Newcomer's Handbook for Moving to and Living in Portland: Including Vancouver, Gresham, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Tigard, and Wilsonville

by Geon, Bryan

  In terms of home prices, Boise has become shockingly expensive, at least in light of its relatively recent history, and is comparable to or even more expensive than some long-established desirable neighborhoods such as Sellwood. Rents are slightly more manageable. Prices in Eliot and King, which have not been so thoroughly gentrified, are lower but still exceed the city average.

  King

  On the west side of Interstate 5, the Overlook neighborhood owes its name to its position atop Swan Island Bluff “overlooking” the port and the Willamette River. This area of stately street trees and gracious Craftsman bungalows, Old Portlands, and English Tudors became a hot real estate market when Adidas America opened its headquarters, Adidas Village, here in 2002. The opening of the Interstate MAX line, which runs through Overlook’s eastern end, further primed the pump, and home prices in the neighborhood nearly doubled in the succeeding five years. Prices fell significantly here during the housing bust, and took much longer to recover here than in many other neighborhoods, so the median home price is not significantly higher than the citywide median. Overlook Park, at the edge of the bluff, is a 12-acre greenspace with a great view of the river and port, the Fremont Bridge, downtown Portland, and the West Hills. The homes along the lip of the bluff to the northwest share this view. The nearby Tudor-style Overlook House, built in 1927, today serves as a community center. The huge Swan Island industrial and port complex lies within Overlook’s boundaries; most of the remainder of the neighborhood is residential, with commercial zones along Killingsworth Street and North Interstate Avenue. Some trendy new businesses have opened their doors, but older establishments, like The Palms Motor Hotel and the tiki-from-before-tiki-became-cool-again Alibi Restaurant, are still going strong. A century ago, this area was once the center of Portland’s Polish community, and St. Stanislaus Polish Catholic Church on Interstate holds a Polish festival each September.

  The true bargains in Overlook are gone, but the neighborhood still has some affordable fixers. Less than half of residents own their homes, so a fair number of rental properties are available if you’re interested in metaphorically dipping your toes in the neighborhood water. The neighborhood attracts a mix of young singles, straight, gay, and lesbian couples, families, and professionals who work at Adidas.

  Overlook

  Both Overlook and the Boise-Eliot neighborhood are extremely well-connected to the area’s highway and transit system. Downtown Portland is only a short light-rail ride away on the Interstate MAX line; although the line does not run through Boise-Eliot, it is accessible from that neighborhood by a short walk over Interstate 5 on the Failing Pedestrian Bridge (which, despite the ominous name, is actually quite sturdy). These neighborhoods are generally bike friendly, and bike commuting downtown is eminently doable. The neighborhoods are very close to the Fremont Bridge on- and off-ramps and to Interstate 5, as well as to alternate north-south routes like Vancouver Avenue and North Interstate Avenue. The downside to this easy highway access is high levels of pollutants from auto exhaust; some studies have shown that residents of neighborhoods within a quarter-mile or so of Interstate 5, especially east (generally downwind) of the freeway, have higher rates of respiratory disease than people who live farther away from major highways.

  Arbor Lodge and Kenton

  Neighborhood Associations: Arbor Lodge, Kenton

  The hits of the North Portland renaissance just keep on coming, and Arbor Lodge and Kenton are the latest neighborhoods to make it into the charts. These neighborhoods together occupy a large chunk of North Portland west of Interstate 5. Each straddles North Interstate Avenue and the MAX Yellow Line, which has helped increase the desirability of nearby homes (particularly to the west, farther from the freeway) and has spurred redevelopment up and down Interstate.

  Arbor Lodge

  Arbor Lodge, which sounds quainter than it is, lies just north of Overlook, and shares a number of affinities with that neighborhood. Like Overlook, the western edge of Arbor Lodge lies along the Swan Island bluff, and homes along Willamette Boulevard have great downtown and Port of Portland views. Many of the streets in this part of the neighborhood have mature street trees and a few somewhat grand homes. The northern and eastern parts of Arbor Lodge have a mix of typically modestly sized Cape Cods and bungalows, many of which have been fixed up nicely. The ongoing redevelopment of Interstate Avenue has brought in new apartments, coffeehouses, restaurants, and other accouterments of the urban lifestyle, and is a relatively short bike ride or MAX ride from downtown Portland. Also, rents and home prices tend to be slightly lower than in comparable neighborhoods of Southeast Portland, and this combination of factors has rendered this part of Arbor Lodge attractive to younger newcomers. Interstate Avenue also features a New Seasons supermarket, which along with the opening of the MAX line, is credited with sparking the renaissance of Arbor Lodge, and a giant new two-story Fred Meyer supermarket, which was a result of that renaissance. Arbor Lodge has started to attract married couples and young families, despite the less-than-ideal schools that serve the neighborhood; because prices here are more or less in line with the citywide median, given the amenities available in the area it can be an appealing place to buy a home when compared with other more expensive close-in neighborhoods. Some two-thirds of residents are homeowners.

  Across rapidly evolving Lombard Street to the north, the Kenton neighborhood is best known for its kitschy giant statue of Paul Bunyan, which power-logged its way onto the National Register of Historic Places in early 2009, and as the home turf of embattled former mayor Sam Adams. The neighborhood began as a company town for a meatpacking plant—cattle were once driven along North Denver Avenue—but, as they say, times have changed. Instead of cattle, North Denver now hosts lowing herds of pubgoers and patrons of new restaurants like Cup & Saucer Café and Posies Café. Although the neighborhood is clearly on the upswing, and some boosters predict Kenton will be “the next Mississippi” (a reference to the avenue, not the state), those boosters have been saying that for years; suffice to say Kenton has not yet been gentrified to the same extent. North Denver still has vacant storefronts, and Paul Bunyan appears to be ogling the strip club just across the MAX tracks. This residual grittiness/authenticity (along with the resulting more affordable home prices, well below the city median) is part of Kenyon’s attraction to some people.

  Kenton

  The main residential area centers on popular Kenton Park, which has a playground, sports fields, a wading pool, and vast expanses of grass. A few of the houses facing the park are quite imposing, but the bulk of the houses in the neighborhood, given its origin, are not especially grand. As in Arbor Lodge, there are plenty of bungalows, Cape Cods, and similar older-style houses; many homes have been spruced up in the last few years, while others nearby slowly molder. A few new townhomes have been built near the MAX station, and other new development is occurring along North Interstate. The trip to downtown Portland can take as little as 10 minutes by car or 20 minutes by MAX; bus lines run along the major streets, but typically connect with MAX rather than running all the way downtown.

  St. Johns and University Park

  Neighborhood Associations: Cathedral Park, St. Johns, University Park

  St. Johns, the old neighborhood out near the end of the North Portland peninsula, has been the next big thing for years. In the meantime, other next big things—the Northeast Alberta and North Mississippi neighborhoods, for example—have taken off, while St. Johns has languished. But while St. Johns—named after James John, a settler whose morals were reputedly above reproach (or who was a crazy hermit, depending on what story you believe)—may not be red-hot, it’s at least lukewarm. The area was a separately incorporated city from 1903 until 1915, when Portland annexed it, and the bones of its historic center remain, including the old City Hall. Given its relative proximity to downtown Portland (about 15 to 20 minutes away, traffic permitting), its old-fashioned, low-key “downtown,” its comparatively affordable housing stock, and a distinctive ic
on in the form of the St. Johns Bridge (which, suspended between two Gothic-style towers, soars gracefully across the Willamette River here), it’s hard to imagine that St. Johns could have remained off the radar indefinitely.

  St. Johns Bridge

  In fact, people here will tell you that St. Johns was never undiscovered; the current residents “discovered” it a long time ago. They will likely extol the community spirit of this traditionally working-class neighborhood and its locally owned businesses, and you may come away with the feeling that, if becoming the next “in” neighborhood means undergoing an influx of wisecracking hipsters, locals want none of it. That’s not to say that St. Johns is static: portents of change are already clearly visible in the main business district, which centers on North Lombard Street at Philadelphia Avenue. Established hangouts like Tulip Pastry Shop, with its six-decade-old doughnut recipe—the actual doughnuts are considerably fresher—rub facades with such new businesses as vegan-focused Proper Eats Market and Café. Or consider the juxtaposition on the north side of Lombard of Wayne’s Barber Shop, which appears not to have changed in decades, with the The Olive & Vine, a purveyor of olive oils, gourmet sea salts, and other specialty foods, right next door. Across Lombard, the St. Johns Historic Twin Cinema and Pub (www.stjohnscinema.com) shows first-run movies at discount prices; the McMenamins St. Johns Theater and Pub a couple of short blocks away shows second-run movies at even cheaper prices. Mixed in with the seedy bars and old-time diners is Starbucks, the ultimate harbinger of shifts in neighborhood demographics.

  However, these changes in demographics—from straight-up blue collar to a somewhat more diverse set of residents, including some young singles, older professionals, and families from out-of-state—that have driven the changes in the business mix have not resulted in whole-scale gentrification. Most newcomers to St. Johns seem to select the neighborhood for its actual characteristics, not its theoretical ones. Perhaps because of St. Johns’ prior independent existence, innovations in the neighborhood seem to come from bottom-up effort rather than outside intervention. For example, two unique services have cropped up in the basement of the Red Sea Church on Lombard: the North Portland Preserve and Serve Library (www.preserveandserve.org) lends out kitchen equipment and utensils for home canning purposes, while Swap-n-Play Community Sharing (swapnplay.org) is an indoor/outdoor community playspace and used clothing/toys/household goods exchange depot (on the honor system).

  Despite the ubiquitous signs of change and a can-do community spirit, St. Johns is not for everyone. The neighborhood is still a bit rough around the edges, and the crime rate remains relatively (although not dauntingly) high. Away from the St. Johns downtown area, Lombard Street has long been a grim, unwelcoming thoroughfare lined with check cashing establishments, smoky bars, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and a few coffee shops, although this landscape, too, is changing. The neighborhood is virtually surrounded by industrial facilities and warehouses: this part of the lower Willamette has been a manufacturing and maritime center for close to a century, and St. Johns really boomed during the shipbuilding frenzy of the Second World War. At the same time, a fair number of natural areas are within or close to the neighborhood: woodsy Pier Park is on the northern fringes, Smith and Bybee Lakes (and the Columbia Slough, which connects them) form an important wetland, and Forest Park lies just across the St. Johns Bridge. From Kelley Point Park, at the very tip of the peninsula, you can ponder the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.

  In keeping with the neighborhood’s working class roots, most houses are fairly modest structures; ranches, Cape Cods, and small cottages predominate, with a few old bungalows, foursquares, or Victorians thrown into the mix. There are also some apartment buildings, both old and new, including a few 1960s-era towers near the river, and quite a bit of infill has occurred, including some modern townhome developments. In short, the housing mix is varied—much more so than in most Portland neighborhoods—but the look and feel vary substantially from street to street. The median home price here is well below the citywide median, and St. Johns is perhaps the last “distinctive” old neighborhood in Portland that remains somewhat affordable. The apartment-heavy Cathedral Park neighborhood, named for the city park on the river under the cathedral-like eastern pier of the St. Johns Bridge, has higher home prices than St. Johns proper. Cathedral Park is technically a separate neighborhood but is functionally part of St. Johns.

  The same cannot be said for University Park, a more traditionally genteel neighborhood that sits atop the bluff near the University of Portland. The neighborhood’s name actually predates the current university—a Methodist institution called Portland University was established here in 1891, and the sale of neighborhood lots was intended to provide funds for the university’s operation and endowment. Streets were platted and named after colleges and universities, famous educators, and various Methodist worthies. The promoters of the subdivision were overzealous in some respects, dubiously promising that the “proximity of a large student body has a tendency to elevate the tone of all things.” In other respects, their claims were underwhelming: the formal prospectus contained the helpful factoid that “University Park is entirely free from malaria.”

  University Park

  While University Park is still free of malaria, an economic panic caused the subdivision scheme to founder, and the university closed. In 1901, the abandoned university reopened as a Catholic institution, which it remains to this day, and with better economic times the area around the campus gradually developed. As in St. Johns, housing styles here are a mix of many styles: Cape Cods, bungalows, ranch houses, small cottages, and a few Victorians. Homes along Willamette Boulevard have sweeping views over the Willamette toward downtown Portland and the West Hills. (The south side of Willamette Boulevard is parkland; only the north side is developed, so houses along Willamette do not perch on the edge of the bluff.) Average prices here are at least 50 percent higher than in St. Johns.

  The streets in University Park run northeast-southwest and northwest-southeast, rather than north-south and east-west as in most of the city; this arrangement (which is also found in St. Johns) was supposed to ensure that houses catch the maximum amount of sunlight. Despite the proximity of the University of Portland, there are few apartments, and essentially no commercial district except for the relatively unappealing stretch of Lombard Street that forms the neighborhood’s northern border. Columbia Park, on the neighborhood’s eastern edge, is walking distance from most homes. Astor Elementary School, which serves University Park, is considered the best elementary school in North Portland, and one of the best in the city. The crime rate in University Park is lower than in other parts of North Portland.

  Several TriMet bus lines serve St. Johns and University Park, but many trips involve long detours or transfers to the Yellow Line MAX, which does not serve the immediate area. The neighborhoods are a relatively short drive to downtown Portland, and some residents commute to Washington County via the St. Johns Bridge and Germantown Road or Cornelius Pass Road.

  Outer North Portland Neighborhoods

  Neighborhood Associations: Bridgeton, Hayden Island, Humboldt, Piedmont, Portsmouth

  The outer neighborhoods of North Portland are not as well known as close-in hotspots like North Mississippi, but many of them are changing just as rapidly. East of Interstate 5, the century-old foursquares and bungalows in the multicultural Piedmont and Humboldt neighborhoods are rapidly becoming popular. Humboldt basks in the reflected radiance of North Mississippi hipness (only a short walk or bike ride away to the south), but it has started to develop some neighborhood cachet of its own. Portland Community College’s Cascade Campus is within Humboldt. Home prices here are nearly as high as in the Boise neighborhood, although rents tend to be lower. The next neighborhood to the north, Piedmont, is not as hip, and is accordingly somewhat less expensive. The neighborhood jewel of Piedmont is Peninsula Park, with a century-old rose garden, a swimming pool, and a community
center. A few years ago, Piedmont would have attracted only urban pioneers, but the current of change keeps flowing northward, and the area is no longer a housing frontier.

  Across Interstate 5 to the west, beyond Arbor Lodge and north of University Park, the working-class Portsmouth neighborhood includes New Columbia (www.newcolumbia.org), an 82-acre subsidized mixed-income housing development that is a showcase of environmentally sustainable design (and which replaced a notoriously crime- and gang-ridden old-style housing project).

  North of the Columbia Slough, in the Delta Park area, most land is either used for commercial purposes or is parkland of some kind (if you define parkland broadly to include uses like golf courses, the Portland Meadows horse racing track, and Portland International Raceway). This area was the site of the community of Vanport, the largest public housing project in the United States, which was washed away in a devastating 1948 flood. Understandably, many people have since been reluctant to build here, but the Bridgeton neighborhood has housing right along the shore of the Columbia River, including some pricey new condominiums overlooking the water. Bridgeton also includes a large community of houseboats and live-aboard boats, a feature that Hayden Island—an actual island, in the Oregon portion of the Columbia River—shares. Hayden Island is best known as the site of a mall that attracts Washingtonians for tax-free shopping sprees and a nearby mobile home park, but east of Interstate 5 the island has a strong nautical character, with an abundance of docks and moorages, as well as some new, expensive condominiums, along Tomahawk Island Drive.