PORTLAND SURVEY ASKS: SO WHAT?

This Portland survey asks one question:

Who is moving to Portland?

More important, who is staying?

People have opinions, none very favorable.

I’m here to work on it.

I took a recent loop around Portland for this blog post.

Feet on the street, wheels on the road blogging.

Starting on SW Front I passed Waterfront Park heading north with this year’s Fun Center joining the Oregon Brewers’ Festival during the Rose Festival weekend.

Based on census data and local reporting it will be an abandoned shell since everyone is leaving town for the comforts of Greater Idaho.

Or Minneapolis, the Portland of the midwest. Or Asheville, the Portland of the south.

People on the way out take a little Portland with them. It’s not always a bad memory of what the place used to be.

Some former Portland types will crack a beer in their new town and start calling it ‘The Portland of . . .’ fill in the blank.

Refocused Portland Survey: Bridge City

Since Portland’s other name is Bridge City, people who like bridges move here?

With twelve of them crisscrossing the Willamette River, there plenty to chose from.

But there’s a difference between loving bridges and living under or beside them.

Come for the view?

Complain about the noise and dirt?

Remember, it’s a city. People move around and need dependable roads.

You make adjustments on how urban you want to get.

Living near a bridge is pretty urban.

The good news is you won’t have a problem finding the train if it all becomes too much.

Why a train?

Because chances are good that you won’t be able to pack everything you own on your new electric bike and pedal away to the future.

Why a bike? Where does a car fit for small apartment life with no parking?

Reinventing Portland’s Future

This is not the image of a destination for young professionals climbing up in their career.

Is this much better?

What are the kids looking for? And does Portland have an answer?

More apartments are an answer, just not for everyone.

But if someone is coming from an east coast city apartment experience, Portland is a miracle.

Why?

Because in spite of the city grit and grime and noise you’re never too far from a tree, a park, a river, or open space to breath.

2

I remember a buddy’s place I visited on Manhattan’s upper Eastside, a location that evokes luxury and refinement. At least in the movies.

It was a rent controlled two bedroom where you walk off the hallway into a small kitchen with miniature appliances and a tiny bathroom off one side, a tight hall out the other that went past one miniature bedroom and ending in another.

The place was a steal even though it had no living room, dining room, kitchen table, or laundry.

No yard, garage, storage, pantry, view, or anything resembling American livability based on suburban or small town expectations.

What’s the point here? New York living is restaurants and bars and getting out of the apartment. It means getting to know the city instead of feeling buried in a brick crypt on the fifteenth floor.

My Two Canaries In The Portland Survey Coal Mine

This is the former Portland Post Office property off NW 9th.

It’s heading toward the Broadway Corridor.

The Broadway Corridor is an urban development project which will permanently change Portland’s downtown landscape, knit the city together, attract regional, national and international media attention, and catalyze significant private investments. It’s envisioned as a unique, diverse, vibrant, sustainable, mixed-use, dense urban district seamlessly integrated with a regional multi-modal transportation hub.

If that sounds like a word salad for hopes and prayers . . . ?

2

Can the same be said about the former Quality Pie site on NW 23rd?

That’s the property, fenced up like the post office.

Records show they sold the building in early 2019 to Vancouver developer C.E. John for nearly $6.6 million.

The space will become apartments.

Take a drive down Front Avenue past the Broadway Bridge and you’ll see blocks of apartment buildings presenting a unified face to the street.

Blocks of boxes on a wide street with the industrial area further down.

Take a left and head west and you’ll fine construction sites, some with deep holes that suggest underground parking.

Will there be a deep hole on NW 23rd, a two lane street with parking on both sides?

Is jamming more living units into a crowded space the best land use?

It’s a perfect match for people coming from tighter places with taller buildings and less human space.

To them Portland is a dream answered.

Instead of moaning and complaining about ‘old Portland’ and how ‘Portland has changed’ why not get on board with the plan?

Is there crime and homeless and drugs? Ask Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell.

3

While reviewing this Portland Survey I saw tents and campers, people coming out to stretch and scratch after another night on the ground.

There were pockets instead of communities and less trash piled up.

How do they spend their day? Where to they go?

When new people move to town they bring questions that need answers.

They’ll find coffee, beer, food, and more.

From Nomads Unveiled:

WHAT IS PORTLAND KNOWN FOR? 

Portland is known for being a city of counter-culture, where art, theater, and music are highly valued. Outdoor appreciation is also a big part of what Portland is famous for, from iconic Mount Hood to the many city parks. From Powell’s City of Books to the White Stag Sign, Portland is full of things to do and see. 

From The Culture Trip:

Portland has been affectionately referred to as “weird” for decades – perhaps because it has the most strip clubs per capita in the nation or the high prevalence of man buns and mustaches.

It’s also home to the smallest park in the world, a vacuum museum, and the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium – an emporium for all things weird, creepy, and just downright strange. But don’t forget the quirky, über-hipster residents, most of whom are advocates for things like roller derby, craft beer, cycling, doughnuts, and the environment.

But this “weirdness” is what makes Portland, Portland. And the locals have surely embraced it.

How’s that embrace? A little too tight? A little too long?

This Portland survey ought to help out just enough.

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