Random Facts/Observations About Portland, OR

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Portland Neighborhoods: A description of the area from an apartment renter's perspective.

Random Facts and Observations About Portland, Oregon

Frequently-Asked Questions About Moving to Portland

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Andrew Hall, April, 2002

I've gotten a number of questions about Portland over the years. I'll try to answer them here and give a local's opinion, not just some dry summary you find on some web guides trying to cover every city. I am tempted to write a comprehensive article describing Portland - what it's really like - but instead I'll throw out some random observations and factoids:

Liberal City, Conservative State: Portland has a very liberal city government - Democratic Mayor Vera Katz has been re-elected the last few times almost without opposition. However, the state is much more conservative (in a secular way). One of two US senators from Oregon (Smith) is Republican, and so is the state legislature.

Mass transit, driving, and bikes: Portland has a decent, safe bus system (Tri-Met) , particularly if you choose a place to live based on bus service. The area has been investing heavily in mass transit, primarily expensive MAX trains and trolleys . Trains now run from Gresham (east) to Hillsboro (west), through downtown. The airport MAX (airport to Portland) opened in 2001, and a North extension to MAX is under construction. The Portland Streetcar opened from NW Portland, through downtown, to Portland State University . Portland is very bike-friendly, and new lanes seem to be added all the time. Almost no new roads are being built and only a rare freeway lane here and there is being added - Portland, by intent, is not very "car friendly". Portland traffic has been steadily getting worse the last few years. The worst highways are on the west side - Highway 26 (the "sunset highway") and Highway 217. See the ODOT cameras to see for yourself what traffic looks like at rush hour - or see the radio stations below and listen to their rush hour traffic reports via the web.

White City: Portland was, according to a survey a few years ago, 74% white. However, the city is very liberal-minded and is also extremely tolerant. The city most definitely likes to pride itself on its diversity. I've heard a few random comments from some African Americans that they felt a tad uncomfortable, but as a white guy I can tell you I've felt racial tension in other cities that I do NOT sense much in Portland. But, no, Portland is not immune to racism, like anywhere else. Perhaps we should ask someone of color.

Downtown Portland: Technically, "downtown" is a very small area west of the Willamette River (which divides the city east/west) but east of the West Hills. If you see an address, most of downtown has a "SW" in the address. Downtown is very clean for a city, however. It's a nice downtown, fairly safe and very walkable, with a lot of character. Still, downtown has a good number of homeless people (almost all completely harmless), and you will most definitely be asked for "spare change" more than once if you stroll through downtown. The best strategy to avoid such folks (unless you want to indulge them) is to mumble "no thanks" or say nothing and move on.

Portland Gathering Places: Pioneer Courthouse Square downtown (on the MAX line, between Yamhill/Morrison and Broadway/6th Ave) is the city's semi-official Meeting Place - a red brick square where little events are staged, bands sometimes play, etc. Workers downtown can sit on the steps on a nice day and eat their lunch - a great place for people watching, also...in the summer, there are fair-type events almost every other weekend at Waterfront Park (west bank of the Willamette) downtown. First week of June is the biggest part of the Rose Festival , complete with carnival rides, music, etc. July 4th Weekend there's the Waterfront Blues Festival (enough blues music to satisfy everyone - but very cheap to get in). There's also an Oregon Brewer's Festival (beer "tasting"), the Bite of Portland (food "tasting"), and a few other events.

The Portland Rose Festival : each year for about a month (mostly in the first week of June), the city celebrates its annual Rose Festival, including two big parades (Starlight Parade Saturday night, Floral Parade following Saturday afternoon), festivities at Waterfront Park (carnival ride-type stuff), dragon boat races on the Willamette River, etc. Many ships, largely from the US Navy and Coastguard, come into port and tie up at Waterfront Park .

Portland Parks : Portland has many parks - Washington Park (which has the Oregon Zoo , the Japanese Garden , and the Rose Test Garden ) in the west hills has many hiking trails. Downtown the "Park Blocks ", a one-block string of trees, grass, and benches, extends north from Portland State University to Salmon Street; the "North Park Blocks" continue again north of Burnside for a few more blocks. The Park Blocks was an original vision for the city, somewhat intact...in SE Portland, Mt. Tabor is an extinct volcano (no real crater, sorry) with lots of high trees, some nice picnic areas and trails, and cool view of the city. Laurelhurst Park in SE Portland (in the classic Laurelhurst neighborhood) has a terrific duck pond and curvy trails (good for a nice stroll, a picnic, or walking your dog, not really a hike).

Powells Books : the biggest independent book seller in the nation also has its own store - a huge city block of used and new books. The rooms are given color names; you can get a map when you enter. Believe me, if you like books, you could spend a week in this place.

Sports: The NBA Portland Trailblazers are the only "major league" pro sports team in the city. But there are several minor league teams and such. The Portland Fire are the Women's basketball team (WNBA). Portland also has the Portland Winterhawks (hockey) and the Portland Beavers (AAA baseball). But, if you're dying for major league sports...Seattle is just under a three hour drive up I-5. Because there aren't major universities here (see below), the big college sports teams are the University of Oregon Ducks (Eugene, OR) and the Oregon State Beavers (Corvallis); you'll find a lot of fans of both teams in Portland - a lot of alums come here.

No sales tax: No, Oregon has no sales tax. The "no-sales-tax" idea is neat, but don't think for a second you aren't heavily taxed in Oregon in other ways. Oregon has a decent income tax (9%) and also a property tax. No "city tax", however. Is it possible to live in nearby Vancouver, Washington (no income tax) and work in Oregon? Well, yes, but Oregon will insist you pay income tax if you work in Oregon, no matter where you live. Your only cheap way out is to live and work in Vancouver and drive across the river to Portland to do your shopping.

No pumping your own gas: like New Jersey, it is illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon. If you've lived in other states where you're used to pumping your own, you probably think this is a joke, but it's true! The big question is: "why?" Several reasons for the law have been given, one being a worry over the safety of pumping gas; since you don't see a lot of cases of pump accidents in other states, this is a silly argument. The truth is, native Oregonians like the comfort of not having to get out of their cars to fill up. I think it's some small way of holding onto one difference from the rest of the country.

Universities: Portland's biggest colleges are Portland State University (public), Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) (prominent medical school), University of Portland (private, Catholic). There's also Lewis and Clark College in SW Portland (Monica Lewinsky went there) and Reed College in SE Portland. There's Portland Community College, for continuing education for adults. But truly, the lack of a large, distinguished university - a University of Washington (Seattle), a Berkeley or Stanford, a UCLA or MIT, is one of Portland's biggest weaknesses. Portland State just doesn't cut it; even The University of Oregon(Eugene) and Oregon State (Corvalis) aren't top notch, and they are 90 min+ away, anyway. A university influences the character of a city, and the lack of an academic orientation is noticable in Portland. Portland's high tech industry (Intel in Hillsboro) has flourished despite this.

Strip Clubs and Prostitution: Portland, according to some survey I heard of second-hand, has the most strip clubs per capita of any major city in the United States. I am not your expert in this area, but I've heard from informed friends that in Portland "they show everything [topless and bottomless] but there's generally no touching." Strip clubs seem to exist in pockets mostly in east Portland - you can still easily avoid them if you live on the east side. The city has made efforts to curb prostitution though there are apparently few vice officers employed to work on it. Despite spending enough time in areas supposedly frequented by streetwalkers, I've almost never seen one. I think they are easy to find if you are looking for them but easy to ignore if you're not looking; maybe I'm just too naive...

Portland Arts and Culture: For a city its size, Portland has a decent arts scene. The Portland Art Museum manages to get first-rate exhibits. The Oregon History Center nearby has a wealth of information about the state's history. Portland also has a symphony , the Portland Opera , and many musical events. Once a month there's First Thursday, where local art galleries open late the first Thursday evening of the month - kind of a wine and chesse thing, to be fair. Portland has a recently-built classical Chinese Garden (built in the very tiny China Town north of Burnside) that you can join and enjoy. The art movie scene is good, too, for a city its size. The Cinema 21 in NW Portland is a first-run independent art house theater. The Northwest Film Center (affiliated with the Portland Art Museum ) is a small film school and also puts on two film festivals a year, including the low-key but highly representative Portland International Film Festival each February.

Portland Newspapers: The Oregonian (see Oregonlive website) is Portland's daily newspaper. In addition, there are several "free" papers that offer an alternative look at the city. The biggest is the Willamette Week . A free (thin) Oregonian-wannabe (only 2X a week) is the Portland Tribune which is pretty thin - a long ways from replacing the Oregonian. There's also the Portland Mercury which (like the Willamette Week) has lots of entertainment happenings.

Nicknames for Portland: Rose City. Stumptown. And..."PDX", which is the abbreviation for Portland International Airport.

On-line Forums: If you want to ask more questions about Portland from a wider audience, you can look at the Craigslist forums and community areas. If you do Newsgroups, try pdx.general , pdx.singles , and alt.culture.oregon . You can also check out these groups via the web at Google , at Googlegroups pdx.general , Googlegroups pdx.singles, and Googlegroups alt.culture.oregon .

Portland Driving Distances: Seattle (under three hours, easy drive up I-5, sometimes some nasty Seattle traffic or road construction), Oregon Coast (just over an hour to Cannon Beach or Seaside, fairly easy drive out US 26), Mt. Hood (skiing) - just over an hour to Timberline Lodge; Columbia River Gorge (incredible scenery and great hiking) - 45 minutes or less. San Francisco: about ten hours.

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