Oregon-Washington). If you want rivers to swim in there are about a million within a half hour drive of anywhere in the Portland Metro area and the Willamette is nothing to be concerned about. I've never had to "stay indoors" due to pollution in Portland and I'm betting you never will.

Apparently not due to the usual local stuff. Main polluter apparently a Chinese company working on behalf of the U.S. Dept of Defense. See link posted earlier...it sounds, at least on the surface, like Erin Brokovitch stuff. Apparently the Clean Water Act has not had the anticipated effect. And also apparently it's not just uninformed tourists who are swimming and fishing in the muck, according to several sources I found (which I won't cite because I'd have to look them up again...sorry) This has me very worried.

[eldizknee]

.

[austinite13]

I am sold on L&C and am trying to figure out where to live. I checked out Sellwood, Lake Oswego and areas around the law school. I stayed with a friend that lives in Richmond right near Hawthorne. It is a very cool area but would like to live closer to school. For any of you locals, did I miss any areas?

Portland is a fantastic city and I can't wait to move there. I live in Austin, TX right now and I have to say the Keep Austin Weird does not hold a candle to Keep Portland Weird.

[JSabalbaro]

am sold on L&C and am trying to figure out where to live. I checked out Sellwood, Lake Oswego and areas around the law school. I stayed with a friend that lives in Richmond right near Hawthorne. It is a very cool area but would like to live closer to school. For any of you locals, did I miss any areas?

Portland is a fantastic city and I can't wait to move there. I live in Austin, TX right now and I have to say the Keep Austin Weird does not hold a candle to Keep Portland Weird.

I just received my acceptance to L&C today, and I am very excited. However, I obviously missed out on the festivities last weekend. I'm wondering if those of you who went, especially those who have already decided to attend, could provide some of the highlights of L&C that made you choose it. Anything you want to share will help. Thanks!

[ccs224]

am sold on L&C and am trying to figure out where to live. I checked out Sellwood, Lake Oswego and areas around the law school. I stayed with a friend that lives in Richmond right near Hawthorne. It is a very cool area but would like to live closer to school. For any of you locals, did I miss any areas?

Portland is a fantastic city and I can't wait to move there. I live in Austin, TX right now and I have to say the Keep Austin Weird does not hold a candle to Keep Portland Weird.

I just received my acceptance to L&C today, and I am very excited. However, I obviously missed out on the festivities last weekend. I'm wondering if those of you who went, especially those who have already decided to attend, could provide some of the highlights of L&C that made you choose it. Anything you want to share will help. Thanks!

Highlight of the day: This is what the school looked like:



Highlight of the trip? It was 70 degrees, and great for renting bikes and riding around. If anyone there also went to SMASH PUTT, that would also be a highlight.

In terms of the law school, I found the trip helpful, but not enough to sway me either way. I think the mock class was just alright, which was troubling, some of the 1L tour guides were a bit immature (though I'm almost seven years out of undergrad right now, so it might be an age thing), the financial aid and career services people were helpful but tried to paint as rosey of a picture as possible, and the kids involved in NEDC and the Environmental Law Journal were awesome.