Month: August 2020

Since 1931, Portland has been a town of quadrants: Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest, and North, which didn’t fit but was still the fifth “quadrant”. At the time, few people lived in the area now called “South” so it just became a part of Southwest. In 2006, several Southwest Portland neighborhoods banded together and called themselves “South Portland” but it was, by no means, official.

In 2018, however, the city council and the Portland Bureau Of Transportation (PBOT) decided that a sixth area be added to the street designations. The reasoning was that many addresses in the Southwest actually began with a 0 because buildings were erected after the address numbering had stopped. This was causing confusion and delay for deliveries and, more importantly, emergency response units. 

According to PBOT, the “former area of Southwest Portland east of SW Naito Parkway and SW View Point Terrace. Due to the eastward curvature in the Willamette River, east-west addresses in this area were previously addressed with a leading zero address to differentiate them from addresses west of this dividing line. About 8% of Southwest Portland addresses prior to the creation of South Portland were in this leading zero addressing area.” 

Per the city’s Public Broadcasting Station, OPB “The new South Portland occupies a strip of land shaped like a pointer finger along the west bank of the Willamette River. 

The area includes roughly 10,000 addresses and properties in the South Waterfront, Collins View and Riverdale neighborhoods…The river is the eastern boundary of the South District, while Southwest Naito Parkway and the Tryon Creek State Natural area are the western boundary.”

The Pamplin site points out that “Two major institutions are affected. Oregon Health & Science University South Waterfront outpost will be at 3301 S. Bond Ave. rather than Southwest Bond Avenue. Lewis and Clark College will no longer be found at 0615 S.W. Palantine Road, but at 615 S. Palantine Road.

Along the banks of the Willamette, several high end, high rise condominium complexes have been affected by the change, as well as diverse residential neighborhoods to the south. The entire South Waterfront district is now in South Portland. 

Starting in May 2020, the city’s addressing plan will take the next five years to switch out all of the street signs in question. All applicable street signs marked Southwest will be replaced by 2025. The US Postal Service will still deliver mail to those affected by the address change, even if they use the old numbering system.

“This will probably not stop many Portlanders from referring to this area as the sixth “quadrant” of the city, even though a quadrant signifies one of four parts. It’s a designation that the Portland Bureau of Transportation acknowledges.

“Many Portlanders do prefer to call the city’s address areas quadrants regardless of the total number,” the agency announced in a press release. “In this spirit, PBOT will also informally recognize sixth quadrant as a designation for the new part of the city,” states Oregon Live the website for Portland’s newspaper, The Oregonian.

Per Wikipedia, “Sprawling Southwest Portland is home to Downtown’s upscale dining, food carts, and indie boutiques, plus the Portland Art Museum, with Native American and contemporary work. Washington Park has polar bears and elephants [at the] Oregon Zoo, rose beds in the International Rose Test Garden, and Mount Hood views from the Portland Japanese Garden. Woodland trails run through forested Tryon Creek State Natural Area.”

Once visitors pass through the Vista Ridge Tunnels, Southwest neighborhoods resemble the United States’s version of stereotypical suburbia. They often feature streets that wind up and down hills with no sidewalks, well-established landscaping in large yards. Diverse communities like Burlingame, Bridlemile, Collins View, Multnomah Village, and Hillsdale consistently score high in the lists of Portland’s hottest neighborhoods with some unique homes and defined commercial districts.

Most of Portland’s governmental, judicial, business, and cultural resources are located downtown giving what may not be considered to be a booming megalopolis, a definite cosmopolitan air. The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall hosts traveling Broadway shows and concerts. 

Portland State University is also located downtown and totally accessible by public transportation.

Of architectural note, the Wells Fargo Center is the tallest building in Oregon (546 feet [166 m]). The Portland Building was designed by Michael Graves and is considered to be the first Post-Modern office building. It is the setting of the famous Portlandia statue. The white Jackson Tower, built in 1912, is the backdrop of the Portland Christmas tree in Pioneer Courthouse Square during the holidays and it on the National Register of History Places. Also on the National Register of History Places is the Richardson Romanesque Pittock Mansion displaying what luxury at the beginning of the 20th century looked like. Pioneer Courthouse was built in 1875 and is now the heart of downtown. Architect A.R. Doyle designed both the U.S. National Bank and the Multnomah County Public Library in 1916 and 1918 respectively. Elegant Union Station, built in 1896, boasts a sharp neon sign instructing passers-by in Old Town to “Go By Train”. The most visible highlight of the Portland skyline is the US Bancorp Tower, also called “Big Pink” which was built as a parallelogram, looking either short and squat or tall and lean depending on the angle it’s viewed from, say Tracey and Michael.

Oregon Health & Science University is connected to downtown by the Portland Aerial Tram, which the Seattle Times says offers “A staggering view”. “Pill Hill” (Marquam Hill) not only hosts the university but also a level 1 trauma accredited general hospital and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital is a children’s hospital that specializes in pediatric medicine and care of children with long-term illness. The university maintains a number of outpatient primary care facilities including the Physician’s Pavilion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_%26_Science_University).

Portland’s eruv, established in 2009 as part of Portland Kollel, covers much of southwest Portland.

Parks abound in the southwest sextant. Tom McCall Waterfront Park hosts concerts and splash pads for summer relief. The South Willamette Riverfront is a Portland gem with cherry trees, walking and bike paths, and newer condominiums, as well as the OHSU tram entrance. The South Park Blocks and the Pettygrove and Lovejoy Fountain Parks also offer a respite from the heat of summer. The Skidmore Fountain area hosts the Saturday Market, a seasonal arts and crafts showplace and sale for local artisans. 

Old Town and Chinatown cross the Northwest/Southwest border of Burnside. Old Town ghost tours cover shanghai tunnels and some of the most “haunted” places in Portland. Chinatown is closed to cars on the weekends and is the home of one of Portland’s infamous Voodoo Doughnuts shops. 

_{Cross posted on my office website.}

Most Portlanders describe the west side as more traditional than the other sextants. It’s where you’ll find many of the city’s art galleries, public art, and oldest homes. The history of Portland began on the west side, so you’ll find some of the city’s oldest historic buildings there.

Northwest Portland has some of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods, including the Pearl District, Alphabet District, Kings Heights, and Willamette Heights.

US News and World Report says: Portland concocts shopping streets as only the Northwest can: Quirky, fun and chic. The best example of the region’s commercial eccentricity is NW 23rd Avenue. Don’t expect the skyscrapers of Michigan Avenue or the Italian designers of Rodeo Drive. Here, you’ll find homegrown talent — case in point, shop owner and Portlander Lynn Medoff, who creates fabric wonders in her dress boutique Lena Medoyeff. There are also special-interest boutiques, …. Plus, Portland’s easygoing attitude makes shopping along NW 23rd Avenue much less stressful.” 

The Northwest quadrant of Portland is where the city was founded. As the area’s website Northwest District Association states:

In the 1850s sea captain John Couch laid out his land claim in the 200 x 200 foot blocks that became the southern and eastern part of our Northwest Portland neighborhood. Danford Balch settled north and west of the Couch donation claim farming his land. Danford however became famous for publicly murdering his unwanted son-in-law at the Stark Street Ferry and was the first person hung for his crime in Portland in 1859. By the 1870s, the eastern half of the Balch donation claim was subdivided and completed the Northwest neighborhood that we know now. 

Because of its age, Northwest Portland is considered to be the most traditional area of the city and where so much of the area’s improvement has been focused, starting with the historical buildings and some of Portland’s hottest neighborhoods including the Pearl District, Alphabet District, Kings Heights, and Willamette Heights. Art galleries, public art, trendy shops, and an eclectic collection of new and old homes make Northwest a fascinating area. 

Per PortlandBridges.com, “NW Portland has been given the official name the “Alphabet District” …. It signifies that the streets in NW run alphabetically, starting with Burnside, Couch, Davis…up to Wilson Street. The area specifically around NW 23rd Ave is technically called Nob Hill….”

The Northwest quadrant is home to Forest Park, more than ten square miles of native forest with seventy miles of hiking trails. It is one of the largest urban parks in the United States with more than 112 bird and 62 mammal species. The trails connect Forest Park with The Audubon Society Sanctuary, Pittock Mansion, and Washington Park. Several other smaller parks are in the quadrant as well.

_{Cross posted on my office website.}