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What Portland, OR Neighborhoods should I avoid? |
Travel Info Hi. I'm moving to Portland, OR in Jan. and I need some help in picking out an apartment. What are the bad parts of town? What are the good ones? We are looking to spend 600 a month for a 1 bedroom. Can we get somewhere nice for that? Where is the most crime? Any advice is great! Thanks. Travel Tips West of the Willamette (wuh-LAM-ut) River, it's pretty much all good, but there's good and bad everywhere -- there was a double-murder out in rural Washington County a couple weeks ago, and there are some great neighborhoods in Northeast Portland (the area voted most likely to appear in a news item with a graphic showing a chalk outline :-). Downtown Portland is gorgeous, but on a very comfortable, human scale; again, west of the Willamette, my favorite part of town is Portland State University which is adjacent to the Park Blocks -- about a ten- or twelve-block stretch of greenery in the middle of downtown. (My oldest is a freshman at PSU.) I would have to think that there is reasonably-priced housing near the college. Another advantage: a large portion of this part of town is located in an area called Fare-Free Square, because all public transportation is free within that area -- just get on, get where you're going, and get off. This includes buses, the Max light-rail, and the city streetcars. The Max is great, I just wish it came closer to my house -- it's so easy to get around on it once you're in Portland. At Burnside and 11th is The World's Best Bookstore -- Powell's City of Books. It's a full city block on each side, four stories high, and mostly used books. It's INCREDIBLE. Right behind that is the new Gerding Theater -- new theater in an old building: it's an armory that appears to date from the Civil War days, all renovated inside as the home to Portland Center Stage. (Currently playing on the main stage is a very sharp production of "West Side Stor," which I saw about a month ago; downstairs in the Studio Theater is "I Am My Own Wife," the biography of Charlotte von Mahlsburg, a one-man show starring Portland's prodigy Wade McCollum, to which I have tickets for next month. Why, yes, I AM a theater nerd, why do you ask?) If you don't feel like living right downtown (and a quick comparison of the prices there and your budget suggest it'll be tough), the western/southern suburbs can be very nice. It all depends on where you plan to commute to and what you're looking for. I live about 20 minutes southwest of PSU by freeway, and my house backs up to a 6-1/2 acre nature park; about 20 minutes more, it's farmland and the edge of the Oregon wine country. On the east side of the Willamette, the Hawthorn District is the hip part of town -- great restaurants, cool used-clothing and music stores, and unique shopping. Look around Hawthorn between, oh, 30th and 40th. (My high-school and college age kids LOVE to go to the Hawthorn with their friends, and I love to drive them there. It's fun.) If you're moving here in January, prepare yourself for grey, cold weather. Oh, not cold by the standards of Buffalo or Ann Arbor or Terre Haute, but chilly by the standards of southern states. It'll be in the mid-thirties most of the month long; we MAY see snowflakes once per winter, but usually only in the air. If it's still on the ground the next day it's a marvel; if it's still there after three days, it's a miracle (or a disaster, depending on whether you're a kid facing the delicious, thrilling possibility of a Snow Day, or you're a grown-up facing the gut-wrenching knowledge that you have to commute through this slush with a million other people who never see snow). As for your question on rentals, I don't know; we moved here six years ago and were able to buy a house. However, I found the Web site for Portland rentals, and it's not going to be hard to find rents in your price range, in good and interesting neighborhoods. Best of luck! Source(s): http://portland.apartments.com/... Other Travel Tips There just one really bad neighborhood. i cant really remember its name but any one who lives there including a realter famillar with the city should know. other than that all of portland is nice. and if you havent been to portland befor i would reccomend taking the lite rail max train to the Zoo, or if you want to drive try going to OMSI (oregon musem of science and indrustry) they have an iMax theater their. if you know what i max is? i lived in that county and made frequent trips and vists there. You shouldn't have any problem finding an apartment for that, all over the area. Check craigslist. Avoid southeast (well, parts) unless you're really into meth, and Rockwood (the far west side of Gresham, borders Portland on the east). Central Gresham, however, is fine, and has a lot of inexpensive apartments. The MAX line runs into Gresham for easy access to downtown. It's a nice place if you're into easy access to the gorge and the mountain, but is a tad on the "suburban sprawl" side--by Portland standards, anyway. Definitely NOT the hip and trendy place to be, but not priced like 'em, either. You can always use the crimemapper to check an area: http://www.portlandonline.com/police/ind... And check this out: http://www.portlandbridges.com/portland-... I'm thinking of moving to Portland too. Someone told me I'd like the Hawthorne area. You can get a decent 1 bedroom in Southwest Portland for that. That is where I live. The further you are from highway 217 the better the neighborhoods, but the more expensive. There are areas of Northeast that are really nice, but there are chunks of freaking Gangland in between those chunks. Lake Oswego (or Lake NoNegro as the natives say) well...if you can guess why we call it that you can draw your own conclusion. I don't want to sound like the racist. Parts of Tigard and Tualatin are nice, but not where they would have apartments. If you don't care where you are in the area. There are some nice areas in Clackamas which is north east of I-205. It's about a 20-30 minute drive from there to downtown. Northwest portland by the Alphabet streets is really nice, it can be spendy and parking can be a pain. |
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