Localities like Vancouver must now play catch-up ball if they want to be as livable as cities in Oregon. In effect, Clark County has served as a relief valve for Portland's development pressures, Zuzel wrote. Since 1970, the county's population has zoomed 127 percent to nearly 350,000. Vancouver's population was 47,000 in 1990. Growth combined with a large annexation of land from the county have taken the city's population to 135,000.
Many residents use Vancouver as a bedroom community to commute to jobs in Portland.
They tend to do a lot of their shopping in Portland, too, because Oregon has no sales tax. Money they spend in Oregon is money they don't spend at stores and other businesses in Vancouver. Washington has no income tax, but Washingtonians who work in Oregon must pay Oregon's income tax. Clark County got 2.2 people for every new job created between 1990 and 1997, according to Zuzel. Multnomah County, Ore., which includes Portland, created 1.4 jobs for every new resident it got.