Portland’s mortal community is largely untouched by the hand of the Supernatural. The day to day lives of mortals is there own, with few exceptions.
Government
The city of Portland is governed by the Portland City Council, which includes the Mayor and four other Commissioners; and an auditor. Each is elected citywide to serve a four year term. The auditor provides checks and balances in the commission form of government and accountability for the use of public resources. In addition, the auditor provides access to information for all Council members and the public and issues reports on various matters of city government.
The city's Office of Neighborhood Involvement serves as a conduit between city government and 95 neighborhood associations, which are grouped into seven coalitions. Each neighborhood association defines its own boundaries, which may include areas outside of Portland city limits and (if mutually agreed) areas that overlap with other neighborhoods. Neighborhoods may span boundaries between the five sections (N, NE, SE, SW, and NW) of the city as well. The segmentation adopted here is based on ONI's district coalition model, under which each neighborhood is part of at most one coalition (though some neighborhoods are not included in any). The seven coalitions are:
Neighbors West/Northwest
Southwest Neighborhoods, Inc.
North Portland Neighborhood Services
Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods
Central Northeast Neighbors, Inc.
East Portland Neighborhood Office
Southeast Uplift Neighborhood Program
Portland and its surrounding metropolitan area are also served by Metro, the United States' only directly elected regional government. Metro's charter includes land use and transportation planning, solid waste management, and map development. It also owns and operates the Oregon Convention Center, Oregon Zoo, Portland Center for Performing Arts, and Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center. The Multnomah County government also provides many services to the Portland area, along with that of Washington and Clackamas Counties to the west and south.
Getting to Portland
Getting to the city is really rather simple. The most direct route into the city is by way of one of the major highways. I-5 connects Portland with the Willamette Valley, Southern Oregon, and California to the south and with Washington to the north. I-405 forms a loop with I-5 around the central downtown area of the city and I-205 is a loop freeway route on the east side which connects to the Portland International Airport. US 26 supports commuting within the metro area and continues to the Pacific Ocean westward and Mount Hood and Central Oregon eastward. US 30 has a main, bypass and business route through the city extending to Astoria, Oregon to the west; through Gresham, Oregon, and the eastern exurbs, and connects to I-84, traveling towards Boise, Idaho.
Portland International Airport (PDX) is the largest airport in the State of Oregon and the only way into the city by air travel. The Port of Portland owns the airport as well as marine terminals and several industrial parks in the Portland Metro area. Scheduled international flights depart to Japan (Tokyo), Singapore, Germany (Frankfurt), Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City, Cabo San Lucas, and Puerto Vallarta), and Canada (Vancouver, British Columbia). In addition Portland is home to Oregon's only public use heliport, the Portland Downtown Heliport.
Rail travel into the city stops at Union Station in the Old Chinatown section of the city. Amtrack services Portland with three rail routes long-haul train routes include the Coast Starlight (with service from Los Angeles to Seattle) and the Empire Builder (with service from Portland to Chicago.) The Amtrak Cascades commuter trains operate between Vancouver, British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon, and serve Portland several times daily in both directions.
Getting Around Portland
Portland is well-known for its comprehensive public transportation system. The major bus and rail system is operated by TriMet, its name reflecting the three metropolitan counties it serves (Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington). TriMet has a relatively high ridership, and an increasing number of its bus lines come every 15 minutes, seven days a week.
In the heart of downtown Portland is "Fareless Square", within which mass transit rides are free. It consists of two connected sections, the much larger of which is bounded roughly by the Willamette River to the east, Irving Street and Union Station to the north, and I-405 to the west and south. The other section starts at the west side of the Steel Bridge, crosses the Willamette, then continues northwest and then west along a light rail line to Lloyd Center.
The square serves as an extended hub for a hub-and-spoke model within which buses from all directions and light rail converge. The core of that hub is the Portland Transit Mall. Due to light rail construction (the MAX Green Line), the Transit Mall is undergoing major changes.
Portland's MAX Light Rail (short for Metropolitan Area Express) consists of three color-coded lines:
A fourth line, the Green Line, is under construction. It will run from Clackamas Town Center near Clackamas, north along I-205, up to Gateway transit center, where the Blue and Red Lines meet. From there, it would travel westwards towards downtown Portland along the existing tracks and then run along a light rail addition to the Portland Mall. The Green Line is projected to begin service in 2009.
Longer term, MAX may be be extended south past the Portland Mall as the Orange Line. It would continue through Southeast Portland along existing rights-of-way to downtown Milwaukie. No construction date for this extension has been proposed yet, but would occur after the existing Yellow Line is rerouted to also run on the new north-south Portland Mall tracks.
The Portland Streetcar runs on a 7.2-mile continuous loop from Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital at NW 23rd Avenue, on Lovejoy and Northrup, through the Pearl District and on 10th and 11th Avenues, Portland State University, SW River Parkway & Moody (RiverPlace) and to a temporary terminus at the South Waterfront base of the Portland Aerial Tram.
Area urban planners hope to make use of the right-of-way preserved by the Willamette Shore Trolley to nearly double the length of the streetcar line and reach Lake Oswego.
The Washington County Commuter Rail project would connect the cities of Wilsonville, Tualatin and Tigard to TriMet's Beaverton Transit Center, where it would tie into the rest of the TriMet system. This line would not operate the electric light rail cars of the existing MAX system, instead using diesel train cars running on existing Portland and Western Railroad freight rail tracks. Service could potentially begin in 2008.
A more unusual form of public transportation, the Portland Aerial Tram, is an aerial tramway used to connect the South Waterfront district with Oregon Health and Science University on Marquam Hill above. The tram was opened to the public in January 2007.
Portland has earned multiple "bicycle friendly city" awards, including being awarded gold status by the League of American Bicyclists.
An important milestone in Portland's utility cycling infrastructure was the expansion of the sidewalks of Hawthorne Bridge in 1997, which significantly improved the safety and ease of bicycle commuting across the Willamette River. Other bicycle-friendly projects include blue-painted bike lanes, and the Vera Katz Eastbank Esplanade. A more recent project will bring covered bicycle parking to the popular southeast Hawthorne Boulevard shopping district.
Portland is developing a network of bicycle boulevards to make cycling easier and safer. The east side of Portland is particularly well-suited for this technique due to its consistent grid of north/south and east/west streets. The boulevards are defined with a combination of street markings, signage and better signals for crossing busy intersections.
In 2004, the west side of Portland, including Beaverton and Hillsboro, was linked to downtown Portland for bicycles with the construction of the Sunset Highway (US 26) Bike Path. This path reaches to the top of Sylvan Hill from Cedar Hills. From the top of Sylvan hill, cyclists can travel through Washington Park past the Oregon Zoo or continue along the shoulder of Highway 26. The shoulder of Highway 26 is wide enough for commuters going from the west-side to downtown (east-bound). However, the opposite direction is quite narrow at two sections. Cyclists are encouraged to travel through Washington Park going west.
The Yellow Bike Project, one of the first community bicycle programs in the United States, was started in Portland, Oregon in the mid-1990s. This program, which made free bicycles available for un-restricted use, failed initially due to theft and vandalism of the bicycles. The Community Cycling Center, which helped to operate the Yellow Bike Project, has since developed its Create-a-Commuter program, which provides 375 free bicycles per year to individuals.
Some of Portland's bicycling advocates have participated in Critical Mass and ZooBomB activities. In addition, there are marked "Skate Routes" in downtown for roller skaters and skateboarders
Geography
Portland straddles the Willamette River near its confluence with the Columbia River. The denser and earlier-developed west side is mostly hemmed in by the nearby West Hills (Tualatin Mountains), though it extends over them to the border with Washington County. The flatter east side fans out for about 180 blocks, until it meets the suburb of Gresham. Rural Multnomah County lies farther east.
In 1891 the cities of Portland, Albina, and East Portland were consolidated, and duplicate street names were given new names. The "great renumbering" on September 2, 1931 standardized street naming patterns, and changed house numbers from 20 per block to 100 per block. It divided Portland into five sections: Southwest, Southeast, Northwest, North, and Northeast. Burnside St. divides north and south, and the Willamette River divides east and west. The river curves west five blocks north of Burnside and in place of it, Williams Ave. is used as a divider. The North section lies between Williams Ave. and the Willamette River to the west.
The streets of Portland are for the most part laid out on a grid, with named "streets" running perpendicular to the Willamette River and numbered "avenues" running parallel to (and with numbers increasing with distance from) the river. The grid breaks down in hilly regions, particularly in the West Hills, where roads follow the contours of elevation. The "logic" of the grid also breaks down slightly in the North section: it's the only section on the east side where address numbers go higher towards the river. In the rest of the east side, the numbers go higher away from the river.
On the west side, the RiverPlace, John's Landing and South Waterfront Districts lie in a "sixth quadrant" where addresses go higher from west to east toward the river. This "sixth quadrant" is roughly bounded by Naito Parkway and Barbur Boulevard to the west, Montgomery Street to the north and Nevada Street to the south.
Segments
As mentioned, the city of Portland is divided into five segments. Each segment has a distinct flavor to it and encompasses many of the different neighborhoods of the city. What follows is a description of each of the segments.
Southwest
Downtown Portland lies in the Southwest section between the I-405 freeway loop and the Willamette River, centered around Pioneer Courthouse Square ("Portland's living room"). Downtown and many other parts of inner Portland have compact square blocks (200 ft [60 m] on a side) and narrow streets (64 ft [20 m] wide), a pedestrian-friendly combination.
Many of Portland's recreational, cultural, educational, governmental, business, and retail resources are concentrated downtown, including:
Beyond downtown, the Southwest section also includes:
Northwest
Northwest Portland includes the Pearl District, most of Old Town Chinatown, the Northwest District, and various residential and industrial neighborhoods. A range of streets in Northwest Portland are named alphabetically, from Ankeny (actually one block South Of Burnside, which, even though it is technically the divider between north and south, is the "B" street in the alphabetical sequence) north to Yeon.
The Pearl District is a recent name for a former warehouse and industrial area just north of downtown. Many of the warehouses have been converted into lofts, and new multistory condominiums have also been developed on previously vacant land. The increasing density has attracted a mix of restaurants, brewpubs, shops, and art galleries. The galleries sponsor simultaneous artists' receptions on the first Thursday of every month.
Between the Pearl District and the Willamette is the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood. It includes Portland's Chinatown, marked by a pair of lions at its entrance at NW 4th Ave. and W Burnside St. and home to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. Before World War II, this area was known as Japan Town or Little Tokyo; Chinatown was previously located just south of W. Burnside St. along the riverfront.
Further west is the compact but thriving NW 21st and 23rd Avenue restaurant and retail area, the core of the Northwest District. Parts of this area are also called Uptown and Nob Hill. The residential areas adjacent to the shopping district include the Alphabet Historic District (with large Victorian and Craftsman homes built in the years before and shortly after 1900) and a large district centered around Wallace Park. The neighborhood has a mix of Victorian-era houses, apartment buildings from throughout the 20th century, and various businesses centered around Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center. The Portland Streetcar connects Nob Hill to downtown, via the Pearl.
West of the developed areas is the northern portion of Portland's West Hills, including the majority of extensive Forest Park.
North
North Portland is a diverse mixture of residential, commercial, and industrial areas. It includes the Portland International Raceway, the University of Portland, and massive cargo facilities of the Port of Portland. Slang-names for it include "NoPo" (shortened from North Portland) and "the Fifth Quadrant" (for being the odd-man out from the four-cornered logic of SE, NE, SW, and NW).
North Portland is connected to the industrial area of Northwest Portland by the St. Johns Bridge, a 2,067 ft long suspension bridge completed in 1931 and extensively rehabilitated in 2003-5.
During World War II, a planned development named Vanport was constructed to the north of this section between the city limits and the Columbia River. It grew to be the second largest city in Oregon, but was wiped out by a disastrous flood in 1948. Columbia Villa, another wartime housing project in the Portsmouth Neighborhood, is being rebuilt; the new $150 million community will be known as New Columbia and will offer public housing, rental housing, and single family home ownership units. Since 2004, a light rail line runs along Interstate Avenue, which parallels I-5, stopping short of crossing the Columbia River.
Northeast
Northeast Portland contains a diverse collection of neighborhoods. For example, while Irvington and the Alameda Ridge boast some of the oldest and most expensive homes in Portland, nearby King is a more working-class neighborhood. Because it is so large, Northeast Portland can essentially be divided ethnically, culturally, and geographically into inner and outer sections. The inner Northeast neighborhoods that surround Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. were once predominantly African American, resembling typical urban inner-city environments found in most major U.S. cities. That is now changing due to the process of gentrification. Inner Northeast includes several shopping areas, such as the Lloyd District, Alberta Arts District and Hollywood, and part of the affluent Irvington, Alameda, and Laurelhurst neighborhoods and nearby developments. The city plan targets Lloyd District as another mixed-use area, with high-density residential development.
At the base of Northeast is the Rose Quarter. It is named after the Rose Garden Arena, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, and also includes the Blazers' former home, the Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum is the home to Portland's hockey team, the Portland Winter Hawks, of the Western Hockey League, though they often play at the Rose Garden. The newest Rose Quarter tenants are the LumberJax of the National Lacrosse League. The city still holds the lease to the land and owns the Coliseum, but the Rose Garden and other buildings were owned by private business interests until they went into receivership. The area is quite active during the teams' home games, and the city hopes to extend the activity by promoting a major increase in residential units in the quarter using zoning and tax incentives.
Southeast
Southeast Portland stretches from the warehouses by the Willamette, through the historic Ladd's Addition, to the Hawthorne and Belmont districts. Southeast Portland residents initially tended to the blue-collar but have since evolved into a wide mix of backgrounds; inner southeast is home to several thriving subcultures including Hippies, Hipsters, and environmentalists, while the outer edges are populated by a diverse, largely working-class population which includes immigrant communities from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. The Hawthorne district is known for its hippie/radical crowd and small subculturally oriented shops. The area is also home to Reed College.
Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Southeast was home to Lambert Gardens. Southeast Portland also features Mt. Tabor, a dormant volcano that has become one of Portland’s more scenic and popular parks.
Neighborhoods and Districts
There are far too many neighborhoods and districts in Portland to mention them all here. Highlighted here are a few of the most notable.
The Hawthorne District is an area of Southeast Portland that runs along SE Hawthorne Blvd., particularly between 30th and 42nd Avenues. It is known for its young, liberal residents and pedestrian-friendly high density mixed-use development. Historically, the district has been populated by Generation X and hippies, and more recently, hipsters. Residents are attracted by the vintage homes and apartments and the locally owned shops and restaurants.
The Hawthorne Boulevard Business Association serves local businesses on the boulevard from SE 12th Ave. through SE 60th Ave. This stretch of SE Hawthorne Blvd. passes through the Buckman, Hosford-Abernethy, Sunnyside, Richmond, and Mt. Tabor neighborhoods.
Hawthorne Boulevard was named after Dr. J.C. Hawthorne, the cofounder of Oregon's first mental hospital. The road was originally named Asylum Avenue. In 1883 the Oregon State Hospital moved to its present location in Salem. This facility is featured in Ken Kesey’s "One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." The street was renamed in honor of Dr. Hawthorne. The change from the "distasteful" name was at the behest of the local residents.
Downtown, where most of its highrise buildings are found, is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city, on the west bank of the Willamette River.
The downtown area is usually considered to extend west from the Willamette to Interstate 405, and south from W Burnside St. to just south of the PSU campus (also bounded by I-405). (The northeastern portion of this area is part of the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood.) The South Waterfront area, currently in development just south of downtown in the South Portland neighborhood, can be considered an extension.
Old Town Chinatown is a neighborhood in the Northwest and Southwest sections of Portland. The Willamette River forms its eastern boundary, separating it from the Lloyd District and the Kerns and Buckman neighborhoods.
In the Northwest section, NW Broadway forms the western boundary, separating it from the Pearl District, and W Burnside St. forms the southern boundary, separating it from Downtown Portland. In the Southwest section, the neighborhood extends from SW 3rd Ave. east to the river and from SW Stark St. north to W Burnside St. (with the exception of areas south of SW Pine St. and west of SW 2nd Ave, and south of SW Oak St. and west of SW 1st Ave., which are part of Downtown)..
The neighborhood is well-served by various modes of transportation. Amtrak's Union Station and the Greyhound bus station are located in the northwestern portion of the neighborhood. The Broadway Bridge marks the northern tip and ends of the Steel & Burnside bridges are along eastern border.
The MAX Light Rail line turns south into the neighborhood from the Steel Bridge and stops at Old Town/Chinatown, Skidmore Fountain, and Oak Street/Southwest 1st Avenue; the system connects the neighborhood to Northeast and North Portland across the Willamette, and to Downtown Portland to the south and west. The Portland Mall begins at the Greyhound station, providing local bus and light rail service along 5th and 6th Avenues south into downtown.
Old Town was the original core of the city, straddling W Burnside St. (including an area under the Burnside Bridge). It includes the Skidmore/Old Town Historic District (designated 1975). Attractions include the Portland Saturday Market and Ankeny Plaza, site of Portland's oldest public art work, the Skidmore Fountain (dedicated September 22, 1888). The fountain, designed by Olin L. Warner of New York, is named after pioneer druggist Stephen G. Skidmore.
Businesses located in Old Town include Dan and Louis Oyster Bar (since 1907) and Voodoo Doughnut. The area is the site of former attractions such as Satyricon nightclub, the X-Ray Cafe, and the 24 Hour Church of Elvis.
The Chinatown portion of Old Town extends north from W Burnside St. to Union Station. The entrance is marked by a China gate, complete with a pair of lions, at the corner of NW 4th Ave. and W Burnside St. The core of the area, from W Burnside St. to NW Glisan St. and from NW 5th Ave. to NW 3rd Ave., was designated in 1989 the New Chinatown/Japantown Historic District.
When compared to the more well-known Chinatowns of Oakland and San Francisco in California and Vancouver, British Columbia, Portland's Chinatown is smaller and less active. It has more than two dozen Chinese-owned businesses, including restaurants such as a nostalgic 1940s-era chop suey restaurant, gift and import shops, club houses, an herbal medicine store and an Asian food market.
Other major organizations based in Chinatown include the Port of Portland, Oregon Department of Transportation's Portland offices and NW Natural Gas. There is also a parking structure with a helipad on top.
In a step towards revitalization of the area, the Portland Classical Chinese Garden opened September 14, 2000. The $12.8 million park covers an entire city block and was built by 65 workers from Suzhou, China of imported materials (though all plants were grown locally). More recently, NW 3rd and 4th Avenues received streetscape improvements, including plaques describing historical features. Two block-long "festival streets" that can easily be used for street festivals were also created between these streets.
The Lloyd District is a primarily commercial neighborhood in the Northeast section of Portland. It is named after Ralph Lloyd (1875–1953), a California rancher, oilman, and real estate developer who moved to and started the development of the area.
The Lloyd District is bounded by the Willamette River on the west, NE Broadway on the north, NE 18th Ave. on the east, and I-84 on the south. Adjacent neighborhoods are Eliot and Irvington to the north, Sullivan's Gulch (with which it slightly overlaps) on the east, Kerns on the south, and Old Town Chinatown (via the Steel and Broadway bridges over the Willamette) to the west.
The area west of I-5 is called the Rose Quarter, home of the Rose Garden Arena and Memorial Coliseum. Prior to "urban renewal" in the 1950s, this area was an African American residential community, including many who had lost their homes in the Vanport flood of 1948.
Most of the district lies east of I-5, where the Oregon Convention Center and Lloyd Center Mall are the principal landmarks.
The Lloyd District also prides itself as an excellent place to work and live. The area thrives with restaurants, shops, hotels, the Loyd Center Mall, condominiums and apartments, and office buildings. The largest of these is the Lloyd Center Tower, standing at 20 floors and 290 feet. The neighborhood is also very bike friendly and easily accessible using public transportation.
TriMet buses and MAX trains provide frequent service in the district. It is served by all three lines of the MAX light rail system. Four Blue Line and Red Line stations (Rose Quarter Transit Center, Convention Center, Northeast 7th Avenue, and Lloyd Center/Northeast 11th Avenue) and one Yellow Line station (Interstate/Rose Quarter) are within the district, as well as within MAX's no-ticket-required Fareless Square.
Concordia is a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Portland. Its borders are NE 22nd Ave. on the west, NE Columbia Blvd. on the north, and NE 42nd Ave. on the east. On the south, the border is NE Prescott St. and NE Alberta St., to the west and east of NE 33rd Ave., respectively. Neighborhoods bordering Concordia are Woodlawn, Vernon, and Sabin on the west, Sunderland on the north, Cully on the east, and Alameda and Beaumont-Wilshire on the south.
Most of the Alberta Street Arts District is in Concordia.
Concordia University, a private, Lutheran, liberal arts institution in the Concordia University System, is located in the neighborhood.
Neighborhood parks include Kennedy Community Garden (1999) and Fernhill Park (1940).
Forest Park, a neighborhood on the northwestern edge of Portland, combines rolling green pastures, views east and west, and proximity to the attractions of Northwest District. The Forest Park neighborhood is named because of its proximity to Forest Park, the southern portion of which lies within the neighborhood boundaries and the rest of which is adjacent. Most of the neighborhood lies within unincorporated Multnomah County, though it does include some areas within Portland city limits.
The park itself is a municipal and public park, located west of downtown Portland. It is the largest natural urban forest reserve in the U.S. The park is over 5,000 acres (20.23 km²) with 4,873 acres (19.72 km²) of second and old growth forest, threaded by more than 70 miles (112 km) of recreational trails. Forest Park stretches for over eight miles (13 km) on hillsides overlooking the Willamette River.
Forest Park is the fourth largest urban park (of any kind) in the United States, after Franklin Mountains State Park in El Paso, Texas, South Mountain Park in Phoenix, Arizona and Newport News Park in Newport News, Virginia.
The area was designated as a park on September 23, 1948 after almost 50 years of citizen advocacy for the City to buy tax-foreclosed properties. By the 1980s, 112 bird species and 62 mammal species had been recorded.
In the World of Darkness, Forest Park, while public, is considered dangerous territory. Most of the residents of the city and the surrounding area tell stories of strange sounds coming from deep in the woods at night and a handful of people (mostly nosey tourists or unconcerned skeptics) go missing in the forest each year. By city ordinance the park is off limits after nightfall, however few patrolmen have the courage to scout the limits of the woods in an effort to keep the curious out.
Hayden Island is an island in the Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington and Portland. It is bordered on the north side by the main channel of the Columbia River and on the south side by a smaller channel of the Columbia, which is also known as North Portland Harbor. Even though separated by this channel from most of Portland, much of Hayden Island is part of Portland and forms one of its 95 neighborhoods, most of which is in Portland's North section, though the eastern end is in Northeast Portland.
Interstate 5 connects the island, via the northernmost Oregon exit, to the rest of North Portland and, with the Interstate Bridge, to Vancouver to the north. The east end of the island, often called Jantzen Beach, has highly developed retail areas near the freeway, hotels, offices and condominium complexes. Further east there are several houseboat moorages and marinas.
The island is of historic interest for its past ferries and amusement parks. Until the Interstate Bridge opened in 1917 ferries provided service between Portland and Vancouver from landings on the island's north shore. After the opening of the bridge, streetcar service opened Hayden Island to amusement park developments due to its beaches and strategic location. Jantzen Beach, the last operating amusement park, closed in 1970. Tomahawk Island, just off the east tip of Hayden Island, became another amusement park—Lotus Isle—for a few years in the 1930s.
Because Oregon does not have a state sales tax, and Washington has one of the higher state sales taxes, it is common practice for Washingtonians to travel to Oregon for larger taxable purchases. The Jantzen Beach Shopping Center and many hotels populate this part of the island. A narrow neck of land connects Hayden Island to Tomahawk Island (not an independent island since construction of the linkage), which has numerous marinas and yacht clubs.
The west side of the island (in unincorporated Multnomah County) is as yet undeveloped, though it was added to the urban growth boundary by voters in 1983. The Port of Portland purchased the land in 1993 with the intention of building a large cargo facility. Environmental activists have successfully blocked this development for the time being, and the Port of Portland is currently looking for alternative sites.
The Mount Tabor neighborhood lies between SE 49th Ave. (SE 50th Ave. south of SE Hawthorne Blvd.) on the west and SE 76th Ave. on the east, and between E Burnside St. on the north and SE Division St. on the south. It borders Sunnyside and Richmond on the west, the Center Neighborhood on the north and west, Montavilla on the north and east, and South Tabor on the south.
Mount Tabor Park is the neighborhood's principal feature. The campus of Warner Pacific College (affiliated with the Church of God (Anderson)) is located just south of the park. The neighborhood also marks the eastern end of the Hawthorne District.
Before becoming part of Portland in 1905, Mount Tabor was a rural farming community dating back to the 1850s. It became a city-recognized neighborhood (encompassing a far smaller area than its historical boundaries) in 1974. Mount Tabor holds within its boarders the cinder cone of an extinct volcano. Part of the Boring Lava Field, Mt. Tabor is one of the only volcanoes to sit within the limits of an American city.
The surrounding park is used to house reservoirs for the city’s drinking water. In time, this park became public and is used by the people of Portland to this day.
The Northwest District is a densely populated retail and residential neighborhood in the Northwest section of Portland. Craftsman- and Old Portland-style houses are packed tightly together with grand old apartment buildings and sleek new condominiums, within walking distance of restaurants, bars, and shops. The Portland Streetcar terminates here, connecting the district to the Pearl District and Downtown Portland.
The district stretches west to east from the base of the West Hills (Tualatin Mountains) to I-405 (between NW 15th and 16th Streets), and north to south from NW Nicolai St. and the Willamette River to W Burnside St. It borders the neighborhoods of Forest Park and Hillside on the west, Northwest Industrial on the north, the Pearl District on the east, and Goose Hollow on the south.
This part of Portland is known more by names for various streets and areas within it than by its official name. These include:
Beyond the bustle of NW 21st and 23rd are peaceful residential districts and recreational areas such as Macleay Park (acquired 1897, in the Forest Park neighborhood) with its Wildwood Trail winding among trillium and ferns beneath giant Douglas Firs. Parks within the Northwest District include Couch Park (1977) and Wallace Park (1920). Northwest District Public schools include Chapman Elementary School and the Metropolitan Learning Center. Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center and Linfield College-Portland Campus are located between NW 23rd and NW 22nd streets.
Northwest Industrial is an almost entirely industrial neighborhood in the Northwest section of Portland. According to the Portland Bureau of Planning, it "is one of the few remaining large urban industrial districts in the United States" and "one of the premier heavy industrial districts in the Pacific Northwest". It borders the neighborhoods of Linnton on the north, Forest Park on the west, the Northwest District on the south, and Cathedral Park (via the St. Johns Bridge), University Park, and Overlook across the Willamette River on the east.
Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge 5.1 allows Amtrak and BNSF trains to cross the Willamette, connecting the neighborhood to North Portland and Washington State beyond.
There are no schools or parks in Northwest Industrial, which has the smallest population of all 95 neighborhoods in Portland. Since 2001 almost all of the neighborhood has been designated the Guild's Lake Industrial Sanctuary, to preserve the land for long-term industrial use and to resist pressure for residential development.
The Pearl District is a former warehouse and light industrial area just north of downtown Portland now noted for its art galleries and upscale businesses and residences. Its boundaries are West Burnside Street on the south, NW Broadway on the east, the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks to the north, and the Interstate 405 Freeway on the west. The area has undergone significant development since the late 1990s and is now full of high-rise condominiums and warehouse-to-loft conversions.
In the late 1980s, an elevated highway ramp that ran along NW Lovejoy St. from the Lovejoy bridge past NW 10th Ave. was demolished, opening dozens of surrounding blocks (including some brownfield sites) for development, which peaked in the 2000s. The increasing density has attracted a mix of restaurants, brewpubs, shops, and art galleries, though in some cases pioneering tenants have been priced out of the area.
According to the Pearl District Business Association, Thomas Augustine, a local gallery owner, coined the name Pearl District more than 10 years ago to suggest that its industrial buildings were like crusty oysters, and that the galleries and artists' lofts within were like pearls. "There were very few visible changes in the area," says Al Solhiem, a developer who has been involved in many projects in the district. "People would drive by and not have a clue as to what was inside." As local business people were looking to label the growing area—the "warehouse district" or the "brewery district" were two suggestions—a writer for Alaska Airlines borrowed Augustine's phrase, according to Solheim. The name stuck.
The area is home to several Portland icons, including Powell's City of Books. The former Weinhard Brewery, which operated continuously from 1864 to September 1999, was shut down by Stroh's upon the purchase of the Weinhard's brand by Miller Brewing and sold for redevelopment as the Brewery Blocks. Art galleries, boutiques, and restaurants abound, and there are also a number of small clubs and bars. The United States Post Office main processing facility for all of Oregon and SW Washington was built in the Pearl in 1964, next to Union Station. This location was chosen in order for the post office to be able to better serve towns outside the Portland metro area.
New buildings include the Elizabeth Lofts at 9th and Everett. Two of the rescued Lovejoy Columns, which were painted by Tom Stefopoulos, were recently installed in the plaza adjoining Elizabeth Lofts.
The Pearl District is home to a number of local artists and art institutions. Area art galleries sponsor simultaneous artists' receptions on the first Thursday of every month.
The district includes most of the historic North Park Blocks (1869), as well as two recently developed, highly innovative public plazas:
The Portland Streetcar, which opened in 2001, runs through the district.
Free wireless internet (provided by Personal Telco) is available throughout the Pearl District.
South Portland is a long narrow neighborhood just south of Downtown Portland, hemmed in between the Willamette River and the West Hills. It stretches from I-405 and the Marquam Bridge on the north, to SW Canby St. and the Sellwood Bridge in the south. The Willamette forms the eastern boundary, and SW Barbur Blvd. most of the western boundary. In addition to Downtown to the north, other bordering neighborhoods are Southwest Hills, Homestead, Hillsdale, and South Burlingame to the west, and Hosford-Abernethy, Brooklyn, and Sellwood-Moreland across the river on the east.
The neighborhood, formerly known as Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill or CTLH, changed its name at a meeting of its neighborhood association on September 6, 2006 to be more concise and inclusive. South Portland was the name of a 19th century community that overlapped the present day neighborhood.
· South Waterfront. The northeastern part of the neighborhood is the site of a large-scale, high-density district currently under construction. The Portland Aerial Tram links the district to the Oregon Health & Science University campus in the Homestead neighborhood to the west, across Interstate 5.
Homestead is a Southwest Portland neighborhood in the city's West Hills. The neighborhood is home to Marquam Nature Park (SW Marquam St. & Sam Jackson Park Rd.), which offers urban hiking in the form of the Marquam Trail, which one can follow to Downtown. The neighborhood also features a scenic boulevard, SW Terwilliger Blvd. Parkway. The parkway has a wide, paved path for walking, running and biking.
Though primarily residential, the northern portion of the neighborhood includes two regionally important medical complexes on Marquam Hill: the main campus of Oregon Health & Science University, and Portland Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Portland Aerial Tram will connect these complexes to the South Waterfront district (also under construction) in the South Portland neighborhood on the Willamette River south of Downtown.