January 1, 2025 • 64 mins
Discover the unique advantages of retiring in Vancouver, Washington, as Gary Beagle shares his insights on the area's vibrant LGBTQ community, affordable living, and stunning natural surroundings. With no state income tax and reasonable housing costs, Vancouver presents an attractive option for those looking to settle down in a welcoming environment. Gary discusses the moderate climate, excellent healthcare facilities, and the array of outdoor activities available, making it an ideal place for retirees. He also highlights the city's cultural scene, including local events and diverse dining options that cater to various tastes. Join us as we explore what makes Vancouver a hidden gem for those in the LGBTQ community seeking a safe and fulfilling retirement.
Vancouver, Washington, emerges as a beacon for retirees in the LGBTQ+ community in a lively dialogue between Mark Goldstein and Gary Beagle. Gary, a well-established figure in the local community, shares his personal story and professional insights that weave together the allure of this Pacific Northwest city. The conversation touches on Vancouver's inviting atmosphere, which is complemented by its absence of a state income tax, making it financially appealing for those looking to stretch their retirement dollars. Gary emphasizes the city’s favorable climate, which allows for year-round outdoor activities, from hiking in nearby mountains to enjoying the stunning Oregon coast just a short drive away. The discussion also paints a vivid picture of what life is like in Vancouver, with a focus on its natural beauty, vibrant parks, and the moderate temperatures that characterize the region.
The episode further explores the cultural and social dimensions of life in Vancouver, highlighting the active LGBTQ+ scene that thrives alongside a welcoming community. Gary discusses the various events and local establishments that cater to diverse interests, along with the safety and acceptance experienced by residents. This is particularly significant for LGBTQ+ retirees who seek a community where they can live openly and comfortably. Mark and Gary also touch on the healthcare landscape, noting the availability of LGBTQ-friendly medical services and the accessibility of healthcare providers, which is crucial for retirees. With a blend of personal anecdotes, practical information, and engaging narratives, this episode serves as a valuable resource for anyone considering a move to Vancouver, Washington, showcasing why it is an ideal retirement destination.
Takeaways:
- Vancouver, Washington offers a welcoming environment for retirees, particularly within the LGBTQ community.
- The cost of living in Vancouver is 11% lower than other cities in Washington.
- Air conditioning is becoming more common in homes due to increasing summer temperatures.
- Vancouver has a vibrant arts and culture scene, with various events and venues available.
- Health care in Vancouver is highly rated, with LGBTQ-friendly providers accessible to residents.
- The city has made significant strides in addressing homelessness through community initiatives.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the where do gaysretire? Podcast, where we help you
in the LGBTQ community find asafe and affordable retirement place.
Join Mark Goldstein as heinterviews others who live in gay
friendly places around theglobe. Learn about the climate, cost
of living, healthcare, crimeand safety, and more. Now, here's
(00:23):
your host, Mark Goldstein.
Do you want to know what it'slike to retire in Vancouver, Washington?
Stay tuned to the end andyou'll find out. Our guest today
is Gary Beagle, and I'll tellyou a little bit about Gary. Gary
(00:45):
is CEO for EntrustmentNorthwest, a Washington state and
Oregon out of state charteredtrust company with its corporate
office in Vancouver,Washington. A northwest transplant
for the last 30 years. He wasoriginally from Texas, where he grew
up on a ranch. Mister Beaglehas a bachelor of science degree
(01:08):
in social work from West TexasA and M and did a postgraduate studies
in finance at the Universityof Texas. Mister Beagle was inducted
to the 2014 West Texas A and MCommunications hall of Fame. He is
a college football,basketball, and rugby fan with a
(01:29):
fondness for bourbon, reading,and travel. Welcome, Gary. Welcome
to the podcast. Thank you somuch for coming. I do appreciate
it very much.
You're quite welcome. Nice tofinally be able to do the podcast,
Mark.
Thank you. So let's start off,Gary. Can you tell us a little bit
(01:51):
about yourself and yourbackground and what brought you to,
to Vancouver and what kept you there?
I grew up, as you mentioned,on a ranch up near Amarillo, Texas,
and did my postgraduate workat University of Texas and was doing
banking as a part time tellerto pay for my education. And so at
(02:14):
that point in time, socialwork did not pay anything. It was
very low paying. So I wasactually making more as I could as
a social worker, as a parttime teller. So I went in and became
a branch manager for a savingsalone back in those days, and then
went to when I went to workedwith them. And then I moved to Houston
(02:37):
to become director ofoperations for another savings and
loan called United Savings.And my expertise is mergers and acquisitions
on the operational side. So Iwas recruited by US bank Corps in
Portland and Washington mutualout of Seattle. And I selected to
(02:57):
come to Portland because I hadmy aunt and uncle lived in Salem.
I'd been to Portland. Portlandwas just a pristine, beautiful city
and went to work for us Bancorhandling their mergers and acquisitions
of some of their banks thatthey were bringing into their environment.
And then I ran across a friendof mine from West Texas A and M who
(03:21):
actually was working for awoman who had a professional fiduciary
agency, and that blended bothmy talents of social work and finance
together. I bought the firm in1992 and here I am today. Wow. Staying
because I love this area ofthe world. It's absolutely stunning.
And we're an hour from thecoast, an hour from the mountains.
(03:45):
And the weather in the spring,summer and fall is excellent. It's
a little gray during thewinter, but I'm always happy to come
back to Vancouver into my home here.
I kind of have some similarbackground in financial because although
I didn't work in the corporateactions area of a brokerage firm,
(04:09):
I did work in back officeoperations and alongside of corporate
actions and reorganizationwith merges and acquisitions. So
it's a small world.
It is a small world.
Can you describe the climatein Vancouver, Washington? That part
of the country, PacificNorthwest, they do tend to get a
(04:35):
little bit more precipitationthan other parts of the country.
Can you tell us what newresidents could expect during the
year?
Well, I think there's a littlemyth out there about getting participate
raining more than other partsof the country. Houston, to be honest
with you, gets a whole lotmore rain than we do here in the
Pacific Northwest. Ours isnormally not a downpour. It's more
(05:00):
misty and gray. It'll last forsome time than not. So the winters
are because of the how farnorth we are. The sunset and sunrise
makes it dark in the morning,dark in the evening, and that's a
little dreary. But if you comeand experience the spring, summer
(05:21):
and fall, you cannot beat theweather. We're very moderate temperature
wise, the summer has gotten alittle hotter, and I think that's
due to climate change. Indoing it, we're hitting some 90 degree
weather, but over 60% of thecitizens of Vancouver do not have
air conditioning because it'snot usually that hot. So it's really
(05:45):
a wonderful environment to dothat. This fall we have all the trees,
the lovely change of color,the spring, everything comes out.
And unlike other parts of thecountry where I have lived in the
past, our plants and ourvegetation do not burn up because
it's so hot. So we have a verycolorful spring here and it's just
(06:07):
beautiful. So that's what youcan expect. I will say that we do
take off during the gray timeof the weather. We're 2 hours by
flight on to Palm springs orto Cuthbert, California. So people
tend to do that during thewintertime. Take off where have direct
flights into Hawaii. So peopletend to want to avoid that winter.
(06:32):
And yes, so after the winter,like in the fall or the spring. I'm
sorry. It does clear up and itstops raining.
It does. It's like turning aswitch, almost. You can tell when
that thing. When the seasonchanges. Today, for example, it's
sunny and warm. We're inOctober. It's 67 degrees. It's perfect
(06:55):
out there. I'm in shortsleeves and everyone's out and about
doing things. And I think oneof the things that I love about the
northwest is we're not stuckinside during the summertime because
it's so hot.
Like us in Phoenix.
Exactly, exactly. So we havethe ability to get out and to hike
(07:15):
and bike and do all thephysical activities that people want
to do. But we also have a verygood cultural scene as well.
Do you think with climatechange that more people will be opting
in for air conditioning?
Probably so. I think thebuilding of the homes now are doing
the air conditioning, andthere probably will be more of that.
(07:39):
But again, it really dependson how much the individuals can take
without air conditioning isgoing to be the driving factor.
And I could see a lowerelectric bill in Vancouver because
of the, you know, the timesthat you won't be needing air conditioning
in the winter and the fall,maybe in the spring.
(08:03):
That's correct. But also wehave a public utility, Clark County
Public Utilities inBonneville, which is the leading
generator of electricitythrough the Columbia river system.
We get our electricity veryinexpensively here. So, for example,
probably at our house, and wedo have air conditioning. We probably
(08:25):
pay in the summer $70 to doit. So we're not at the. We're not
at risk of having anothercompany such as PGE or one of the
larger providers come in andhike up the prices. We are publicly
owned, which means myself, asa user of it, is part of the owner
(08:47):
of the public utility. So Ithink that's what makes us extremely
unique. We do some solarenergy and wind energy through the
Columbia Gorge, but overall,it's very inexpensive due to the
Bonneville power plants thatwe utilize.
That's great. Can you tell usabout the geography in the area?
Any notable natural featuresor outdoor activities that are available?
(09:12):
Absolutely. We are mountainousaround the valley. We have within
our driving distance, we haveMount Hood, which is skiing Mount
St. Helens, which everybodyhas probably familiar with because
it did erupt to do that. Butthere's there Mount Rainier up near
(09:33):
Seattle, Mount Adams, which isnear us as well. And then you can
go to the Bend region and haveMount Batchelor for skiing and I
snowboarding and all thewonderful winter activities. That
you do. And it is sunnyusually up on the mountains. When
I've gone up during thewintertime, it's been. It'll have
snow with the sun is out andabout. So that's really good. We're
(09:56):
also. This is the valley wherePortland is extended out to the Willamette
valley, which is a large breadbasket for the rest of the world
and country where everythingis grown through that valley. But
also, we're an hour and a halffrom the coast, the Pacific coast.
(10:16):
Oregon's coastline isabsolutely beautiful. It's got rugged,
you know, rugged appearancesto it, which is great. The Washington
up around Long beach does nothave as nice of a look to it. It's
pretty standard. It reminds meof Galveston, Texas, actually. But
(10:37):
we do have a rainforest up onthe peninsula as well. So here you
will have, you can experiencejust all sorts of type of topography.
If you go up toward MountHood, there's the plateaus there.
It's high, a desert, and ithas a different feel, a different
(10:58):
look to it. And so you canexperience that all within probably
an hour and a half drive fromVancouver. Then, of course, we have
Seattle, which is two and ahalf hours, and Portland, which is
just five minutes, tenminutes. Absolutely. Five minutes
over across the bridge.
That makes it convenient.We'll talk a little bit about that,
(11:19):
too. And savings. So let's getinto cost of living. How would you
rate the cost of living inVancouver as compared to other cities
in Washington or in comparisonto the us average?
Well, thanks to us doing thepodcast, I actually did research
(11:41):
on it, found out we're prettygood. We're 11% less than any other
city in Washington state, andthat's the Seattle area. We're probably
more is better here with that.The median house prices are still
fairly reasonable. It's500,000 approximately. But Vancouver
(12:02):
is made up of its city itself.But Clark county is made up of several
smaller cities, such asWashougal, Camas, Ridgefield, Yockult,
battleground. And the CamasWashougal is considered to be the
higher price, higher end ofreal estate because of the school
(12:22):
districts that they have andbecause of the provider of services
that they do through that,Ridgefield is quickly coming up.
It's smaller cities that dothat with a higher quality of life,
I think you will see in them.Vancouver has an excellent one, but
they're very small cities,easy to get around and do that. So.
(12:43):
And I think the cost here ofthe economic advantages is we have
no state income tax, so wehave lots of people moving in from
other parts of the country,California, Oregon, even that really
can benefit by not havingtheir incomes taxed by the state.
(13:04):
It also applies toentrepreneurs who are selling companies.
They always move over hereprior to selling them to do that.
Also, Oregon has no statesales tax, so you can actually drive
ten minutes across the boardor purchase large items and not pay
sale tack and come it backinto Vancouver. So you have all of
(13:26):
those advantages to you in thecost of living. So I know Oregon's
a 10% approximately stateincome tax, so if you live over there,
you're going to pay 10%.Unfortunately, if you work over in
Oregon, they're going to taxyou off your income. But we have
a lot of companies that havemoved over here from Portland, large
(13:47):
companies. Zoom, who does Zoominfo is here, headquartered here.
Banfield Pet hospitals andclinics aren't here. Fisher's investment
has a big company building andinfrastructure here as well. So I
think you see a lot of peoplemoving into this area just because
(14:09):
of the tax situation.
Yeah, it makes it kind ofconvenient. You just, if you do your
Costco shopping, you can go doit over the bridge in Portland and
save on sales tax.
Exactly, exactly. And I thinkthe state of Washington, my sense
is, and I've lived inWashington for ten years, and here
over 20 years, is theWashington state is much better run.
(14:31):
And there's lots of reasonsfor that. We have, you take Seattle,
we have some of the largestcorporations in the world, Amazon,
Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks.Costco is located out of Kirkland,
Washington. That's where youget the Kirkland brands. And so we
collect a lot of taxes. And sothose taxes are used for rainy day
(14:54):
funds and for, to make sure wehave money. If we run into issues
with the economy and weactually provide better services
for our citizens than Oregondoes. Oregon has what they call a
kickback, which means that ifthey overestimate the income coming
in, it automatically goes backto the taxpayers. So they don't build
(15:16):
the nest eggs that they needto. And they're at, their budgets
are pretty, pretty tight overthere. But we do better in that one.
I think the services arebetter. I mean, you can go into the
local DMV and get taken careof fairly quickly and they are rated.
You fill out a form and rateyour service with that particular
(15:37):
state agency.
Awesome. So do you know whatthe median home price is in Vancouver?
I did look that up. It's556,000 is the average. But in the,
it's lower in the Vancouverdowntown area, which surprised me.
(15:59):
But again, I talked a littlebit about the Camas Washougal area,
and those are more. If you'refamily oriented and wanting school
districts, you're going to gointo those towns just because of
the ranking of the educationsystem. They rank very high within
the state of Washington, upagainst the Seattle suburbs and do
(16:22):
that. So you'll see more highprices up there. But you'll also
see that we've in Vancouverproper, we have boomed and have really
done some great things withthe development of condos, apartments,
other housings within that system.
So as I understand,Vancouver's downtown was, or riverfront
(16:49):
they were building up, right?And they built that up, supposed
to be beautiful. And I don'tknow what's on it to offer people.
I don't know if they'rerestaurants or what have you. How
is Vancouver set up?
You have three distinct areas.You have the waterfront, you have
(17:13):
the downtown area, and thenyou have the uptown area, which is
where my office is located.The waterfront itself was the port
of Vancouver set out a masterplan and it's been implemented, which
is great. We have apartments,condos. We have probably 20 restaurants
(17:34):
down there now. Some of theSeattle larger restaurants have come
down, such as 13 coinsgauchos, which is a steakhouse type
thing. Wildfin. We have ahispanic restaurant, more on the
Miami scene with tap tapasinto lots of wine tasting places
(17:56):
because Washington and Oregonhave become pretty well known in
the wine industry, is havingsome really good wines from the vineyards.
And so they have thoseparking. Has they built a new parking
garage down there. We have anew high end senior housing type
of facility coming in, whichis shows that those people know that
(18:21):
this is going to be a goodarea to do. They're further developing
it. We're going to be havingsomething similar to Pikes market
up in Seattle. They'restarting to work on that. I think
that'll be good. We have oneof the, it's just a great area to
walk and to visit and do it.They do summer concerts there and
(18:41):
then you have all thenightlife that you could want there.
Sounds like a destination now.
It is. In fact, you walk overthere and you'll see more Oregon
car blade cars than Washington.
They're coming over.
They are. And we have friendsthat come over routinely because
the restaurants are very goodand you don't have the hassle of
the parking and the drivingthat you do.
(19:03):
And part of it.
Yeah, the downtown area is thecore. They're redoing a little bit
of it. We have one of the bestSaturday markets I think I've seen
in my experience, it's locateddowntown. We have a large park called
Esther short where all theevents are held. So the pride in
(19:25):
the park, which is our LGBTQcelebration, is held there. We have
brew Fest there. We have jazzfest. We have any type and every
type of outdoor activity youwould want to experience. And the
market is there, and theparking is great. Downtown has some
good restaurants as well, andwe'll be able to take of that. And
(19:45):
downtown has some corporateoffices here as well. And then if
you come to the uptown area,it's a little more laid back, I would
say, than the waterfront haslots of. It's a lot of walkability
and has great restaurantsthrough here. Housing is. Neighborhood
(20:06):
is right. Neighborhoods areright attached to the downtown into
the uptown area. And you mightnot know this, but Vancouver was
voted the number one hipstercity in America a couple, three years
ago by british term. And thereason for that is we have the per
capita. We have the number onethrift shops per capita, which is
(20:27):
what hipsters want, marijuanashops, of course, brew pubs. And
the housing was part of thatas well. The cost of housing was
on that one, and as well asjust the total walkability of the
area. So we done well in doingthat. And our city council has done
(20:47):
a good job of working withdevelopers to ensure that the viability
and the walkability and isdone within these projects.
So talking about walkability.So the riverfront, I'm assuming,
is walkable?
Yes.
So you can walk. And how long.How far does that stretch, the riverfront?
(21:12):
Oh, it probably stretches a mile.
Okay.
To that. Downtown is verywalkable. Uptown is very walkable.
There's a. And you have torealize these are. But against each
other for their blocks. Justblocks. We've got a new four Seasons
grocery store here, verysimilar to whole foods. It's local,
(21:37):
and they promote local produceand everything else at the farmers
market as well. So you dothat. But it's very walkable between
all three of the areas that I described.
But Vancouver is still set upwhere you do need a car, correct?
That is correct. And one ofthe things I was just thinking about
(21:59):
that is you have a lot.Vancouver is part of the Portland
metro area, and we areWashingtonians. We are not Oregonians.
And so it's kind ofinteresting to see how the dynamics
work, because we do have totake our local paper here, which
is very. It's been in over 150years here to get our news about
(22:20):
Washington. But if you wantthe. We have what we call C Tran,
which is an excellent systemhere. It does feed into the Portland
metro system there. And sothey just go across the river. We
have a max line light railthat you can get onto. We have buses
(22:40):
that you turn, rules you cando over there. But I would say it's
lacking in publictransportation. It is. It's probably
one of the areas that I wouldsay that we're do not compare to
other cities.
So does the light rail go fromVancouver to Portland?
(23:05):
No, we're. That's on theplans. We're getting a new I five
bridge. The part of the planis for that to come over Vancouver.
And Washingtonians have been alittle resistant of that. Just because
the state changes the states.Well, it's going to change the culture.
Yeah. Yeah. Can you imaginehaving a light rail that goes to
Costco?
(23:28):
Exactly.
They'd be going back and forth.
Yeah, so. Exactly.
Okay, so, so as far as utilitycosts, we kind of went over air conditioning,
but as far as utilities,water, sewer, electric, gas and electric
(23:51):
cable, how reasonable orunreasonable are they?
Well, I think the utilities,and I'll talk about cable and Internet
services separately. Theutilities of water, gas, electricity,
all of that is extremelyreasonable. It's a lot less than
what I was paying over inPortland and still pay on some properties
(24:15):
that I have over there. So Ican tell you that it's very reasonable.
Like I said, the publicutility for electricity is actually
something that really benefitsthe individuals utilizing the service.
The city is very well run onthat, and I think that the utilities
are very reasonable comparedto that. I think if you add all the
(24:38):
utilities, the gas goes upduring the winter for us because
of the heating cost,electricity, water, which includes
a lot of storms, stormassessments, sewer assessments, I
think it's probably around 125a month would average out is what
mine does. And I have, we havea 1500 square foot house, and that's
(25:02):
probably, our water bill ismore high during the spring summer
area because we have a quarteracre lot to do it. So it's a little
higher on that one. The cableservice and Internet, I'll break
down. Cable is expensive here.Comcast is the Xfinity is the provider.
(25:23):
You can look at other options.We recently just dropped our cable
entirely through that one. Wehave an Internet system with a Fire
TV from Amazon. It's running$112 a month for that service. You
can get it less maybe throughCenturyLink, which is another provider,
or people are switching to TMobile has a program out there, but
(25:47):
it's about a $100 for that. Iwould say okay for the Internet.
Okay. Sounds reasonable.
It is, actually. Once you gotrid of the cable, it's.
Right. Yeah, I've done thattoo. The only thing I have is cable,
Internet, and everything else.I don't have cable tv. I stream everything
(26:07):
from Netflix.
Yeah, exactly.
Are there any particularexpenses that newcomers should be
wearer aware of, like insurance?
The insurance is fairlyreasonable here. We're not. The only
thing we're kind of out thereon is earthquake insurance. Might
(26:30):
be more expensive or difficultto get the regular insurance because
we haven't had that manycatastrophes here in this part of
the world. So it's a lotdifferent than what I would imagine
Florida or the Carolinas areright now. To do that one, my house
insurance runs about, and Icarry large limits on everything.
(26:52):
It's about $200 a month, butthat includes my umbrella policy
and everything else that Ihave in there. The auto insurance
is decent compared to maybesome other cities and that as well.
But. So the insurances arevery reasonable here for. Compared
to Oregon in some areas now.
(27:14):
That we bring up earthquakes.So Vancouver is on the fault line,
correct?
It is.
Since you've been livingthere, have you experienced any earthquakes,
tremors in the last 30 years?
One. That's a minor one.That's it. I've experienced more
in Palm Springs than I havehere, actually.
(27:37):
So do they say the big one iscoming and is the big one going to
affect your fault line asopposed to the California fault line?
It might. One of the thingsthat you have to realize is the concern
is a tsunami effect up theColumbia river coming into it. And
(27:58):
we have several dams in theColumbia river that if they are breached,
would certainly cause somemajor flooding damage and flooding
here. But we haven't had toexperience that. St. Helens is pretty
quiet, so we don't expect itto erupt to do it. But, yeah, I've
only experienced one minor onehere in the last 30 years.
(28:22):
That's pretty good. That's farless than California.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Seemed like they getthem quite often. Like every week
they get a few. Okay. Allright, so let's talk a little bit
about the LGBTQ community inVancouver. Now, I don't know if there's
(28:45):
a specific gayborhood. I don'tknow if you have gay bars or is most
of that in Portland.
Well, I think you'll find inthe Portland and Vancouver, the gay
neighborhoods have beendispersed out. And I can tell you
my younger friends that areLGBTQ, and I'm talking thirties,
(29:05):
forties don't feel thenecessity to have a certain area
that they go to. So I thinkthat's the big difference that I
would experience here, andthat might be true of a lot of metropolitan
areas right now. We do have.We're the fourth largest GLBTQ plus
population within the state,Washington, which I was surprised
(29:27):
to find that statistic when Iwas researching to do that. But they
are. We're all out there, butwe're just in different parts of
the cities. We do have a gaybar called the underbar here, which
is excellent. And it. Butthere's lots of people, the neighborhood
folks that come in, notnecessarily LGBTQ, and they're in
(29:48):
the uptown neighborhood. Wehave another one called Sasquatch,
which people are very. Lots ofthe neighborhoods, but a lot of GLBTQ
individuals go to that one aswell. It's an uptown. So I think
that what I'm seeing is alarge presence of people spread out
all over the city. But, youknow, it. We go to the restaurants
(30:12):
that are approving of us andare supportive of us, and so that
would apply to anybody at thatpoint. Portland does have a lot better
social scene if you want to goto bars and that torpedo sort of
thing there. And they have awide range, but they're spread out
as well. They're notnecessarily in one area. We used
(30:35):
to have what we called Starkstreet back when we first moved here,
that had concentration of mostof them. Now there is a few in downtown,
some on the east side, some onthe west side. It's just where people
can get to and do that. Butthere's a lot of neighborhood bars
that people go to that arejust more. That are accepting and
(30:55):
closer. And to do that area,cultural wise, we do have a very
strong presence of things thatoccur here. Like I talked about pride
in the park, which is separatefrom the gay pride over in Portland.
It's much smaller scale, butit's a wonderful event, and it'll
(31:16):
last all day Saturday. The oneI went to, we just went to at this
last time, lots of performers,lots of people out in the, you know,
community booths, resourcesare all there for people to look
at, so. But they also have alot of plays, a lot of symphony is
(31:37):
here. I'm on the board of thePortland Gaming Chorus. We do events
over here. In fact, we'redoing one in next few months at Magenta
Theater, which is a smallervenue here. And then we have a lot
of the wineries that supportand are owned by GLBTQ plus individuals,
(31:58):
the tasting rooms. So wesupport those as well. Portland gives
you a much more bigger senseof culture in that we have the plays
come into Portland, theBroadway, the singers, all that.
We have the Arlene SchnitzerAuditorium, which is probably like
the old Fox theaters, whereit's a beautiful venue. Have a smaller
(32:19):
one literally across thestreet to do that. And then the reaser
family, one of the Rieserfamily members, built a resa center
out in Beaverton. And Portlandgaming's course has actually performed.
There was one of the initialperformers, inaugural performers
there. So there's a lot ofactivities to do. You just have to
(32:39):
look around them to determinewhat they are to do it.
What's the population of Vancouver?
Vancouver is about 100,000, alittle over 100. The metro area of
all the cities is around500,000. Okay, so we're a fairly
large metropolitan area thatis not an oregonian right area.
(32:59):
And Portland, do you know whatthe population in Portland is?
Yes, I did look that up. It'sone point, a little 1.3 million,
1.4.
It's quite a substantialdifference between the both sides.
Yes. If you look at the bothsides of it, we're still small enough
where you can get aroundfairly easily.
Right.
By car and bike, bytransportation. Portland is a more.
(33:23):
Parking is an issue. All ofthose issues over there that a large
metropolitan area has. But wehave the benefit of just being able
to plug in to the Portlandarea very easily because we're just
across the river.
Got it. So the HRC municipalequality index scores a 74 for Vancouver,
(33:52):
which is a little bit low inmy. And I was kind of surprised.
Well, the one I saw was 60, soI was very surprised by that, too.
Yeah, I just pulled it out,and so I was thinking about why that
is, and I'm not really sure. Ithink that the east county, which
is pretty red politically anda lot of things, is. I don't think
(34:16):
we have the infrastructure forgay GLBTQ individuals, and I'm talking
about the medical specificallyfor them. And a large part of our
firms probably, you know,Fisher investments is one that is
very conservative. Jim Fisheris very conservative. And I think
(34:37):
that probably affects a littlebit of those type of corporations
that are here, that are intothat with HRC. I'm not real sure
why they.
I'd have to look more closely,but I think it's. It has to do with
the rights of the people thatwork for the city or what the city
(35:01):
has implemented as far asLGBTQ plus rights for the city. But
I have to. I'd have to checkinto that a little bit more.
I think, Mark, they'reprobably taking a look at the other
cities within the area ofVancouver, and they have not been
as supportive of lgbtq type ofevents. Battleground is one of those
(35:26):
to do it. Vancouver we have TyStober is our representative gay
on there is Mayor pro Tim. Themayor is very pro gay. They're all
there and usually do a lot ofpromoting businesses to particular.
And I. The city, I think, doesa good job of unions. The unions
(35:47):
here do that for that. So I'msurprised by that as well. But they
might be incorporating some ofthose more. Yakal, for example, is
very red out there.
Got it. Okay. Do you know howthe local government and communities
support lgbtq rights andinclusion? I mean, is the government.
(36:13):
Do you see the governmentproactively doing anything?
Absolutely. The city itselfand county is more conservative.
The county overallcommissioners is more conservative.
So you're not going to get thesupport within those camp within
the county itself. But in thecity of Vancouver, Ridgefield, Camas
(36:35):
and Washougal, you will. Infact, Washougal had a GBTQ individual
that was the commissioner headover the police in Washougal. So
they're very pro that you canbe out and still serve in those cities.
And I public domain as well asin councilmen and that sort of thing.
(36:57):
Like I said, we have. One ofour city councilmen is an out gay
man, lives in the Halcneighborhood, which is just right
adjacent to downtown area.Also our state government is. My
district is very democratic.Both of our senators, both of our
(37:17):
representatives and senatorare Democrats. The rest of the districts
are red, so the outlying areasand the rural areas are very red
in that distinction. Butluckily, we have a super majority
of the Democrats in the House.All of the state elected officials
are Democrats. That mightchange in the newest election. We
(37:40):
have one Republican that. Thatmay become the land commissioner.
I'm not sure, but she's fromVancouver. Actually. She was our
state national repert uscongresswoman for several years.
We did switch the House thislast time from red to blue. I think
it's going to maintain that.So we have a lot of really good support
(38:02):
from the state government. JimMohler, who has deceased, unfortunately,
was a friend of mine, and hewas the house speaker for Washington
for several years and camefrom my district here at the 49th
district.
Okay, let's get intohealthcare. So healthcare is very
important when it comes toretirement in any city or place.
(38:27):
What is the quality of thehealthcare like in Vancouver? Are
there any LGBTQ friendlyproviders and facilities?
Well, overall, going to lumpthem together again. The Portland
and Vancouver metro Vancouverhas a wonderful hospital system here
(38:49):
between legacy and peacehealth, which is a Catholic, nonprofit
hospital, but they doextremely well on taking care of
emergency areas. We have theVancouver clinic here, which is large,
and they have severallocations. You can ask for GLBTQ
providers, and they are seenat our pride in the park and will
(39:13):
help you find one if you'relooking for that. We also are very
easy to get into the Medicaresystem here. We don't deny it's easy
to find a doctor that willaccept them. And you have also Kaiser
Permanente, which is actuallystarted in the Portland with the
Kaiser shipyards. And they areprobably a great HMO system through
(39:39):
that. My company provideshealth insurance through Kaiser as
well due to the cost in doingit. But they have Kaiser clinics
over here in Vancouver. If youneed specialists that can't be provided
here, you have easy access tothe Oregon and Portland providers
over there. So I think overallit's excellent. My mom is 95, and
(40:02):
she has found, through theVancouver clinic, found to be very
well taken care of through thedoctors and the programs there. Kaiser
does the same thing. You justhave to be a little more advocate,
advocate for yourself in thatsystem. Sometimes due to the HMO
component hospital systems,legacy is top rated. Peace Health
(40:23):
is top rated, but legacy is amore. Is a better regular rated than
that. Legacy has also got allthe hospitals in the Portland area.
We have Oregon Health ScienceUniversity hospitals over there,
so which is does great workand far as if you have a specialty
(40:45):
you need, it is over there. Ifyou're a VA veteran, we have the
VA hospital and a smallerfacility here in Vancouver, but the
big ones over in Portland. Soyou have a wide range and selection
of providers here, and it'svery easy to locate. And the Vancouver
clinics are all over the cityand utilize. My mom utilizes them
(41:09):
because it's close to herassisted living facility on going
out. So I think you will findthat you've got really good health
care here to be provided andthat it's easy access for someone
that's retired on Medicare.
How long would you say ittakes to make an appointment with
a specialist or even yourgeneral practitioner?
(41:30):
I think it. I can tell you myexperience has been you just go online,
set the appointment upyourself. A lot of times they're
doing the zoom type ofappointment, so you can do that virtual
into that. If you need aspecialist, it really depends on
what it's required. You makethe call. But once you get into the,
(41:54):
they're supposed to call youback. If they don't, you call them,
then they will get you in tosee that. The primary provider is
very easy for me to get into.My health provider and he's a, can't
even talk today, a gayindividual. So I feel comfortable
with that. My Vancouver clinicdocs are all of gay supportive as
well, so I don't have anyproblems with those whatsoever. So
(42:18):
I think it's an ease ofgetting into the system. Is very
good.
How about appointments? Is itlike two weeks? Would you thank for
going in?
I had an appointment with mydoctor, went in one day and got it
the next.
Oh, wow.
So I mean, it really is thatsort of system. Now, Kaiser might
be a little differently thanif you're on Medicare and you have
(42:42):
the other benefits to do that.But Kaiser will tend to, if you have
an issue that you need to getaddressed fairly quickly, will do
that. And I have used Kaiserbefore and they will be able to do
that for you.
Okay. How close is the nearesthospital to you?
Oh, ten minutes.
Okay. That's definitely close enough.
(43:03):
Legacy is probably 20 minutes.And that's the preferred hospital
that I utilize because theVancouver clinic uses them as well
as my primary dog.
Okay.
We have lots of urgent care.
Yeah. All over the city.
City. All over the city.
Yeah, that's good too. Allright. We pretty much touched on
(43:24):
transportation and walkabilityalready. Transportation is just really
light rail and buses.
It's not even light rail. Oh,it's buses. And that's the one thing
that we're lacking. I wouldsay if you wanted to move here without
a car, you would havedefinitely have to be down in the
(43:46):
waterfront. You'd have anissue downtown or a high issue. You
would have an issue. Absolutely.
Okay. Very good. Now, the taxadvantages, we did touch upon that
as well. Um, I like that idea,though. Um, no state tax. And you
go right, ten minutes awayinto Portland and you have. Yeah,
(44:07):
no sales tax. So that's reallygood. How about, um, does Washington,
um, tax you on 401K IRAwithdrawals, um, or.
Not on the state level?
Not on. Oh, that's right,because they don't have state tax.
Yeah, it's on the federal level.
(44:29):
Okay. So all of that is zero,which is nice.
I do have some statistics onthe metro area. We're, like I said,
we're around 500,516, but ourmedian age is 38. The median income
is around 91,000.
Okay.
For us, which is fairlydecent, poverty is 8.5%. For the
(44:52):
Clark County Vancouver. And Ithink that that is pretty decent.
I will address the homelesssituation, which all large cities
are done. Portland has muchmore issues than we do in Vancouver.
We, as a electorate in thecity of Vancouver, voted to tax ourselves
(45:12):
to provide services for thehomeless. And so what we have done
is through the VancouverHousing Authority, they have purchased
two hotel hotels out near thevault mall area, converted those
into housing. We have housingdistricts with pallet, little houses
in it that are segregated anddone well. The only issue is that
(45:35):
we have is the camping thing,but they've really tried to work
through the issues of that. Idon't see any of the homeless areas
except down in toward the portarea where there's grain and deliveries
and things like that. We dohave a trail that we do runs through
(45:55):
the city, and you'll seepockets of that there. But they've
done a good job of reallyworking within the community to address
these issues. I don't know howto solve them on it, but I can tell
you that stepping forward attaxing ourselves and I purchasing
the two hotels to put peoplein, they have other housing authority,
(46:19):
has other avenues to go. Ithink that is the best that I've
seen here compared to Portlandor other cities of our size.
Yeah, I know Portland is. Hasa big homeless population.
They do.
And I wonder if people, ifsome of the homeless have come over
(46:40):
the bridge. Is it a walking bridge?
It is a walking bridge, andyou can. But I think we have. Portland's
been very slow in implementingcamping regulations. Vancouver started
and did it originally onto it.So there is restrictions on where
you can camp and how long youcan camp. And they enforce those,
(47:03):
meaning pitching a.
Tent right in the middle ofthe street.
We don't have them pinchingthe tent in the middle of the street.
They can't do that here inVancouver, but they can be out in,
like I said, the trail openareas. They can't even be in the
parks to do that one. So thereis only segregated areas that they
can do it. We offer them theability to find housing, help with
(47:27):
housing, but it's not electedat times to do that. So that's what
you've got.
Got it. All right, let's gomove on to arts and culture. What
does Vancouver have to offeras far as arts and culture scene?
Is there an arts and culturescene? Do they have live theater,
(47:48):
museums, opera, whatnot?
Again, we're tied to thePortland area, so you would find
the symphonies, the largersymphony, the opera over there. We
do have a symphony here inVancouver. It's very well attended.
I've attended those. We have alots of plays, but they're local
type of plays that come in. Wehave a lot of venues for singers
(48:12):
and to come in and perform inclubs and that sort of thing here.
We do have the Clark countyamphitheater out near the Clark county
fairgrounds, which I will givea plug to, is one of the best county
fairs I've ever been to, and Igo annually, but we have large groups
come in. Imagine dragons wasjust here. We had, Rod Stewart was
(48:34):
here. Cindy Lauper was here.You have all of the country western
venues, singers here. And soyou have the ability to attend those
things within a very 20minutes drive from here, getting
into the parking lot. It's alittle hectic, but other than that,
you can do it. The tickets arefairly reasonable for that. So you
have a large area of that. Youhave a native american casino here
(48:58):
called L and A. And they alsohave lots of music venues there.
In doing that, we're probablylacking in the plays and that type
of venue, but Portland hasthem. We have a GLBTQ play house
that performs there. We havethe Keller auditorium provides a
(49:21):
large venue for musicals thatare on the road and come through.
And then the Snitzer has thesymphony, the opera, and those type
of events there. So we have alarge cultural scene tied into the
Portland area. But you cancertainly have culture and arts and
(49:41):
singing and all of that withinVancouver as well, which we've elected
to do. The Portland gamingchorus is located, and we sing out
of Portland, either in theBeaverton locations, which you've
done, or the downtownPortland. But we're branching out
and doing venues over here as well.
Got to start the gay men'schorus in Vancouver.
(50:02):
Well, a lot of Vancouver menand like myself are it. We have 200
singers on it, and I would sayprobably 50. Are those singers are
Vancouver individuals?
Yeah, I think a lot of people,they just move over from Portland
to Vancouver.
They, they do.
(50:22):
They like it a little bitbetter. So that's. We won't say anything.
That's true for me. And, and Ialways plug the Vancouver southwest
Washington as being a perfectplace. If you want to experience
Portland and all it has tooffer, you can do that. But tax wise
and smaller size anddrivability and all the things. Vancouver
(50:46):
absolutely offers that.
Yeah, I.
To anyone that lives here,very good.
How about dining in restaurants?
We are just so good over here.Like I said, the waterfront has some
of the best restaurants thatyou'll find in the state here. And
the Oregonians flock to therestaurants over here to do it. I'm
(51:09):
surprised a lot of the Seattlebig, well known restaurants have
made a presence here. And Italked a little bit about wildfin
gacho, 13 coins. There's somevery high, very well starred restaurants
here. You can go anything fromthe dives, which is decent food to
(51:31):
do. That one, the oldest onewe have is called Joe Brown's, open
for breakfast and lunch. Andit walks in and you're looking at
the 40 dining scene there. Butgreat hamburgers, great breakfast.
You have Amaro's table, whichhas several restaurants, but they're
really good. And they do havereally good bourbon bar with that.
(51:53):
I know you like bourbon.
I do like bourbon. So that'swhere I go usually to it. And there's
another one that's opened uphere in uptown that has a great bourbon
bar as well. It's tied toO'Shannons, which is more of a beer
type pub with food into thatone. But you can find those very
(52:13):
well. A lot of you can findany type of ethnic food that you
would like within the city,and they're highly rated in those
areas as well. So, yeah, wehave a great restaurant scene, and
you can usually find what you.
There'd be no shortage ofchoices, it sounds like.
That's correct. And good ones.They're really good restaurants.
(52:38):
Awesome. I have to come visit Vancouver.
You do need to come and visit Vancouver.
I do. I do. Absolutely. Andthe food is diverse as far as different
international cuisines.
We have a lot of differentcuisines. We have east indian food,
asian food here. We haveasian, we have hispanic. We have
(53:00):
what I call tech Mex, which iswhat I used to down from Texas area.
Then we have the sea, ofcourse, seafood. My gosh, we are
just. I used to think redlobster was a seafood restaurant
when it was in Texas, but Ihave certainly learned the difference
between that and now. So wehave a lot of that. We have a lot
(53:21):
of the wineries that havepaired grapefruit with it. We have
different types of ethnicfoods on that one. So you can find
a lot of those there. If youdon't have them in Vancouver, they
certainly have them in thePortland area. Cuban is a big one
that I enjoy. We have onerestaurant in Portland area and some
cuban selections here andcertain restaurants here in Vancouver.
(53:45):
Sounds yummy.
It is yummy. Making me hungry.
Yeah, I'm always hungry, so.All right, talk a little bit about
crime and safety. How safe isVancouver for residents, particularly
the LGBTQ individuals andretirees. Would the gay community,
(54:10):
as opposed to anybody else,feel safe in Vancouver? Would you
feel safe if you had to takeyour. If you had a dog? I don't know
if you have a dog, but if youhad to take your dog out at two in
the morning by your house togo to the bathroom, would you feel
safe?
I think the question is yes. Ilooked up the statistics for that.
(54:34):
The city of Vancouver andCamas Ridgefield, all those are a
plus. Are very good to dothat. The pockets where they are
C's are outlying areas. Andthen, of course, the red areas that
I talked about, battlegroundYakult, probably is not as. I would
not want to move there becauseI think that they would not appreciate
(54:57):
the LGBTQ community. The restof the city is fine. We. My husband
Jim, walks all over the city,has no problems with that. Taking
dogs out have no problemswithin these neighborhoods as well.
And I think you will find thata lot of them neighborhoods are safe
(55:18):
because people are acceptingthere might be pockets of some crime
areas that are not as amenableto LGBTQ individuals. But overall,
the city, when I looked at themap, was all a plus, very few c and
maybe four or five little fareas that they got an f on. So I
(55:40):
think that is a good one. Whenyou go across the river, it's a little
different story. But herewe're very good, and we have a very
good police department inVancouver that is welcoming to the
GGLB two Q plus. And we havelots of police officers that are
gay or lesbian. I mean, aretran or whatever. Here.
(56:02):
Would you feel as safe being agay person, LGBTQ person in Vancouver
as you would in Portland?
It depends on the area ofPortland, but 100%, I feel comfortable
in walking and taking. I havehad no fear whatsoever in the Vancouver
(56:26):
area at all. Portland woulddepend on where you are in the neighborhoods.
You are downtown. And I feelcomfortable down there in certain
park pockets of downtown. AndI think that is the good. The areas.
If you're up into the Pearldistrict or the waterfront in Portland,
absolutely not a problem there.
(56:47):
Okay. And that goes kind ofhand in hand sometimes with homeless,
too. So we already touchedbase upon homeless and seeing what
the city could do to alleviatethe problem. It's a big problem.
I think Portland has realizedthat they needed to take care of
(57:07):
the homeless situation in thedowntown area because people were
leaving, people weren't goingdown and doing things that has reversed.
They have a long way to buildthe confidence and trust of individuals
to get back into that. Butlike I said, vancouver really took
the bull by the horns, as Isay in Texas, and really has taken
(57:32):
that homeless issue and reallycontained it and provided services.
Not only they contained it,they provided solutions and services
to it. And I think that's whatdistinguishes us from any other city
that I know because we didthat. And I'm very proud that we
did that.
Awesome. Okay, let's. Inconclusion, for somebody retiring,
(57:58):
considering retiring inVancouver, what advice would you
give them?
I would say that I wouldreally look at Vancouver as being
a place for retirement. Wehave lots of retirees that have moved
up here. In doing it, I thinkthe quality of life is excellent.
The cost and benefit of, ofthe no state income tax and being
(58:20):
able to go across the riverfor no sales tax is great. Our healthcare
systems is highly ratedthrough that, through all the providers
that we can have in the area.I also think that as we age, you
need to look for communitiesthat will be supportive of you.
(58:41):
Absolutely.
For us, we had a condo thathad stairs. We have moved to one
level.
I'm all about one level.
Absolutely. And so there's alot of neighborhoods that have, were
built in the fifties that areone level and are very good. You
have a lot of the downtownarea, which is. Well, if you want
(59:05):
to rent, you can certainly dothat. You don't necessarily have
to buy. There's some greatareas in which to do that. Ease of
getting around is one of thethings that I really like. But I
think just the culture and theweather environments are great. Like
I said, we do get away duringthe grayer season, during the winter
(59:27):
time, but it's green up hereduring the winter and it's beautiful.
It's very green.
The myth that people have isthat we receive more snow than we
do. I don't. I can't remember.We maybe shut down once or twice
a year, but that's justbecause people don't know how to
drive and are scared ofgetting out.
(59:48):
But you don't get that much snow.
We do not. We're in thevalley. The snow happens on the mountains.
It's very unusual for us toget a snowstorm. We might get ice
if it comes up through theColumbia, but very rare. So I think
that overall it's a greatplace. I think you would have. You
can go to. Our city has agreat. Why move? What can you expect
(01:00:10):
when you move to the Vancouverarea website to do that? Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah, I have. Jim and I bothhave not regretted our move to the
Portland Vancouver area. Welooked at Seattle, but Seattle traffic
remind me a little bit much ofHouston. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(01:00:31):
Can you share a personalanecdote or experience that highlights
what makes living in Vancouverso special for you?
Yes, I think that probably Ifeel very comfortable in interacting
with individuals and workinghere, but we do one of the personal
experiences, we have a VanCook boys event that meets monthly,
(01:00:53):
and so we kind of get togetherwith the guys that are here that
live in Vancouver and all overthe city that get together to honor
that. And I think that's oneof the personal things I would say
is I've met lots ofindividuals through that organization,
and it's a potluck thing. Weused to won one called grits gays
(01:01:14):
raised in the south, but allof them have moved to Palm Springs.
So we do a Friday at Blackbook event during the season where
all the gay guys get togetherthere and talk about our southern
roots. But. Yeah, but it's agreat way to do it. Personally, I
(01:01:36):
think Jim has found a greatenvironment for walking and meeting
people and doing that one.He's a golfer. There's golf here.
I like the golf cart with abar in it, but that's about all of
my golfing experience. I do.But there's lots of activities out
here. So personally, I think Iwould say that I found my home.
(01:02:01):
I would say that, too. You'vebeen there for quite some time.
Yeah, I found my home.
All right. And. Okay, so wewill wrap that up. In closing, would
you like to add anything orshare anything for our listeners
about life in Vancouver?
(01:02:23):
I think I would only sharethat we have had lots of people moving
up here, and the reasons aredifferent, but I think they feel
that they're inclusive here.We are a bubble in the national scene
because we are blue all on thewest coast. I really, I was in Texas,
and I was just taken aback bythe differences between the Texas
(01:02:46):
environment versus ours herein Washington. And they move here
because we have different waysof taking care of our el, as we should
take care of them. But youhave lots of options here. We have
a very good. You don't have tohave money to get good care here.
We have great Medicaid systemsfor that. We have adult family homes,
(01:03:09):
which are five to a home thatallow them to be geared toward GLBTQ
individuals as well as I havechristian scientists that, of course,
have their own religiousbeliefs, but they're able to be accommodated.
So overall, I think we're awelcoming city, state, county, not
(01:03:31):
so much sometimes, but wereally strive to make our lives better
within our communities.
Sounds great, Gary. Well,Gary, thank you so much for coming
to the podcast and sharingyour experiences and thoughts about
Vancouver, Washington. Wedefinitely appreciate it and thank
(01:03:54):
you so much.
You are quite welcome, Mark,thank you. And hopefully people will
find the perfect home for themand they retire as well.
I'm sure they will. Thanks, Gary.
You're welcome.
We'll see you. Bye bye.
Thank you for listening to theWhere do gays retire? Podcast. If
(01:04:14):
you enjoyed today's episode,please subscribe to our podcast and
consider making a donation byclicking the coffee cup on any page
at www.wheredogaysretire.com.each cup of coffee that you buy costs
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your continued support.
Welcome to the where do gaysretire? Podcast, where we help you
in the LGBTQ community find asafe and affordable retirement place.
Join Mark Goldstein as heinterviews others who live in gay
friendly places around theglobe. Learn about the climate, cost
of living, healthcare, crimeand safety, and more. Now, here's
(00:23):
your host, Mark Goldstein.
Do you want to know what it'slike to retire in Vancouver, Washington?
Stay tuned to the end andyou'll find out. Our guest today
is Gary Beagle, and I'll tellyou a little bit about Gary. Gary
(00:45):
is CEO for EntrustmentNorthwest, a Washington state and
Oregon out of state charteredtrust company with its corporate
office in Vancouver,Washington. A northwest transplant
for the last 30 years. He wasoriginally from Texas, where he grew
up on a ranch. Mister Beaglehas a bachelor of science degree
(01:08):
in social work from West TexasA and M and did a postgraduate studies
in finance at the Universityof Texas. Mister Beagle was inducted
to the 2014 West Texas A and MCommunications hall of Fame. He is
a college football,basketball, and rugby fan with a
(01:29):
fondness for bourbon, reading,and travel. Welcome, Gary. Welcome
to the podcast. Thank you somuch for coming. I do appreciate
it very much.
You're quite welcome. Nice tofinally be able to do the podcast,
Mark.
Thank you. So let's start off,Gary. Can you tell us a little bit
(01:51):
about yourself and yourbackground and what brought you to,
to Vancouver and what kept you there?
I grew up, as you mentioned,on a ranch up near Amarillo, Texas,
and did my postgraduate workat University of Texas and was doing
banking as a part time tellerto pay for my education. And so at
(02:14):
that point in time, socialwork did not pay anything. It was
very low paying. So I wasactually making more as I could as
a social worker, as a parttime teller. So I went in and became
a branch manager for a savingsalone back in those days, and then
went to when I went to workedwith them. And then I moved to Houston
(02:37):
to become director ofoperations for another savings and
loan called United Savings.And my expertise is mergers and acquisitions
on the operational side. So Iwas recruited by US bank Corps in
Portland and Washington mutualout of Seattle. And I selected to
(02:57):
come to Portland because I hadmy aunt and uncle lived in Salem.
I'd been to Portland. Portlandwas just a pristine, beautiful city
and went to work for us Bancorhandling their mergers and acquisitions
of some of their banks thatthey were bringing into their environment.
And then I ran across a friendof mine from West Texas A and M who
(03:21):
actually was working for awoman who had a professional fiduciary
agency, and that blended bothmy talents of social work and finance
together. I bought the firm in1992 and here I am today. Wow. Staying
because I love this area ofthe world. It's absolutely stunning.
And we're an hour from thecoast, an hour from the mountains.
(03:45):
And the weather in the spring,summer and fall is excellent. It's
a little gray during thewinter, but I'm always happy to come
back to Vancouver into my home here.
I kind of have some similarbackground in financial because although
I didn't work in the corporateactions area of a brokerage firm,
(04:09):
I did work in back officeoperations and alongside of corporate
actions and reorganizationwith merges and acquisitions. So
it's a small world.
It is a small world.
Can you describe the climatein Vancouver, Washington? That part
of the country, PacificNorthwest, they do tend to get a
(04:35):
little bit more precipitationthan other parts of the country.
Can you tell us what newresidents could expect during the
year?
Well, I think there's a littlemyth out there about getting participate
raining more than other partsof the country. Houston, to be honest
with you, gets a whole lotmore rain than we do here in the
Pacific Northwest. Ours isnormally not a downpour. It's more
(05:00):
misty and gray. It'll last forsome time than not. So the winters
are because of the how farnorth we are. The sunset and sunrise
makes it dark in the morning,dark in the evening, and that's a
little dreary. But if you comeand experience the spring, summer
(05:21):
and fall, you cannot beat theweather. We're very moderate temperature
wise, the summer has gotten alittle hotter, and I think that's
due to climate change. Indoing it, we're hitting some 90 degree
weather, but over 60% of thecitizens of Vancouver do not have
air conditioning because it'snot usually that hot. So it's really
(05:45):
a wonderful environment to dothat. This fall we have all the trees,
the lovely change of color,the spring, everything comes out.
And unlike other parts of thecountry where I have lived in the
past, our plants and ourvegetation do not burn up because
it's so hot. So we have a verycolorful spring here and it's just
(06:07):
beautiful. So that's what youcan expect. I will say that we do
take off during the gray timeof the weather. We're 2 hours by
flight on to Palm springs orto Cuthbert, California. So people
tend to do that during thewintertime. Take off where have direct
flights into Hawaii. So peopletend to want to avoid that winter.
(06:32):
And yes, so after the winter,like in the fall or the spring. I'm
sorry. It does clear up and itstops raining.
It does. It's like turning aswitch, almost. You can tell when
that thing. When the seasonchanges. Today, for example, it's
sunny and warm. We're inOctober. It's 67 degrees. It's perfect
(06:55):
out there. I'm in shortsleeves and everyone's out and about
doing things. And I think oneof the things that I love about the
northwest is we're not stuckinside during the summertime because
it's so hot.
Like us in Phoenix.
Exactly, exactly. So we havethe ability to get out and to hike
(07:15):
and bike and do all thephysical activities that people want
to do. But we also have a verygood cultural scene as well.
Do you think with climatechange that more people will be opting
in for air conditioning?
Probably so. I think thebuilding of the homes now are doing
the air conditioning, andthere probably will be more of that.
(07:39):
But again, it really dependson how much the individuals can take
without air conditioning isgoing to be the driving factor.
And I could see a lowerelectric bill in Vancouver because
of the, you know, the timesthat you won't be needing air conditioning
in the winter and the fall,maybe in the spring.
(08:03):
That's correct. But also wehave a public utility, Clark County
Public Utilities inBonneville, which is the leading
generator of electricitythrough the Columbia river system.
We get our electricity veryinexpensively here. So, for example,
probably at our house, and wedo have air conditioning. We probably
(08:25):
pay in the summer $70 to doit. So we're not at the. We're not
at risk of having anothercompany such as PGE or one of the
larger providers come in andhike up the prices. We are publicly
owned, which means myself, asa user of it, is part of the owner
(08:47):
of the public utility. So Ithink that's what makes us extremely
unique. We do some solarenergy and wind energy through the
Columbia Gorge, but overall,it's very inexpensive due to the
Bonneville power plants thatwe utilize.
That's great. Can you tell usabout the geography in the area?
Any notable natural featuresor outdoor activities that are available?
(09:12):
Absolutely. We are mountainousaround the valley. We have within
our driving distance, we haveMount Hood, which is skiing Mount
St. Helens, which everybodyhas probably familiar with because
it did erupt to do that. Butthere's there Mount Rainier up near
(09:33):
Seattle, Mount Adams, which isnear us as well. And then you can
go to the Bend region and haveMount Batchelor for skiing and I
snowboarding and all thewonderful winter activities. That
you do. And it is sunnyusually up on the mountains. When
I've gone up during thewintertime, it's been. It'll have
snow with the sun is out andabout. So that's really good. We're
(09:56):
also. This is the valley wherePortland is extended out to the Willamette
valley, which is a large breadbasket for the rest of the world
and country where everythingis grown through that valley. But
also, we're an hour and a halffrom the coast, the Pacific coast.
(10:16):
Oregon's coastline isabsolutely beautiful. It's got rugged,
you know, rugged appearancesto it, which is great. The Washington
up around Long beach does nothave as nice of a look to it. It's
pretty standard. It reminds meof Galveston, Texas, actually. But
(10:37):
we do have a rainforest up onthe peninsula as well. So here you
will have, you can experiencejust all sorts of type of topography.
If you go up toward MountHood, there's the plateaus there.
It's high, a desert, and ithas a different feel, a different
(10:58):
look to it. And so you canexperience that all within probably
an hour and a half drive fromVancouver. Then, of course, we have
Seattle, which is two and ahalf hours, and Portland, which is
just five minutes, tenminutes. Absolutely. Five minutes
over across the bridge.
That makes it convenient.We'll talk a little bit about that,
(11:19):
too. And savings. So let's getinto cost of living. How would you
rate the cost of living inVancouver as compared to other cities
in Washington or in comparisonto the us average?
Well, thanks to us doing thepodcast, I actually did research
(11:41):
on it, found out we're prettygood. We're 11% less than any other
city in Washington state, andthat's the Seattle area. We're probably
more is better here with that.The median house prices are still
fairly reasonable. It's500,000 approximately. But Vancouver
(12:02):
is made up of its city itself.But Clark county is made up of several
smaller cities, such asWashougal, Camas, Ridgefield, Yockult,
battleground. And the CamasWashougal is considered to be the
higher price, higher end ofreal estate because of the school
(12:22):
districts that they have andbecause of the provider of services
that they do through that,Ridgefield is quickly coming up.
It's smaller cities that dothat with a higher quality of life,
I think you will see in them.Vancouver has an excellent one, but
they're very small cities,easy to get around and do that. So.
(12:43):
And I think the cost here ofthe economic advantages is we have
no state income tax, so wehave lots of people moving in from
other parts of the country,California, Oregon, even that really
can benefit by not havingtheir incomes taxed by the state.
(13:04):
It also applies toentrepreneurs who are selling companies.
They always move over hereprior to selling them to do that.
Also, Oregon has no statesales tax, so you can actually drive
ten minutes across the boardor purchase large items and not pay
sale tack and come it backinto Vancouver. So you have all of
(13:26):
those advantages to you in thecost of living. So I know Oregon's
a 10% approximately stateincome tax, so if you live over there,
you're going to pay 10%.Unfortunately, if you work over in
Oregon, they're going to taxyou off your income. But we have
a lot of companies that havemoved over here from Portland, large
(13:47):
companies. Zoom, who does Zoominfo is here, headquartered here.
Banfield Pet hospitals andclinics aren't here. Fisher's investment
has a big company building andinfrastructure here as well. So I
think you see a lot of peoplemoving into this area just because
(14:09):
of the tax situation.
Yeah, it makes it kind ofconvenient. You just, if you do your
Costco shopping, you can go doit over the bridge in Portland and
save on sales tax.
Exactly, exactly. And I thinkthe state of Washington, my sense
is, and I've lived inWashington for ten years, and here
over 20 years, is theWashington state is much better run.
(14:31):
And there's lots of reasonsfor that. We have, you take Seattle,
we have some of the largestcorporations in the world, Amazon,
Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks.Costco is located out of Kirkland,
Washington. That's where youget the Kirkland brands. And so we
collect a lot of taxes. And sothose taxes are used for rainy day
(14:54):
funds and for, to make sure wehave money. If we run into issues
with the economy and weactually provide better services
for our citizens than Oregondoes. Oregon has what they call a
kickback, which means that ifthey overestimate the income coming
in, it automatically goes backto the taxpayers. So they don't build
(15:16):
the nest eggs that they needto. And they're at, their budgets
are pretty, pretty tight overthere. But we do better in that one.
I think the services arebetter. I mean, you can go into the
local DMV and get taken careof fairly quickly and they are rated.
You fill out a form and rateyour service with that particular
(15:37):
state agency.
Awesome. So do you know whatthe median home price is in Vancouver?
I did look that up. It's556,000 is the average. But in the,
it's lower in the Vancouverdowntown area, which surprised me.
(15:59):
But again, I talked a littlebit about the Camas Washougal area,
and those are more. If you'refamily oriented and wanting school
districts, you're going to gointo those towns just because of
the ranking of the educationsystem. They rank very high within
the state of Washington, upagainst the Seattle suburbs and do
(16:22):
that. So you'll see more highprices up there. But you'll also
see that we've in Vancouverproper, we have boomed and have really
done some great things withthe development of condos, apartments,
other housings within that system.
So as I understand,Vancouver's downtown was, or riverfront
(16:49):
they were building up, right?And they built that up, supposed
to be beautiful. And I don'tknow what's on it to offer people.
I don't know if they'rerestaurants or what have you. How
is Vancouver set up?
You have three distinct areas.You have the waterfront, you have
(17:13):
the downtown area, and thenyou have the uptown area, which is
where my office is located.The waterfront itself was the port
of Vancouver set out a masterplan and it's been implemented, which
is great. We have apartments,condos. We have probably 20 restaurants
(17:34):
down there now. Some of theSeattle larger restaurants have come
down, such as 13 coinsgauchos, which is a steakhouse type
thing. Wildfin. We have ahispanic restaurant, more on the
Miami scene with tap tapasinto lots of wine tasting places
(17:56):
because Washington and Oregonhave become pretty well known in
the wine industry, is havingsome really good wines from the vineyards.
And so they have thoseparking. Has they built a new parking
garage down there. We have anew high end senior housing type
of facility coming in, whichis shows that those people know that
(18:21):
this is going to be a goodarea to do. They're further developing
it. We're going to be havingsomething similar to Pikes market
up in Seattle. They'restarting to work on that. I think
that'll be good. We have oneof the, it's just a great area to
walk and to visit and do it.They do summer concerts there and
(18:41):
then you have all thenightlife that you could want there.
Sounds like a destination now.
It is. In fact, you walk overthere and you'll see more Oregon
car blade cars than Washington.
They're coming over.
They are. And we have friendsthat come over routinely because
the restaurants are very goodand you don't have the hassle of
the parking and the drivingthat you do.
(19:03):
And part of it.
Yeah, the downtown area is thecore. They're redoing a little bit
of it. We have one of the bestSaturday markets I think I've seen
in my experience, it's locateddowntown. We have a large park called
Esther short where all theevents are held. So the pride in
(19:25):
the park, which is our LGBTQcelebration, is held there. We have
brew Fest there. We have jazzfest. We have any type and every
type of outdoor activity youwould want to experience. And the
market is there, and theparking is great. Downtown has some
good restaurants as well, andwe'll be able to take of that. And
(19:45):
downtown has some corporateoffices here as well. And then if
you come to the uptown area,it's a little more laid back, I would
say, than the waterfront haslots of. It's a lot of walkability
and has great restaurantsthrough here. Housing is. Neighborhood
(20:06):
is right. Neighborhoods areright attached to the downtown into
the uptown area. And you mightnot know this, but Vancouver was
voted the number one hipstercity in America a couple, three years
ago by british term. And thereason for that is we have the per
capita. We have the number onethrift shops per capita, which is
(20:27):
what hipsters want, marijuanashops, of course, brew pubs. And
the housing was part of thatas well. The cost of housing was
on that one, and as well asjust the total walkability of the
area. So we done well in doingthat. And our city council has done
(20:47):
a good job of working withdevelopers to ensure that the viability
and the walkability and isdone within these projects.
So talking about walkability.So the riverfront, I'm assuming,
is walkable?
Yes.
So you can walk. And how long.How far does that stretch, the riverfront?
(21:12):
Oh, it probably stretches a mile.
Okay.
To that. Downtown is verywalkable. Uptown is very walkable.
There's a. And you have torealize these are. But against each
other for their blocks. Justblocks. We've got a new four Seasons
grocery store here, verysimilar to whole foods. It's local,
(21:37):
and they promote local produceand everything else at the farmers
market as well. So you dothat. But it's very walkable between
all three of the areas that I described.
But Vancouver is still set upwhere you do need a car, correct?
That is correct. And one ofthe things I was just thinking about
(21:59):
that is you have a lot.Vancouver is part of the Portland
metro area, and we areWashingtonians. We are not Oregonians.
And so it's kind ofinteresting to see how the dynamics
work, because we do have totake our local paper here, which
is very. It's been in over 150years here to get our news about
(22:20):
Washington. But if you wantthe. We have what we call C Tran,
which is an excellent systemhere. It does feed into the Portland
metro system there. And sothey just go across the river. We
have a max line light railthat you can get onto. We have buses
(22:40):
that you turn, rules you cando over there. But I would say it's
lacking in publictransportation. It is. It's probably
one of the areas that I wouldsay that we're do not compare to
other cities.
So does the light rail go fromVancouver to Portland?
(23:05):
No, we're. That's on theplans. We're getting a new I five
bridge. The part of the planis for that to come over Vancouver.
And Washingtonians have been alittle resistant of that. Just because
the state changes the states.Well, it's going to change the culture.
Yeah. Yeah. Can you imaginehaving a light rail that goes to
Costco?
(23:28):
Exactly.
They'd be going back and forth.
Yeah, so. Exactly.
Okay, so, so as far as utilitycosts, we kind of went over air conditioning,
but as far as utilities,water, sewer, electric, gas and electric
(23:51):
cable, how reasonable orunreasonable are they?
Well, I think the utilities,and I'll talk about cable and Internet
services separately. Theutilities of water, gas, electricity,
all of that is extremelyreasonable. It's a lot less than
what I was paying over inPortland and still pay on some properties
(24:15):
that I have over there. So Ican tell you that it's very reasonable.
Like I said, the publicutility for electricity is actually
something that really benefitsthe individuals utilizing the service.
The city is very well run onthat, and I think that the utilities
are very reasonable comparedto that. I think if you add all the
(24:38):
utilities, the gas goes upduring the winter for us because
of the heating cost,electricity, water, which includes
a lot of storms, stormassessments, sewer assessments, I
think it's probably around 125a month would average out is what
mine does. And I have, we havea 1500 square foot house, and that's
(25:02):
probably, our water bill ismore high during the spring summer
area because we have a quarteracre lot to do it. So it's a little
higher on that one. The cableservice and Internet, I'll break
down. Cable is expensive here.Comcast is the Xfinity is the provider.
(25:23):
You can look at other options.We recently just dropped our cable
entirely through that one. Wehave an Internet system with a Fire
TV from Amazon. It's running$112 a month for that service. You
can get it less maybe throughCenturyLink, which is another provider,
or people are switching to TMobile has a program out there, but
(25:47):
it's about a $100 for that. Iwould say okay for the Internet.
Okay. Sounds reasonable.
It is, actually. Once you gotrid of the cable, it's.
Right. Yeah, I've done thattoo. The only thing I have is cable,
Internet, and everything else.I don't have cable tv. I stream everything
(26:07):
from Netflix.
Yeah, exactly.
Are there any particularexpenses that newcomers should be
wearer aware of, like insurance?
The insurance is fairlyreasonable here. We're not. The only
thing we're kind of out thereon is earthquake insurance. Might
(26:30):
be more expensive or difficultto get the regular insurance because
we haven't had that manycatastrophes here in this part of
the world. So it's a lotdifferent than what I would imagine
Florida or the Carolinas areright now. To do that one, my house
insurance runs about, and Icarry large limits on everything.
(26:52):
It's about $200 a month, butthat includes my umbrella policy
and everything else that Ihave in there. The auto insurance
is decent compared to maybesome other cities and that as well.
But. So the insurances arevery reasonable here for. Compared
to Oregon in some areas now.
(27:14):
That we bring up earthquakes.So Vancouver is on the fault line,
correct?
It is.
Since you've been livingthere, have you experienced any earthquakes,
tremors in the last 30 years?
One. That's a minor one.That's it. I've experienced more
in Palm Springs than I havehere, actually.
(27:37):
So do they say the big one iscoming and is the big one going to
affect your fault line asopposed to the California fault line?
It might. One of the thingsthat you have to realize is the concern
is a tsunami effect up theColumbia river coming into it. And
(27:58):
we have several dams in theColumbia river that if they are breached,
would certainly cause somemajor flooding damage and flooding
here. But we haven't had toexperience that. St. Helens is pretty
quiet, so we don't expect itto erupt to do it. But, yeah, I've
only experienced one minor onehere in the last 30 years.
(28:22):
That's pretty good. That's farless than California.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Seemed like they getthem quite often. Like every week
they get a few. Okay. Allright, so let's talk a little bit
about the LGBTQ community inVancouver. Now, I don't know if there's
(28:45):
a specific gayborhood. I don'tknow if you have gay bars or is most
of that in Portland.
Well, I think you'll find inthe Portland and Vancouver, the gay
neighborhoods have beendispersed out. And I can tell you
my younger friends that areLGBTQ, and I'm talking thirties,
(29:05):
forties don't feel thenecessity to have a certain area
that they go to. So I thinkthat's the big difference that I
would experience here, andthat might be true of a lot of metropolitan
areas right now. We do have.We're the fourth largest GLBTQ plus
population within the state,Washington, which I was surprised
(29:27):
to find that statistic when Iwas researching to do that. But they
are. We're all out there, butwe're just in different parts of
the cities. We do have a gaybar called the underbar here, which
is excellent. And it. Butthere's lots of people, the neighborhood
folks that come in, notnecessarily LGBTQ, and they're in
(29:48):
the uptown neighborhood. Wehave another one called Sasquatch,
which people are very. Lots ofthe neighborhoods, but a lot of GLBTQ
individuals go to that one aswell. It's an uptown. So I think
that what I'm seeing is alarge presence of people spread out
all over the city. But, youknow, it. We go to the restaurants
(30:12):
that are approving of us andare supportive of us, and so that
would apply to anybody at thatpoint. Portland does have a lot better
social scene if you want to goto bars and that torpedo sort of
thing there. And they have awide range, but they're spread out
as well. They're notnecessarily in one area. We used
(30:35):
to have what we called Starkstreet back when we first moved here,
that had concentration of mostof them. Now there is a few in downtown,
some on the east side, some onthe west side. It's just where people
can get to and do that. Butthere's a lot of neighborhood bars
that people go to that arejust more. That are accepting and
(30:55):
closer. And to do that area,cultural wise, we do have a very
strong presence of things thatoccur here. Like I talked about pride
in the park, which is separatefrom the gay pride over in Portland.
It's much smaller scale, butit's a wonderful event, and it'll
(31:16):
last all day Saturday. The oneI went to, we just went to at this
last time, lots of performers,lots of people out in the, you know,
community booths, resourcesare all there for people to look
at, so. But they also have alot of plays, a lot of symphony is
(31:37):
here. I'm on the board of thePortland Gaming Chorus. We do events
over here. In fact, we'redoing one in next few months at Magenta
Theater, which is a smallervenue here. And then we have a lot
of the wineries that supportand are owned by GLBTQ plus individuals,
(31:58):
the tasting rooms. So wesupport those as well. Portland gives
you a much more bigger senseof culture in that we have the plays
come into Portland, theBroadway, the singers, all that.
We have the Arlene SchnitzerAuditorium, which is probably like
the old Fox theaters, whereit's a beautiful venue. Have a smaller
(32:19):
one literally across thestreet to do that. And then the reaser
family, one of the Rieserfamily members, built a resa center
out in Beaverton. And Portlandgaming's course has actually performed.
There was one of the initialperformers, inaugural performers
there. So there's a lot ofactivities to do. You just have to
(32:39):
look around them to determinewhat they are to do it.
What's the population of Vancouver?
Vancouver is about 100,000, alittle over 100. The metro area of
all the cities is around500,000. Okay, so we're a fairly
large metropolitan area thatis not an oregonian right area.
(32:59):
And Portland, do you know whatthe population in Portland is?
Yes, I did look that up. It'sone point, a little 1.3 million,
1.4.
It's quite a substantialdifference between the both sides.
Yes. If you look at the bothsides of it, we're still small enough
where you can get aroundfairly easily.
Right.
By car and bike, bytransportation. Portland is a more.
(33:23):
Parking is an issue. All ofthose issues over there that a large
metropolitan area has. But wehave the benefit of just being able
to plug in to the Portlandarea very easily because we're just
across the river.
Got it. So the HRC municipalequality index scores a 74 for Vancouver,
(33:52):
which is a little bit low inmy. And I was kind of surprised.
Well, the one I saw was 60, soI was very surprised by that, too.
Yeah, I just pulled it out,and so I was thinking about why that
is, and I'm not really sure. Ithink that the east county, which
is pretty red politically anda lot of things, is. I don't think
(34:16):
we have the infrastructure forgay GLBTQ individuals, and I'm talking
about the medical specificallyfor them. And a large part of our
firms probably, you know,Fisher investments is one that is
very conservative. Jim Fisheris very conservative. And I think
(34:37):
that probably affects a littlebit of those type of corporations
that are here, that are intothat with HRC. I'm not real sure
why they.
I'd have to look more closely,but I think it's. It has to do with
the rights of the people thatwork for the city or what the city
(35:01):
has implemented as far asLGBTQ plus rights for the city. But
I have to. I'd have to checkinto that a little bit more.
I think, Mark, they'reprobably taking a look at the other
cities within the area ofVancouver, and they have not been
as supportive of lgbtq type ofevents. Battleground is one of those
(35:26):
to do it. Vancouver we have TyStober is our representative gay
on there is Mayor pro Tim. Themayor is very pro gay. They're all
there and usually do a lot ofpromoting businesses to particular.
And I. The city, I think, doesa good job of unions. The unions
(35:47):
here do that for that. So I'msurprised by that as well. But they
might be incorporating some ofthose more. Yakal, for example, is
very red out there.
Got it. Okay. Do you know howthe local government and communities
support lgbtq rights andinclusion? I mean, is the government.
(36:13):
Do you see the governmentproactively doing anything?
Absolutely. The city itselfand county is more conservative.
The county overallcommissioners is more conservative.
So you're not going to get thesupport within those camp within
the county itself. But in thecity of Vancouver, Ridgefield, Camas
(36:35):
and Washougal, you will. Infact, Washougal had a GBTQ individual
that was the commissioner headover the police in Washougal. So
they're very pro that you canbe out and still serve in those cities.
And I public domain as well asin councilmen and that sort of thing.
(36:57):
Like I said, we have. One ofour city councilmen is an out gay
man, lives in the Halcneighborhood, which is just right
adjacent to downtown area.Also our state government is. My
district is very democratic.Both of our senators, both of our
(37:17):
representatives and senatorare Democrats. The rest of the districts
are red, so the outlying areasand the rural areas are very red
in that distinction. Butluckily, we have a super majority
of the Democrats in the House.All of the state elected officials
are Democrats. That mightchange in the newest election. We
(37:40):
have one Republican that. Thatmay become the land commissioner.
I'm not sure, but she's fromVancouver. Actually. She was our
state national repert uscongresswoman for several years.
We did switch the House thislast time from red to blue. I think
it's going to maintain that.So we have a lot of really good support
(38:02):
from the state government. JimMohler, who has deceased, unfortunately,
was a friend of mine, and hewas the house speaker for Washington
for several years and camefrom my district here at the 49th
district.
Okay, let's get intohealthcare. So healthcare is very
important when it comes toretirement in any city or place.
(38:27):
What is the quality of thehealthcare like in Vancouver? Are
there any LGBTQ friendlyproviders and facilities?
Well, overall, going to lumpthem together again. The Portland
and Vancouver metro Vancouverhas a wonderful hospital system here
(38:49):
between legacy and peacehealth, which is a Catholic, nonprofit
hospital, but they doextremely well on taking care of
emergency areas. We have theVancouver clinic here, which is large,
and they have severallocations. You can ask for GLBTQ
providers, and they are seenat our pride in the park and will
(39:13):
help you find one if you'relooking for that. We also are very
easy to get into the Medicaresystem here. We don't deny it's easy
to find a doctor that willaccept them. And you have also Kaiser
Permanente, which is actuallystarted in the Portland with the
Kaiser shipyards. And they areprobably a great HMO system through
(39:39):
that. My company provideshealth insurance through Kaiser as
well due to the cost in doingit. But they have Kaiser clinics
over here in Vancouver. If youneed specialists that can't be provided
here, you have easy access tothe Oregon and Portland providers
over there. So I think overallit's excellent. My mom is 95, and
(40:02):
she has found, through theVancouver clinic, found to be very
well taken care of through thedoctors and the programs there. Kaiser
does the same thing. You justhave to be a little more advocate,
advocate for yourself in thatsystem. Sometimes due to the HMO
component hospital systems,legacy is top rated. Peace Health
(40:23):
is top rated, but legacy is amore. Is a better regular rated than
that. Legacy has also got allthe hospitals in the Portland area.
We have Oregon Health ScienceUniversity hospitals over there,
so which is does great workand far as if you have a specialty
(40:45):
you need, it is over there. Ifyou're a VA veteran, we have the
VA hospital and a smallerfacility here in Vancouver, but the
big ones over in Portland. Soyou have a wide range and selection
of providers here, and it'svery easy to locate. And the Vancouver
clinics are all over the cityand utilize. My mom utilizes them
(41:09):
because it's close to herassisted living facility on going
out. So I think you will findthat you've got really good health
care here to be provided andthat it's easy access for someone
that's retired on Medicare.
How long would you say ittakes to make an appointment with
a specialist or even yourgeneral practitioner?
(41:30):
I think it. I can tell you myexperience has been you just go online,
set the appointment upyourself. A lot of times they're
doing the zoom type ofappointment, so you can do that virtual
into that. If you need aspecialist, it really depends on
what it's required. You makethe call. But once you get into the,
(41:54):
they're supposed to call youback. If they don't, you call them,
then they will get you in tosee that. The primary provider is
very easy for me to get into.My health provider and he's a, can't
even talk today, a gayindividual. So I feel comfortable
with that. My Vancouver clinicdocs are all of gay supportive as
well, so I don't have anyproblems with those whatsoever. So
(42:18):
I think it's an ease ofgetting into the system. Is very
good.
How about appointments? Is itlike two weeks? Would you thank for
going in?
I had an appointment with mydoctor, went in one day and got it
the next.
Oh, wow.
So I mean, it really is thatsort of system. Now, Kaiser might
be a little differently thanif you're on Medicare and you have
(42:42):
the other benefits to do that.But Kaiser will tend to, if you have
an issue that you need to getaddressed fairly quickly, will do
that. And I have used Kaiserbefore and they will be able to do
that for you.
Okay. How close is the nearesthospital to you?
Oh, ten minutes.
Okay. That's definitely close enough.
(43:03):
Legacy is probably 20 minutes.And that's the preferred hospital
that I utilize because theVancouver clinic uses them as well
as my primary dog.
Okay.
We have lots of urgent care.
Yeah. All over the city.
City. All over the city.
Yeah, that's good too. Allright. We pretty much touched on
(43:24):
transportation and walkabilityalready. Transportation is just really
light rail and buses.
It's not even light rail. Oh,it's buses. And that's the one thing
that we're lacking. I wouldsay if you wanted to move here without
a car, you would havedefinitely have to be down in the
(43:46):
waterfront. You'd have anissue downtown or a high issue. You
would have an issue. Absolutely.
Okay. Very good. Now, the taxadvantages, we did touch upon that
as well. Um, I like that idea,though. Um, no state tax. And you
go right, ten minutes awayinto Portland and you have. Yeah,
(44:07):
no sales tax. So that's reallygood. How about, um, does Washington,
um, tax you on 401K IRAwithdrawals, um, or.
Not on the state level?
Not on. Oh, that's right,because they don't have state tax.
Yeah, it's on the federal level.
(44:29):
Okay. So all of that is zero,which is nice.
I do have some statistics onthe metro area. We're, like I said,
we're around 500,516, but ourmedian age is 38. The median income
is around 91,000.
Okay.
For us, which is fairlydecent, poverty is 8.5%. For the
(44:52):
Clark County Vancouver. And Ithink that that is pretty decent.
I will address the homelesssituation, which all large cities
are done. Portland has muchmore issues than we do in Vancouver.
We, as a electorate in thecity of Vancouver, voted to tax ourselves
(45:12):
to provide services for thehomeless. And so what we have done
is through the VancouverHousing Authority, they have purchased
two hotel hotels out near thevault mall area, converted those
into housing. We have housingdistricts with pallet, little houses
in it that are segregated anddone well. The only issue is that
(45:35):
we have is the camping thing,but they've really tried to work
through the issues of that. Idon't see any of the homeless areas
except down in toward the portarea where there's grain and deliveries
and things like that. We dohave a trail that we do runs through
(45:55):
the city, and you'll seepockets of that there. But they've
done a good job of reallyworking within the community to address
these issues. I don't know howto solve them on it, but I can tell
you that stepping forward attaxing ourselves and I purchasing
the two hotels to put peoplein, they have other housing authority,
(46:19):
has other avenues to go. Ithink that is the best that I've
seen here compared to Portlandor other cities of our size.
Yeah, I know Portland is. Hasa big homeless population.
They do.
And I wonder if people, ifsome of the homeless have come over
(46:40):
the bridge. Is it a walking bridge?
It is a walking bridge, andyou can. But I think we have. Portland's
been very slow in implementingcamping regulations. Vancouver started
and did it originally onto it.So there is restrictions on where
you can camp and how long youcan camp. And they enforce those,
(47:03):
meaning pitching a.
Tent right in the middle ofthe street.
We don't have them pinchingthe tent in the middle of the street.
They can't do that here inVancouver, but they can be out in,
like I said, the trail openareas. They can't even be in the
parks to do that one. So thereis only segregated areas that they
can do it. We offer them theability to find housing, help with
(47:27):
housing, but it's not electedat times to do that. So that's what
you've got.
Got it. All right, let's gomove on to arts and culture. What
does Vancouver have to offeras far as arts and culture scene?
Is there an arts and culturescene? Do they have live theater,
(47:48):
museums, opera, whatnot?
Again, we're tied to thePortland area, so you would find
the symphonies, the largersymphony, the opera over there. We
do have a symphony here inVancouver. It's very well attended.
I've attended those. We have alots of plays, but they're local
type of plays that come in. Wehave a lot of venues for singers
(48:12):
and to come in and perform inclubs and that sort of thing here.
We do have the Clark countyamphitheater out near the Clark county
fairgrounds, which I will givea plug to, is one of the best county
fairs I've ever been to, and Igo annually, but we have large groups
come in. Imagine dragons wasjust here. We had, Rod Stewart was
(48:34):
here. Cindy Lauper was here.You have all of the country western
venues, singers here. And soyou have the ability to attend those
things within a very 20minutes drive from here, getting
into the parking lot. It's alittle hectic, but other than that,
you can do it. The tickets arefairly reasonable for that. So you
have a large area of that. Youhave a native american casino here
(48:58):
called L and A. And they alsohave lots of music venues there.
In doing that, we're probablylacking in the plays and that type
of venue, but Portland hasthem. We have a GLBTQ play house
that performs there. We havethe Keller auditorium provides a
(49:21):
large venue for musicals thatare on the road and come through.
And then the Snitzer has thesymphony, the opera, and those type
of events there. So we have alarge cultural scene tied into the
Portland area. But you cancertainly have culture and arts and
(49:41):
singing and all of that withinVancouver as well, which we've elected
to do. The Portland gamingchorus is located, and we sing out
of Portland, either in theBeaverton locations, which you've
done, or the downtownPortland. But we're branching out
and doing venues over here as well.
Got to start the gay men'schorus in Vancouver.
(50:02):
Well, a lot of Vancouver menand like myself are it. We have 200
singers on it, and I would sayprobably 50. Are those singers are
Vancouver individuals?
Yeah, I think a lot of people,they just move over from Portland
to Vancouver.
They, they do.
(50:22):
They like it a little bitbetter. So that's. We won't say anything.
That's true for me. And, and Ialways plug the Vancouver southwest
Washington as being a perfectplace. If you want to experience
Portland and all it has tooffer, you can do that. But tax wise
and smaller size anddrivability and all the things. Vancouver
(50:46):
absolutely offers that.
Yeah, I.
To anyone that lives here,very good.
How about dining in restaurants?
We are just so good over here.Like I said, the waterfront has some
of the best restaurants thatyou'll find in the state here. And
the Oregonians flock to therestaurants over here to do it. I'm
(51:09):
surprised a lot of the Seattlebig, well known restaurants have
made a presence here. And Italked a little bit about wildfin
gacho, 13 coins. There's somevery high, very well starred restaurants
here. You can go anything fromthe dives, which is decent food to
(51:31):
do. That one, the oldest onewe have is called Joe Brown's, open
for breakfast and lunch. Andit walks in and you're looking at
the 40 dining scene there. Butgreat hamburgers, great breakfast.
You have Amaro's table, whichhas several restaurants, but they're
really good. And they do havereally good bourbon bar with that.
(51:53):
I know you like bourbon.
I do like bourbon. So that'swhere I go usually to it. And there's
another one that's opened uphere in uptown that has a great bourbon
bar as well. It's tied toO'Shannons, which is more of a beer
type pub with food into thatone. But you can find those very
(52:13):
well. A lot of you can findany type of ethnic food that you
would like within the city,and they're highly rated in those
areas as well. So, yeah, wehave a great restaurant scene, and
you can usually find what you.
There'd be no shortage ofchoices, it sounds like.
That's correct. And good ones.They're really good restaurants.
(52:38):
Awesome. I have to come visit Vancouver.
You do need to come and visit Vancouver.
I do. I do. Absolutely. Andthe food is diverse as far as different
international cuisines.
We have a lot of differentcuisines. We have east indian food,
asian food here. We haveasian, we have hispanic. We have
(53:00):
what I call tech Mex, which iswhat I used to down from Texas area.
Then we have the sea, ofcourse, seafood. My gosh, we are
just. I used to think redlobster was a seafood restaurant
when it was in Texas, but Ihave certainly learned the difference
between that and now. So wehave a lot of that. We have a lot
(53:21):
of the wineries that havepaired grapefruit with it. We have
different types of ethnicfoods on that one. So you can find
a lot of those there. If youdon't have them in Vancouver, they
certainly have them in thePortland area. Cuban is a big one
that I enjoy. We have onerestaurant in Portland area and some
cuban selections here andcertain restaurants here in Vancouver.
(53:45):
Sounds yummy.
It is yummy. Making me hungry.
Yeah, I'm always hungry, so.All right, talk a little bit about
crime and safety. How safe isVancouver for residents, particularly
the LGBTQ individuals andretirees. Would the gay community,
(54:10):
as opposed to anybody else,feel safe in Vancouver? Would you
feel safe if you had to takeyour. If you had a dog? I don't know
if you have a dog, but if youhad to take your dog out at two in
the morning by your house togo to the bathroom, would you feel
safe?
I think the question is yes. Ilooked up the statistics for that.
(54:34):
The city of Vancouver andCamas Ridgefield, all those are a
plus. Are very good to dothat. The pockets where they are
C's are outlying areas. Andthen, of course, the red areas that
I talked about, battlegroundYakult, probably is not as. I would
not want to move there becauseI think that they would not appreciate
(54:57):
the LGBTQ community. The restof the city is fine. We. My husband
Jim, walks all over the city,has no problems with that. Taking
dogs out have no problemswithin these neighborhoods as well.
And I think you will find thata lot of them neighborhoods are safe
(55:18):
because people are acceptingthere might be pockets of some crime
areas that are not as amenableto LGBTQ individuals. But overall,
the city, when I looked at themap, was all a plus, very few c and
maybe four or five little fareas that they got an f on. So I
(55:40):
think that is a good one. Whenyou go across the river, it's a little
different story. But herewe're very good, and we have a very
good police department inVancouver that is welcoming to the
GGLB two Q plus. And we havelots of police officers that are
gay or lesbian. I mean, aretran or whatever. Here.
(56:02):
Would you feel as safe being agay person, LGBTQ person in Vancouver
as you would in Portland?
It depends on the area ofPortland, but 100%, I feel comfortable
in walking and taking. I havehad no fear whatsoever in the Vancouver
(56:26):
area at all. Portland woulddepend on where you are in the neighborhoods.
You are downtown. And I feelcomfortable down there in certain
park pockets of downtown. AndI think that is the good. The areas.
If you're up into the Pearldistrict or the waterfront in Portland,
absolutely not a problem there.
(56:47):
Okay. And that goes kind ofhand in hand sometimes with homeless,
too. So we already touchedbase upon homeless and seeing what
the city could do to alleviatethe problem. It's a big problem.
I think Portland has realizedthat they needed to take care of
(57:07):
the homeless situation in thedowntown area because people were
leaving, people weren't goingdown and doing things that has reversed.
They have a long way to buildthe confidence and trust of individuals
to get back into that. Butlike I said, vancouver really took
the bull by the horns, as Isay in Texas, and really has taken
(57:32):
that homeless issue and reallycontained it and provided services.
Not only they contained it,they provided solutions and services
to it. And I think that's whatdistinguishes us from any other city
that I know because we didthat. And I'm very proud that we
did that.
Awesome. Okay, let's. Inconclusion, for somebody retiring,
(57:58):
considering retiring inVancouver, what advice would you
give them?
I would say that I wouldreally look at Vancouver as being
a place for retirement. Wehave lots of retirees that have moved
up here. In doing it, I thinkthe quality of life is excellent.
The cost and benefit of, ofthe no state income tax and being
(58:20):
able to go across the riverfor no sales tax is great. Our healthcare
systems is highly ratedthrough that, through all the providers
that we can have in the area.I also think that as we age, you
need to look for communitiesthat will be supportive of you.
(58:41):
Absolutely.
For us, we had a condo thathad stairs. We have moved to one
level.
I'm all about one level.
Absolutely. And so there's alot of neighborhoods that have, were
built in the fifties that areone level and are very good. You
have a lot of the downtownarea, which is. Well, if you want
(59:05):
to rent, you can certainly dothat. You don't necessarily have
to buy. There's some greatareas in which to do that. Ease of
getting around is one of thethings that I really like. But I
think just the culture and theweather environments are great. Like
I said, we do get away duringthe grayer season, during the winter
(59:27):
time, but it's green up hereduring the winter and it's beautiful.
It's very green.
The myth that people have isthat we receive more snow than we
do. I don't. I can't remember.We maybe shut down once or twice
a year, but that's justbecause people don't know how to
drive and are scared ofgetting out.
(59:48):
But you don't get that much snow.
We do not. We're in thevalley. The snow happens on the mountains.
It's very unusual for us toget a snowstorm. We might get ice
if it comes up through theColumbia, but very rare. So I think
that overall it's a greatplace. I think you would have. You
can go to. Our city has agreat. Why move? What can you expect
(01:00:10):
when you move to the Vancouverarea website to do that? Yeah.
Awesome.
Yeah, I have. Jim and I bothhave not regretted our move to the
Portland Vancouver area. Welooked at Seattle, but Seattle traffic
remind me a little bit much ofHouston. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(01:00:31):
Can you share a personalanecdote or experience that highlights
what makes living in Vancouverso special for you?
Yes, I think that probably Ifeel very comfortable in interacting
with individuals and workinghere, but we do one of the personal
experiences, we have a VanCook boys event that meets monthly,
(01:00:53):
and so we kind of get togetherwith the guys that are here that
live in Vancouver and all overthe city that get together to honor
that. And I think that's oneof the personal things I would say
is I've met lots ofindividuals through that organization,
and it's a potluck thing. Weused to won one called grits gays
(01:01:14):
raised in the south, but allof them have moved to Palm Springs.
So we do a Friday at Blackbook event during the season where
all the gay guys get togetherthere and talk about our southern
roots. But. Yeah, but it's agreat way to do it. Personally, I
(01:01:36):
think Jim has found a greatenvironment for walking and meeting
people and doing that one.He's a golfer. There's golf here.
I like the golf cart with abar in it, but that's about all of
my golfing experience. I do.But there's lots of activities out
here. So personally, I think Iwould say that I found my home.
(01:02:01):
I would say that, too. You'vebeen there for quite some time.
Yeah, I found my home.
All right. And. Okay, so wewill wrap that up. In closing, would
you like to add anything orshare anything for our listeners
about life in Vancouver?
(01:02:23):
I think I would only sharethat we have had lots of people moving
up here, and the reasons aredifferent, but I think they feel
that they're inclusive here.We are a bubble in the national scene
because we are blue all on thewest coast. I really, I was in Texas,
and I was just taken aback bythe differences between the Texas
(01:02:46):
environment versus ours herein Washington. And they move here
because we have different waysof taking care of our el, as we should
take care of them. But youhave lots of options here. We have
a very good. You don't have tohave money to get good care here.
We have great Medicaid systemsfor that. We have adult family homes,
(01:03:09):
which are five to a home thatallow them to be geared toward GLBTQ
individuals as well as I havechristian scientists that, of course,
have their own religiousbeliefs, but they're able to be accommodated.
So overall, I think we're awelcoming city, state, county, not
(01:03:31):
so much sometimes, but wereally strive to make our lives better
within our communities.
Sounds great, Gary. Well,Gary, thank you so much for coming
to the podcast and sharingyour experiences and thoughts about
Vancouver, Washington. Wedefinitely appreciate it and thank
(01:03:54):
you so much.
You are quite welcome, Mark,thank you. And hopefully people will
find the perfect home for themand they retire as well.
I'm sure they will. Thanks, Gary.
You're welcome.
We'll see you. Bye bye.
Thank you for listening to theWhere do gays retire? Podcast. If
(01:04:14):
you enjoyed today's episode,please subscribe to our podcast and
consider making a donation byclicking the coffee cup on any page
at www.wheredogaysretire.com.each cup of coffee that you buy costs
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